MIKE CUDAHY: BARRETT JOB VIEW "PAROCHIAL" (Also: "Meet Mitt")

Dear Reader:

Thanks for dropping in at Milwaukeeworld. Today we share with you a letter from Michael Cudahy, we reveal what $75,000 gets you if you have that much taxpayer money to hand out for a jobs study, and we ask a presidential candidate something about his foreign background and his “19^th Century” father.

Thanks for joining.

--Michael Horne

CUDAHY CALLS BARRETT JOB SCHEME “PAROCHIAL”

Michael Cudahy added his voice to the clamor supporting embattled Private Industry Council Executive Director Gerard A. Randall, Jr. He sent this letter in support of the Private Industry Council to the Governor’s Council on Workforce Investment as part of the public record on the case.

In it, the entrepreneur and philanthropist said, “It is my belief the PIC is a competent and forward looking organization and leadership at all levels of government ought to find avenues to support and bolster their work.” He added, “Innovative programs and clean administration are the hallmark of the PIC and therefore efforts to de-fund and replace the PIC with a City agency raises serious concerns regarding the intent of the Mayor’s proposal.”

“At a time when our community is struggling with serious social and economic challenges, leadership is measured by partnership and not by advancing parochial interest.”

--Michael Horne

SYKES STUDY COST $75K TAXPAYER MONEY

Donald Sykes’ study, “A Review of the Milwaukee Workforce Development System and Recommendations for Improvements, February, 2007,” in which he reached the conclusion that the City of Milwaukee should be in charge of workforce development for Milwaukee County, was funded by a $75,000 grant from the State Department of Workforce Development. The check was presented to Mayor Tom Barrett on Wednesday, June 28^th, 2006, according to a press release from the state. In the release we are told the “Office of Mayor Tom Barrett will lead regional efforts to “work with national consultants on the design of effective, demand-driven, workforce development systems in other major urban areas;” to conduct interviews; to work with consultants to obtain foundation input on the design of an effective system; ant “to develop recommendations for the coordination of all workforce development funding streams at the local level.”

--Michael Horne

MITT ROMNEY, FIRST GENERATION AMERICAN, VISITS UNIVERSITY CLUB

Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and likely candidate for the Republican nomination for President, brought his show to the University Club in downtown Milwaukee Friday morning, March 23^rd, 2007, for a “press availability” and a fundraiser hosted by Tim Sheehy of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce.

While he spoke to reporters in the first floor lounge of the private club, Romney’s motorcade of unattended vehicles idled outside the E. Wells St. entrance of the John Russell Pope-designed bastion of privilege, guarded only by a single Milwaukee police officer with his vehicle likewise idling. And who’s paying for that?

You can be sure the topic of Romney’s comments was not energy efficiency, pollution or the wisdom of allowing unlocked, unoccupied vehicles to be parked on the street with their engines running. [Chevy Impala, Wisconsin plates; Mercury, rented from Hertz, South Carolina plates.—Ed.]

Instead, Romney talked about the war (he’s for!), conservatism (social, fiscal), and immigrants. (There should be a physical barrier between the U. S. and Mexico, workers should be required to be documented, etc.). He sounded mighty tough on immigrants, and that made me wonder if he had forgotten his roots.

It was pointed out by this reporter that Romney’s father, George Romney, himself a governor, had been born in Chihuahua, Mexico.

“That’s right!” Romney responded.

(The elder Romney’s parents fled to Mexico during the United States government persecution of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for their polygamous ways.)

And would his grandparents have been welcome south of the border if the Mexican government had imposed the same restrictions on Americans as he proposes the United States impose on Mexicans?

“I don’t know what the Mexican immigration laws were back in the 1800s,”Romney answered.

The 1800s? In fact, George Romney was born in 1907, as far into the 20^th century as we are now into the 21^st.

I am not entirely certain if Romney has the gravitas to be president, but I could see him in a cabinet position. Perhaps as Secretary of Aerobics.

--Michael Horne