Cruise control

I'm not a fan of dragging families into elections or politics in general. It's one thing when a candidate's husband or wife makes a conscious effort to insert themselves into the media, but it is altogether another matter when the private indiscretions of someone's son or daughter make their way into the headlines.

There are, of course, limits to this. When Gwen Moore's son decided it was high time to engage in voter fraud, helping dear mom claim an ill-gotten seat in the US House of Representatives, the media should have paid even more attention. When John Kerry raised the sexual orientation of Dick Cheney's daughter in a presidential debate, Americans were rightly outraged.

But in between there is a vast shade of gray. And while the general rule is to leave families alone, it is hard to obey by these standards when a politician's son or daughter endangers the public at large. Such is exactly what Jim Doyle's son, Augustus, is alleged to have done the other evening, as WKOW notes:

27 News has learned Governor Jim Doyle's son, Augustus "Gus" Doyle, was arrested on a charge of first offense drunken driving during the early morning hours of Feb. 5.

Fitchburg Police Lieutenant Chad Brecklin told 27 News, a passing motorist called authorities with concerns over a man in another car. Brecklin told 27 News that man was Doyle, 30, and that the car, a 1998 Buick Century was on Fish Hatchery Road at County Highway M.

A source with knowledge of this investigation told 27 News, Doyle refused to submit to a test for blood alcohol when it was requested by responding officers. Brecklin refused comment on the testing.

Brecklin told 27 News Doyle was driving without a valid license.

As a friend of mine notes, this is the type of public recklessness that would end up in the local police blotter anyway. That the alleged criminal is the son of a man whose attorney general seems to have a fetish for the same offense is merely a sickening coincidence.

Then again, when the chief law enforcement officer in the state is a convicted drunk driver with an apparently decent shot at re-election, I suppose it is difficult to say that the son of the same state's top politician should be held to any sort of a different standard.