Anxiously Awaiting Ann Althouse's Opinion

Hmm, state employees writing posts for their "web logs." Could this affect Ann Althouse's e-mail?

A perfesser at the U. of Wisconsin does not like Wisc. Gov. Scott Walker's anti-collective bargaining policies, & said so in a "blog post." And w/in 48 hrs. of his "post",

[T]he Wisconsin Republican Party filed a state open records request to gain access to Cronon's personal emails to get a look at what communications or discussions or sources or anything else went into writing it.

Now, 'personal' is up for some reasonable debate here. This is his university email. And he's a Professor at the University of Wisconsin, the state university. So he's a state employee. Still, he's not an elected official or someone doing public business in the sense you'd ordinarily understand the term. Nor are they looking at anything tied to the administration of the University, which is legitimately a public matter. In the ordinary sense we tend to understand the word it's his personal email. And the range of requested documents leave no doubt about what they're after.

Good question. We can imagine that were someone to file a FOIA suit requesting copies of her state e-mail concerning Althouse-appropriate names & buzz-words, this would get all the attention Josh Marshall hopes for it. People who are lawyers & such, are not hiding in fear behind a secret identity (our excuse) & perhaps most importantly, residents of the Badger State are welcome to follow our suggestion & send in their requests.

Seriously. Wouldn't someone like to know if the full story of Manservant Hecubus"New Media Meade" getting tickets to Gov. Walker's speech is somewhere in Prof. Althouse's state e-mails? We would.