NEWS DESK

Ready for a break from politics? Be advised that it comes in the form of a cute kid alert. Paul Knoff with WRN affiliate WCCN in Neillsville interviewed son Andrew on the lad’s first day of kindergarten Wednesday. All together now: awwww.            

The Republican Party of Wisconsin issued a press release Wednesday stating that Democratic candidate for governor, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, attended a “Super-Secret Fundraiser” with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “Since cameras weren’t allowed at the event, the Republican Party of Wisconsin has provided an artist’s rendition of the event,” stated the release, which included a picture of stick figure Pelosi handing a bag of filthy lucre to stick figure Barrett.   

The e-mail from WISGOP spokesman Andrew Welhouse retracting that release was out about an hour later: “Earlier media reports of Speaker Pelosi attending a Barrett fundraiser, as President Obama had done last month, appear to have been refuted.  Therefore, assuming those denials are accurate, and the two did not meet for the purpose of a fundraiser, the RPW is retracting its statement on Pelosi's visit.”

What “media reports” was Welhouse referring to? Seems the only attribution for a Pelosi-Barrett fundraiser was an anonymous e-mail from a listener to a Milwaukee radio station. Pelosi was in Milwaukee for the American Legion convention and did do fundraising for Wisconsin House members, but not Barrett.

Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Ron Johnson was at WRN on Monday. Here’s the 5 minutes of our conversation about the economy.

How to address joblessness in southeastern Wisconsin:

Let's just talk about youth. As I'm traveling around the state talking to farmers, they're having a hard time finding workers. Now, are those the most desirable jobs? I certainly did it. I think it's a very good level of experience, get out three and work on a farm. I would like to see some mechanism to bring . . . the hard core teen unemployment, bring those folks to the Wisconsin farmers.

The overall solution is we've to create an attractive environment for job creation. That involves benchmarking. The state's got benchmark it's tax rates, it's regulatory environments. You're talking about things like combined reporting that's driving businesses out of Wisconsin. I've certainly talked to corporations . . . they don't even consider coming to Wisconsin because of the business environment. The same thing is true of America.

And predictability. Johnson suggested going to YouTube and viewing the thoughts of casino resort developer Steve Wynn: 

His point is . . . the climate for business investment is far more certain in communist China than it is in the U.S here. I think we have created such a high level of uncertainty in this economy, because quite honestly of the agenda that Senator Feingold represents. What did they do? When they (the Obama administration) first came into office, rather than really attack the economic problem, they spent the first year plus, trying to take over one sixth of the economy, the health care bill.     

I'm not anti-government, I'm not anti-regulation, but let's have effective regulation. Let's have regulation that doesn't get in the way of job growth. That's the direction we have to move versus the direction Senator Feingold is really pushing us, is more government intervention, takeover of one-sixth of the economy.