Joy Cardin's Hissy Fit

I was alerted to this incident by Spivak and Bice.

I certainly never listen to "Conversations with Joy Cardin" on Wisconsin Public Radio.

Mark Green's campaign manager Mark Graul was scheduled to be a guest on Cardin's show Thursday morning.

He didn't show up. Why?

Graul chalked up his absence to a scheduling snafu. He said communications director Rob Vernon, who set up the appearance on the show for Green's camp, forgot to inform Graul of the appointment.

Asked if he intentionally blew off Cardin's show, he said, "That's absurd."

Cardin, who was clearly agitated while on the air, told us that it was unfortunate that Green's manager didn't show. As to whether she believed the explanation given by Graul, she said, "I have to buy it, I guess."

As I said, I didn't hear the show. I'm not familiar with Cardin; but she seems to have anger management issues.

Instead of showing some class and filling the 30 minutes with a different topic, Cardin led her audience in a hostile venting session to belittle Graul and Green.

...Graul said there was no reason for Cardin to sound so irritated that he wasn't on her show.

"For all she knows," he said, "my house was burning down."

Exactly.

Cardin didn't know why Graul wasn't there for his scheduled appearance. She had no idea if there had been a family emergency, an illness, or an accident. She had no idea why Graul was absent.

It was risky on her part to go on the attack, given the fact that she didn't know the reason for his failure to show.

Scheduling snafus are not uncommon. They happen.

Furthermore, there should be no doubt whatsoever that Graul is being honest about why he missed the show.

It would be a really stupid move to intentionally blow off a scheduled appearance, to not at least call and cancel if he didn't want to do it.

He wouldn't set himself up for the criticism that would surely follow if he intentionally just didn't bother to appear. As Graul says, "That's absurd."

Any rational person should be able to see that.

The fact is Cardin should have dealt with Graul's no-show in a far more professional manner.

I won't give her a pass for her graceless handling of the situation just because she was out of sorts, frustrated and desperate, after reading the results of the poll by Strategic Visions, showing Jim Doyle and Mark Green in a dead heat.

Of course, I have no facts to back up that explanation for her behavior; but it seems appropriate to jump to a conclusion and make assumptions in this case -- very Cardinesque.