CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – My colleague, Meg Ellefson, sometimes refers to the Republican Party as a circular firing squad. There are some Republicans who demand such ideological purity that someone who doesn’t agree with them on every issue is unacceptable and is seen as a political enemy. Instead I know that someone who I agree with on 80-percent of the issues of the day is a friend, not a foe. And in my example, my ally disagrees with me on one out of every five issues.
If you’ve listened to these commentaries, you know that I’m not enamored with Donald Trump. He’s too impulsive and makes too many mistakes. But you won’t hear my undermining his candidacy. Compared to Joe Biden, he has my full support.
I am also not a huge fan of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos. I think of him as a political hack, and he’s vindictive towards fellow Republicans. That said, he’s my champion. He’s the most powerful Republican in state government. He’s the only counterweight conservatives have to Governor Tony Evers. My interest in seeing Vos primaried and pushed out of state government is zero.
And yet there are some conservative purist-ideologues who hate Robin Vos so much that they’re willing to stretch the law to force him out. If they broke the law, they should be tried and convicted.
The law says that you can donate only $1,000 to candidates in Wisconsin. You can give unlimited money to political parties or causes. The allegations are that money was funneled through the Langlade County Republican Party and given to Robin Vos’ primary opponent.
The worst thing about this scandal is that the story now has legs. An ethics report came out last week that recommends criminal prosecutions. The liberal media will cover every step of this story, and the criminal justice process moves slowly enough that this will be in the news cycle through election day this fall. Republicans running for office will have enough trouble overcoming the re-drawn voting maps. Now there’s a fundraising scandal, and it’s unclear who or how many party committees or candidate campaigns it may touch.
Some Republicans hate Robin Vos so much that they’re willing to provide the ammunition for the circular firing squad. And that makes no sense whatsoever.
Chris Conley
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