Bwahahaha! And there’s plenty more below.
Retired State Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, tapped by the GOP Legislative Majority to conduct an “review” of the 2020 election in Wisconsin, has not only admitted that he doesn’t know how elections work, but has been found to have NOT VOTED in the last 7 elections in Wisconsin.
Gableman has not voted in seven elections in Wisconsin in the last three years, including the 2018 race for governor and the 2020 race for state Supreme Court, a review of his voting record shows.
Why am I not surprised? Small wonder he doesn’t know how elections work (guffaw).
Gableman, who claimed without evidence last year that the presidential election was stolen, has a taxpayer-funded budget of $676,000. Last week he said he didn’t understand how elections work but saw his review as essential because democracy underpins American society.
On Wednesday, he quickly walked away from a reporter when asked why he hadn't voted in recent elections.
"Are you recording me?" Gableman asked. "OK, good. Have a good day."
Up yours, too, buddy.
He’s also hired Trumps’ former White House attorney, Andrew Kloster, who has also admitted he has “limited knowledge of election law” to aid Geblemans’ “review”.
Assembly Republicans are using an attorney for their review of last year's election who has maintained without evidence that the election was stolen and argued that conservatives need prosecutors who will "let our boys off the hook."
Gableman is a terrible person who gained his seat on the Wisconsin State Supreme Court with ads that charged incumbent Louis Butler with releasing a man who raped an 11 year old girl. The fact is that the man served the entire sentence and parole and only years later committed another crime. Butler was the original sentencing judge and never released the man.
Seven months after Gableman’s lies had done their dirty work with Gableman narrowly defeating Butler 51% to 49%, the Wisconsin Judicial Commission charged Gableman with violating judicial ethics for falsely suggesting Butler’s legal work had freed a rapist to commit another crime. “By publishing the advertisement in willful violation of (the state’s judicial ethics code) Judge Gableman engaged in judicial misconduct,” the commission wrote.
The ethics charge was “tried” before the State Supreme Court because they make the final determination on discipline for judicial misconduct. It shouldn’t surprise you that they deadlocked 3-3 along partisan lines. Because he wasn’t convicted, Gableman was seated as a Justice and gained the RW a majority of seats. Sweet deal, right?
With the RW now in the majority, the State Supreme Court handed down RW decision after RW decision.
...the new rightwing majority was already operating under a brand-new code of ethics introduced by, brace yourself, Gableman. More accurately described as an ethics-free code of ethics, it declared justices didn’t have to recuse themselves from cases involving parties who had contributed millions of dollars to elect them to the court.
That rule was written for Gableman by lobbyists for Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) and the Wisconsin Realtors Association. Those groups had spent more than $10 million to elect all four members of the new rightwing majority including $2.3 million to elect Gableman, 63% of all his contributions. Gabelman used the rule to repay Michael Best & Friedrich many times over for all their free legal services by refusing to recuse himself from cases involving their high-paying clients.
The rule came in handy again in 2015 when the court shut down a bipartisan criminal John Doe investigation by three district attorneys into suspected money laundering by Republican Gov. Scott Walker disguising the source of funds raised to fight the 2011 recall elections of Walker and nine Republican legislators.
That case involved Walker raising anonymous “dark money” through the Koch-funded Wisconsin Club for Growth and again the WMC. Gableman wrote the decision declaring it wasn’t illegal in Wisconsin for candidates to solicit unlimited anonymous contributions through “independent” political organizations to hide the identity of donors and violate fundraising limits. Gableman’s court essentially legalized anonymously bribing public officials.
And THAT is exactly how the John Doe Probe got killed off and Scott Walker got off Scott-free.
I’d recommend reading both articles in full because they will let you know in detail about the sleazebag conducting our election “review”.