In case you missed it...

Readers of this blog are well aware of Rep. Garthwaite's violent outburst on the floor of the Assembly last year when he screamed at businesses to take their jobs out of Wisconsin if they don't agree with his liberal, anti-jobs policies.

Readers may not have seen Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Patrick McIlheran's column on the subject.

Here it is for your reading pleasure:

'Reform' that helps no one

I think McIlheran nails it here:

Nor do they (Democrat lawmakers) show the least comprehension of why all this might spook employers. Entrepreneurs fret about hiring a malcontent who will drag them into court over random dissatisfactions, but state Rep. Phil Garthwaite (D-Dickeyville) was denouncing as bigots any employer who might flee such jeopardy, saying in Assembly debate, "Good. Get your ass back down to the South. I don't want you here."

Assembly Democrat Campaign Efforts Take Major Blow

For months the Assembly Democrats have been touting Dana Schultz as their best hope to pick up an Assembly seat this fall and possibly to hold off the coming Republican wave that could switch party control of the legislature. Last week, her campaign hit a brick wall when the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel revealed what she really thinks of her would-be rural constituents.

In a blog she wrote while running the Milwaukee chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Schultz referred to the rural Wisconsinites from her hometown stating:

"I know all about the huntin, fishin, snowmobilin, country music beltin, beer drinkin, working class, gossipin, people who attend christian church every sunday and are racist, sexist, and homophobic, but more just ignorant because of lack of exposure." She wrote that she understands rural brain drain: "Why would people go back to face fatter and less educated Ann Colture's?"

Her blog goes on and on displaying an attitude towards rural Wisconsin that is all too common amongst the Democrat establishment.

These revelations about her core beliefs should be enough to end her chances at representing the rural 87th district. If they are not, I'm sure that more damning evidence of her animosity toward rural, working class people will come out of her work as the head of Milwaukee's SDS.

If you're unfamiliar with it, SDS is a Marxist organization bent on the "revolutionary transformation" of American culture and ending capitalism because it is the root cause of "racism and white supremacy,... patriarchy, heterosexism and transphobia, authoritarianism and imperialism."

If the best candidate the Democrats can come up with is a Marxist that thinks that the people she hopes to represent are racist, sexist, homophobic, and ignorant then they are in for a rude awakening this November.

"And the fact that his Democratic caucus is not overly concerned about this may indicate why so much is so wrong in Madison."

That is what the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has to say about the Assembly Democrat Caucus in the wake of Payday Gate. Phil Garthwaite is a part of that caucus.

The Wisconsin State Journal Editorial Board has weighed in as well, and their comments aren't much prettier.

Assembly Democrat Leadership Woes Forcast a Tough Fall for Vulnerables Like Garthwaite

This tersely worded story from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Patrick Marley spells trouble for Assembly Democrats. According to this and other stories, rumors spread around the Capitol Friday that Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan was in jeopardy of losing his leadership post over an alleged, inappropriate relationship the married speaker had carried on with a lobbyist.

Sheridan, Rep. Garthwaite's boss in the Assembly, denied these allegations Friday, stating that the lobbyist was just a friend and that they had gone on just one date. He has since amended his story stating, "I have dated a gal who is a lobbyist. It's not been a conflict, and I have no problem saying that..." The Speaker also told the Journal Sentinel that, "We (He and the lobbyist) went to a Christmas party. I think we went out with like a group of people a couple different times and that type of thing." "Like a group of people." "That type of thing." Why does the Speaker of the State Assembly sound like a kid who broke curfew and doesn't want to fess up to his parents about what he was out doing?

The Assembly Democrats already faced a tough election fight. The mood of the country and state is swinging back against their big taxing, big spending policies. Their total lack of focus on jobs and the economy over the last year doesn't help their cause much either. This potential scandal, however, adds a whole new dimension to the challenges that vulnerable Representatives like Garthwaite will have next fall.

For starters, this issue will further divide an Assembly Democrat Caucus that is already split over the proposed mayoral take over of the Milwaukee Public Schools. Coupled with their failure to put the Jeff Wood incidents behind them, the Assembly Democrats will be distracted this spring and will likely leave this session without having accomplished anything of substance on jobs, the economy, or anything else. What will they have to run on in the fall? A failed stimulus bill and honey regulation?

Secondly, an embattled and divided Assembly Democrat leadership will not be able to properly organize and fund raise for members facing tough challenges. Democrat Majority Leader Tom Nelson was already set to be in the fight of his life over budget pork that cost his district and comments he made in regards to the Democrat auto insurance premium hike of 2009
Sheridan too will now be preoccupied with his own survival.

Traditionally, Assembly Democrats have counted on large third party expenditures from public employee unions, trial attorneys, and tribal gaming interests to bail them out of situations like this. This year, however, those groups will be focused on getting a Democrat into the vacant Governor's mansion first, maintaining a precarious majority in the State Senate second, and keeping vulnerable Assemblymen like Garthwaite in office a distant third. This all spells trouble for the Democrat from Grant County next fall.

Garthwaite's Ineffectiveness Noticed by Statewide Media Outlet

Over the weekend Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Mike Nichols penned a humorous story about Rep. Garthwaite's efforts to ban the term "swine flu." The columnist wasn't kind to the Rep. from the 49th:

Still, Garthwaite needs to do something with his time, I guess, so I will go out on a limb and say this is as fine an idea as Phil Garthwaite has ever had.

Indeed, as meaningless as Garthwaite's resolution banning "swine flu" is, it is one of the only things he has done with his last 10 months in office. So far, he has introduced only a small handful of bills and has not yet been able to get a single piece of legislation passed through the legislature. Perhaps more importantly he has been unarguably ineffective as the chairman of the Assembly Committee on Rural Economic Development.

The committee Garthwaite chairs is tasked with helping to bring jobs to rural Wisconsin - places like Grant County. Ask anyone in his district and they will tell you that the struggling economy and high unemployment are a huge concerns. Despite this, Garthwaite has not held a single hearing on legislation yet this year. Sure he had a brief informational hearing last winter but that is it. Garthwaite has tremendous power and influence that he could use to ease unemployment in Grant County and what is he doing with it? Nothing. Nada. Zilch. He has spent more time sitting on his bar stool at Kuepers Tavern in Dickeyville then he has in his chairman's seat in Madison. Rural Wisconsin suffers for it.

Last month, the Assembly Minority Leader Jeff Fitzgerald commented on Garthwaite's lack of work in Madison stating:

Wisconsin is suffering through record unemployment yet Rep. Garthwaite has refused to hold a public hearing in a committee tasked with bringing jobs to rural Wisconsin. The people of Wisconsin deserve more from their elected officials than a committee chairman who refuses to do his job. At a time when he should be focusing on bringing jobs to rural Wisconsin he has instead prioritized bills renaming the Swine Flu and creating a committee to study the industrial uses of marijuana.

Now Nichols is weighing in. If you haven't read the column yet, please click here and read it. It is both true and funny. Here's my favorite part:

I asked him (Garthwaite) if maybe, using his logic, there isn't also a problem with use of the term "chicken pox."

"Chicken pox, No. 1, has been engrained in people's heads since Christ was a corporal and, No. 2, does the price of chicken go down when junior gets the chicken pox?" asked Garthwaite.

I suppose not, but I have another question. What the heck does that phrase mean exactly anyway, "since Christ was a corporal"?

I say we all pass a resolution ordering Phil Garthwaite to just say, "a long time."

As someone who has long been perplexed by Garthwaite's colloquialisms from "I didn't just ride in here on a head of cabbage," to "I'll bet you beans to bacon," I appreciated Nichols poking fun. Perhaps if Rep. Garthwaite spent as much time working as he did thinking up these weird expressions, he could actually accomplish something.