Sour Kraus: Advising the Butler Campaign
 Time and again the WJCIC demonstrated blatant partisanship when they thought nobody was looking, despite Basting's claims to the contrary.More from the WisPolitics interview:
Ross: "Now obviously, all of you on the committee have an
intense interest in the race for various reasons. I mean, you
guys are all in law, so I assume there will be some personal
feelings or political allegiances one way or another. How do you
put those aside when you're judging these ads going from here
through until April 1." Basting: "Well, uh, first of all, when you say we're all involved
in law that's not correct, because there are more laypeople on
this committee than there are lawyers. And, if you take a look
at the make-up of the committee it is not dominated by
lawyers at all, and I specifically wanted it that way. I think it
would be unwise to have lawyers only on this committee, or to
have a majority of lawyers on this committee. Uh, we have
asked all the members of the committee to put aside their
personal feelings about either candidate, it's none of our
business who our committee members will ultimately vote for,
that's why we have a secret ballot. Uh, and um, I don't think
personal likes, dislikes, or anything else are going to play any
role in the judgment of the committee members if and when
we look at, or are asked to look at, political ads." Source: WisPolitics Interview 1/30/08 Apparently "Republican" WJCIC member Bill Kraus didn't get the memo. Not only did Kraus openly express his personal disdain for individuals and organizations, but he took it upon himself to offer campaign advice to Butler and to try to coerce the Gableman campaign to comply with the committee's demands. In a December 19th email regarding the Gableman campaign response to the WJCIC ruling Kraus takes a personal shot at Gableman consultant Darrin Schmitz and Wisconsin Club for Growth advisor, R.J. Johnson. "Darrin is the legitimate child of the demon RJ Johnson an
advocate of wedge politics from whence all the trouble
arises. A sharp poke in the slats is my recommendation." Source: Kraus email to WJCIC Members 12/19/07
On January 6th, Kraus advocates threatening the Gableman campaign with a public shaming if they don't return the signed pledge. "We can, and should, make some noise if, as, and when the
promised pledge from Butler arrives and ask where his
opponent's is." Source: Kraus email to WJCIC Members 1/6/08 In a separate email, Kraus reiterates his desire to go after Gableman: "If anyone in the press is attentive enough to ask the right
question, it will give us the opportunity to let them know
where Gableman is getting his bad advice." Source: Kraus Email to WJCIC Members 1/8/08
On January 12,2008, after learning the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) had released a video featuring Marquette Law Professor Rick Esenberg, Kraus offers advice to the Butler campaign, referring to the state chamber of commerce as the enemy:
"This seems to me to be a Butler campaign problem/
opportunity. Surely they are familiar with the enemies'
strategy. If not, someone can refer them to something
that happened in 1978 when a candidate was attacked by
outsiders and used that to question the motives and
even the fact of their participation. Butler can talk about the professor's oversimplifications
and about the megaphone supplied by WMC and take the
boost that gives him without mentioning his opponent.
And, of course, he can also use the platform this attack
provides to talk about what the campaign is really about
and his own virtues. Just a suggestion." Kraus Email to WJCIC Members 1/12/08 Later Kraus reveals his mole: "Bob Williams reports that he got a call from Gableman which
gave him the impression that he won't sign. Williams told him
that he's handing his opponent an issue that he shouldn't.
Butler doesn't have to attack or even criticize him; all he has
to do is ask the unanswerable question: Why isn't he
signing?" "Paranoia induces stupidity." Kraus Email to WJCIC Members 1/21/08 Of course no repudiation of conservative principles would be complete without a thorough condemnation of talk radio, and this partisanship wasn't limited solely to Kraus. When the Committee found out radio talk show host Charlie Sykes had been discussing the Club for Growth report on the committee's bias, Basting said "I figure that if Sykes is criticizing us, we MUST be doing a
good thing." Source: Bastings Email to WJCIC Members 1/4/08 Kraus followed up with: "Replying to Charlie is the equivalent of getting into a
pissing contest with a skunk. I concede he has more
power than he deserves, particularly among Republicans.
But obviously he doesn't get it that we are trying to
de-partisanize these elections." Source: Kraus Email to WJCIC Members 1/4/08 A January 24th e-mail from Adam Korbitz spun Sykes' attacks as a positive: "Also, for what it is worth, we were encouraged by other
attendees who stated that the withering attacks from
bloggers and talk show hosts are a good and positive sign
that we are being taken seriously, and we should feel good
about that. That, and the fact that the attacks have gained
no traction in the legitimate press."
Source: Korbitz Email to WJCIC Members 1/24/08
But Krause was not content to simply live and let live. "A larger problem than Charlie is that the rest of the press
seems to be ignoring us." "Someone - maybe me - should also question the advice he is
getting and even the mercenaries he's getting it from if he
doesn't take the pledge. Or something." "What we have to become is a beat for the political
reporters."
Source: Kraus Email to WJCIC Members 1/6/08
Still Kraus saved his best gem for last when discussing the problems associated with labels like moderate or RINO:
"Until and unless the true believers stop letting Charlie Sykes
be the GOP's gatekeeper we're just going to have to live with
this. My only suggestion is that we drop the 'moderate' label
and adopt the "libertarian" one to let Charlie and his followers
know that we regard their faith and sex lives as private
matters and expect them to reciprocate."
Source: Kraus Email to WJCIC Members 1/25/08
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The Fox Guarding the Henhouse
The Wisconsin State Bar is a registered lobbying organization that seeks to influence legislation beneficial to its members. These new laws often come before the Supreme Court when challenged. Additionally the court decides on rules governing lawyer conduct in Wisconsin. The State Bar employs five full-time lobbyists, and has advocated for the passage or defeat of over 74 bills this legislative session alone. Thus, the so-called "neutral" arbiters of judicial campaigns are really the Supreme Court's ultimate special interest, and its members make up the single largest contributor block to Louis Butler's campaign. In his interview with WisPolitics,Basting notes that special interests are using campaign donations in hopes of tilting the court in their favor and he believes this can"impugn the neutrality of our courts and erode public confidence in them." In 2005, the Wisconsin Supreme Court revisited the issue of medical malpractice caps on non-economic damages. In Ferdon v. Wisconsin Patient's Compensation Fund ,the Court found that the state's statutory limit on "pain andsuffering" damages violated the equal protection provision of theWisconsin Constitution. Justice Louis Butler, having recently joinedthe Court, joined with the majority in the Court's 4-3 opinion. Later in 2005, the Legislature sought to remedy this decision by enacting new caps it believed the Court would find constitutional. 2005 Assembly Bill 766 set non-economic damage caps of $450,000 for persons age 18 and older, and $550,000 for persons under 18. The State Bar of Wisconsin lobbied against this bill. In a lobbying activity filing with the ethics board, they said, "Caps on non-economic damages run counterto the right of obtaining justice 'completely and without denial.' Inaddition, caps on non-economic damages place an unnecessary hardship onthe most seriously injured." Given the State Bar's lobbying effort against caps on non-economic damages and Justice Butler's vote to eliminate those caps, does anyone actually believe that Louis Butler isn't the preferred choice of the Wisconsin State Bar? Tom Basting is fond of saying "judges have no constituents." Yet the State Bar does. Ones with a great deal of money.
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Thanks for your support of Wisconsin Club for Growth! 
The Wisconsin Judicial Integrity Campaign Committee (WJCIC), a"nonpartisan" panel designed to judge the ethical conduct of candidates and organizations for Wisconsin's upcoming Supreme Court race has made false and misleading statements to the media, coordinated partisan attacks to silence critics, and even recommended strategies for Louis Butler's campaign. 
Following the dust-up over the committee's Democratic bias, the WJCIC added two new members, both with Republican ties. In a January 30th 
Five of the nine WJCIC members are from Madison and four of them are in the same zip code, in the heart of Madison's liberal Isthmus. In fact,Basting and Carol Toussaint actually live in the same building. All of the committee's members are Caucasian, 7 are men, 6 are former Democratic political leaders or appointees and/or donors of Governor Jim Doyle, and the average committee member is 72 years old.