SENATE CONFIRMS MILWAUKEE COUNTRY CLUB MEMBER AS CZECH AMBASSADOR

By Michael Horne
milwaukeeworld links correspondent

River Hills, WI, August 04 2006 -- The United States Senate confirmed Richard W. Graber as the next Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Czech Republic late last evening.
According to Graber's biography on the website of Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren, S.C., where he serves as the law firm's president and chief executive officer, "when not practicing law or working on state politics, Rick enjoys perfecting his golf swing and coaching little league." (Graber has been the head of the Republican Party of Wisconsin since 1999.)
Graber, a Milwaukee Country Club member whose last known address was in Shorewood, has a 14.7 handicap, and shot a pair of 97s on his last two outings at the River Hills links, on June 10th and July 8th. His best score of the season was a 92 on May 29th. Graber shot an impressive 88 at North Shore Country Club in neighborhing Mequon last August 28th, just eleven days after he shot a dismaying 107, this also on tour at Bristlecone Pines in Hartland.
I am uncertain about the international reciprocity treaties in effect between the Milwaukee Country Club and the members of the Czechoslovak Golf Association (founded in 1931), but Graber should be able to continue to perfect his swing at Golf Resort Konopiste or Golf Club Podebrady, both just a short distance from Prague. Let's hope they are as welcoming to Ambassador Graber as Wisconsin clubs have been!
While in the Czech capital, Graber will be working in the Schoenborn Palace, built between 1643 and 1656 by Count Colloredo-Mansfield, an Austro-Hungarian general who had lost a leg in the battle of Lutzen. The castle was designed with a terrace specially inclined so that the crippled general could ride straight in on horseback, if he chose.
The 100-room villa, with 30 foot ceilings on the first floor -- high enough that you could ride in standing on the horse -- is owned by the United States and has served as its embassy since the government bought in 1925 for $117,000 from Richard Crane, the first U.S. ambassador to Czechoslovokia.
Franz Kafka lived in the palace briefly in 1917.

GAY POCANS DO WELL BY GOVERNOR

Rep. Mark Pocan, one of the two gay members of the Wisconsin legislature, has been a steadfast defender of Governor Jim Doyle. Ma Pocan must be proud, since the governor appointed her other gay son, William S. Pocan to become judge in Milwaukee County.
Bill Pocan, an east sider who has served as a litigation attorney in automobile "lemon law" cases, is openly gay, according to the August issue of Queer Life News, which announced the appointment in its news pages. He has taken over the duties of Branch 26 Judge Michael P. Sullivan, who retired. The appointment was announced on July 17th with little fanfare, which is unusual for Wisconsin's most charismatic and dynamic current governor, whose political instincts are usually as resilient as a cardboard trap.
--Michael Horne

Republicans Get 4x Kohl's Individual Donations

The campaign finance reports are in, and in the United States Senate race it is clear that individual donors overwhelmingly choose to contribute to the two Republican candidates in the race over Democrat incumbent Herb Kohl by a better than four-to-one margin.
Republican Gerald Lorge, dismissed by some as a "perennial" candidate, raised some $11,500 from hardworking, honest individual citizens thus far as the 2006 senate campaign ramps up. Rae Sharlene Vogeler (never heard of her, either) bested Lorge's sum by raising $19,904 during the reporting period.
By contrast, Kohl, a senator since January 3, 1989, only raised a mere $6,650 from individuals during that period.
The senator's poor showing against his opponents in raising funds from individuals is being addressed -- aggressively -- by Wisconsin's senior senator, who expects to collect tens of thousands of individual contributions to his committee over the next 10 days by selling 8-ounce cups of flavored milk at the Wisconsin State Fair. The milk will be sold at prices ranging from twelve-and-a-half cents to a quarter per cup, far below the $1.50 per cup charged by other state fair vendors who lack political ties and clout with the Dairy cartel.
Although the milk sale will bring in thousands of new cash contributors to the campaign, it is unlikely to provide considerable funds, since the milk, apparently, is being sold at a loss by Kohl, a former grocer.
None of the three candidates have accepted contributions from Political Action Committees, further levelling the playing field between them.
However, there is an interesting anomaly in the interpretation of the term "individual" contributions, a search of the Federal Election Commission regulations shows. "Individual" includes all contributions from all individuals -- except the candidate himself (or herself.)
Ms. Vogeler has donated nothing to her own campaign according to the records, while her republican challenger Lorge donated $39,896 to his campaign.
Kohl, on the other hand, donated $5,205,000 to his campaign during the reporting period, which puts him at a financial advantage, when all is said and done.
Whew! He had us scared for a moment!
--Michael Horne

LEGISLATORS FIND SHORTCUT TO HISTORY

The Wisconsin Dictionary of History contains 8,000 terms about "people, places and things" related to Wisconsin history. This offering of the Wisconsin Historical Society invites readers to submit their terms for review of the historical society staff, which appears to be long overdue, as an examination of the lexicon shows.
Apparently the easiest way to get your name on the list of Wisconsin's immortals is to become a member of the legislature.
There, you will find the names of Vrakas, Vrubink and Vukmir arrayed with such names of actual distinction as Van Dyke, Veblen, Vieau, Vogel and Vollrath.
August Krug, the founder of the Schlitz Brewing Company, is missing, but Shirley Krug is right there at the bar.
You will find John O. Norquist, but no mention of his accession to the mayoralty of the state's principal city -- or of his departure. You will find Tom Barrett, too, but only learn that he has made it to Congress. Marvin Pratt, our other recent mayor, never served in the legislature, and he is ignored, but Morris Pratt, a spiritualist, is listed.
In our dictionary, Gary George still has an e-mail address at the state capitol, and Chuck Chvala has a "voting address." Not until you're off paper, dude!
Perhaps the researchers at the Wisconsin Historical Society are overwhelmed by their tight budgets and other responsibilities, but an element of sloppiness does seem apparent here, especially downloading biographical entries of legislators wholesale, and then not bothering to update them.
Or, if not sloppy, is this instead suck-uppy? After all, the legislature does control the purse strings, and legislators are vain. (See Lasse, Frank; Darling, Alberta, et al.)
The best thing we can do is to submit names of individuals of actual distinction to the library, using the link above, and let us hope they meet the apparently not-very-exacting review of the staff. We can start with T. A. Chapman, Emily Groom, Carl Holty and George F. Kennan, for example.--Michael Horne