And Now a Few Words on the Wisconsin Senate Circus

[n2doc]

By Charles P. Pierce
at 4:56PM
While most of the attention rightfully has fallen upon the efforts to get rid of Scott Walker, the goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to manage its midwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin, there are some signs that the various energetic gnomes at work in the Republican base who just tossed out the safest seat in the Senate in Indiana may be working to screw their own party further a little north of there. The undead spirits of Christine O'Donnell and Sharron Angle are walking the banks of the Fox River, howling for blood and hors d'oeuvres.

As it happens, there are three candidates running in the Republican primary to replace retiring Senator Herb Kohl, a Democrat. (The Democratic candidate, Rep. Tammy Baldwin, is running unopposed.) One of them is Tommy Thompson, a former governor, a former Cabinet official under Ronald Reagan, very briefly once a presidential candidate, and, for many years, the face of Republican politics in the state. Another candidate is Jeff Fitzgerald, the current speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly, who is making the run despite having the Walker anchor tied to his ankles. (His older brother, Scott, is majority leader of the state senate and is facing a recall election of his own.) The third candidate is a former congressman named Mark Neumann and, boy howdy, are you going to love this guy. He makes Richard Mourdock, the guy who defenestrated Lugar in Indiana, look like Emma Goldman.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Neumann, who was a foot soldier in the Gingrich revolution way back in the day, is completely batshit on the subject of gay people. Gay people make him feel icky, and Neumann is certain they make Jesus feel the same way. In 1997, he gave a speech to the local Christian Coalition and told them that he wouldn't even hire gay people to work in his office....

"If somebody walks in to me and say, ‘I'm a gay person; I want a job in your office.' I would say, ‘that's inappropriate' and they wouldn't be hired because that would mean they are promoting their agenda. The gay and lesbian lifestyle (is) unacceptable, lest there be any question about that."

Now watch where you step because we're about to lower the bar here a tad, but, as modern Republicans go, Tommy Thompson is close to as good as you're going to get. His welfare reforms in Wisconsin, while not the greatest thing that ever happened to the state's poor people, at least contained committments to education and job-training, as opposed to the chuck-em-off-the-rolls theory put into practice by many of his fellows. And he has put together a plan for a high-speed rail system connecting all the hubs in the midwest from Cincinnati to St. Louis, and north all the way to Minneapolis, that has the strong support of former Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis, who cares more about trains than any man I've ever met. He is honorable, decent, and, in my experience, almost amiable. He also is the only one of the three that polling data says would beat Baldwin straight up. Mark Fitzgerald is a nebbish, and Mark Neumann is a nutcase.

So, naturally, fresh off their triumph in Indiana, those fine folks at the Club For Growth have launched an ad blitz in Wisconsin in favor of... the nutcase!


Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/wisconsin-senate-race-2012-8732680

[DCKit]

1. Pierce is, infallibly, a good read. nt

[midnight]

2. Very good read, but I think Thompson was part of Bush 44 cabinet.

Also I heard from a relative that some of their friends family were visiting our circus like climate are were very stressed and can't wait to leave.... I heard Tom Barret say that families can't even talk about politics in this state anymore for all the divisions going on. While travelers/visitors seem to feel that too, I don't want to have to bend over and give these googly eyed followers anything near what they want in school or teacher salary cuts... I want Wisconsin teachers to receive a great salary that they deserve, and that we should be paying them for preparing our children to be able to hold their own against or with the 1%......

[Myrina]

3. "He is honorable, decent, and, in my experience, almost amiable."

... AND A RAGING DRUNK.