On this date in 2015, 2016, as well as 2017, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published profiles of Joel Kleefisch, a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly, and the husband of Rebecca Kleefisch, who we reported on his more than decade long history of writing extreme anti-abortion legislation in Wisconsin, and his attempt to amend the Wisconsin state constitution to include a ban on same sex marriage. Kleefisch’s ugliest legislative efforts, however, seem to be when he has supported bills to change child support payment rules on behalf of a wealthy campaign donor of his, and the specific change to the law that Kleefisch was asking for would have allowed a deadbeat dad donor to get off scot free. But the most hypocritically frustrating thing in Joel Kleefisch’s voting record would have to be his fervent support for Wisconsin’s strict new Voter ID laws, because he insists the statistically non-existent problem of in-person voter fraud is widespread, and we need to put a stop of it. There is, however, actual video of Joel Kleefisch pushing buttons on the desks of absent legislators in the Wisconsin Assembly to vote on their behalf as he sees fit, which IS actual in person Voter Fraud but Kleefisch has zero problem with that kind. He also wants to eliminate the age restriction on hunting so that parents can take their two or three-year olds out to bag a buck (really). Oh, and did we mention that on a local conservative talk radio show, Joel Kleefisch defended his belief that Jesus co-existed at the same time as the dinosaurs? Because yes, that also really happened. After winning re-election to his seventh term in office in 2016 with 62% of the vote, he failed in his efforts to find a back-door around the 4th Amendment to allow Gov. Scott Walker to drug test welfare recipients, in the form of a bill he filed that would have required all high school students who participate in an extracurricular activity or park a car on a school campus to undergo random drug testing. Big surprise… parents weren’t too keen on that, and it was the latest insane thing that Kleefisch tried Wisconsin legislature buried somewhere near the Earth’s mantle where it couldn’t do any damage.
And mercifully, so it seems that Wisconsin itself will no longer have to suffer the madness of Joel Kleefisch in the state government, as just about two weeks ago, he announced he would not be running for re-election, fleeing local politics like so many Republicans that seem to be fleeing legislatures like rats from a sinking ship. We only hope the door doesn’t hit him on the way out, because dung splatters.