Monday, March 02, 2009

So what have you been complaining about?

I try to catch Mike Gousha’s Up Front program every Sunday. In my opinion, it is the best Wisconsin-based political program on television. Yesterday Gousha interviewed Randy Koschnick regarding his run for state Supreme Court. Unfortunately, the interview brought out more questions for me than it answered.

Although Koschnick has made 3 percent of his opponent's campaign contributions a major plank of his campaign, he admitted on the show that there was nothing illegal about them. This did not surprise me because even he could not be so absurd as to make such a claim. I did, however, expect him to make some lame ethics argument based on the judicial code. When asked that specific question, to my surprise, Koschnick admitted that this nonissue that he has been hyping for weeks, was not even an ethical violation. So the obvious follow up question is, “So exactly what have you been complaining about for the last several weeks?”

As much as I like Mike Gousha and his program, I was surprised that he didn’t follow up on such an obvious point. I was also disappointed that he, like most others in the traditional media, did not question Koschnick about his own campaign donations. Since I genuinely like Gousha and his program, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it was simply an issue of time and the fact that he tries to pack almost too much substance into a mere 30 minutes. If there is a case to be made for a full hour of Up Front, the Koschnick interview on Sunday could serve as Exhibit A.

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