Of lipstick and pigs

This weekend, I stumbled across this radio script I wrote for a commercial aired in February 2006 by the Greater Wisconsin Committee. Given the flap over whether Sarah Palin owns the word lipstick, I thought it was amusing.

GWC 022406 LIPSTICK

They say you can put lipstick on a pig – but it’s still a pig.

(SOUND EFFECT: OINK!)

An ill-advised constitutional amendment, once called TABOR, is back with a new name, the Taxpayer Protection Amendment.

But it has the same flaws as the earlier version, the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern says.

Taxpayers need protection, all right – protection from this same old bad idea.

The Beloit Daily News calls it “gimmicky nonsense.” The Appleton Post-Crescent says it’s “an example of wrong-thinking government.”

Local officials, seniors, nurses, firefighters, teachers, and retirees are opposed to the amendment. They know it will cut vital services for the people who need them the most.

Wisconsin doesn’t need a constitutional amendment to hold down spending. It needs state legislators who will make some tough decisions.

Call your legislators today at 1-800-362-9472. Ask them to oppose the so-called Taxpayer Protection Amendment.

(SOUND EFFECT: OINK!)

Paid for by Greater Wisconsin Committee

Greater Wisconsin later ran a variation on the theme — about lipstick on a pig and “cosmetic changes” to the proposal —in several State Senate districts, urging people to call their legislators and ask them to oppose the scheme. All four ended up voting against it.

When I shared these with Michelle McGrorty, executive director of Greater Wisconsin, she cracked: “Just further proof that liberals were attacking Palin even before she was running.”