« BACK  |  PRINT

RS

FRONT PAGE CONTRIBUTOR

Tom Barrett (D CAND, WI-GOV RECALL) passes on honoring slain cops to… stump-speech the UAW. #recall

DOOM.

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  May 20th, 2012 at 10:00 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

When it came out last week that Milwaukee mayor (and Wisconsin Democratic candidate for governor in the upcoming recall election) Tom Barrett had skipped out on two ceremonies honoring Milwaukee police officers, there was some questions about what Barrett thought could possibly be more important that going to, say, a memorial service for slain Wisconsin policemen.  It probably didn’t help either that Barrett was so evasive about the answer, either – to the point of convenient memory loss.  Well, it turns out that Barrett probably wanted to forget the answer of where he was doing instead of honoring fallen officers, given that the answer was… ‘making a stump speech:’

…Mayor Barrett was actually speaking at a luncheon for retired United Auto Workers in Oshkosh at the exact same time that the fallen officers memorial was taking place in Milwaukee.  Barrett spoke to a room of about 50 UAW union members.

I acquired a link to the video of the event that Barrett spoke at: it is unpleasant viewing for those with both a basic ethical sense, and an awareness of the context.

(Link.)

Which, to be fair, probably includes a non-trivial percentage of the UAW retirees; I’m morally certain that many if not most would have been much less enthusiastic about Barrett’s accusing Governor Scott Walker of putting politics over his job if they knew that Bartlett had shrugged off his own duty to fallen police officers in order to stump for money and support.

You know, the banality of this is what is so offensive.  Tom Barrett skipping a memorial service that includes honoring police officers killed in the service of his city?  That’s bad.  Barrett instead taking the opportunity to try to squeeze some money and support out of the unions that preferred his opponent?  That’s worse (although it’d be more so if it weren’t quite so utterly expected).  But do you know what grates? It’s such an utterly pedestrian speech.  I mean, if you’re going to spit on the memory of dead cops for the sake of your doomed political career, at least be a proper villain about it. Which is to say, not a Tom Barrett.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Tags: , , , , ,

COMMENTS

POSTING RULES  |  LOGIN TO COMMENT  |  REGISTER TODAY
  • JimmyGee

    In which he was right up there with Senator “Do-Nothing” Kohl! I live in the county outside of Milwaukee (Thank God!), and if Milwaukee had competent leadership it could be a wonderful, vibrant city. As it is, it just spends it’s time circling the toilet bowl, waiting for the final flush that will turn it into a Detroit. And everyone; the liberals, the entitlement minorities, and the media in Milwaukee will be so shocked when that happens.
    Hell, even the DNC can see the EPIC DOOM that is coming to Barrett on June 5th!

  • ctpsb

    They’re for women until Sarah Palin shows up, they’re for religious tolerance until Mitt Romney is the Republican nominee, etc.

    Here they’re always “fighting” for police and firefighter (read: they’re union contract dues) until it’s not convenient.

    Excellent research in finding this!!

  • garfieldjl

    There are exceptions to this, but clearly Tom Barrett isn’t one of them.

  • jonfromwis

    I agree 100% with you Jimmy. Barrett is a complete failure as the mayor of Milwaukee. Look at his record over the last 8 years, the number of jobs the city has lost, the failure of the public system within the city…and environmentally speaking, since you brought up the toilet bowl analogy with the flush, his failed policies allow billions upon billions of gallons of sewage to be dumped into Lake Michigan every year! He can’t lead a city, why do people think he could lead the state? And then to put petty politics and NOT show up to the ceremony to honor the fallen police officers and their families the biggest insult. Shame on Barrett and his gig is up…even the Milwaukee Journal cannot stomach endorsing him for Governor in the recall and they are the biggest proponents of the liberal agenda in the state!

  • exrayman4000

    I wonder if the families of these fallen officers would have wanted this loser there anyway? Seems to me he did everybody a favor by skipping the memorials. Don’t get me wrong, by skipping this memorial this loser shows everybody where his heart really is . Sometimes I wonder if liberal Democrat’s as well as their RINO Republican enablers know what the word shame means?

  • eheassler

    Mayor Barrett typifies what we have come to expect from so many of our politicians. To borrow a line from obama, “He’s a politician and doesn’t have to tell the truth. The truth can be anything he makes it out to be.” They hypocrisy of the man complaining about donations to Walker from out of state sources would be hysterically funny if it weren’t so true since the obama machine has poured millions of dollars and an army of operatives into the Democrat effort to unseat Governor Walker. Just this week, the Hydra-haired head of the DNC, Debbie Wasserman Schultz is campaigning for Barrett. As accomplished liars, they make a fine pair. The “divide and conquer” accusation is a case of transference as that is the national Democrat strategy for keeping obama in office and that is what the big money power broker obama-ites are trying to do in Wisconsin. They are very clever at blaming the ensuing dissension on the Republicans. How long was the Wisconsin Governorship in Democrat hands? Barrett is complaining because Walker hasn’t turned the state completely around in the whole 16 months he’s been in office. He has done good by getting the budget and spending under control and probably could have done better had he received anything resembling cooperation from the Democrats and unions. He has had nothing but opposition, obstruction, and of course the distraction of a recall. The shame of it is, the unions are wasting millions of their members hard earned dues dollars. Just think of that money were use to bolster union pension funds. I’m a retired IBEW worker and have zero union pension but I sure paid plenty in dues. It enrages me to think that it may have gone to support a pinhead liar like Tom Barrett.

  • brojohn2

    Hypocrisy seems to be the middle name of so many of these Democrat politicians they are much more enamored of the unions than of the union members. Police officers also belong to a union, but then he could not have made a stump speech to raise money at the memorial event. I used to love going to Wisconsin to visit family who still live there, but my last trip 8 years ago showed me why it is falling apart.

    Streets in the cities falling apart, many places vacant, and still the same tired rhetoric from the Democrats and the Unions. Give us more money and we will fix everything, sure they will if you believe that I have some beachfront property in AZ to sell you.

  • givemefreedom

    Not Barrett and from the top down the entire democrat machine.

  • givemefreedom

    I’m thinking back to the last democrat governor and how well THAT turned out.
    James Doyle . . . . what was Wisconsin thinking???

  • oldnavyman

    When the rank and file of the unions finally get shafted enough it will stop. Look at any city that has been in democrats control and you see Germany or Tyoko after WW11. The silent majority is finally alive and well in the Tea party and will continue to grow as November appraoches. The American people have seen what the Dem’s offer and are sick of it. Hopefully the Republicans have learned their lesson. If not then a third party will emerge and rule the seas.