One Wisconsin Now

First J.B. Van Hollen and his political cronies at the Department of Justice chased out Jim Warren. He led the Division of Criminal Investigation for the last 10 years and was well respected all across the state. Van Hollen didn’t stop his purge of experience there, as earlier this week he demoted Carolyn Kelly a 25 year DOJ veteran and the country’s first female state fire marshal. Now the Wisconsin State Journal is reporting that he also demoted yet another DOJ veteran. Joell Schigur ran the nationally recognized Internet Crimes Against Children unit of DCI. In 2005, under her leadership, DOJ set the record for most arrests of any ICAC unit in the country.

Apparently Schigur’s demotion centered around her concerns over the appropriateness of DOJ agents protecting Van Hollen at the National Republican Convention. She simply raised a legitimate question as to whether Van Hollen, acting as a Republican not as AG, could use taxpayer resources to attend a purely political event. Van Hollen’s people claim that her demotion was not because of her expressing concerns over the misuse of state resources. Apparently we are supposed to believe that it was only coincidence that her demotion came only two days after Van Hollen’s political crony hire, Ray Taffora, was given her emails.

This latest development has me wondering why they are even considering giving J.B. Van Hollen protection at the Republican National Convention in the first place. It’s not like J.B. is a national figure or that he is known by anyone on a national scale. Does J.B. have a problem with paranoia or is he just a diva? I would suggest that it is the former. After all, he is the same guy that claimed Wisconsin had terrorists running around plotting and training. Maybe those imaginary terrorists hiding in the Northwoods are the people that have him worried about going to the Republican National Convention.

Whatever the reasoning behind his worry, one thing is clear about the J.B. Van Hollen administration. He and his partisan hires are currently purging the department of some of the best regarded law enforcement professionals in the nation. A pattern seems to be developing, one that favors political allies and yes-men and chases out real law enforcement professionals.