Gas Pains

Tom grew up in Milwaukee, bartended in Wauwatosa in the '70s and moved here in 1984.

Commentary, observations and musings about the outdoors, life in general and maybe Tosa politics and personalities will be the order of the day. He savors a lively debate as much as terrific cooking.

More on the Retinue Recruitment Drive

Mayor Didier, Politics-Other, Politics-Tosa

On Tuesday of this week I took the opportunity to sneak out of the day job so that I could attend the Wauwatosa Public Library Foundation's Leadership Luncheon.

Six high school students from the community were recognized for their outstanding leadership achievements - and I was reminded of what a slacker I was in high school.

Sigh.

Jon Vice - formerly the President and CEO of Children's Hospital of Wisconsin - was recognized as the recipient of the 2009 Arthur B. Kohasky Leadership Award.

This was a singularly outstanding event with a big turn-out to acknowledge and praise the service of present and future leaders of our community.  I visited with a number of friends and acquaintances.  I also found out I have additional readers.  The official count is now a total of thirty.

Best of all - Bob Woodward was the keynote speaker.  How cool is that?

If you are old like me you'd remember the efforts of Woodward and this other fella named Bernstein in breaking the story about Watergate.

This is the stuff of which Pulitzer Prizes are made-of and I was happy to be in the company of a history-making investigative journalist.

Aside from the 1973 Pulitzer following the Nixon scandal - Woodward earned a second Pulitzer in 2002 for his coverage of the aftermath of the 9-11 terrorist attacks.  He's also written a number of best-selling books.

Naturally I had some books autographed  to add to my vast library and for Christmas stocking stuffers.

But it was what Woodward had to say about Watergate and his coverage of America's political leaders during the ensuing years that captivated the crowded ballroom of the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

Secrecy in government is what Americans should be afraid of the most.

Yeah.  I know.  You're probably thinking - Gosh, Tom, I trust all politicians at all levels of government to be absolutely honest and forthright at all times AND to hold the welfare of their constituents first and foremost above their grip on power or other political ambitions.   They would never keep secrets from us would they?

Later in the day I got to thinking about what Woodward had to say about this because someone at the table adjacent to mine gave me the hairy eyeball when he got to that part about secrecy in government.

I'm thinking - What the heck was that about?  Is there possibly secretiveness here in Tosa's small-town government?

Candidly, with the filling of recent vacancies with appointed individuals I am becoming just a wee bit concerned about the packing of the Common Council with cronies of the Mayor.  After-all, campaign contributions and a connection to the County Executive appear to be all you need to be appointed to the position. 

Does this strike any of you as fishy? 

Anyway, none of this cronyism has been a secret so perhaps it is just expeditious.  In which case it would be more forthright to simply dispense with all of this useless keeping-up of appearances.

Listen-up people!  There will be no dissent countenanced in my palace.  Do what I tell you to do or you're gonna be tossed in the moat.

So for the duration of the reign it's looking like we're going to be ruled by a Council which largely lives in fear of incurring the wrath of Their Ruler.

We'll have to see what that bought us.

In conclusion, hand-picked members of the retinue will be interviewing applicants hand-picking another suitably submissive supplicant to fill the unexpired term of former Alderman Craig Maher.  If you are interested be sure to turn-in your application by the close of business on May 27th.  Details can be found here

I'll be posting the applicant's information and voting records before the interviews which are scheduled for the evening of June 4th.

The dog and I will make a prediction too.

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