Who Hit the Mute Button on Gableman?
On Thursday One Wisconsin Now filed a complaint against Michael Gableman with the state Office of Lawyer Regulation. The complaint centers around dozens of telephone calls that Gableman made as the Ashland County District Attorney, using state phones. These calls were made to Republican operatives, fundraisers, campaigns and even the Republican Party itself. The calls happened right around the time of a fundraiser for then-Governor Scott McCallum, which was hosted by Gableman.
Why would a public official make such calls on a state phone, particularly at a time when campaigning on state time was so prominent in the news? This and many other questions should be asked of Michael Gableman, but apparently he isn’t talking. I have not seen one report where someone has even been able to reach him directly.
The only response that I have seen is by Gableman’s mouthpiece from his last campaign, Darrin Schmitz. Isn’t the campaign over? Why is he still doing the talking for the Justice-elect? These calls happened when Gableman was Ashland County DA, why is Schmitz even involved? Regardless of the answers, Schmitz is doing what comes natural, spinning with absolutely no substance. In Gableman’s absence, Schmitz has been very predictable. He says that the complaint is ‘sour grapes’ and ‘meritless’ but naturally he doesn’t make one statement of fact to back up the claims. OWN’s complaint, and all of OWN’s research is available online, even to Schmitz. Heck, we even made a simple chart that even he could follow! Schmitz has continually failed to present one fact that OWN has gotten wrong and he continues that pathetic record now.
The people of Wisconsin deserve to hear from Gableman regarding this serious issue. His hiding behind campaign spinsters makes him look even worse. If he has some explanation for these problematic calls then he should take the calls from the media and give some answers. Gableman can’t ignore these serious issues forever, eventually he will have to give full account for his actions. He may as well start speaking up now and instead mercifully hit the mute button on shallow campaign operatives like Darrin Schmitz.