John McCain bids farewell to his colleague Russ Feingold in Senate floor address

As a friend said, Senator McCain’s farewell address to his friend and colleague Senator Russ Feingold shows us why so many people had liked John McCain’s public persona. And it is a great reminder of the many qualities that I admire in Senator Feingold.

While McCain’s statement is available at his Senate web site, it bears printing here as well.

There is a bitter irony about how these the two men worked for years to pass campaign finance reform regulation, only to have it be gutted by the activist Supreme Court. For it was that, in part, which enabled Feingold’s defeat.

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REMARKS BY SENATOR JOHN McCAIN

Senator McCain Lauds the Service and Friendship of Senator Feingold

November 30, 2010

“Mr. President, I want to say a few words about a friend and colleague, whom I will miss very much when he leaves the Senate after we adjourn.  Without intending it as a commentary on his successor, I have to confess I think the Senate will be a much poorer place without Russ Feingold in it.  I know that in my next term I will experience fewer occasions of inspiration because of the departure of Russ Feingold, a man whose courage and dedication to the principles that guided his Senate service often inspired me.

“I will also miss the daily experience of Russ Feingold’s friendship, and the qualities that distinguish his friendship – his thoughtfulness, kindness, humor and loyalty.  I have treasured that friendship all the years we have served together, and while friendship does not end with a Senate career, I will sorely miss his presence here.  I will miss seeing him every day.  I will miss traveling with him.  I will miss the daily reminder of what a blessing it is to have a true friend in Washington.

“Our first encounter with one another was in a Senate debate in which we argued about an aircraft carrier, somewhat heatedly, if memory serves.  Russ thought the United States Navy had one too many.  I thought we didn’t have enough.  It was, I’m sorry to admit, not a very considerate welcome on my part to a new colleague, whom I would soon have many reasons to admire.  But to Russ’ credit, he didn’t let my discourtesy stand in the way of working together on issues where we were in agreement.  And to my good fortune, he didn’t let it stand in the way of our friendship either.

“We are of different parties, and our political views are often opposed.  We’ve had many debates on many issues.  But where we agreed – on wasteful spending, ethics reform, campaign finance reform and other issues – it was a privilege to fight alongside and not against Russ Feingold.

“We don’t often hear anymore about members of Congress who distinguish themselves by having the courage of their convictions; who risk their personal interests for what they believe is in the public interest.  I’ve seen many examples of it here, but the cynicism of our times – among the political class and the media and the voters tends to miss examples of political courage or dismiss them as probable frauds or, at best, exceptions that prove the rule.  In his time in the Senate, Russ Feingold, every day and in every way, had the courage of his convictions.  And though I am quite a few years older than Russ, and have served in this body longer than he has, I confess I have always felt he was my superior in that cardinal virtue.

“We were both up for re-election in 1998.  I had an easy race. Russ had a difficult one.  As many of our colleagues will remember, Russ and I opposed soft money, the unlimited corporate and labor donations to political parties that we believed were compromising the integrity of Congress, and we were a nuisance on the subject.  Russ’ opponent in 1998 was outspending him on television, and the race became tighter.  It reached a point where most observers, Democrats and Republicans, expected him to lose.  The Democratic Party pleaded with Russ to let it spend soft money on his behalf.  Russ refused.  He risked his seat, the job he loved, because his convictions were more important to him than any personal success.  I think he is one of the most admirable people I’ve ever met in my life.

“We’ve had a lot experiences together.  We fought together for many things – important things.  And we’ve fought many times on opposite sides.  We’ve been honored together and scorned together.  We’ve traveled abroad together.  We couldn’t be farther apart in our views on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we traveled there together as well, to gain knowledge that would inform our views and challenge them.  We’ve listened to each other; debated each other; defended each other; joked and commiserated together.

“And in my every experience with Russ Feingold, in agreement and disagreement, in pleasant times and difficult ones, in heated arguments and in the relaxed conversation of friends, he was an exemplary public servant; a gentleman; good company; an irreplaceable friend; a kind man; a man to be admired.

“I can’t do justice in these remarks to all of Russ’ many qualities or express completely how much I think this institution benefited from his service here and how much I benefited from knowing him.  I lack the eloquence.  I don’t think he is replaceable.  We would all do well to keep his example in our minds as we serve our constituents and country and convictions.  We couldn’t have a better role model.

“I have every expectation we will remain good friends long after we have both ended our Senate careers.  But I will miss him here.  Every day.  And I will try harder to become half the public servant he is.  Because his friendship is an honor, and honors come with responsibilities.

“God bless you, my friend.”

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Link: Video of McCain’s remarks.

Big, new Asian grocery store reflects Milwaukee’s ever-shifting demographics

While driving to the new Asian supermarket on South 27th Street, I remembered how back in the 1980s, going out for Chinese food seemed like the coolest thing to do. Compared to the predictable fare at any of the fast food places I knew as a kid in the ’80s, getting Chinese food was a veritable dining adventure. Many of the ingredients weren’t like the ones my mother used in her home cooking. And the fortune cookies that we got at the end of the meal ensured that at some point I would insist on coming back for more.

Thirty-some years later, Asian cooking has become a big part of my home. My wife and I are devotees of the rice cooker, which is the subject of Roger Ebert’s new book, The Pot and How to Use It. So we got excited when word got out about the Pacific Produce Asian supermarket being planned for 5455 S. 27th St. (Long-time Wisconsinites will recognize the building’s semi-circular arch as the distinctive mark of a former Kohl’s grocery store. And did you know that the first Kohl’s grocery store was located here in Bay View?)

Sure enough, Pacific Produce opened up last Tuesday. Honestly, I don’t know if I have ever been excited about a supermarket. But walking through Pacific Produce today, I felt a thrill that the store was in place and open for business. (Yes, I get excited at the sight of fifty pound bags of jasmine rice.) My wife Stacie was even more exited at the prospect of finally having a place in Milwaukee that has the light and flavorful Vietnamese baguette sandwiches known as báhn mi.

Despite this, neither our four-month-old son Ellison nor my eight-year-old daughter Hari were interested in anything at the Báhn Mi Nhuy carryout stand. Ellison was busy napping in his stroller, while Hari had a ball marveling at the variety of frozen items that were available. She laughed at the whole grouper fish and daring me to touch the eyes of frozen duck heads. Some of the items weren’t so easy for her to deal with. While she objected to the presence of pig uteruses for sale, it was balut—boiled, fertilized duck eggs—really set her off once she figured out that balut entailed the effective killing of duck fetuses.

“They’re mean, doing that,” she said. “How can they do that? Poor duckies.”

Stacie replied, “Nothing goes to waste,” to which Hari objected, “But they’re mean!”

While our discussion pointed out how much we’ve been removed from the realities of carnivorism by modern life, to me, it subtly underlined how the population in Milwaukee and the greater metro area is evolving.

A few years back, my history methodology class at UWM was puzzling over the significance of an article in that day’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that discussed the creation of a new Asian-themed festival in Milwaukee’s Silver City neighborhood. Our professor asked, why was this news? Why was it important enough to write about and put in the paper? And how was it representative of a long-term trend for Milwaukee?

I picked up on it right away: while the south side had been predominantly Polish for much of the 19th and 20th century, it was changing fast. Fast enough that they could have a festival. I had recently seen census numbers that showed Milwaukee’s Asian population had really grown in the past twenty years, and here was proof of that in the plans for the new festival.

(In the interest of delicious but probably unnecessary disclosure, I am friends with Bouavanh Toy (“Toy”) Sihamath, who, along with her sister Bouachanh (“Bee”) Phonhab Phonthavisouk, owns Asian International Market at 3401 W. National Ave. I pick up their discarded vegetables for the Milwaukee Community Compost Network.)

I find it curious that although the decades-long saga of the Vietnam War ended a few months before I was born, some thirty-five years later, businesses owned by Vietnamese, Thai, Laotian, and Hmong people (among the many other Asian ethnicities) have thrived here in Milwaukee. Although the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are still going on, by the time my children are adults, will we see the wars long-since ended and a similar growth of Mid-Eastern and central Asian food and community in Milwaukee?

Short answer: “Come back when you’re seventy and find out.”

Recall threat misused yet again, this time against Supervisor Dimitrijevic

Our friends at CRG, the so-called Citizens for Responsible Government (which may be the greatest misnomer in history), are now saying that they will “assist” a person who wants to recall Supervisor Marina Dimitrijevic.

What, you may ask, was her high crime? Did she commit a grievous misdemeanor?

No. Rather, she voted against outgoing County Executive Scott Walker’s vetoes on the 2011 budget.

Evidently the voters of her district by and large approve of Dimitrijevic consistently having done so for the past many budget cycles . As my good friend (and close personal target friend of CRG) Chris Liebenthal wote,

Dimitrijevic is a wildly popular official who won her last election with 73% of the vote. Furthermore, she has won numerous awards and honors, including being on the cover of Wisconsin Woman this year and winning the Eleanor Roosevelt Award last year and being named the Best Supervisor two years in a row in a survey by the Shepherd Express.”

So then, why try to mount a recall?

CRG does not want Dimitrijevic, who has consistently worked for the best interests of the people in her district and the county, to run for County Executive. They think this will scare her, or somehow tarnish her reputation.

Instead, it will backfire. And it will further erode CRG’s credibility, not to mention the credibility of the recall. The recall was created to be used if and when an elected official had committed a malfeasance and was not stepping down. It was used to great effect in 2002, playing off the anger following the pension scandal.

But since then, every threatened use has flopped like a fish out of water. Former State Senator Jim Sullivan and former Cudahy Mayor Ryan McCue were both threatened with recalls, but those efforts never got anywhere. More importantly, both were cast from office through the traditional means: loss in an election. The people  judge their elected officials through the ballot box out of a sense of electoral duty, not because they were pushed by agitators to do so. And that’s how it should be done.

Nearly a month later: Bruce Murphy takes a look at how far this effort has gone. The short answer: it hasn’t. (h/t for the mention, Bruce.)

The blog gets quiet as the campaign rolls along

As you likely know, I announced my candidacy for the Milwaukee County Board on November 3. And that is the predominant reason I’ve been quiet on the blog front. Perhaps if I had one of those newfangled “smart phone” thingamajiggers, I could blog while knocking on doors. But that almost defeats the purpose. (I can see it now: “Hi, I’m Jason Ha– oh, hang on, somebody commented.”)

Long-time readers of my blog — I know one person has been reading me since I started blogging in 1996 — know that I sometimes prefer to view the world through a long-term perspective. Such a prediction almost runs against the everything-is-instant mindset of so many blogs. But I think it’s a useful skill to have.

For instance, as the structure of the county board, and quite possibly the county government as a whole, will be changing in the next two years, critical thinking and broad, long views will be quite important. A lot is at stake. The county has a few thousand employees, but it makes it possible for tens of thousands of Milwaukeeans to get to work in a day. Even more have had a higher quality of life thanks to the steady functioning of the government. And yet there has been a decided push against having the government operate in a normal manner. The reasons for that should be discussed, perhaps in another forum. Suffice to say I am now more interested in helping ensure this steady function than in microanalyzing the origins of the anti-government air-apparent.

That’s why I’m doing doors, meeting my neighbors. It’s been a fantastic experience. Perhaps some day I could blog about it.

Drinking Liberally this Wednesday — now with new host!

As I wrote to the masses of DLers:

Hello! This is Jason, your future former cordial host. As I am now running for the County Board’s 14th district seat — see haasformilwaukee.com — Zach Wisniewski is your new host. I wish him well as he undertakes hosting duties!

We will be meeting at Sugar Maple on Wednesday the 17th. We are still looking for a new home, so please share your thoughts. Could you host an East Side or West Side Milwaukee DL? It’s fun and easy. Maybe it would be on Thursday, or Saturday. Talk to us, we’ll help you out.

So come one and all, join us as we curse and plan for the dark future ahead. It’s no fun to relive the feelings that we had in the last period of Republican rule. But that is why we started Drinking Liberally. And from there, we can start to plan our return. See you there!

Sugar Maple
441 E. Lincoln Ave., Milwaukee
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Wed. Nov. 17

Thanks,
Jason, Zach, and the Milwaukee DL crew

And with that, I must say thank you to everyone who came to Drinking Liberally. I met hundreds of great people in my years as host. Thank you all! And thanks to our wonderful new host, Zach. I think he will give Teh Drinking a much-needed breath of fresh air. Enjoy it, everyone!

Rebellious local country band, God’s Outlaw

This past week, the new issue of the Bay View Compass came out, and with it is my profile of the hard-pickin’ country band known as God’s Outlaw. These boys play music in the style of Merle Haggard, Box Car Willie, and Johnny Cash. Their music is bawdy and boisterous—outlaw country. No columns of fire or synchronized chicken line dances at their shows. Just genuine country music, with songs about people struggling and tryin’, cussing and surviving. Give them a listen, and you’ll find it hard to reckon you’d heard anything else and called it “country” before.

The article is in every copy of the Compass that is nestled in Milwaukee east-southeast side, and available online over here. (If you read the article online, the first line is, “It all started when a Johnny Cash cassette tape got stuck in Brian Smith’s truck.” So start reading from there.)

• • •

My first contribution to the A&E section will be my last story for the Compass for a while, as I am now running for the county board. Working for this quality paper has been a great experience, and I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to write and take photos for so many years. Thanks.

• • •

Also, if you like the sort of quality reporting and strong local focus you find in it, please purchase a subscription to the Compass. I know it’s so very easy to read everything online, but the truth is, without our financial support, publications such as the Compass have vanished. Do you want to live in an environment when all information comes pre-digested through opinion mills and spin machines? Or do you want objectivity and fact-based reporting? Unless we — that means you, me, and our friends — subscribe to the Compass, it may very well go under. I don’t want that. You don’t want that either. And the low cost of a subscription is much better in the long and short run than the cost of losing such a quality publication.

So do it. You’ll make more of a difference than you know.

And if you’re a fan of Johnny Cash, check out God’s Outlaw. They’ve got a show coming up on 11 November at Rocco’s VFW Post, 2860 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. That just happens to be Veteran’s Day, so come out and show your appreciation for our soldiers and sailors. Hope to see you there!

Announcing my candidacy for Milwaukee County Supervisor

As my county supervisor Chris Larson has won election to the State Senate, I will be running for his seat. While we don’t yet know when the election to fill the seat will be held, I filed my papers of candidacy earlier today. And this time, I am in it to win.

Here’s the announcement:

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For Immediate Release
November 3rd, 2010
Contact: Jason Haas, 414-747-9514
 
COMMUNITY LEADER JASON HAAS TO RUN FOR MILWAUKEE COUNTY SUPERVISOR
 
MILWAUKEE – Jason Haas, a community leader and activist in Southeast Milwaukee, announced today that he will run for Milwaukee County Supervisor, District 14, which will be vacated by Chris Larson, who won his race for State Senate yesterday. An official announcement will occur later in the campaign.
 
“As a community organizer, father, and neighbor, I understand that we must inspire and bring our community together to move us forward,” Haas said.
 
He continued, “We must provide active, accountable leadership to improve our quality of life in our district and across Milwaukee County. Keeping our parks safe and clean, our transit securely funded, and our families safe will be my top priorities.”
 
Haas lives in Bay View with his wife Stacie. They have a son, Ellison, and a daughter, Hari.

Authorized and paid for by Friends of Jason Haas, Zach Wisniewski, Treasurer. Printed in-house. Labor Donated.

– 30 —

Big announcement tomorrow

(Assuming all goes well tonight.)

Update: I am announcing my candidacy for Milwaukee County Supervisor.