Christian Schneider observes Milwaukee’s political leadership, and is unimpressed by same:

Throughout the 1990s, former Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist was fond of saying that without Milwaukee, Wisconsin would be Iowa.

(Someone also said without the Brewers — the team that gave up seven runs yesterday to a team that has been shut out as often as it has scored in its past 10 games — Milwaukee would be Omaha.)

It wasn’t so much a shot at Wisconsin’s neighbor to the southwest as much as it was a reminder of how crucial Milwaukee was to the state. And while many believe the city is under siege from Republican-led state government in Madison, it is instructive to look at the political wounds Milwaukee has inflicted on itself. It’s no accident that the city’s influence has been greatly diminished.

At one point, Norquist was one of the heavy hitters the city sent to Madison to represent its interests in the state Legislature. For decades, the city had a run of legislators who had experience, power and access. After serving as the Assembly co-chair of the powerful Joint Finance Committee during the 1979 and 1981 sessions, Norquist moved to the state Senate, then served as Milwaukee mayor for nearly 16 years.

In 1981, Norquist’s Senate companion on Joint Finance was Jerry Kleczka, who would go on to represent Milwaukee in Congress. Other Milwaukee legislators of the time also are names that will stand out in Wisconsin history books. State Sen. Gary George was the second-longest serving co-chair of the budget-writing committee in state history before legal troubles derailed his political career. All told, the Joint Finance Committee has had 44 representatives from Milwaukee since 1911. (Madison and Racine are tied for second with 12.)

State Sen. Brian Burke likely would have become Wisconsin’s attorney general had he not been ensnared in the “caucus scandal” in the early 2000s. State Sen. Gwen Moore went on to serve in Congress; in the early ’90s, Wally Kunicki served as speaker of the Assembly; Shirley Krug would later serve as minority leader.

“They had heavyweights — they elected some of the smartest, savviest people in the whole Legislature,” said one long-time Republican legislator about the Milwaukee delegation. “They had people who knew how to make that system work — now they just have people who either collect a paycheck or their goal is to get on the news yelling about something.” (Consider State Sen. Lena Taylor, who recently compared Gov. Scott Walker to Adolf Hitler and called Senate Republicans the “Taliban.”)

In the past, Milwaukee legislators weren’t afraid to cut deals with Republicans when necessary. While Gwen Moore was frequently bombastic in public, she and Republican Assembly Speaker John Gard got along famously behind the scenes, often negotiating changes to welfare programs to benefit Moore’s constituents.

Yet through the primary process, Milwaukee Democrats have recently purged their ranks of many legislators who were willing to work with Republicans on bills to aid their home districts. In 2010, Chris Larson defeated moderate state Sen. Jeff Plale in a primary; in 2012, five progressive Democrats won Assembly primaries in the city, taking out moderate incumbents such as Elizabeth Coggs, Peggy Krusick and Jason Fields.

“Democrats wiped out anybody that could work with the other side to get things done,” said one GOP operative, noting that Fields had the most bills passed of any Democrat in the Legislature last cycle. His reward for helping his district? Being thrown out in a primary.

Gary George blames the new anti-school choice independent expenditure groups for driving moderates from the city’s ranks. “The battle lines in the city politically for legislative seats, election after election, is over choice,” George told me. “And the Democratic Party institutional money is just being almost like the politburo in going against anyone who is willing to work with the choice movement.”

George pointed the finger at groups such as the Progressive Wisconsin political fund, which is funded with hundreds of thousands of dollars from donors such as millionaire Lynde Uihlein, heiress to the Schlitz and Allen-Bradley fortunes. Uihlein has donated more than $1.5 million to progressive groups in the past four years, including groups working to unseat moderates in Milwaukee.

Others point not to the lack of leadership in the Legislature, but to the ineffectiveness of Mayor Tom Barrett in sticking up for the city. After Barrett lost in the state Legislature on residency for city employees, some critics said he spent all his time fighting that battle rather than focusing on other things that could have helped the city. Barrett “picks fights instead of building relationships,” said one GOP operative. “He lost poorly, and it hurt his ability to win anything back in the future.”

Part of it is that a lot of Wisconsinites look at Milwaukee as the source of nearly everything bad in this state. (Which is a narrow view, because by definition that view doesn’t include Madison.) Milwaukee is the capital of nearly every social pathology in this state, including crime, violent crime, what used to be called “broken homes” and rotten schools. Milwaukee has done nothing about any of that; the only solution to the rotten schools was the idea of a couple of Milwaukee Democrats, including Norquist, and Republicans who gained no political advantage by advocating for a better educational solution for Milwaukee children.

Norquist on his worst day will go down in history as a better mayor than Barrett on his best day. Several years ago I worked with someone well connected in Democratic circles who swore that Wisconsinites would love Barrett if they only knew him. Either my former colleague was wrong, or Barrett has turned out to be far smaller than Democrats thought he would be. Name one political issue on which Barrett has taken a courageous stand. The deplorable state of Milwaukee schools? He has done nothing but parrot the views of the Milwaukee teachers’ union, which is a major contributor to Milwaukee’s bad schools. (If Barrett asked legislative Republicans or Gov. Scott Walker today for legislation to disband the Milwaukee Board of Education and put MPS control in the Milwaukee mayor’s office, Walker would sign the bill Tuesday.) Crime? He is a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns (the title is a misnomer since by definition every gun used in a crime is an illegal gun), a group that includes the deceased Boston Marathon bomber as a victim of gun violence. Economic development? Barrett has nothing to do with it. The half-fast Milwaukee-to-Madison train doesn’t count, since nearly every other Wisconsinite objects to paying for something that will benefit them in no way.

Remember: politics is the art of the possible. Republicans have been in charge in Madison since the 2010 elections. To refuse to deal with the GOP in hopes of more favorable election results is not really serving your constituents. It is true that Wisconsin cannot expect significant economic growth without Milwaukee doing well too. It is also true that the traditional bigger-government solutions now being doubled-down-upon by the leadership of the People’s Republic of Milwaukee not only do not work, but do not stand a chance of becoming law.