Ziegler's Conflicts Multiply

by folkbum

I'm going to slightly disagree with my friend Ken about Jessica McBride's comments on Judge Annette Ziegler. My instinct is to agree that somewhere along the way the Wisconsin State Journal should have noted that Madison attorney and Supreme Court candidate Linda Clifford had done some work for them. But I don't think that changes for one second any of the facts now on the table, facts largely put there by the WSJ. What they reported (both previously and this past weekend) is no less true than if it had been reported somewhere else; it's just that WSJ did the legwork first.

I will agree with Ken's second contention, though, that McBride's "everybody does it" defense of Ziegler's conflicts of interest is no defense at all, especially since Ziegler seems to have done it more often than others.

I do believe that this will be the make-or-break issue for the race, since there's just no way Ziegler can get away from the issue now. Couple that with the fact that Linda Clifford actually used to sit on the judicial ethics panel, and you've got some clear choices to make.

On a side note, while we were in between TiVos last week, we caught a Wisconsin Manufacturer's and Commerce commercial for Ziegler, which tried to say she was tough on crime. It included the line, "In fact, Ziegler sentenced one sex offender to 60 years in prison." My wife laughed out loud and said, "Just one offender? That doesn't make her look very good."