Gableman sets the standard ... in MN

A former Republican congressman and governor of Minnesota, Al Quie, must have been following last year's Wisconsin Supreme Court election more closely than the 81% of eligible voters here who weren't.

On Thursday, Quie will testify to that neighboring State's Senate judiciary committee with a view to carefully avoiding the Wisconsin experience. Quie and several other local notables are recommending reforms to Minnesota's system of electing judges.

And it's clear from this column at MinnPost.com that the deserved villain of the piece is Wisconsin's own Michael Gableman (although Gableman attended law school in St. Paul, so L'Etoile du Nord can proudly assume its share of the responsibility).

But at least one further clarification is in order:

Gableman accused the incumbent Butler of being the "deciding vote" resulting in the "release of [a sexual] predator into Milwaukee County." But the predator was never released. He served his complete sentence before offending again.

Actually those were two separate cases, and two separate falsehoods propagated by Gableman. The "predator" in question is this one,* whereas the complete sentence-server is at the heart of Gableman's ongoing ethics investigation by the Wisconsin Judicial Commission.

Speaking of which, there's unlikely to be a resolution in that case until after this April's election, which currently features yet another Hamline law school alumnus telling every Republican within earshot that Wisconsin's Chief Justice is "intellectually dishonest."

* Who remains in custody still, incidentally.