Oh, Were You Campaigning There?

I received the oddest email on Monday. It was from Mark Neumann and read thus:

Since the beginning you have been one of my top supporters and a true friend in my campaign to defeat Tammy Baldwin for U.S. Senate.

And as someone who is not particularly comfortable asking others for financial help, let me just say that I’m honored and humbled by the support you have given me.

Unfortunately, when all the votes were counted on Primary Election Day, we came up a bit short.

But now is not the time to hang our heads.

I continue to stand by our conservative principles of limited government, low taxes, and traditional family values as much today as I did during the long days and nights of the campaign.

Thank you for supporting me in my bid for U.S. Senate -- I couldn’t have done it without you!

Though we didn’t win the day, our campaign will have a lasting impact on our politics.

We showed the political class that rolling back the Obama agenda of the last four years is priority #1 for the conservative grassroots.

The spirit of limited government that gave rise to the Tea Party Movement is spreading to Americans in all walks of life.

Now that the election is over, I’ve had many suggestions about how I can help promote our conservative values going forward.

But before I do anything, I need to take care of those people who helped me in this campaign.

You see, in the last few weeks of my hard-fought campaign, over $152,000 in bills came in.

I wasn’t counting on having unpaid bills at the end of my campaign. As you know, I ran a lean campaign that pinched every penny we could.

But this money is owed to vendors and small businessmen who took a leap of faith and helped my run for U.S. Senate.

They put their money on the line believing in me and I want to make them whole.

I hope you understand my dilemma.

I don’t have any money left in my campaign account to pay these bills. I must turn to my supporters for help.

I need to know if you will help me retire these late campaign bills.

I can’t stress enough how important it is that I take care of these outstanding bills before I do anything else.

It pains me to say it, but I need your help now like never before.

Asking for money is one of the hardest parts of running for the U.S. Senate.

But it’s simply what I must do to pay those people who stuck their necks out on the line for our campaign. The small businessmen who put it all on the line are solid conservatives like you and me.

Thank you and God Bless,

Mark Neumann

Dan Bice had some of the same questions that I did:

But Neumann seemed baffled by a question about why he was hitting up his donors during the general election.

"Nobody asked me that question before, so I'm not really sure I thought it through," Neumann said. "It seems to me if I've got people that are owed money, my job is to figure out how to get them paid."

Asked if he is concerned he might take money away from Thompson with the solicitation, Neumann said, "Absolutely not." He said he didn't know how many people received the email.

Neumann brushed aside any suggestion that he pick up the tab for the last-minute campaign expenses. In the primary, Neumann reported a net worth between $6 million and $18 million.

"I don't think it's your position to evaluate my finances, but say whatever you want," said Neumann, who finished third in the four-way primary.

Of course, it's not the only time in recent history that a Republican has started asking for money while their fellow Republicans are scrambling for cash. Don't forget that Scott Walker was happy enough to horn in on Tommy Thompson, Paul Ryan and all the others to fill up his own treasure trove.

So much for party unity.

MY Thoughts on Today's Primary

Ok some quick thoughts on the election....Tommy won and its time to introduce the new tommy to the electorate.  People need to know he is the older, crazier, meaner version from the old days.  He cant walk back the fact that he had to go crazy to win the primary.  

I also cant wait to see the "tea party" pretend that they like tommy all along despite all of the things they said about him.   I would guess we havent seen a flip flop like this since mitt got the nomination.  

Good to see eric hovde get humiliated, despite spending millions.  That speaks to the idiocy of rojo.  Wisconsinites had enough of spoiled rich lightweight brats...

Jeff Fitzgeralds showing says that after all the walker dirty work he did, he had zero support showing how much the money in the repub party care about pushing their agenda and NOTHING or NO ONE else

Mark Neumann's special brand of hate will hopefully never win another election again!  

Compare/Contrast this primary to the dems big primary in the 2nd Congressional district.  Where the more negative that Tommy went, the better his numbers.   In the Democratic primary, Kelda Roys went negative and she lost all of her support.   What was shaping up to be a close race, turned into a blow out.   I guess really bad consultants run deep in the Democratic party! 

Finally it was good to see all of the Scott "Scooter" Jensen candidates get beat.  Anyone that associates with him shows themselves to be the loser that Jensen is!   There is no room in the Democratic party for candidates who associate with the likes of Jensen!  


Your Thoughts??  

Congratulations, Senator Baldwin!

What? Don't be shocked by the title. After all, if the mainstream news can call Scott Walker's victory before people are even finished voting, I should be able to call Tammy Baldwin's before they start voting.

And this is Baldwin's election to lose right now.

Over the past several months, Baldwin has been able to rack up quite the war chest and do nothing but run a couple of positive campaign ads focusing on the important issues.

Meanwhile, the four candidates vying to be the GOP nominee for the senate seat has not been doing much more than showing exactly why they shouldn't be the next senator. They haven't done much more than try to pretend they're more conservative than the others and then sling mud at each other while complaining that the others are being negative. It's gotten to the point where a thinking person can't take any of them seriously.

Let's take a quick look at each of these four stooges:

Mark Neumann

Neumann is one of the two true conservatives. He's greedy and a raging anti-homosexual fascist. He's dumping a lot of his own wealth into the race, which is not inconsiderable, in an effort to buy the seat.

But his expenditures also come with a dwindling return.

He is not running a very effective campaign. For example, he's running an ad where he states he knows that church is important and starts talking about how he met his wife. The gist of the ad is that he is a good anti-abortion type of Christian, but it really comes across as that he was trolling his church for dates when he was ten years old.

Despite flooding the airwaves with ads, it appears that Neumann is coming in a distant third. The reason for this is that he is considered a pariah among many of the tea-bagging conservatives. Neumann's sin was not only running against Scott Walker during the 2010 primary, but also telling the truth about Walker and his inability to lead, which we are seeing today. But for Neumann to dare to even utter this out loud is the equivalent of heresy. He's lucky he doesn't get stoned for having done that.

Some people are still sniveling about Neumann's audacity of trying to do the right thing. Perhaps that's why Neumann is now running an ad with the theme of "Gee, if I only knew how great Walker was, I wouldn't have run."

Note to Mark: Trust your instincts. Walker will be going down and taking a hell of a lot of people with him.

What I find hilarious is while the TEA Party Express has endorsed Neumann and is taking their song and dance around the state, the local teahadists are scrambling to denounce their fellow teabaggers. Apparently even the big money bags that are trying to buy are elections are torn on who to back.

Tommy Thompson

TOMMY!! is the penultimate politician. Thompson will tell you whatever you want to hear, whether it's true or not. Want your taxes cut? Thompson's your man, even though he will raise them. Want spending cuts? Thompson will promise you that, even though he will increase spending. Are you against the Affordable Healthcare Act? So is Tommy, when he's not endorsing it, that is.

Tommy is also very savvy on how to turn a buck. He took his position as former governor and former Secretary of Health and used it to get hooked up with all sorts of companies, and their lobbyists. There's little doubt that one of the reasons Tommy is even running is that he wants to increase his name value and rake in the bucks.

The other reason is, of course, to feed his gargantuan ego with a lot of publicity and attention which he constantly seeks.

Tommy has a pretty decent chance on getting the nomination next week, but not because of who his is or who he claims to be, but just because of name recognition. This is causing some people to have a log of angst and screaming "Caveat emptor!"

Eric Hovde

Eric Hovde has dreams of being the next Ron Johnson, meaning he wants to be another multimillionaire who got all of his money with the help of the government and now wants to use that money to buy his seat in the Senate on the pretense that he wants to end the graft that made him rich. Right.

While that might be how Hovde wants to portray himself, that's not the way he is coming across. His negativity and hypocrisy is turning a lot of people off and what should have been his race to buy is slipping through his fingers.

In reality, Hovde is like one of those spoiled frat boys in a Grade B teen movie who thinks the world owes him just because he's rich and good looking. And just like the movies, it turns out his character is a spoiled little brat that whines like mad when he's asked to take some responsibility for what he's done or hasn't done, like voting.

Hovde, like Thompson and RoJo, only want the seat to help stack the deck even more in his favor so that he can increase his wealth. The poor darling can't be expected to make it on the paltry few millions of dollars he has.

Jeff Fitzgerald

Jeff Fitzgerald is like the lost child in this race. Even though he won the popularity vote in the state GOP convention, he has not been able to parlay that into support or campaign donations.

Bruce Murphy thinks it's because he's not serious about being a candidate for the US Senate, but is rather just setting the stage for him to become a lobbyist, where the pay is much more lucrative.

I think another factor is that the only thing Fitzgerald has got to run on his the way he hitched his wagon to Scott Walker's. His latest ad, which I heard for the first time this week, brags about, among other things, weakening gun laws and the castle doctrine. That might not be something he'd want to run with the week after the horrific mass shooting at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek. Not only that, but people are starting to finally catch on that the Walker/Fitzgerald plan is not working on bringing jobs to the state. While Walker and his supporters were able to buy the recall election, this shows that the Republican snake oil has a bitter taste to it.

All that Fitzgerald has been able to do with his ill-conceived plan is to make himself completely irrelevant and only remembered as long as the programming integrity of his entry in Ballotpedia remains intact.

With the polarity and in-fighting of this race, whoever the surviving candidate is will be a bloodied, damaged man who already spent millions of his own dollars that they were going to need for the general election. And WISGOP won't see the coming together to support the winner that they will need. The candidates' egos won't allow it, nor will the divisiveness this race as caused among the faithful.

The only way that this person is going to beat Tammy Baldwin is if he has the election bought and/or stolen for him. And even then, I don't think they will be able to overcome the Democrats' backlash as well as their own side's self-anathema.

So, again, congratulations Senator Baldwin!

Isn't It Ironic....

Don't Ya Think?....a little too ironic...

The "Tea Party Express" hate group led by Amy Kremer, is back!!  This time, these out of state agitators are endorsing Mark Neumann for the Wisconsin Senate Seat! 

“The Tea Party is united behind Mark Neumann because he is the proven conservative in the race,” said Tea Party Express Chairman Amy Kremer in a statement. “Mark earned the support of the Tea Party Express, and Tea Party members from every corner of Wisconsin, because he is the only one with a plan that cuts spending, balances the budget and repeals ObamaCare. He understands that we must get back to Constitutional principles in Washington. And, he is the one we can trust to stand up to Barack Obama.”

 Of course that is utterly ridiculous, but so is this....the Wisconsin "tea party" he one funded and founded by the Koch Brothers, with the vermin tim phillips at the head nationally, did not agree.   See The billionaires, want the multi-millionaire Eric Hovde to be Wisconsin's next Senator.  So they sent this letter to whoever seemed to care:

See the Out of State "tea party" wants a Wisconsin Candidate to be the next Wisconsin Senator, but the local "leaderless" "tea party" sent by paid state "leaders" wants the out of state people to stay out of our race so they can support the out of state candidate, Eric Hovde.     

It is amazing they coined the term for election season "the silly season" before the "tea party" came into existence!

By the way, isn't Jeff Fitzgerald running for Senate???  

Eric Hovde Wants Your Vote

However, the Washington DC resident who wants to be Wisconsin's Senator can not be bothered to vote himself.  He is too busy saving the poor to vote*, and he doesn't like the choices he has had.   Maybe Eric Hovde needs to look up the definition of citizen legislator!  

Senate candidate Eric Hovde is a busy guy.

So busy, in fact, he rarely has had time to vote.

"I'm a person that's spent 75% of my life in an airplane, flying around the U.S., flying around the globe," Hovde, a community banker and hedge fund manager, told the Journal Sentinel last week. "You know a lot of what I've been up to. I built homeless shelters for street kids in Kigali, Rwanda; Mombasa, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; Mexico City; Huanuco, Peru."

Records show that Hovde registered to vote in Washington, D.C., in 2004, two years after he built his 7,700-square-foot mansion there. Of the 11 elections held in D.C. since he registered, Hovde voted in just two of them - the 2004 and '08 general presidential campaigns.

In the last presidential contest, Hovde said he voted for Republican U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona. He did not vote in the GOP primary between McCain and former Arkan sas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
It's not just his busy schedule that has kept him away from the ballot box. He also pointed to the dearth of conservative Republicans in elections in the nation's capital.

"I'm a conservative in D.C. Do you understand that?" Hovde asked. "When it comes to a vote in Washington, D.C., and you're a conservative and your only choice is a liberal Democrat and a liberal Democrat; it's a little discouraging."

A top staffer for former U.S. Rep. Mark Neumann, a Janesville Republican, was even more pointed.
"It's bad enough that he hasn't lived in Wisconsin for 24 years," said Chip Englander, Neumann's campaign manager. "He should have at least voted where he did live."

*When Eric Hovde says he does not like to talk about his charity work, he apparently means, he does not like to talk about his charity work, UNLESS there is a reporter present! 

A Few Observations

1.   If Scott Walker is so wildly popular, why is former Assembly leader Jeff Fitgerald(Fitz the lesser) and one of the people most responsible for passing Scott Walker's agenda polling a whopping 6%?   Yet Washington DC resident, Eric Hovde, who had absolutely nothing to do with Scott Walker is leading in the polling?   Even the astroturf koch brother's operation, Freedomworks, run by the vile dick armey has endorsed Washington DC resident Eric Hovde!   Even paid hack and perpetual fabricator Wiggy, took a very informal poll and Fitzgerald finished a far distant fourth. 

 I guess the scott walker coattails are not very long!   Fitzgerald appears to be running on his record, it just appears as though he is running in sand(or his record is that bad).

2.  Hmmmmmmmm

3.  Eric Hovde is worse than Tommy Thompson???  

4.  Mark Neumann takes time away from hating gays to attack Eric Hovde:

5. Finally, George W. Bush was awesome!!  Just ask him.   Ummmm George:

Bush left office in 2009 with a 22 percent approval rate, making him one of history’s least-liked presidents, according to CBS News. In all, 73 percent said they did not approve of the way he ran the country for eight years.

Wiggy Needs an Editor!

We all know that the blog Wigderson's Pub is written with no regards for the facts and is appropriately named because it is written with the same fantasy aspects as a drunk in the bar telling a story.   One piece was particularly laughable, his "interview" with Eric Hovde.   It appears with the glowing recommendation and lack of reality that Wiggy is applying for a job with Eric Hovde, instead of reporting reality.  

Let's take look at a few highlights:

Hovde is running for the Republican nomination to replace retiring Sen. Herb Kohl. There are three other strong candidates in the race: former Gov. Tommy Thompson, Speaker of the Assembly Jeff Fitzgerald, and former congressman Mark Neumann.

 Let's see we have ancient Tommy Thompson, who can not even remember the date of 9/11,  homophobe, bigot professional jobber Mark Neumann, and former assemblyman Jeff Fitzgerald, of the suck off the taxpayer teat Fitzgerald Family, who has also raised a total of .36 cents for his campaign.  If this is a strong field, I would be interested to see what a weak field looks like. Wait I found a perfect example! 

 Thompson is the favorite in the race

Tommy G Thompson finished a very distant fourth in the endorsement vote at the Wisconsin state republican convention.    This beats last year's when he was not allowed to attend.  

 Hovde says that what separates him out from the other candidates is his private-sector background. Unlike the other candidates, Hovde says, he is not a career politician.

Unlike the other candidates, Hovde does not live in Wisconsin.  

 “We’re dealing with an economic crisis. As I say to people, when you get a brain tumor you’re going to want the best brain surgeon you can find. If you’ve got a heart ailment, you’re going to want the best heart doctor you can find.

 So Hovde Supports Obamacare!!!!! 

 “If you’re having an economic crisis, you’re going to want (someone) that can understand the economy inside and out, and how to deal with these issues.”

 Oops, Hovde just pointed out why he is immensely unqualifed to be the next WI senator.

Lack of ethics. Lack of morals. The culture turns bad.

 Interesting Hovde, can't stand Robin Vos either.  

A lot of Republican establishment guys complain about the tea party movement,” he said. “It saved the Republican Party, because it pulled (the party) back to what it’s supposed to be about.”

Now it is just getting weird, according to Hovde, if the "tea party" is what the republican party is supposed to be about, then that means the republican party stands for HATE, badly misspelled signs and really ugly American flag shirts!

This is not a replay of 2010, when businessman Ron Johnson filled a vacuum. This time around, Republicans have a choice between some very substantial candidates.

Umm Ron Johnson is as smart as a vacuum and Wiggy just spit on the memory and hard work of Dave Westlake!   









 

No Time To Despair

I know it has been a rough week for the democratic party in Wisconsin but now is NOT the time to despair. I know I was in a funk last week when I wrote this piece.  What got me to step out of said funk, was to have the republicans start gloating and telling the dems how to run elections. 

First of all it was not as resounding of  a defeat as the republicans make it out to be.   The democrats did flip the Wisconsin State Senate! That is no small feat in itself.  

Secondly, many people on the left and the right have been saying the democrats have "no bench".  While I do think that there is always room for improvement, and I would love to see more people get involved in politics on a local and statewide level, I find this claim from the right to be downright laughable.   Lets exam this a little bit closer. 

It was a year ago that Wisconsin had their first round of recalls.   This was before the recall petitions were scrutinized so the republicans actually were able to file petitions to recall 3 democrats (as opposed to 6 republicans).   All three democrats easily held their seats, while 2 of 6 republican seats were flipped.  Keeping in mind that in terms of money and name recognition and the way the system has been set up(by the incumbents) it is virtually impossible to beat an incumbent (recall or regular election).

So instead of looking at just the actual results, you have to analyze the big picture.  I wrote about it at the time:

* The Democrats have legitimate candidates and talent ready to run and serve and the Republicans do not. While the Republicans are running people like David Vanderleest, and Kim Simac, the Democrats are running people like Jess King, Fred Clark, Shelley Moore, etc… Then you can look at the “bench” of potential candidates and spokespeople where the Democrats have rising superstars like Tony Schultz and Mahlon Mitchell and the republicans have Brian Schimming.

The republicans were licking their wounds when the best they could find to run against the recalled democratic Senators were David Vanderleest who probably belongs in prison( and is thinking of running for office again), and Crazy Kim Simac, who appears to be off of her meds when she speaks.

If you want another example of the lack of talent on the republican side, look at the current race to fill Herb Kohl's US Senate seat.    The best the republican's can come up with is an unrecognizable Tommy Thompson, professional jobber Mark Neumann who no one likes and some rich guy from who lives in Washington DC.  

Excuse me for not taking you seriously when these are the kind of candidates you continue to run. 

I agree that the democrats have some serious problems that need fixing.   When an unethical, under investigation, college drop out with no real world experience and a horrendous record as a politician can get elected twice in two years as Governor of this great state, then there are serious flaws in the democratic party that need fixing.  

We know that the republicans will bury us in money in any election that they are interested in, until we fix the horrendous Citizens United decision, that is NOT going to change.    We found out that with enough money the republicans are able to turn a net loss in jobs to a "supposed strength" in their candidate.   Heck they even ran ads touting his horrendous record on jobs.  

So that being said we need to emrbace and adapt to the changing landscape.   No matter what happened, we stull have the advantage in people power.

The network of activists and enthusiasm we built up on the progressive side can not be replicated by an expensive bus and some crazy speakers. 

Some amazing people have gotten involved in politics on our side and that will all pay off in the end.  What Lori Compas did in her district was literally unprecedented.   Tell me any example of anyone on the right who has or could come close to accomplishing what Lori Compas did.  There are activist's now getting involved in even the more republican of districts and mobilizing progressive's, liberals, democrats, moderates and independents in ways that they have never been involved.   That will pay of in the end. 

We do need, and i am sure when things calm down, we will have some inflection from the democratic party.  We need better messaging and less paid consultants.   Let's hope whoever came up with the messaging in this last recall election will never work in Wisconsin politics again.  We also need the party to listen to the people more and support and embrace the grassroots activists more openly.  I would also like to see more aggressiveness from the elected officials in the party.  

We have some big hurdles to overcome, all is NOT lost for the democratic party going forward in Wisconsin.   We have the extreme advantage of a republican party that is insane and incompetent.  Now it is time to start taking advantage of that!  

Malfeasance in Interviews

Tom Barrett scored many points in his debate drubbing of Scott Walker on Friday night.   One of the best was when Soon to be Governor Barrett called out Scott Walker on signing recall petitions for Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl.  Scott Walker ignored the fact that he has spent his whole political career knee deep in recalls of democrats and now thinks we need to reform our recall rules.

When finally asked, soon to be ex Governor Walker has "no memory" of signing previous recall petitions.    As our friend Jud points out, Scott Walker is lying(again). 

And, because Walker was at these events with Neumann, the issue of partial birth abortion and Feingold's alleged support of it was the focus of Walker's speeches.  My specific recollection is that Walker said, on multiple occasions, something in the vein of: We came up a little short with the recall effort, but that effort was not a wasted effort. History will remember it as the first step in Feingold's 1998 defeat.

The reason I remember that particular line is that we were trying to make the case that the 1997 recall campaign was not a grassroots movement, but a GOP-backed effort that at best would trigger a recall election over an issue that was deeply unpopular with the public and at worst would weaken the populist image of Feingold as he prepared for his 1998 reelection. We were specifically concerned that Neumann and the GOP was using the hundreds of thousands that signed the recall as fundraising and organizing tools to defeat Feingold.

However, now Walker is making the absurd claim that he was not only not a leader of the recall Feingold / Kohl movement, but told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that didn't even sign the petition, claiming that he has "no memory" of signing the recall petitions against Kohl and Feingold and that "I don't believe that I did."

So we see that he is perfectly willing to throw his friends under the bus to advance his political career.  What do you think he will do to us when he gets a chance?   We already know the answer to that question!  

Dear Mark Neumann, Just Stop It Already!

After the ho hum GOPfest, in which they all gathered around and tried to reassure themselves, with little success, the Scott Walker isn't really a corrupt, inept, manipulate demon spawn who will be out of a job in three weeks, Mark Neumann sends out a pitiful email that starts out with:

I am very excited to tell you that last night conservatives from across Wisconsin gathered at the GOP convention in Green Bay and gave us a resounding first ballot victory in the Republican Senate endorsement vote! We won by more than a 2 to 1 margin!!

When one actually looks to see that after that "tremendous" showing, not only did he fail to secure the nomination, but came in second at the end of the day. This makes Neumann's false boasting almost as pathetic as those conservatives that are still holding a grudge, two years later, that he dared run against Scott "The Chosen One" Walker.

It doesn't matter to me who loses to Tammy Baldwin in the fall election, but geez, you'd think that Neumann would put some effort into not looking even worse than he is.

The Republicans Have a Candidate

None of The Above

The four stooge triumvirate of Tommy Thompson, Eric Hovde, Jeff Fitzgerald and Mark Neumann were all up for vote to see who the republican party of Wisconsin endorsed and they were met with a resounding =YUCK

Will Republicans Let Neumann In This Time?

As Republicanfest is kicking off in Green Bay, where Republicans from around the state and try to tell themselves it's going to be OK and Scott Walker really isn't a corrupt loser, there is one question that will be interesting to find the answer to.

Will the party faithful continue to hold their grudge against Mark Neumann for daring to challenge the Chosen One and block him from the convention again?

The Right Side Of The Cheddarsphere Shorter

Ahem.

"Aw, please don't back Mark Neumann! He was mean and told the truth about Scott Walker!"

Earlier: CFG v CFG

Bonus shorter, with a tip of the hat to Kevin Binversie:

See! Here's proof, and we Koch Brother affiliates never skew the truth!

It says a lot when Fred Dooley is the voice of reason in any group.

Club for Growth vs. Club for Growth

Well, well, well. It appears that the Koch Brother's pet sheep have taken to eating their own.

Last night, I pointed out that the Republicans (a Koch-owned subsidiary) were having some problems of their own in the upcoming elections, especially in regards to what will surely be a rather contested race for US Senate:

The Republican's are also flailing around when it comes to the US Senate seat as well. Right now their two leading contenders is Tommy "Stick it to 'em" Thompson and Mark "Also Ran" Neumann. Just looking at any right wing blog and you can see their anguish.

They don't like Tommy because he understands that you can't survive by just making the problems worse by endless tax cuts. He just doesn't share their same animosity to success that the teahadists do.

But as much as they don't like Tommy, they dislike Neumann even more. Neumann had the audacity to run against the Scott "It's my turn" Walker. Even worse, Neumann committed heresy in their eyes by actually pointing out Walker's flaws, lies and other misdeeds. To the devout Wisconsin Republican, that's worse than eating a baby.

Today, my prophetic words again came true sooner that even I expected.

It started out early when the national Club for Growth (another Koch-owned subsidiary) launched an attack ad against Tommy Thompson, who hasn't even formally declared his candidacy yet! Here is their ad:



The Wisconsin chapter of the same group (yup, yet another Koch-owned subsidiary) has been taking great pains to make sure that the voters in Wisconsin understand that it's their parent organization running these ads and trying to distance themselves as much as possible.

As I pointed out last night, they really hate Neumann because he dared to speak the truth about Walker. This can be evidenced in these posts by Owen Robinson and James Wigderson. (They're getting angry at Neumann is most ironic since they both back Walker, who lies more than any ten people. Furthermore, they both seem to be truth-telling challenged themselves.)

And to add to this building feud, Jim Klauser, who has mastered the art of writing poison pen letters to Neumann, made the surprise move of writing a poison pen letter to Neumann.

I do have to say it's nice to be able to sit back for once and see the Koch Brothers' puppets doing my work for me by tearing themselves up for a while. Anyone have any popcorn? This looks like it could be a good show.

There's Blood In The Water And The Stench Of Fear In The Air

The Republicans have been saying, over and over and over and over, how they won the first round of recalls, even though they lost two seats in the Senate.  But no one, on any side of this monumental struggle, is acting like the Republicans have won anything.

The Democrats, the unions and the working people of Wisconsin are continuing on like an unstoppable juggernaut.  They came out of the recall battles bloody and bruised, and they might be a bit tired and sore, but they still have that look of grim determination bolstered by the taste of victory.  While on the surface things might appear calm, in the background there is as much if not more things afoot than during the time in February and March, when people first started to wake up to what we Milwaukeeans had known all along.  Walker is bad news, not to be trusted and needs to be taken out of office.

But if the people aren't acting like the losers they allegedly are, the Republicans are acting even less like the winners they claim to be.

US Representative Paul Ryan, who shows more sense than his supporters, made it clear that he's not running for President of the United States.  He was at least smart of enough that he would never survive broad examination of his one trick pony of cutting off grandma and grandpa from their Social Security and cutting off people's Medicaid.  Even his fellow Republicans know that which is probably why he was deemed unworthy of being on Congress' "super committee." (Aren't those last two words enough to strike terror?)  If Wisconsin Republicans were so sure of themselves, Ryan would be riding the crest of their wave to the White House.

The Republican's are also flailing around when it comes to the US Senate seat as well.  Right now their two leading contenders is Tommy "Stick it to 'em" Thompson and Mark "Also Ran" Neumann.  Just looking at any right wing blog and you can see their anguish.

They don't like Tommy because he understands that you can't survive by just making the problems worse by endless tax cuts.  He just doesn't share their same animosity to success that the teahadists do.

But as much as they don't like Tommy, they dislike Neumann even more.  Neumann had the audacity to run against the Scott "It's my turn" Walker.  Even worse, Neumann committed heresy in their eyes by actually pointing out Walker's flaws, lies and other misdeeds. To the devout Wisconsin Republican, that's worse than eating a baby.

Their other long shot possible candidates is Ted "Who?" Kanavas or Jeff "Koch Puppet" Fitzgerald who helped ram through Scott Walker's amoral bills, but couldn't even shine with all the favorable press and just became a sinister shadow man through the process.

And speaking of Walker, it came out this morning that the guy who kept telling us that he knows what's best for us, and has demonstratively proved that to be a lie, doesn't seem to be so sure of himself.  The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting that he as already sent out a tweet begging for support.  Of course, that would also explain his untrustworthy, empty gesture at bipartisanship.It must tick him off something fierce that instead of plotting and scheming on how to trick the American people for his own race for the presidency, he is now forced to deal with reality back home and prepare for the fight of his political career.

What one could very well call one of the greatest signs of the conservatives' nervousness, even the Koch Brothers are starting to get a bit jumpy.  They have been buying up a lot of anti-Koch domain names in an effort to slow down the people opposed to them, but even then did a sloppy job and left many amusing possibilities.  But with all their money and their political scheming, even they are starting to recognize the magnitude of what they've done and the sheer number of people they have angered.

The Republicans talk with a lot of bravado, but their actions - from running candidates even they don't like, not getting the candidates they do like to run, and running scared - belie their posturing and show that even they know they're in big trouble with the powers that really matter: The people of Wisconsin.

Walker Blogger Doesn't Like Independent Thought

My, oh my! Hell hath not the fury of a bad blogger scorned.

Aaron Rodriguez, who used to occasionally post at Fairly Conservative, is now going after his former BFF, Cindy Kilkenny, who had shown the truth behind another one of Scott Walker's whisper campaign lies, this one being that Neumann is tapped out of cash. The meme that Team Walker is trying to spread is that Neumann is no longer investing in his campaign (even though it is Election Day Eve) and thus wouldn't have the money to run against Tom Barrett if he were to win Tuesday's primary.

Aaron is quite perturbed with this, to the point of originally titling his post "Kilkennys a political operative":

Okay, where do I begin. First, how telling is it that Neumann was crunching finance numbers with his campaign manager in front of Cindy? How stable is a campaign if they have Cindy sitting at the table during inside strategy discussions? Eeeks!

How desperate does Neumann look when he befriends the only blogger in Wisconsin that supported him? I suppose if Neumann wins, Cindy could become his 4th campaign manager. Perhaps someone should tell him that Cindy almost voted for Barrett because he looked her in the eye when he spoke. Never-mind the minor details that he's a tax and spend liberal that supports partial-birth abortion.

One thing is for certain, I cannot wait until the primaries are over. Although I'm fearful that Cindy and Capper will have a serious meltdown, at least they can still comfort each other when it's all over.

Eeeks? I never knew that Eeek could be pluralized.

Anyway, this is not the first, and I suspect it won't be the last, time that Rodriguez has played fast and loose with the truth. Kilkenny is not the only blogger supporting Neumann. A repeated critic of Walker's, the pseudonymous author of Wisconsin Truth Project just wrote this tonight:

One of the reasons I started this blog last year was because I wanted to point out some issues with the Walker campaign that I knew I could not do with my name attached. Personally, I wish for a future in Wisconsin conservative politics but, if you live in Wisconsin’s Republican political sphere, you cannot afford to suggest anything but that Mark Neumann is out of line in challenging Scott Walker and must be stopped.

Ever wonder why no currently-elected Wisconsin political figure has endorsed Neumann? Or why he had to another state to find a campaign staff?

Because you can forget about getting a job in the Walker Administration – or anywhere near the Wisconsin GOP – if you support Mark Neumann.

Well, Mark Neumann DOES have a right to run for governor – and I have a right to vote for him. And it just so happens that Walker’s baggage from the Milwaukee County Health Complex has compromised his own electability and signified Neumann’s emergence as the biggest threat to Tom Barrett.

I’m voting against Reince Priebus and the Republican establishment – and FOR Mark Neumann.

There have been numerous other bloggers that have also been critical of Walker and the many negative issues connected to both the way he has mismanaged the county and the way he has mismanaged his campaign.

I also really need to point out the hypocrisy of Rodriguez calling Kilkenny an operative for Neumann, since he is a blogger for Walker's website.

But it isn't Kilkenny or any other blogger that Walker and his faithful blogger needs to worry about. It's the regular voters who can see for themselves what a failure Walker has been, and are tired of the machine of either major political party that will decided Walker's fate. For now.

Analysis: The Gubernatorial Primary

In just three days, the people of Wisconsin will be voting in the primary for who they would like to represent their respective political parties in November's general election. Here is a brief analysis of where things are at.

Democrats

On the Democratic side, there are two main candidates. One, of course is Tom Barrett, the Mayor of the City of Milwaukee. The other is Tim John.

It is pretty safe to assume that Barrett will overwhelming win this primary. He has the support of the Democratic Party and has been getting all of the media attention. Barrett's record as mayor has been decent. He brought in Ed Flynn to head the police department and crime is down. His budgets have been balanced and he showed true leadership in a crisis, like this summer's floods.

On the downside, some people will criticize him for raising taxes, but these are the usual suspects that feel they should receive services like snow plowing or police protection without having to actually pay for them.

His primary opponent, Tim John, seems to be an affable fellow, and did raise the important issue of the intolerably high level of unemployment of African American men in Milwaukee. However, outside of that one issue, it was hard to take his campaign seriously. He tried to make one of his issues the sale of unpasteurized milk. Outside of some dairy farmers and those that want to drink the raw milk, it was not a big point among most Wisconsinites. To make it even more irrelevant, Governor Doyle resolved the issue during the year, making it a non-issue.

Republicans

The Republican gubernatorial primary is most definitely the most heated in the state, and for yours truly, the most fun to watch.

On one hand, you have the party-anointed boy king, Scott Walker. Walker ran in 2006, but dropped out of the race when the party support went to Mark Green. But he never stopped campaigning, and spent the next four years making the circuit, attending functions and using his bogus bike ride to keep his name out there. Because of this, the party arbitrarily appointed him as their great hope.

His opponent, Mark Neumann, was a U.S. Congressman until he left that seat to run against Russ Feingold. He lost that race, but only barely. After that, he went on to run a successful home building business and started three private schools.

This race is too close to call, despite what the party faithful would have you to believe. If Walker wins the primary, the Republicans lose the advantage of having a non-Milwaukeean running against the mayor of Milwaukee. Walker also has a lot of baggage to carry all the way to the finish line that makes him an easy target for the Democrats. Some of Walker's baggage includes, but is in no way limited to:

• The O'Donnell Park tragedy, where a concrete facade fell and killed a teenage boy and left a woman with a life-altering injury.
• The mental health complex, where years of budget cuts and staffing shortages allowed the facility to become run down and unsafe. Even more alarming is the fact that poor management and short staffing allowed female patients to be repeatedly sexually assaulted, ending up in at least one pregnancy.
• Walker's poor management forced the state to take over the Income Maintenance Program, spreading another Milwaukee County burden among all of the state's tax payers.
• Walker's inability to create jobs allowed the Private Industry Council to be moved from the County's control to the City of Milwaukee.
• Walker's budget cuts to the transit system has cost up to 40,000 people losing access to their jobs.
• Walker's current budget is deep in the hole, and that hole is only getting deeper.
• The multiple gaffes committed by his campaign, including racially-tainted tweets, insensitivity to the victims of the O'Donnell Park tragedy, and being found to be lying in his commercials
• A $400 million debt in the form of pension obligation bonds, which still doesn't cover the shortfall the county faces.

Mark Neumann does not provide the easy target that Walker does. He does not have the career politician tag and has a track record as a successful businessman. His success has allowed him the luxury of being mostly self-financed, which relieves him of the taint of special interests unlike Walker, who has received big money from people like the Koch brothers, who are the financial engine behind the TEA Party movements.

However, due to having the party support, Walker will most likely have a much more effective GOTV system, which gives him that edge, but it is questionable whether even that will be sufficient to make up for all of Walker's deficiencies.

In a way, I hope that Walker wins. It will make it easier for Barrett to win the governorship. It will also give this lowly site a few more weeks to enjoy some mild popularity. On the other hand, I don't know if Milwaukee County, its tax payers, or its most vulnerable citizens can afford, much less survive, much more of his campaign stunts and poor management.

Team Walker Is Already Eating Sour Grapes

Mark Neumann is bragging about topping Scott Walker in a Tea Party straw poll by a whopping 40% when he was trailing by 9% just a month ago.

Walker's supporters are chewing on some real sour grapes by pointing out that only 21 people responded to the poll.

Before they get their indignant undies in a bundle, perhaps they should remember that they not only celebrated, but endorsed Walker, on straw polls with only 39 people responding.

Just remember, sour grapes make for a bitter whine.

Newmann's Like Pelosi, But Walker Likes Pelosi

In what has to be becoming one of the most expensive oopsies in this year's silly season, Walker keeps putting his foot into it.

He started out with a smear campaign of sending out mailers comparing his opponent, Mark Neumann, to Nancy Pelosi because they voted for the same transportation bill in 1990s. He then flooded the airwaves on both TV and radio echoing the same charges.

But it turns out that Walker actually praised the bill when it was passed:

. . . Originally, $241 million of federal funds was set aside for use on the East-West Corridor. Specifically, the money could be used for a light rail system along the corridor or for the widening of I-94 to insert car pool and bus lanes…

. . . At that time, a group of Milwaukee County lawmakers objected to both proposals. Fast forward to May 1998. The same Milwaukee County lawmakers -- three Democrats and three Republicans -- applauded the change in the use of the $241 million and asked that the funds be used on local projects, including the reconstruction of the Marquette Interchange, the Zoo Interchange and on expanding support for the Milwaukee County Transit System.

In our opinion, supporting these projects is a better use of the funds and will ultimately save Milwaukee County taxpayers money.

Rep. Scott Walker
R-Wauwatosa

So, when Walker was comparing Neumann to Nancy Pelosi, maybe he actually meant it has a compliment.

Well, at least he waited more than 24 hours before flip-flopping this time.

I have seen many right wing pundits and their commenters trash Neumann for being hypocritical and negative. These same people say that they support Walker because he would run the government the same way he runs his campaign.

It must be true.

Give the recent events from his campaign, including all of the hypocrisy, the racially-tinged tweets and the insensitivity, and if he runs a government the same way he campaigns, is it any real wonder that Milwaukee County is in such a mess?

With A Mighty Blow, Walker Blackens His Own Eye

Scott Walker, feeling the pressure from dwindling poll numbers, decides to go stupid in his negative campaigning and sends off a mailer that accuses his primary opponent of voting for a bill that *gasp* transportation! The mailer, which targeted the Fox Valley, where I've heard Walker is doing exceptionally poorly, also accuses Neumann of voting for the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" (I guess Sarah Palin turned down his pleas for help), a highway in Canada, and being like Nancy Pelosi.

Such a dolorious blow to deliver. Now, there is nothing wrong with hard hitting campaigning, or calling someone on their record, but for the candidate's sake, you don't want to go over the line and appear as a pompous ass.

Alas, for Walker, his aim is about as accurate as his campaign boasts, and he ended up pummeling himself instead.

Illy-T points out that the U.S. does not pay for highways in Canada, not even Quebec. He does note that Walker does buy his buses from Canada however.

Walker's inanity has caused even some of his most ardent supporters, including one squawker, to call him out on his foolishness. If even his most loyal people are calling him out, what do you suppose that does to people that don't listen to the Republican machine, or to the people that were on the bubble on who to vote for?

But all is not lost for Walker. He still has some that drink of the Kool-Aid served in Walker's Cult of Personality.