Re: Nice time for someone to get a DUI, eh.
WHEN GOOD LIBERALS GO BAD.<br /><br />yO tOAD, HERE'S SOME NEWS WITH A SHELF LIFE SHORTER THAN A ...............................................................<br />Use of car comes under scrutiny<br />Ethics Board investigating Lautenschlager's use of state vehicle to commute<br />By STEVEN WALTERS<br />swalters@journalsentinel.com<br />Posted: March 3, 2004<br />Madison - In the aftermath of Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager's arrest for drunken driving in a state-owned car, the state Ethics Board is investigating whether her use of the vehicle to commute from Madison to her Fond du Lac home was legal.<br /><br />Peg Lautenschlager<br /> <br /> <br />Photo/File <br /> <br /> Nobody ever questioned it. <br /> <br />- Peg Lautenschlager<br /> <br />Recent Coverage<br /> <br />Penalty: Lautenschlager to give state two weeks' pay (3/2/04)<br />Doyle: Suggests Lautenschlager forgo pay (2/27/04)<br />Plea: Lautenschlager pleads guilty, apologizes (2/26/04)<br />Video: Lautenschlager apologizes in news conference (2/26/04)<br />Questions: Lautenschlager's mission at hearing derailed (2/25/04)<br />Editorial: Trouble for state's top cop (2/25/04)<br />Snapshots: Attorney general is alive to drive again; others are not (2/25/04)<br />Arrest: Lautenschlager accused of drunken driving (2/24/04)<br /><br /> <br />Quotable<br /> <br /> There are a variety of things I could tell you - whether or not I had anything to eat that day, whether or not I did things in a way that day that probably might maximize blood alcohol, whether preliminary Breathalyzer tests are accurate . . . I don't think that's the issue at all. <br /> <br />- Peg Lautenschlager,<br />attorney general <br /> <br />Arrest Report<br /> <br />Sheriff's department arrest report (pdf) <br /><br /> <br />Arrest Video<br /> <br />Lautenschlager's field sobriety test <br /><br /> <br /> <br />In her first interview since the arrest last week, Lautenschlager said she will turn over records requested by Ethics Board staff.<br /><br />Aside from the drunken driving itself, she insisted she did nothing wrong in using the car to drive from Madison to Fond du Lac.<br /><br />If the Ethics Board rules otherwise, Lautenschlager said, she would reimburse the state for those trips.<br /><br />After being sworn in as attorney general 14 months ago, Lautenschlager said, she was told by aides that state Department of Administration regulations allowed her to use the state-owned Buick to drive to official appearances, including trips to and from her Fond du Lac home.<br /><br />"I said, 'What do you mean, I can drive it home?' " Lautenschlager said. "And they said, 'Oh yeah, if you have an assigned vehicle, that's part of it.'<br /><br />"As we understood the assigned vehicle (policy), because I didn't have an 8-to-4 job, and because I go around the state and whatever, indeed, it was all in a (legal) framework. Nobody ever questioned it."<br /><br />With her driver's license revoked for refusing to take a blood test after her arrest, Lautenschlager said she is relying on friends and co-workers to drive her.<br /><br />She said she decided to try to drive the state car home the night of Feb. 23 after drinking in Madison because she was scheduled to be at a public event in Green Bay the next morning.<br /><br />Journal Sentinel columnists Cary Spivak and Dan Bice reported Sunday that although Lautenschlager racked up nearly 20,000 miles on her state-owned car last year, she has not had to reimburse the state for that portion related to her commute between the Capitol and Fond du Lac - because, according to her spokesman Paul Vornholt, her Fond du Lac home was defined as her headquarters.
