Mike Pence did what he had to do

Mike Pence did what he had to do

Gazette Column
Do not blame Mike Pence. In this week’s vice presidential debate Pence did the only thing he could. Wisconsin radio personality Charlie Sykes said it best when he described the logical outcome of years of attacks on the news media to Oliver Darcy, politics editor at Business Insider. “We’ve basically eliminated any of the referees, the gatekeepers,” he said, adding that now when Donald Trump says something outrageous and patently false, he’s expected to fall in line or be labeled a sellout. This is a “monster” created by conservatives, who are now “reaping the whirlwind.” “At a certain point, you wake up and you realize you have destroyed the credibility of any credible outlet out there,” Sykes said. And, no, Sykes hasn’t gone full tilt. His statements weren’t intended to…
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Voter ID still bad for the masses

Voter ID still bad for the masses

Gazette Column
Some folks didn’t take kindly to my calling voter ID laws a scam in last Sunday’s column. So, in their honor, this week I’d like to add a few more words. Let’s start with “racket” and “fraud.” The necessity of early deadlines for physically printed content, and the 24-hour news cycle combined with Internet availability, often means that a Sunday column, written Thursday or Friday, will not contain information from the days in between. This was the case for my column last week, when I discussed a GAO report on the stifling impacts of voter ID laws. After the column was completed, a federal decision was made on Wisconsin’s voter ID laws. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling was especially interesting because its earlier dissent was written by 7th Circuit Judge Richard Posner, a Ronald Reagan…
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