Messaging, Strategic Blueprints, Views on News, public relations • January 4th, 2011

Jobs, jobs, jobs…and the other stuff

by Chris Lato

The saying goes that a rolling stone gathers no moss…so as Team Walker rolls its way through Madison, some GOP legislators wasted no time in introducing their own pet legislation.

This gave Democrats an opening, which they immediately pounced on. “See?!?!” they cried. “Republicans were bluffing when they said jobs were their #1 priority!”

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Leadership, Messaging, Views on News • January 3rd, 2011

Meet the new boss

by Chris Lato

As a new Rasmussen poll makes clear today, everyone wants to be on the winning team. But as the write-up also points out, what comes up will come down, and probably sooner rather than later.

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Views on News • December 28th, 2010

The scanner situation

by Chris Lato

It seems the airport scanners that offer up a nice image of your naughty bits don’t work as well as advertised.

But do we still care? Or is the TSA successfully playing the waiting game with a public that will generally just come to accept this as the cost of getting on a plane? The TSA PR machine has been saying the right things about ‘listening to the people,’ yet officials have also indicated that nothing is really going to change.

I saw a TV news report over the holidays (I couldn’t immediately find it online) that suggested folks were calming down a bit over the prospect of having their business getting photographed at the airport by strangers. So maybe after the initial outrage and media hype, travelers are willing to give up this piece of personal privacy.

This issue came up not long ago when I was a guest on Wisconsin Public Radio’s Week in Review. At the time I suggested there was a chance that security workers might abuse the system, ‘virtual nude’ photos could end up online, etc.  Someone who identified himself as a pilot called in to basically say my assertions were ridiculous. But reports of abuse continue to surface.

Maybe it’s only a matter of time before the scanners prevent a terrorist attack. But unfortunately, if terrorists want to attack, where there’s a will, there’s a way. As for the argument that scanners are a deterrent – well, maybe so…but there’s no way to prove that, either. You’ll just have to take the government’s word for it.

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Views on News • December 23rd, 2010

Odds and ends

by Chris Lato

Team Walker lawyers up. Not necessarily a good sign. As a former Mark Neumann staffer, I have some thoughts on this….but let’s see if all this investigating actually goes somewhere useful before passing judgment.

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Leadership, Views on News • December 22nd, 2010

Is this important?

by Chris Lato

Governor-elect Walker hasn’t named any cabinet secretaries yet, and may not until next week.

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Messaging, Views on News • December 21st, 2010

The end of an era?

by Chris Lato

An interesting re-cap of the tab that the 111^th Congress has run up.

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Views on News • December 20th, 2010

Closing the caucus case

by Chris Lato

The long, long Caucus Scandal saga has finally come to an end. Amazingly, this thing has dragged on for more than eight years. A deal was reached today with former Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen that keeps him out of prison in exchange for a fine and a hefty legal bill.

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Leadership, Views on News • December 16th, 2010

The end of the road

by Chris Lato

Democrats in the Legislature ended their reign this week with a spectacular implosion that has laid bare the rifts and bad blood that flowed freely by early this morning. The battle was ostensibly about state worker contracts, but the underlying drama felt like there was so much more at play.

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Branding Politix, Messaging, Views on News • December 15th, 2010

Contract battle = contact sport

by Chris Lato

So the (for the moment) Democrat-led Legislature is acting after all on the outstanding state labor contracts. Republicans have asked them to hold off for three weeks until they take control of the Governor’s office and the Legislature, saying the size of Wisconsin’s deficit necessitates further negotiation and concessions.  

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Uncategorized • December 13th, 2010

‘High-speed’ train flies off the rails

by Chris Lato

As a candidate for Governor, Scott Walker said he was going to do it. As Governor-elect (the guy’s not even in office yet!), he did it.

Much will be written about whether the death of ‘high-speed’ rail is good for Wisconsin. But not long after the federal government was telling us that an $810 million-plus spending orgy in the form of trains was a done deal and couldn’t be stopped….well, it’s been stopped. Dead in its tracks.

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