After 14 months of searching for fraud and finding none, the Republican “investigation” into election irregularities has finally come to an end. It ended not because it failed to turn up any fraud, or because the ever-increasing cost was a burden on taxpayers. It ended because the person heading it, Michael Gableman, turned against the man who hired him, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, and endorsed Vos’ primary election opponent.
Vos finally did the right thing in firing Gableman, but I hesitate to laud him for this action. The simple fact is this investigation should not have been undertaken in the first place. Vos started it to rile up the Republican base and stay in the good graces of former President Trump. He accomplished neither. The only thing Gableman accomplished was bilking Wisconsin taxpayers for more than a million dollars while embarrassing himself and the Wisconsin Republican Party.
Unfortunately, the investigation is not technically over. While there will be no more investigating, Speaker Vos has said that he plans to fight court fees awarded to outside groups that were wrongfully denied records pertaining to the investigation. I fail to see how spending more taxpayer money on high-priced Republicans lawyers is helpful and continues a long trend of Robin Vos using taxpayers as his own personal pocketbook.
I truly hope this is my last column about Michael Gableman and the sham that he led in our state. There is really nothing more to say about it. He and Robin Vos wasted tax dollars on a frivolous investigation, end of story. Democrats tried to warn Vos that this effort was pointless from the start, yet he again ignored us in favor of partisan political games.
