The Spice Boys' Flip-Flop

Here's what Spivak and Bice wrote on their blog just last week under the title "Guilt by Association":

First, there's the scandal. Then there's the game of trying to link everyone else to the pol brought down by scandal.

In this case, that means seeing who received money from disgraced U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, the Florida Republican who resigned last week after it became public that he sent sexually explicit e-mails and instant messages to Capitol pages.

The Center for Responsive Politics, a D.C. do-gooder group, put out the full list of more than 100 recipients of Foley's campaign cash. According to the group, two members of the Wisconsin delegation benefited from Foley's largess: Republican congressmen Paul Ryan ($2,000) and Mark Green ($1,000), now the Republican candidate for governor.

How long until the Dems start screaming that Ryan and Green should return this "dirty money" ASAP?

They were right on with that assessment.

It didn't make any sense to call those donations "dirty money" because, after all, it's not like the money was donated at a "Exploiting Teen Boys" fundraiser; and, most importantly, there's no known connection between what Mark Foley did and Paul Ryan and Mark Green (the same can't be said for the GOP congressional leadership).

So what do Spivak and Bice write about in their column today? Take a look:

If there's a person an incumbent governor in a tough re-election fight doesn't want to be linked to in any way, shape or form, it's someone whom the feds refer to in an indictment as "Individual B."

That's not someone a governor wants to be associated with.

But Gov. Jim Doyle finds himself in the company of just that sort of guy this week.

Chicago's U.S. attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald, unsealed a couple of political indictments against Antoin Rezko, a top Democratic fund-raiser for Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. A major player in the two bombshell indictments is Individual B, who, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, is really Blagojevich's top money man, Christopher Kelly.

And what's Kelly's connection to the Wisconsin governor? Kelly gave the maximum $10,000 donation to Doyle's campaign on June 24. Kelly was, according to news accounts, under investigation when he made the donation and remains under the federal microscope today.

Betcha Doyle isn't quite as grateful for that money today as he was when he received it from Kelly, a central figure in what Fitzgerald dubbed "a pay to play scheme on steroids."

Is there any connection between Kelly's donation to Doyle and a pay to play scheme? Nope.

So let's review.

Spivak and Bice mock Dem calls for Mark Green to return money from a colleague who likely faces criminal charges in a child sexual exploitation case.

But, just a week later, they shed their concern for guilt by association to hand the Green Team a press release (which you can expect by 10am this morning) and a citation for their next attack ad by writing a full article brimming over the top with innuendos about a donation Governor Doyle received from an individual who is mentioned (though, not by name) in an indictment.

There's that consistency we've come to know and expect from the JS in its gubernatorial coverage!

UPDATE: Mike Plaisted gives a more detailed analysis of the Spivak & Bice article from today -- check it out.