EDITORIAL: A FINE FORUM FOR CANDIDATES

Progressive Dane organized a great mayoral forum Wednesday night.
Indeed, it is a credit to Madison's best organized political
organization that several hundred people showed up for the debate on
the night when the nation was waiting to see when and how the Bush
administration's war with Iraq would begin.

It was an even bigger credit to Progressive Dane that candidates Paul
Soglin and Dave Cieslewicz were forced to address important issues
that had, until Wednesday night, been little discussed in the campaign
between these two worthy contenders.

We found out that Soglin favors a residency requirement for city
employees while Cieslewicz opposes such a rule. (Soglin's right on
that one.)

We found out that Cieslewicz supports legalization of marijuana while
Soglin takes the more tepid position of favoring legalization of the
drug for medicinal use only. (Cieslewicz got that one right.)

Both opposed electing the city attorney. (Both are
wrong.)

Both criticized the USA Patriot Act, the draconian assault on civil
liberties cobbled together by the Bush administration to take
advantage of fears following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on
New York and Washington. (Both are right.)

We liked Soglin's aggressiveness on the Patriot Act question, when he
said that he would work to prevent Attorney General John Ashcroft from
trampling on civil liberties with demands for records of who is
reading what book. "If we have to delete library records on a daily
basis, we will do that." We also appreciated Cieslewicz's wise
observation that the congressional vote for the Patriot Act was "one
of the lowest moments in U.S. history."

Most of all, we appreciate Progressive Dane for giving these two
outspoken candidates a chance to show their stuff.