Not far from Whitewater, little more than twenty miles away, sits the City of Janesville, a small city of about sixty-thousand people. The city has had all manner of economic problems, and it has unemployment among the highest in Wisconsin. If life itself were just a bit easier, and kinder, one might hope that Janesville would have a representative committed to the care of his fellow citizens, and all Wisconsin.
Neither Janesville nor Wisconsin has such a representative in Mike Sheridan, speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly. Consider what Sheridan offers to Wisconsin, as a recent story,
Sheridan: “It’s not a conflict” recounts:
JANESVILLE – Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan said he doesn’t believe dating a lobbyist for the payday loan industry was inappropriate, even though legislation to regulate the industry is pending in the Legislature.
Sheridan, who filed for divorce in October, said he plans to steer a strong bill through the Assembly yet this session.
I don’t care in the slightest what Sheridan does in his private time; it’s his public obligations that matter. If he worked as a lounge singer, and met a lobbyist, it would be of no concern to me. That
he’s speaker of the assembly, and has an obligation to the entire chamber, and to the Democratic caucus, is a concern. It should be every citizen’s concern.
I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican, but I have a genuine sympathy for supporters of the Democratic party who have a representative like this. They deserve far better.
How does Sheridan explain his conduct? He has a simple, clear explanation: “I have dated a gal who is a lobbyist,” Sheridan said. “It’s not been a conflict, and I have no problem saying that.”
Are you not relived, that Sheridan tells you that dating a lobbyist opposing his caucus’s legislative agenda isn’t a conflict, and that he has no problem saying as much?
There is no circumstance under which a person of normal ability and reasoning would take the word of this smooth-talking heel that there’s no conflict because he declares that there’s no conflict. A man with powers so great, to make things simply vanish, might concentrate on eliminating atomic weapons from North Korea, and explosives in the hands, and pants, of Islamic fanatics. Those would be worthy uses of the magical powers Sheridan must possess. Chatting up lobbyists, and absolving himself of conflicts of interest for having done so, is shameful and disgraceful conduct.
You can guess that Sheridan has a few colleagues who will try to defend him. Consider, for use as an example of what not to say in someone’s defense, representative Gordon Hintz’s remarks: “He’s [Sheridan’s] not involved at all in the work group,” Hintz said. “There are six people who know what’s in the bill, and Mike isn’t one of them. There’s nothing he could be reporting back to anyone.”
Sheridan can’t have a conflict, according to Hintz, because Sheridan’s ignorant of the details of legislation. Mike Sheridan is
speaker when he wants someone’s attention, and simpleton when he wants to avoid responsibility.
It’s also infuriating, because Sheridan asks people to accept something false merely because he says it. Of course he has “no problem saying it,” as he’s too stupid to see how stupid he sounds.
He really dares normal people with this question: are you as foolish and stupid as I hope that you are?
I have mentioned before this same problem in my small city of Whitewater, Wisconsin. Politicians and bureaucrats will insist that something’s not a problem because they don’t think that it is, or that it’s not what they meant. A child would be ashamed to think that that excuse might work, but in Whitewater, it works all too well.
Self-regard trumps understanding, reason, and fairness.
One abercrombie or another, with too much time on his hands, simply declares that the rules shouldn’t apply to him, because he’s not the sort of person for whom the rules need apply. Even if he thinks that the rules might apply to him, and he’s caught violating them, then he simply declares that it’s not what he meant.
I have before teased that this is like walking around with a ‘get out of conflict, free’ card in one’s pocket.
Now, I don’t know, and would prefer not to know, what’s in Sheridan’s pocket, or the pockets of responsibility-evading politicians and bureaucrats in Whitewater. I wonder, though, if he and they carry around something extra, for that special moment when the time is right.
Something like this —
