1988 was a very dismal year

News editor Bill Lueders prefaces his annual Cheap Shots by proclaiming 1988 "a dismal year...distinguished by an astonishing level of public ineptitude, gaff-making and duplicity." Among his award recipients: UW-Madison Chancellor Donna Shalala, Gov. Tommy Thompson, Gene Parks and Herb Kohl. Shalala goes on to serve as secretary of Health and Human Services throughout the Clinton administration, and since 2001 has been president of the University of Miami. Thompson succeeds Shalala as HHS secretary during Dubya's first term, runs for president himself in the last election cycle but bows out in August 2007. Parks fails in his mayoral bid but continues to fight for social justice until his death at 57, in 2005. Kohl is re-elected to his fourth term in 2006.