"Late for Dinner" columnist Maureen Mecozzi weighs in on an incident involving Gov. Tommy Thompson. Returning to his car after helping his daughters move into Chadbourne Hall on a hot August day, Thompson found a UW parking officer writing him a parking ticket. On recognizing Wisconsin's top dude, the officer reportedly tore up the citation. "Happens to you every day, doesn't it?" Mecozzi writes, sarcastically. "The officer snatches that ticket right out of your hand and says, 'Why, Mr. Schmoe, let me rip up this citation! You're just an average citizen having a hard day, and you don't deserve to have an extra little annoyance.'" Thompson steps down as governor in 2001 to serve as George W. Bush's Health and Human Services secretary and later mounts a short-lived 2008 presidential bid. His former campaign website, tommy2008.com, is now a dating service specializing in Russian women.
Thompson gets the treatment
From the Isthmus archives, Oct. 6, 1989