Gableman surrogates: None too bright

When criticizing a judge for overturning a criminal conviction, you don't get to simultaneously re-convict the defendant of committing the crimes for which the conviction was overturned. Because that's what's known in the trade as defamation. Not to mention stupidity.

Group revises Supreme Court ad after station pulls it

The Coalition for America's Families revised the wording Friday afternoon to say Armstrong had once been convicted of rape and murder.

D'oh. Fortunately stupidity isn't actionable, generally. Yes, yes, Kent Hovind is in federal prison, but that's for income tax evasion.

(Ever notice how these outfits with "family" in the title are often shameless dissemblers of the lowest order? I sure have.)

And in other GOP family values news:

Prosecutors have refiled child enticement charges against the former head of the Brown County Republican Party.

Donald Fleischman, 37, of Allouez, who resigned his post with the Brown County Republicans in September, is accused of fondling a 16-year-old runaway and providing the boy with beer and marijuana late last year.

Green Bay (WI) Press Gazette.

Wait, wait, don't tell me — Louis Butler's going to singlehandedly release him into Milwaukee County.

eta: Frederica Freyberg's interview this evening with Michael Gableman is available for viewing at this link.

A note to Ms. Freyberg: The defamation contemplated by WBAY attorneys in the Coalition for America's Families teevee spot was not against Justice Butler, but rather against the defendant whose conviction was overturned.

More noteworthy is Gableman's seemingly tempering his previous claims that his judicial decision making will be in "stark contrast" to Justice Butler's. Too much like a promise, perhaps?

Now he is merely pointing out that his career background as a lawyer for the State is a "stark contrast" to Butler's experience in criminal defense (prior to Butler's 17 years as a judge, that is, which happens to be longer than Gableman has been practicing law in total).

Less significant, athough significant nonetheless, was Gableman's apparent failure to observe the potentially defamatory nature of the Coalition for America's Families advertisement, despite admitting he'd watched it just before coming on Ms. Freyberg's programme.

You'd think convicting someone of a crime whose conviction had been overturned (the whole point of the ad) would raise a big red flag for a judge, especially one so qualified for the State Supreme Court.