That Orville Seymer , what a joker. Seymer, who likes to wear loud hats and make outrageous comments, couldn’t resist offering a sarcastic remark to County Board Chairman Lee Holloway . So Holloway had Seymer kicked out of a public meeting. Now Seymer is suing the county for $1 million.
Seymer’s suit claims that he was humiliated and deprived of his freedom of speech. But as any high school student knows, this is what always happens to the class clown who can’t resist shouting out a smart remark. The teacher reacts and sometimes goes overboard in punishing the troublemaker.
Seymer and the Citizens for Responsible Government are portraying this nuisance suit as a holy endeavor. Seymer actually invoked the soldiers dying in Iraq, suggesting some sort of parallel with his fight for free speech. “There is no way to put a high enough value on this right,” declared Chris Kliesmet , Seymer’s confederate in the Citizens for Responsible Government.
Actually, Chris, I think there is. I’d say $1 million is about $999,950 too high. Orville probably deserves about $50 for his brief inconvenience.
All Seymer had to do is give a serious speech when called on, and nothing would have happened to him. He might have even criticized Holloway for his lousy attendance record in a responsible way. But Seymer preferred to speak out of turn and play the punk.
If Seymer was really so humiliated, why has he sought so much attention for this incident? Fox 6 did a particularly sympathetic news item on poor Orville.
As for being deprived of free speech, there is surely no citizen who speaks more freely in Wisconsin than Seymer, who shows up at meetings of the Kewaskum school board, the Miller Park stadium authority, the Milwaukee County Board and nearly any public meeting going. Many might prefer that Seymer was less free with his speech, but such is the price of democracy.
The Citizens for Responsible Government initially offered a philosophically consistent stand in favor of clean government and less spending. But Seymer has muddied the waters, taking stands that seem to benefit landlords like him. Thus, he suddenly opposed cuts in spending on the Milwaukee County small claims courts because it might have slowed down his abilities to go after tenants who don’t pay. Seymer has also opposed city efforts to go after slum landlords. Now this fiscal conservative wants to cost the county taxpayers $1 million because he wants to be a wiseacre.
Seymer’s suit is an unneeded distraction from the very serious matter of whether Holloway will survive an ethics investigation and continue as board chair. This kind of self-righteous silliness will undercut any good will Seymer and Kliesmet have created for the Ament recall effort. Pretty soon people may wonder if the first letter in CRG stands not for citizens but for clowns.
Marquette University Gets Some National Ink
The Sunday New York Times featured a story on the sudden growth in undergraduate degrees in health sciences, and Marquette University was among a few institutions spotlighted. The growth in this course of study mostly reflects students looking for careers in America’s ever-growing healthcare industry, the story suggested.
But William Cullinan , associate chair of Marquette’s Department of Biomedical Sciences, says there’s more to it than that. Students, he says, are also excited about the curriculum. “It’s very atypical to study these types of things at the undergraduate level.”
Marquette’s program allows students to take courses in pharmacology, molecular medicine and human pathology, courses students would typically take in graduate school. Cullinan says the major was created in 1997 and grew out of courses the university was offering for its dental school students.
Cullinan says there are only six or seven universities offering this kind of major and that students from as far away as Alaska and California chose Marquette just to get this major. It’s “the fastest-growing major this university has ever seen,” he told The Times .
Why Jim Doyle Won’t Raise $12 Million
For a year or more, we’ve been told that Gov. Jim Doyle could raise as much as $12 million in campaign donations. The idea was that he’d have way too much money to lose his bid for re-election.
I think we can stick a needle in that balloon. Doyle is unlikely to get anywhere near $12 million. The new campaign finance reports covering the second half of 2005 show that Doyle raised $1.2 million, after raising $1.4 million in the first six months of 2005.
To date, Doyle has raised $5.9 million. Is he going to raise that much over a 10-month period in 2006? Of course not. He will be lucky to hit $8.5 million in total money raised.
If Doyle had been a Tommy Thompson -type incumbent, whose high positives made him a shoo-in for re-election, he might well have hit the $12 million. But Doyle is at best the front-runner in a race that’s likely to be close.
In that kind of election, the many insiders who want access to government will hedge their bets and give to both parties. Thus, the combined Republican ticket of Mark Green and Scott Walker raised $1.3 million in the second half of 2005, besting Doyle’s $1.2 million.
Walker raised about 45% of the combined Republican total, a good enough showing that insiders could be left to split their donations three ways until the September primary. That could make Doyle’s task all the tougher.
On the other hand, Walker’s strength means that the GOP primary will be hard fought, and both Republican candidates could spend the bank to win, while Doyle sits back and saves his money. That should still leave Doyle with a huge edge in campaign donations to spend, but nowhere near $12 million and nowhere near as invulnerable as such a figure would have suggested.
Super Bowled
What is it the gamblers know that others don’t? Pro football coaches predicted Seattle’s victory, and the Journal Sentinel sportswriters were unanimous in choosing the Seahawks. Even at half-time, with Pittsburgh ahead, the TV commentators predicted Seattle would take control in the second half. The gamblers, however, had Pittsburgh as the favorite and never wavered from that prediction. Chalk up another loss for the pundits.
