Althouse: Kloppenburg concedes!

May 31, 2011

Kloppenburg concedes!

At last! Good decision. Thank you.

60 comments:

ndspinelli said...: Even Andy Warhol wouldn't believe this clown got 15 weeks of fame, she didn't deserve 15 seconds. On a side note, I hear someone actually saw Kloppenburg blink back in the 90's.; 5/31/11, 11:13 AM
MadisonMan said...: Not a good politician. She should have done it last Friday, before a holiday weekend.

Either way, though, good.; 5/31/11, 11:16 AM
TWM said...: Why? Did Weiner send her a wiener picture?; 5/31/11, 11:18 AM
windbag said...: Koch Bros. got to her.; 5/31/11, 11:23 AM
Fred4Pres said...: Clown hair. Not a winning look for politics these days. Even for Supreme Court justices who are supposedly non-political.; 5/31/11, 11:30 AM
edutcher said...: This shows how much things have changed. A couple of years ago, with ACORN stuffed ballot boxes and Lefty judges, the Demos could have brazened this out.

Now, it's not a foregone conclusion.

Kudos to Meadhouse and New Meadia Meade. If this has ended mercifully, they deserve some of the credit.; 5/31/11, 11:33 AM
vet66 said...: One more nail in the progressive coffin. I hope the voters vote out Sumi the first chance they get. Kloppen could have shown class instead of running out the tab on the recount. She chose to stall with the recount while the progressives planned their next move costing tax payers a million dollars.

Now that I think about it, thanks are in order for the people of Wisconsin who footed the bill for this charade. WIthout the recount we would have been denied the spectacle featuring the pouty progressive circus of idiots in the center ring. Priceless to see the progressives caught in the headlights of democracy.

wv' chiggion- the dance a progressive does when caught in front of headlights.; 5/31/11, 11:33 AM
traditionalguy said...: Garage will take this hard. Who can a he trust these days?; 5/31/11, 11:37 AM
rhhardin said...: A pretty face isn't enough anymore.; 5/31/11, 11:38 AM
Irene said...: Justice Prosser's Facebook page is showing the photoshopped "Dewey Defeats Truman" shot as its avatar.; 5/31/11, 11:38 AM
Triangle Man said...: Good decision? Justice delayed is justice denied.; 5/31/11, 11:41 AM
MadisonMan said...: I hope the voters vote out Sumi the first chance they get.

Over the weekend I was reminded in a conversation of a judge who was recalled in Madison. I rather doubt Sumi will be ousted the way old Archie was.; 5/31/11, 11:44 AM
Dustin said...: She waited until the very last second.

I think there was an internal ongoing debate, which is sad considering the reality.

But yeah, thanks Klopp. You lost, and it's sad it took this long to recognize it. There is some damage to the system when lame challenges like this are brought, and it's expensive.

But the worst harm would have been if Klopp abused the system for more months, to the point where decisions in the high court were affected because Prosser wasn't able to take his office as the voters wanted.

Thanks Klopp for not doing that. I don't really feel like she deserves thanks, exactly, but I'm surprised and pleased.`; 5/31/11, 11:47 AM
Joanna said...: I'm relieved. On the other hand, this gives the Dems more time to focus on recall shenanigans.; 5/31/11, 11:51 AM
Carol_Herman said...: Too bad you have to be a "fly on the wall" to overhear phone conversations "held in private."

Shirley's to her friend, Kloppen-hoppen. And, of course, Anthony Weiner's phone calls to the lady who received the "underwear picture" by mistake.

Depends. Just like the product. Absorbs "mistakes."

Glad the lefty loons realized Kloppen-hoppen wasn't all that photogenic. You'll also notice a big drop off in Pelosi's views.

While, IF "Anthony" (What a strange moniker for a Jewish kid) ... says the photo was private. And, meant for his wife. And, he has "NO IDEA" how it fell into Twitter!

Wow, what if Anthony can't get re-elected? Even worse, what if unhappy democraps just stay home?

Don't you think Anthony Weiner can always be an underwear model?

Or, like Larry King is doing in Beverly Hills, where he opened a retail bagel shop (called Brooklyn Bagels.) Isn't there a way to make money after you become famous, and lose your gig?; 5/31/11, 11:54 AM
Carol_Herman said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/31/11, 11:54 AM
Lance said...: Good for Kloppenburg. Prosser should still recuse himself if the budget case makes it to the WSC, even if it means Sumi's decision is upheld by default.; 5/31/11, 11:55 AM
Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...: I hope the voters vote out Sumi the first chance they get.

Why would they vote her out? She has shown how a Dane county circuit court judge can hold the entire state hostage. I'm guessing the majority of folks in Dane county are happy about that. The rest of the people in the state have no say.; 5/31/11, 11:58 AM
rhhardin said...: Good decision? Justice delayed is justice denied.

A little praise nudges the left in a more valuable direction.; 5/31/11, 11:58 AM
Methadras said...: She'll be taking it back ala Gore in 3... 2... 1...; 5/31/11, 11:59 AM
Wince said...: Lance said...
Good for Kloppenburg. Prosser should still recuse himself if the budget case makes it to the WSC, even if it means Sumi's decision is upheld by default.

Recuse himself? Why?; 5/31/11, 12:03 PM
Kirby Olson said...: Kloppy the would-be klepto's denial collapses. It's time for a new mourning in Wisconsin.; 5/31/11, 12:03 PM
KCFleming said...: Bully for her; her indecisiveness was but a foretaste.; 5/31/11, 12:03 PM
garage mahal said...: Somehow I knew Kloppenburg conceding would be met with even more whining.; 5/31/11, 12:04 PM
TWM said...: "Good for Kloppenburg. Prosser should still recuse himself if the budget case makes it to the WSC, even if it means Sumi's decision is upheld by default."

Please, pray tell us, why?; 5/31/11, 12:05 PM
Dustin said...: "garage mahal said...

Somehow I knew Kloppenburg conceding would be met with even more whining."

We're small d democrats, and we care about our elections being screwed with, the way Klopp and her unions thugs have screwed with them.

Our complaints are largely intelligent and fair, and you call them whining because you're a partisan hack.; 5/31/11, 12:07 PM
Scott M said...: Who's whining?; 5/31/11, 12:07 PM
Dustin said...: And no, Prosser shouldn't recuse himself. That's absolutely ridiculous.

Klopp was the one with the 'I will oppose the governor' motif. Even that is only borderline. Prosser didn't implicate this case at all. He's got no appearance of any impropriety. He's clean, and the voters love him, and this is what democracy looks like.; 5/31/11, 12:09 PM
Anonymous said...: To the leftist's mind, Prosser should recuse himself in any case where the left's will cannot prevail. So budget? Recuse himself.

It's not about "fairness," though that's what they'll claim. It's about getting their way, even when their way is not the will of the people. After all, to them, a minority holding up the will of the majority is what democracy looks like...; 5/31/11, 12:13 PM
David said...: Out of money, it seems. She got a lesson in the marketplace. Even the wacko left won't finance a case that's a complete loser.

I hear they are doing a remake of Bride of Frankenstein. I think Almost Justice Kloppenburg would make a great mother of the bride.; 5/31/11, 12:15 PM
iftheshoefits said...: So,

Can we concur that the crappy Kloppy count caper (conducted county by county) is... kaput?

congrats and condolences

WV: suckl wrong thread for this one, I think; 5/31/11, 12:19 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Your headline should read "Judicial Candidate Makes Good Decision But It Took Her Three Tries".; 5/31/11, 12:23 PM
garage mahal said...: Klopp was the one with the 'I will oppose the governor' motif

Actually, she never mentioned anything about opposing anybody. I don't doubt you read that somewhere though, perhaps right on this blog.; 5/31/11, 12:23 PM
Martin L. Shoemaker said...: Look. garage is a partisan hack who lost all objectivity when the Democrats lost the House in November. He has been bitter and nearly unreadable since.

But! When everyone was saying it was absolutely a sure thing that Kloppenburg would appeal to the courts, garage asked (paraphrased), "Where's your evidence? Other than your own partisan bias, where's your evidence?" And garage said (again paraphrased), "I don't think she will."

garage was right. The majority around here were wrong. And now the majority are acting as if they never made their confident predictions. So garage is right to point out the "heads I win, tails you lose" hypocrisy.

There are a lot of things garage is wrong about. This is not one of them. garage was right this time.; 5/31/11, 12:28 PM
Anonymous said...: Martin is right. Garage was right and we were wrong.; 5/31/11, 12:32 PM
garage mahal said...: I don't know whether it was Kloppy, one of her supporters, or who - but I know it was someone on her side of the issue, not Prosser.

Oh, okay.; 5/31/11, 12:34 PM
TWM said...: "There are a lot of things garage is wrong about. This is not one of them. garage was right this time."

Let's nominate him for a Nobel . . . people have won it for lesser things.; 5/31/11, 12:46 PM
Bayoneteer said...: Sure. Any lawfare campaign via the courts is likely futile and would be on her own dime unlike the recount. So don't put it down to graciousness.; 5/31/11, 12:57 PM
MadisonMan said...: We're small d democrats, and we care about our elections being screwed with, the way Klopp and her unions thugs have screwed with them.

How has this election been screwed with?; 5/31/11, 1:16 PM
Dustin said...: "Actually, she never mentioned anything about opposing anybody. I don't doubt you read that somewhere though, perhaps right on this blog.

5/31/11 12:23 PM"

She repeatedly claimed she was needed to change the system from one that agrees with the Republican leg and gov to one where she is a 'check' on them.

So yeah, obviously that's exactly the entire point of her campaign. You supported her and didn't know she was opposed to the governor's agenda? Seriously?

But the voters rejected her precisely because she was obviously a shill for unions who opposed the budget reforms. That's exactly what this election was about. I realize democrats like to assert the worst about their opponents while demanding even ridiculous levels of plausible deniability, but why should I respect that?

Klopp was a sure union vote. Her campaign was based around opposing Governor Walker's public union fighting budget reforms. That's just the truth, whether or not you want to try to spin that like an idiot. They voters saw the truth and rejected her in favor of a real judge.; 5/31/11, 1:18 PM
Scott M said...: Perhaps not directly messed with but the declaration of victory with a 200 vote margin so early certain tastes rather nasty. A cynic might say it was a ham-fisted attempt at media manipulation, but you'd have to find a cynic to confirm that.; 5/31/11, 1:20 PM
Dustin said...: "How has this election been screwed with?"

People lied about the process at every step. Klopp called into question the integrity of systems that were handled correctly. That's corrosive. And expensive.

She insisted she had won with a scant tiny edge, when it was very clear that the truth required a little more time. That was a blatant attempt to screw with the election result by establishing the idea she won, and any future information was somehow changing her win.

And lo, as soon as that happened, to the tune of thousands of votes, her standard on recounts changed completely.

Even though she knew she lost. Just watch the press conferences.

Now, I realize, many Madison Men don't give a crap. They aren't really democrats. They don't support democracy unless they won the last election. They don't support a Republican legislature even meeting to pass laws if the democrats can fleebag the will of the people away.

So all the rampant screwing with this election, taking a hole in a bag, or a routine canvass, and trying to corrode the public's trust in the election.... Madison man will just pretend none of that happened because the entire campaign was a total failure.

Can we please, please, please not try to be the smartest ones in the room just this one time and play the game that Republicans always play. Let's declare victory now and talk about pushing Prosser off the stage. This is the message.

Kloppenburg won an election she should never have won. What a humiliation for the Tea Party and their media toads.

This is a total Wisonsin smackdown of Scott Walker

Prosser should really understand it is time to leave the stage.

Prosser sticking around is just hurting Wisconsin.

There is serious businesss to conduct and Prosser is just gumming up the works by trying to challenge this.

That's an attempt to screw with an election, and that is the democrat party in WI, particularly madison, today. Sick attitudes, and no tolerance, and an utter hatred of the will of the people.

Hell, some of Team D will happily threaten Althouse with being 'banned from Madison' altogether merely over her free speech.

Why should all that go away just because the campaign ultimately failed?; 5/31/11, 1:25 PM
DADvocate said...: She was robbed!!! Robbed, I tell you!!!; 5/31/11, 1:26 PM
Dustin said...: And if Kloppenburg had won, would Garage and Madison say this was proof the people opposed Walker?

Apparently her loss has nothing to do with Walker's agenda. Strange how that wasn't the case when dems thought she won.; 5/31/11, 1:26 PM
Dustin said...: My guess is that the GOP nominates someone who is very conservative, and effectively demonized.

But Wisconsin is a purple state now. The democrats have ruined their chance of winning back the people's trust. Kloppenburg is the face of the democrat party. Unions screaming and fleebagging democrats are the face of the democrat party. This is how other states have gone from blue to purple to red. The desperation shows a lack of leadership, and my guess is that the democrat operation in WI is just lazy from years of easy politics.

The GOP in WI outclassed them entirely. They have real grass roots, too.

If the GOP nominates a moderate but smart politician (not Mitt Romney) then I think WI becomes a swing state. Madison will just be another Austin. An anomaly of little relevance beyond locals screwing with the business of the state.; 5/31/11, 1:31 PM
MadisonMan said...: My question, predictable, will be: If the numbers were reversed, what would you have expected to happen?; 5/31/11, 1:41 PM
DaveW said...: Anyone else noticed that Kloppenburg looks just like the Weiner's twitter avatar?

I'm not sayin'...I'm just sayin'...know what I'm sayin'?; 5/31/11, 2:03 PM
garage mahal said...: But Wisconsin is a purple state now. The democrats have ruined their chance of winning back the people's trust

The latest poll by PPP shows the opposite. The state wants Dems back in control of the senate, Walker to get recalled, and Walker gets crushed by Feingold. (if he runs) Link; 5/31/11, 2:11 PM
Anonymous said...: Madison -- If the numbers were reversed, I expect and, in fact, know that this story would dominate the national news cycle. The narrative would be that Wisconsin voters have rejected craven attempts by politicians to curb unions.

In your heart of hearts, you cannot dispute this.; 5/31/11, 2:12 PM
MadisonMan said...: I should have been clearer. Had Prosser been leading by 200 votes as reported by AP, and then Kloppenburg jumped ahead in the official tallies because of Dane Co, would the trajectory for a recount have followed a substantially different path? I don't think it would have, except for the obvious flip in parties.

@Seven, the obvious rejoinder to that narrative would be: how do you explain Ohio? In any case, I don't think National News really cares to spend money on what's happening in Wisconsin.; 5/31/11, 2:20 PM
Anonymous said...: In any case, I don't think National News really cares to spend money on what's happening in Wisconsin.

Except that the New York Times splayed a big story about all this when it briefly looked like the left had momentum. Remember that?; 5/31/11, 2:30 PM
From Inwood said...: I'm late, as ususal, but three cheers from me for Althouse/Meade; 5/31/11, 3:03 PM
MadisonMan said...: briefly

It was news. Not so much now.

A flip in the outcome would have guaranteed a Page 3, one-column report.; 5/31/11, 3:30 PM
Fen said...: garage: The latest poll by PPP shows the opposite

From your own link:

"PPP is a Democratic polling company, but polling expert Nate Silver of the New York Times
found that its surveys in 2010 actually exhibited a slight bias toward Republican candidates."

Love that last part. Pravda vouches for PPP.

*snicker*; 5/31/11, 4:19 PM
Lance said...: Why should Prosser recuse himself on the budget case?

Because his opinion is just as tainted as Kloppenburg's. Yes she started it, but by the end of the campaign the election was largely about Walker vs. Democrats, rather than Prosser vs. Kloppenburg. There's no way to know that a Prosser vote to overturn Sumi's decision isn't politically motivated, rather than judicially reasoned. To restore trust in the judicial process, and help isolate it as much as possible from the political process, Prosser should recuse himself from the budget hearing case.; 5/31/11, 5:07 PM
Lance said...: The point is that Prosser did not make it a campaign issue.

I disagree. I think Prosser wanted to stay above the political fray, but Kloppenburg forced the issue.

Is he capable of producing an unbiased verdict on the budget hearing case? Yeah, I think so. But even so I'd still argue that he should recuse himself, in order to avoid the appearance of political motivation.

I'd ask those who think Prosser should not recuse himself: why do you want him to participate? Do you think his participation will produce a particular outcome, and is that why you want him involved?; 5/31/11, 5:22 PM
Martin L. Shoemaker said...: Lance, that's a ridiculously high bar. It would allow an electoral loser to neuter the victor simply by raising issues that would prevent the victor from ever ruling on anything controversial.

If Judge Prosser has not expressed a prejudicial opinion on the case, there's no valid argument for recusal. "Somebody else brought it up" tells you about somebody else, not about him.; 5/31/11, 5:47 PM
Big Mike said...: Why are you thanking her? Isn't that like thanking the man on the street for not robbing a bank?; 5/31/11, 6:14 PM
SGT Ted said...: Hey, union pukes and DNC Marxists.

THATS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE.; 5/31/11, 6:52 PM
Revenant said...: Is he capable of producing an unbiased verdict on the budget hearing case? Yeah, I think so. But even so I'd still argue that he should recuse himself, in order to avoid the appearance of political motivation.

So the Democrats get to pull every dirty trick imaginable, but Republicans need to avoid even the possibility of *appearing* biased?

That's silly.; 5/31/11, 7:23 PM