Richland County Democrats

MADISON-J.B. Van Hollen distinguished himself today as among the most cravenly political of attorneys general in Wisconsin history with a call to overturn in the courts the health care reform that American voters won at the ballot box.

Van Hollen, whose family is covered by taxpayer-funded health insurance, has no chance of success and even he has acknowledged as much in recent days, since even though constitutional scholars say any action bears no chance of success in the courts, a lawsuit to bar health care reform in Wisconsin would need approval from the State Assembly, State Senate or the governor.

That approval is not forthcoming. But this does not keep Van Hollen from his political task. He already has been involved in efforts to suppress Wisconsin votes and has refused to defend the state's domestic partnership policies.

"Though he will not succeed, Van Hollen still is taking action against every child with a preexisting condition who would be thrown off their parents' private insurance, every senior who is getting help to pay for their drug prescription, every small business that will be able to add workers because of tax credits to offset premiums," Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said "He went to work against health care for the sick today. Wisconsin voters sickened by Van Hollen's folly will have a chance to take away his taxpayer-funded health care come November."

Thompson’s March Toward Exploratory Committee: Day 15
Thompson Plays “Board” Games, Refuses to Release Client List

MADISON - As former Bush Administration Secretary Tommy Thompson continues to publicly weigh a run for U.S. Senate, there is one thing he won’t reveal – his client list with D.C. lobbying firm Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld.

That fuzzy picture got a little clearer on Friday with a bizarre revelation about Thompson’s “board” games.

Thompson has spent the last five years as a Washington insider, cashing in on his work for corporate interests - including health insurance and pharmaceutical companies, and the finance industry.

Last week, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin released a new Web video titled “Working for Them,” that focuses on Thompson’s previous refusal to disclose to the media who he works for during a February interview in Madison. In a November 23, 2009, interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Thompson also refused to disclose his clients, but admitted that he works with about 25 health care companies as part of his work for the D.C. lobbying firm.

“Who are the corporate interests that have been lining Secretary Thompson’s pockets with millions of dollars over the past five years?” Mike Tate, Chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, said Monday. “The people of Wisconsin deserve someone who’s standing up for them, not the corporate interests in Washington.”

On Friday, we learned of one Thompson corporation that wasn’t previously known – CNS Response, Inc.

The Friday announcement came in the form of a press release from Thompson’s own company. The release said that Secretary Thompson was resigning from the CNS Board of Directors effective immediately. However, in the same release that announced Thompson’s resignation, CNS announced that he will now become Chairman of its Advisory Board.

“While Thompson plays “board” games, Wisconsinites are left to wonder, how can he fight for us, when he’s working for them?” Tate said.

MADISON – DPW Chairman Mike Tate released the following statement following the passage of health reform legislation by the House of Representatives today:

"Today, the Congress and President Obama brought long overdue reform to the American health care system.

“The Democratic Members of our delegation all saw the wisdom, morality and necessity of this moment and played no small part in ensuring that the reform reflects the best of Wisconsin's values, whether it be for transparency, for thrift, for accountability or for fairness.

“As they have throughout history, the special interests fought with great fury, even spending part of their lucre right here in Wisconsin to distort, deceive, dissemble and ultimately to defend the status quo. The Republican members of the Wisconsin delegation followed the shameful lead of Paul Ryan, embracing his outrageous "plan" to dismantle Medicare and Social Security.

· Give tax credits and other assistance to up to 1,369,000 families and 123,900 small businesses to help them afford coverage.

· Improve Medicare for 877,000 beneficiaries, including closing the "donut hole."

· Guarantee that 63,200 residents with pre-existing conditions can obtain coverage.

· Protect 10,300 families from bankruptcy due to unaffordable health care costs.

· Allow 455,000 young adults to obtain coverage on their parents’ insurance plans, complimenting existing Wisconsin law.

· Reduce the cost of uncompensated care for hospitals and other health care providers by $433 million annually.

“The evidence is overwhelming and though this is a bad day for the special interests and the status quo, it is a great day for our nation and a great day for the health of Wisconsin's working families.”

MADISON – As former Bush Administration Secretary Tommy Thompson continues to weigh a run for U.S. Senate, there is one thing he won’t reveal – his client list with the large Washington, D.C. lobbying firm Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld. Thompson has spent the last five years as a Washington, D.C. insider cashing in for his work on behalf of corporate interests - including health insurance and pharmaceutical companies, and the finance industry.

Today the Democratic Party released a new web video “Working for Them,” that focuses on Thompson’s refusal to disclose to the media who he works for in an interview in Madison on February 11.

“While Wisconsin families are struggling, what’s Tommy Thompson been up to?” said Mike Tate, Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. “Taking on special interests as clients and serving on the boards of Wall Street, drug and insurance companies.”

In a November 23, 2009 interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Thompson also refused to disclose his clients, but admitted that he works with about 25 health care companies as part of his work for the DC lobbying firm. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 11/23/2009)

“The people of Wisconsin deserve someone who is standing up for them against the corporate special interests in Washington,” said Tate, “So people deserve to know who Secretary Thompson has been standing up for in Washington. How can he fight for us, when he has been working for them?”

MADISON – Bill McCoshen, health insurance company “Uber-lobbyist” and former aide to Bush Administration Secretary Tommy Thompson (R- DC) has been all over the place lately touting his former boss’s potential run for the U.S. Senate back here in Wisconsin.

When pressed by the media as to Thompson’s motivation behind his possible run, McCoshen said that Thompson is “disturbed” with the direction of the country, and criticized passage of the Recovery and Reinvestment Act – dubbed the ‘stimulus.’ The non-partisan and independent, Congressional Budget Office has said “there were between 1 million and 2.1 million more jobs during the last three months of 2009 than there would have been without the stimulus law.”

What McCoshen didn’t tell people is that many of the interests Thompson has collected paychecks from have benefited from stimulus funding.

“If Thompson’s so upset about the stimulus, then he surely will be asking his clients to return over $15 million in stimulus funds instead of using them to create jobs,” said Mike Tate, Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.

Thompson is the President of Logistics Health, Inc - serving as such since leaving the Bush Administration in 2005. Besides the Recovery Act funds, Logistics Health has more than $800 million in contracts with the agency Thompson lead, the Department of Health and Human Services.

In October 2005, Thompson joined the global public sector advisory board of Unisys, a company specializing in information technology management. According to Citizens for Ethics, only after Secretary Thompson joined the company did they register to lobby his former post at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Novartis, a pharmaceutical company, retained Secretary Thompson’s services for $200,000 between 2006 and half of 2009. Thompson also reported between $251,000 and $500,000 in personal stocks from the company.

MADISON-Scott Walker, who used his first television advertisement to deceive the public about the $50,000 pay raise he gave himself in 2008, now is using the St. Patrick's Day holiday to stand side-by-side a fat cat donor, a co-chair of his own finance committee, to mask his job creation shenanigans.

Walker was slated to appear at a press conference with $2,500 donor Fred Luber, the Super Steel Corp. chairman who works hand-in-glove with GOP operative and Walker campaign chairman Michael Grebe to restore to Wisconsin the ruinous Bush-style economic policies favoring fat cats like Luber.

"Scott Walker literally stands up with fat cat donors like Fred Luber, not for the working families of Wisconsin," Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Wednesday.

Luber's own spokesman originally said that Super Steel's economic problems were not the result of a proposed deal with Talgo, the manufacturer that is slated to bring hundreds of jobs to Wisconsin.

But now that Walker is desperate to disprove the mounting evidence that has ruined any credibility on jobs creation, Luber is warbling quite a different tune, attacking the Talgo jobs-creation plan.

"If Scott Walker had his warped way, Super Steel would STILL be in receivership and Talgo would be still be bringing hundreds of jobs to America. The problem is, they would be in Oregon and Illinois-NOT Wisconsin," Tate said St. Patrick's Day. "Scott Walker again talks big about job creation but he has wee to show for it."

MADISON – As lobbyists and “lots of people in Washington” continue to push former Bush administration Secretary Tommy Thompson (R-DC) into the GOP primary for U.S. Senate in Wisconsin, news reports yesterday indicate that the likelihood of Thompson running for Senate has dropped 20 points in just one week.

“Secretary Thompson must not believe the Republican polls if he is now walking away from running,” said Mike Tate, Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, “This wouldn’t be the first time he walked away from Wisconsin. After taxing and spending for 16 years, Thompson walked away from a huge budget deficit when he left Wisconsin for Washington.”

The Green Bay Press Gazette recently highlighted Tommy’s tenure stating: “The Wisconsin budget's $2.3 billion structural deficit has its roots in the Thompson years.”

While appearing on Mike Gousha’s “UpFront” television program, longtime Thompson aide and health insurance industry “uber-lobbyist” Bill McCoshen, said that there will be an exploratory committee set up by Thompson before the end of March.

An exploratory committee would allow Thompson to raise money from many of the corporate interests he represents. Politico recently reported that Thompson has already collected over $200,000 in pledges from donors. Thompson has spent the last five years as a Washington D.C. insider who has made millions of dollars working on behalf of special interests - including health insurance and pharmaceutical companies and the finance industry. Thompson recently told the media on camera he doesn’t know how many corporate interests he works for. He has refused to release his current list of clients.

MADISON-Scott Walker's phony posturing is being exposed again with a story today that details the cynical underpinnings of the sham Walker "brown bag movement."

Walker, who gave himself a $50,000 pay raise in 2008 and whose tax cuts would benefit only the richest one percent of Wisconsinites, has masked his advocacy against working people with the brown bag charade. Over the weekend news reports surfaced that, instead of lunch out of brown bags, Walker instead was treating himself to $2,000 steak dinners.

Now comes an an Associated Press story that confirms earlier reports that Walker's gimmick was lifted wholesale from an East Coast public relations firm, virtually word-for-word.

"Scott Walker had to go to the East Coast to pay for hired guns to coach him on how to talk to Wisconsin working people. Everyone knows that this is not something Walker does naturally. If he's paying this kind of money to dupe working families, at least get him some new material," Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Wednesday.

MADISON - Last week, Republican “Uber-Lobbyist” Bill McCoshen went on Mike Gousha’s “UpFront” TV program and all but announced that former Bush administration Secretary Tommy Thompson is running for U.S. Senate, saying “this is the most serious I've seen him.” McCoshen also said Thompson has “the right people in the room,” and “I'd want the people around me that he's got around him right now.”

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has reported that as a lobbyist, “McCoshen has represented many controversial firms, including liquor interests, the auto title loan industry, a video lottery firm and Wal-Mart.” McCoshen currently lobbies for health insurance and pharmaceutical company interests and the pay day loan industry, among others.

In 2007, the Associated Press reported that “A new report is resurrecting old questions about the handling of Wisconsin gambling projects by presidential candidate Tommy Thompson and his former aides,” namely McCoshen.

According to the AP, McCoshen signed a “secret agreement” with investors in an Indian gaming casino in Kenosha. The deal, initially signed in 1997 and revised in 2000, called for McCoshen to cash in on his relationship with Thompson as a former campaign manager, Chief of Staff and Commerce Secretary and receive $46.5 million for winning Thompson’s approval of the project.

During Thompson’s failed run for President, David Redlawsk, associate professor of political science at the University of Iowa, told the AP the report would could hurt Thompson with religious conservatives, many of whom strongly oppose gambling.

Last weekend, McCoshen said Thompson was planning to set up an exploratory committee by the end of the month and that he expects Thompson to announce his candidacy at the Republican convention in May. An exploratory committee would allow Thompson to raise money from many of the corporate interests he represents. Politico has reported that Thompson has already collected over $200,000 in pledges from donors.

Thompson has said he going through “a process” where he is talking to his corporate clients. Thompson has spent the last five years as Washington DC insider who has made millions of dollars working on behalf of special interests - including health insurance and pharmaceutical companies and the finance industry. Thompson recently told the media on camera he doesn’t know how many corporate interests he works for. He has refused to release his current list of clients.

MADISON-Perennial candidate Mark Neumann engaged in some more of his patented oddball behavior today in a bizarre grandstand at the federal offices of U.S. Rep Gwen Moore, where Neumann and a handful of his supporters dumped hundreds of "petitions," a majority of which were from people who claimed to live outside of Moore's district.

The "petitioners'" identities could not be verified because they did not include addresses or signatures.

"Neumann authored not a single piece of legislation to expand or reform health care during his mediocre two terms in Congress. He has provided no specific plan to reduce health care premiums or increase patient control over health care during his latest grasp at high office," Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Monday. "Rep. Moore, meanwhile, has long championed real reform of the health care system and Wisconsin is lucky to have someone like her on the House Budget Committee that today is writing historic reform legislation."

MADISON – Eight days ago, while appearing on Mike Gousha’s “UpFront” television program, longtime Secretary Tommy Thompson (R – DC) aide and fellow health insurance industry “uber-lobbyist” Bill McCoshen, said that there will be an exploratory committee set up by Thompson before the end of March.

“Is Secretary Thompson going to explore the budget deficit he walked away from when he left Wisconsin for Washington?” asked Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate. “Or is Thompson going to explore his legacy of sticking it to taxpayers”

As Wisconsin Governor, Thompson expanded the size of government and left the state with budget deficits. According to news reports, “figures show that debt rose the most - by $1.8 billion- under Thompson between 1996 and 2001” and state spending doubled in the 1990’s when Thompson was governor. Conservative Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Columnist Patrick McIlheran, in a 2006 column, even credited Thompson as being responsible for the “birth” of the states “structural deficit.”

According to a 2009 report, instead of putting Wisconsin on a path toward fiscal stability when the economy was in better shape, Thompson left lawmakers, Governors McCallum and Doyle, as well as taxpayers, unprepared to confront a financial crisis when he left in 2001 to join the Bush Administration. In fact, “officials had just $49 set aside to cushion the state budget in hard times.

The Green Bay Press Gazette recently highlighted the Secretary’s tenure stating: “The Wisconsin budget's $2.3 billion structural deficit has its roots in the Thompson years.”

In 1995, Thompson jammed through a special sales tax on the people of Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine, Ozaukee and Washington counties to fund a new stadium for the Brewers and famously said “Stick it to ‘em,” referring to the $310 million in tax increases he assigned to residents of Southeastern Wisconsin.

As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported last week, Thompson is still sticking it taxpayers ten years after he left Wisconsin for the Bush Administration, “New financial projections released Tuesday suggest the sunset year for the Miller Park stadium sales tax will be between 2016 and 2018, at least two years later than originally thought.”

An exploratory committee would allow Thompson to raise money from many of the corporate interests he represents. Politico recently reported that Thompson has already collected over $200,000 in pledges from donors. Thompson has spent the last five years as a Washington D.C. insider who has made millions of dollars working on behalf of special interests - including health insurance and pharmaceutical companies and the finance industry. Thompson recently told the media on camera he doesn’t know how many corporate interests he works for. He has refused to release his current list of clients.

MADISON – In the five months since beginning his Senate campaign, real estate magnate and pumpkin farmer, Terrence Wall has failed to publicly discuss any plans to support and foster Wisconsin’s vitally important agricultural industry.

As National Agriculture Week begins, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin highlighted the fact that Wall’s views on agriculture and farming here in Wisconsin are noticeably absent from his website. In fact, his website doesn’t even include anything about his famous pumpkin farm. Media reports have indicated that Wall avoided more than $264,000 in property taxes by taking advantage of Wisconsin tax laws that were set up to assist struggling farmers.

“Terrence Wall’s record on Wisconsin’s agricultural issues is limited to his milking of the tax laws specifically designed to protect family farms from developers like Wall,” said Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate.

In 2009, Terrence Wall successfully petitioned the Middleton City Assessor to rezone his Greenway Acres commercial development in Downtown Middleton from “commercial” to “agricultural” property, specifically to avoid paying taxes on the valuable land parcels. The “agriculture” found on the property? - A few rotting pumpkins…

Before Wall convinced the City Assessor of his farming chops, the Greenway Acres development property was assessed at $2,000,000. After the rezoning, the tax liability for the “pumpkin farm” was about $10. The Middleton City Assessor, Paul Musser, told the Capital Times, “You hate to do it but it's one of those things.” Musser also told Madison’s WKOW the law “was originally set up to preserve farmland" – not allow wealthy developers like Terrence Wall to dodge their taxes.

“Wall’s accounting gimmicks and exploitation of tax loopholes is a pattern,” said Tate.

MADISON-Speaking at his alma mater, failed Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker today blamed his well-publicized and deliberate attack on the work of the Milwaukee 7 economic group on its very successes. He previously had attacked the work of the group to bring jobs to Wisconsin as "putting lipstick on a pig," a reflection of his larger hostility to jobs-creation programs and policies.

Today, speaking at Marquette University’s Law School’s "On the Issues" forum with Mike Gousha, Walker said:

“Those very comments that I made were largely part of the impetus to make sure that the M7 went beyond just that Web site to things that actually had an impact on jobs in this region...I think that's why they have had the kind of successes that they have had up until now."

Huh?

The problem is, Walker’s contemporary observers did not see Walker's mockery as constructive. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in an October 2005 editorial commented, “Walker’s lipstick on-a-pig statement about regional marketing efforts came in answer to a question at the downtown Rotary Club…It is exceedingly unhelpful when one of the alleged leaders of a promising effort to market the region’s positives begins working at cross-purposes with the group so publicly, so early.” (MJS, 10/7/05)

From Republic Airways to C+D Technologies to Ingeteam, M-7 has helped save and attract some 2,000 jobs to Wisconsin in the past four months alone. As an original co-founder and the current co-chair, Tom Barrett has been an instrumental part of these successes.

In fact, under Barrett’s leadership the City of Milwaukee has invested $150,000 in M-7, compared to just $25,000 from Scott Walker’s County. When asked which entity has played a bigger role in helping the regional economic development effort, M-7 president Pat O’Brien said “the city has more tools at their disposal,” ranging from tax credits to an active economic development office. (MJS, 2/25/10)

"Scott Walker can try all he wants, but he can't wash the lipstick from the pig of his "lipstick-on-a-pig" attack on Wisconsin jobs," Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Thursday.

MADISON-On the day he debuts a television commercial that conveniently ignores the promise he broke by giving himself a $50,000 raise two years ago, Scott Walker today goes before students at his alma mater, Marquette University, to face questions.

Here are six you won't hear him answer:

1. Because of your mismanagement, the rest of Wisconsin is footing the bill for Milwaukee County's food aid, child care and medical assistance programs. How can you claim to fiscal responsibility when you passed the buck to Wisconsin's taxpayers, who now must pay the price of your poor performance and mismanagement?

2. The county's Economic Support Division had to be taken over in recent years because of your gross mismanagement. The Walker Behavioral Health Division is beset by various probes into negligence and sexual assault, including a new report today (link). The Walker transit system is in crisis. The Walker budget is busted. The Walker parks system is in decay. Property taxes and spending have spiked under Walker watch. How can you in good conscience go before Wisconsin voters and ask them to submit to your reckless management?

3. You have called for a $287 million tax giveaway to the richest one percent of Wisconsinites. Why should "Walker One Percenters" get $287 million, and not middle-class and working families who have suffered the most under the Bush-Walker economy?

4. You have proposed cutting taxes to the rich and the corporate elite by $2 billion, and the state already faces a projected $2 billion deficit. Can you share with voters specifically how you plan to pay for these tax giveaways to the wealthiest, which investments will have to be cut – education, aid to local communities, health care, and which communities will be most impacted, to offset them?

5. You've eliminated Milwaukee County's jobs-creation division during the worst economic crisis since the Depression. You've mocked the work of the "M 7" economic development group, which has brought and created 2000 jobs in Wisconsin in the past 4 months alone, as putting "lipstick on a pig." Your actions have not helped to create a single job for Wisconsin. How are your job creation promises at all credible?

6. Your proposed spending has increased 35 percent since you became county executive, your proposed tax levy has increased by 18 percent. You promised you would cut both spending and the tax levy while in office and have done neither. How does your rhetoric square with your record?

MADISON-In a new television blitz beginning today, wealthy home builder Mark Neumann rails against "insiders."

Heady rhetoric from someone who has mounted four Congressional campaigns, a U.S. Senate campaign and now a big-bucks bid to become Wisconsin's governor.

"The only reason Mark Neumann is on the outside looking in is that voters don't want him on the inside working for special interests," Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Wednesday. "The only thing an extremist politician like Mark Neumann is outside of is the mainstream."

MADISON-Scott Walker blatantly misleads the public about his broken promise to return his executive pay in a new television commercial scheduled to begin airing Thursday that doesn't tell the public about the $40,000 raise he gave himself in 2008.

In the campaign commercial, Walker does not mention his broken 2003 promise of returning 47 percent of his pay, a practice he ended without explanation two years ago, giving himself a $40,000 pay raise to almost $120,000. [Source: “Walker would lower salary givebacks,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 3/19/08, http://www.jsonline.com/news/ milwaukee/29505169.html]

In the commercial, Walker also continued his use of a "brown bag" campaign that was developed for him by an East Coast p.r. firm.

"Scott Walker promised to give back 47 percent of his pay and then broke that promise in each of the last two years. He also makes noises about working for the people who eat their lunches out of brown bags, while the tax cuts he proposes would benefit only the richest one percent of Wisconsinites," Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Thursday. "Again and again, Scott Walker promises one thing and does another. His first commercial of this campaign is chock full of such deceptions and show’s he’s a politician Wisconsin families can’t trust."

To learn more about Scott Walker’s phony claims and see what real Wisconsinites are saying, go to http://bagscottwalker.com.

MADISON –While Tommy Thompson is in Washington D.C. listening to “lots of people in Washington” and working on behalf of corporate interests, his taxing legacy lives on… and on.

In 1995, Thompson jammed through a special sales tax on the people of Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine, Ozaukee and Washington counties to fund a new stadium for the Brewers and famously said “Stick it to ‘em,” referring to the $310 million in tax increases he assigned to residents of Southeastern Wisconsin.

As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported today, Tommy is still sticking it taxpayers ten years after he left Wisconsin for the Bush Administration:

“New financial projections released Tuesday suggest the sunset year for the Miller Park stadium sales tax will be between 2016 and 2018, at least two years later than originally thought.”

“Long after Tommy’s departure, his taxing legacy of sticking it to taxpayers lives on,” said Mike Tate, Chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. “Today’s story is a reminder of the tax and spend record Thompson will have to answer for when he gets on the campaign trail this year.”

For full audio of Tommy’s famous “Stick it to ‘em” quote, visit http://libertycontrol.net/ uploads/wisconsin_dems/ stickit.mp3

Statement of DPW Chairman Mike Tate on Latest Scott Walker Stimulus Hypocrisy

Scott Walker Again Not Walking the Walk
MADISON-A day after raising champagne toasts in a Milwaukee ballroom to the Bush economic legacy, while pretending to a "brown bag" mantle, Scott Walker attacked federal recovery dollars even though he has desperately relied on these resources to keep his horribly mismanaged budget and capital projects afloat.

"Just as Scott Walker cannot simply make jobs claims up out of thin air, a desperate candidate for governor like him cannot be allowed to deride the very stimulus dollars that he used to try to mask his own budget ineptness," Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said late Tuesday. "The record is clear on Scott Walker’s phony leadership and stimulus money, the hypocrisy is staggering.”

MADISON- Yesterday, Republican “Uber-Lobbyist” Bill McCoshen went on Mike Gousha’s “UpFront” TV program and all but announced that Tommy Thompson is running for U.S. Senate, saying “this is the most serious I've seen him.”

McCoshen said Thompson has “the right people in the room,” and “I'd want the people around me that he's got around him right now.” He didn’t say who those “people” were.

“Who’s in the room? Corporate lobbyists,” said Mike Tate Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, “Where is the room? Washington D.C. Tommy’s campaign is off to a really bad start and it’s only going to get worse because the last thing Wisconsin voters want is a friend of special interests in the U.S. Senate.”

As the Associated Press reported in 2007, McCoshen signed a “secret agreement” with investors in an Indian Gaming casino in Kenosha. The deal, initially signed in 1997 and revised in 2000, called for the firm to receive $4.5 million once the project was approved by Thompson and then $42 million over the next several years for what a report by state gaming investigators called virtually no work. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has also reported that “As a lobbyist, he also has represented many controversial firms, including liquor interests, the auto title loan industry, a video lottery firm and Wal-Mart.”

News reports last week revealed that one of Thompson’s colleagues at the DC lobbying shop he works for, Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, said, “lots of people in Washington” want him to be Wisconsin’s next Senator. For his own part, Thompson told reporters that the election would be decided by issues “that are not that particular to Wisconsin.”

Bob Wood, a former Thompson operative and current President of Washington’s most elite GOP lobbying firm, Barbour, Griffith, Rogers, has registered websites for Thompson’s campaign and McCoshen said they are all planning to set up an exploratory committee in the coming weeks so and that he expects Thompson to announce his candidacy at the Republican convention in May. An exploratory committee would allow Thompson to raise money from many of the corporate interests he represents. Last week, Politico reported that Thompson has already collected over $200,000 in pledges from donors.

Thompson has spent the last five years as Washington DC insider who has made millions of dollars working on behalf of special interests including health insurance and pharmaceutical companies and the finance industry. Thompson recently told the media on camera he doesn’t know how many corporate interests he works for.

MADISON-Scott Walker and his rich cronies will be dining on caviar and hummingbird wings tomorrow in a posh Milwaukee ballroom with John Ellis "Jeb" Bush, but don't expect to see any footage of their champagne toasts to the Bush economic policies that took from working people to give to Lehman Brothers bankers.

That's because the $2,000-per-table tribute Monday at the Pfister Hotel to George W. Bush is closed to the press.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin, meanwhile, will be hosting a $10-per-brown-bag brat-and-beer supper a block away for those not fortunate enough to have profited off the Bush years of greed and recklessness.

"If Scott Walker wants to associate himself with the Bush legacy, he should not cower from the cameras," Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chairman Mike Tate said Sunday. "Our brown bag supper Monday is wide open to the press. Why doesn't Walker want the press inside the ballroom to witness him waltzing with Bush special interests? What do their caviar-covered mouths have to hide?"