Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Mike Tate Has Got To Go!

There has been a big dust up this week when Wisconsin State Democratic Communications Director was relieved of his duties thanks to a tweet where he compared the legal fees of our own Governor Walker to those of Milwaukee's own Jeffrey Dahmer.   Well Charlie Sykes went crazy, and local reporters picked up the story also helping Sykes echo chamber grow and grow.   Couple that with the outcry of a few self righteous democrats and Graeme Zielinski was relieved of his duties.  

Then thanks to some good research from the blogosphere, we find out that the righty's faux outrage and the reporters who rushed to judgement were just being blatant hypocrites.  Unfortunately Mike Tate took the bait, and Graeme's twitter account away.

Let's look at this story a little more in depth.  

1.  Many people have stood up for Graeme because he helped them out when they needed it.  I respect that.  However that is not me.  I do not write this from that angle, as a matter of fact, I asked for one small favor once and did not even get that. So I am not repaying a favor.  I just feel this situation was handled incredibly poorly!  

2.  I think Graeme has done many things that have deserved scrutiny and even discipline for....this is NOT one of them.  

3.  While I understand the comparison he was trying to make, it was not a good one.  Like telling a joke, if you have to explain it, it failed. 

4.  If he was NOT relieved of his duties for this one incident, then why would he be relieved so soon after it? 

5. Charlie Sykes really wanted Graeme fired.....last i checked Sykes does not run the Democratic party the way he does the republican party.  Unless we let him! This week we let him.

6.  Graeme and Mike Tate have been Synonymous for a while now and Graeme has even been known to be too zealous in attacking anyone who would dare criticize Mike Tate.  Then he got demoted.  If Mike Tate does not even have Graeme's back whose back does he have?

7.    Check the newspapers since Graeme has been relieved of his duties, where are all of these positive stories now?   Look at the state, public education is in shambles, we are about to pass an incredibly poor mining bill,  Paul Ryan wants to accelerate the end of Medicare, the Assembly is making it harder to vote, easier to lay off people and making a mockery of the democratically elected Secretary of State position.   Yet still nothing from the Democratic party. 

8.  I am sick of losing elections!


It is time for Mike Tate to tender his resignation.  We have lost seat after seat after seat under his "leadership".   The campaign for Governor in the recall election was horrible, there is no clear message to take to the people and no real interest being shown by the party to come up with one, no aggressiveness by anyone in the Democratic party, no real effort to bring a group of new blood into the fold, no one stepping up to run for Governor, there has been a complete disconnect between the party "leadership" to the grassroots(We had a tremendous amount of momentum two years ago that has all been squandered), a non-existent set of principles that they never waver from and no one who seems interested in running for Governor. 

We need some decisive action to actually win in 2014 and it HAS to start now.   Here are some of my suggestions:

1.  Mike Tate HAS to go(see above).

2.  Brett Hulsey also has to go - nuff said! 

3.  Actually get out and talk to people about what they want to see from the Democratic party.  

4.  Come up with a set of CORE beliefs that no one wavers from in the party. 

5.  Get Ed Fallone elected(when is the last time you saw Fallone in the news anyway?)!  

6.  No more consultants, no more BS and get aggressive. 

7.  MESSAGE! MEASSAGE! MESSAGE!  find your own Frank Luntz to help get it out of you need to but GET IT OUT!   We are in the minority and we need to do some things on a little more grandiose scale to get noticed by the people.  It does not have to be to the extent or tone that Graeme took it, but we need to do something!  

Finally for all of the righties who are going to be giddy about posts like this.  Graeme Actually apologized for his tweet.  When Scott Walker apologizes for wanting to bring "Agent Provocateurs" to the  Capitol where I took my 4 year old daughter and 7 year old son, then lets talk!








13 comments:

  1. Don't forget maybe thry could do something to get out the vote when Obama's not on the ballot.

    They could try pretending to give a damn about Milwaukee once in a while.

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  2. Meg Andreitsch has to go as well! She regularly alienates people who don't bow down and worship every word she says.
    Replace the whole leadership!
    Lori Compas for DPW Chair!

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  3. I completely agree Jeff. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. The debacle that has been the past 2 years has proven this out.

    Fresh blood, new ideas, core beliefs all will make for a solid foundation on which to build. We have a lot of young people chomping at the bit to play a key role in our state and to move us in the right direction. Before we lose their energy and zeal, we as a state need to make sure we utilize them in the best possible manner.

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  4. This is all well and good, but you can't replace something with nothing. Who do you have saving the DPW?

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  5. Hopefully the words and works of walker and duh Johnson wake people up to the fact that they aren't whats best for Wisconsin.

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  6. Agree about GZ and it's been so sad to see this story go national under that Sykes-inspired Bice headline. Before this, I did think there was progress at the local level under Tate. Now I just don't know - is there someone willing to oppose him and who has a viable plan to win?

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  7. Send both GZ and Tate packing, please.

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  8. Noooo Wait don't get of those guys. I want them to stick around.. They have been the second best thing to happen to Wisconsin.

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  9. Emmarose4 commented on my Soapbox posting about Graeme's demotion, but I feel I should say it here too.

    I am one of the Dem's who feel that Graeme deserved his demotion and not an outright firing. He hasn't presented the professionalism I expect from the DPW Communications Chair. That said, he's a hard working guy who's clearly helped candidates and elected officials in the party, so we need that loyalty to continue

    That being said, I wholeheartedly agree that Mike Tate needs to go. I mentioned this a long time ago on my blog, and I stand by it today. Mike's time has passed, and like any campaign who needs help, it's time to shake things up.

    Mike was right... if we would have done the recall with the November elections we likely would have been able to recall the Governor, but he also had to know that the ship was sailing on that idea when the grass roots decided to take matters into their own hands. The party wasn't a leader until they were told where we were going.

    The party needs leadership, and it especially needs messaging. There's no reason that the ranks and membership of the DPW shouldn't have swelled dramatically over the last 2 years in Wisconsin and the part be a part of a vast outreach campaign and community building strategy of building candidates and a message.

    We need a message.. and a message that stacks up nicely and beats the hell out of whatever "Boss Vos" speeds by us in a sound bite. We need to hammer home the Governor and not just beat around the edges. Present fact, articulate it to the people, and win people in the Fox Valley.

    The DPW hasn't done that thus far. We need to shake things up, and while Graeme's demotion is a good start, that change does need to come from up top.

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    1. Agree that a shake-up is needed. Making these GOPs pay for backing such failed, divisive policies should be an easy call, and hammering Walker for his flagrant lying is another obvious move.

      But Tate has failed to get this simple "This is wrong and not what Wisconsin does," message out there, and the failure to get votes outside of heavy Dem areas shows that failure of message.

      It's time to send a message, and get some new leadership at the top who's not a distracting bomb-thrower or small-picture political lifer.

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    2. Yours is a good and thoughtful blog. The skills gap postings/articles are great. I disagree with you on GZ but I was too tough on you. Agree with everything you say about messaging.

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    3. No, you were not too tough on me ;) I appreciate the comment you left. I just got bogged down and didn't reply on there, for which I'm sorry.

      We have a disagreement. It's okay to have :) It's through debate and discussion we become stronger. No hard feelings at all!

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  10. I agree that the Wisconsin Democratic Party needs some new leadership, but that is a subordinate issue. The real issue is this: Vote totals will continue to mismatch exit poll results as long as touch screens and optical scanning remain in use. That is the controlling item. That is the root cause of Walker's "Reelection." All else will be for naught unless that cancer is eliminated from our election process.

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