Holiday Confusion: It's no secret the Bush administration has not been paying attention to details for quite some time. It could be argued that's been the case for the past eight years. A recent faux pas on holiday invites is just another example. The White House sent out invites to its annual Hanukkah feast featuring none other than a horse and wagon hauling a Christmas tree. There was no Menorah in sight.

Better than White-out: While Gov. Jim Doyle has come under serious fire for using his so-called "Vanna White" or "Frankenstein" veto, which allows him to take out phrases and numbers in the legislative budget to nearly create new legislation, Milwaukee County Exec Scott Walker has been using similar authority with impunity.

Now state Sen. Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee) wants to put the screws on Walker's pen, as well. Carpenter authored a referendum asking voters in April if they thought it was a good idea to limit Doyle's veto ability. To no one's surprise, more than 70% did and the governor will have some of the ink taken out of that pen.

Carpenter says he's writing a bill to limit these "creative" vetoes from being used by the county exec and wants to keep that veto power down to what we all assumed a veto would be -- line item. It would require approval from voters and the legislature since the exec's powers are encoded in the state constitution.

"The voters of Milwaukee County, along with the voters of Wisconsin, have consistently expressed their displeasure at using vetoes to create entire new words and phrases that were not included in budget language. The people do not believe this is an appropriate use of executive budgetary authority" he said. "An executive should not be able to suture together letters and words from a budget to create laws never considered by the people's budget-writing representatives, whether such representatives sit in the state legislature or on a county board."

Riverkeeper Sails On: It could give environmentalists a sinking feeling or maybe just a wave of discomfort. Lynn Broaddus announced her departure as executive director of the Milwaukee Riverkeeper group, formally known as Friends of Milwaukee's Rivers. She's going to work for The Johnson Foundation, which runs the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Wingspread in Racine.

During her five-plus-year tenure, the group increased its activism on the behalf of healthy water in the metro area through courts and public awareness. It also picked up its networking ability and hooked up with other like-minded groups on such high-profile efforts as suing the Milwaukee Sewerage District over its dumping. It also created an urban waterway map identifying optimal spots for paddlers to ply the Milwaukee, Menominee and Kinnickinnic rivers as well as being vigilant in finding sewer outfalls that could dump untreated sewage into the rivers.

Whenever there was a concern about water quality Broaddus and her group were there.

Cheryl Nenn, who has served in the staff position of Milwaukee Riverkeeper for six years, has been named Interim Executive Director while a search for a permanent replacement is conducted.

A Right View: And now from the right comes an economic stimulus proposal from the Wisconsin Leadership Institute, which is pretty much a one-man clearinghouse of all things conservative run by Brian Fraley.

Fraley says the group stresses individual liberties and free markets, which is kind of a cloak that groups use when they want to become independent expenditure attack dogs during political campaigns. In what it calls "common sense measures," the WIL says the state should:

• Eliminate the tax on retirement benefits for citizens over the age of 65.
• Pass public nuisance law reform.
• Lift the nuclear power moratorium.
• Allow Health Savings Account tax deductibility
• Launch a Web site, which lists all state agency expenditures over $100 within 15 days.

The measures should have the Badger State awash in prosperity in no time.

"The first rule of holes is that when you find yourself in one, stop digging," said Fraley. "So the first order of business for the new legislature is to rein in state spending and state agencies that stifle growth."