Russ Feingold, TARP Critic, Down In The Polls To Bailout Beneficiary Ron Johnson

[Jefferson23]

* We need to help Feingold.

First Posted: 09-22-10 04:07 PM | Updated: 09-23-10 12:02 PM


Yesterday, Public Policy Polling released its most recent survey of the Wisconsin Senate campaign, and what the numbers said were shocking, to many. According to PPP, incumbent Senator Russ Feingold is trailing his opponent, Ron Johnson, by double-digits. And so everyone suddenly got interested in the race.

This is somewhat understandable. When it comes to the larger election bellwethers, the struggles of a storied Democratic senator really spices up the election narrative. That it's Feingold is all the more extraordinary -- this is the guy who'd won re-election again and again, all the while making very principled votes that frequently rankled his own party. He's best known for the landmark campaign finance reform bill he labored to produce with his across-the-aisle partner, John McCain. At present, he may be one of the last members of the Congressional Adult Caucus.

And in this current climate of childish bloodletting and movement-based temper tantrums, that may be as good an explanation as any for Feingold's recent woes. But maybe the problem is that, as Dave Weigel noted yesterday, Johnson, "after Chris Coons," is probably "the least-covered frontrunner of the cycle."

SNIP* To be clear, while it may not be the backbone of his funding, some of the very bailout money that Ron Johnson has criticized is now funding his campaign.


What makes Feingold's deficit all the stranger is that Feingold has not committed what is shaping up to be this campaign season's original sin: he didn't vote for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. He's since voted to end it twice. He's the author of the Control Spending Now Act, which would take unspent Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds and use them to pay down the deficit."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/22/strange-days-tarp-critic-_n_735406.html?ir=Media

[stray cat]

1. Proof that the solution is not to be a solid progressive - if the ship sinks all go under

[Enthusiast]

3. Proof? Progressive has nothing to do with it.

Do you think we should all embrace the GOP ideology? You want our Democratic candidates to move rightward? I will leave the Democratic Party. I simply will. If the Democratic Party doesn't preserve the New Deal and traditional Democratic Party ideals then they are no longer significantly different than the GOP. Millions of us will leave the party.

[flyarm]

8. + 1 million!

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

11. "Do you think we should all embrace the GOP ideology?"

Yes. Yes he does.

[catgirl]

2. K & R

[Jefferson23]

4. Kick for Feingold, he needs our support! n/t

[ladjf]

5. Feingold may have voted against too many of the Democratic

legislative initiatives. nt

[cognoscere]

6. Could be. But in a state where about half the people are

functionally insane, broadcasting Ron Johnson's lies every minute or so has a hypnotic effect on the cheeseheads. (in this instance, cheese is a euphemism for the stuff that falls out of the south end of a northbound dog.)

[ladjf]

7. I agree with your comments. nt

[boomerbust]

9. Spoken like a true

Fib, Fish or would you prefer Illinois MORON.

[notesdev]

10. The "bailout beneficiary" line is bunk

While it's technically true, if you go through Congress you'll find few IF ANY who don't have a host of bailout recipients on their donor lists... and the leader of the Democratic Party is the biggest bailout beneficiary of all, by this rhetorical standard, having broken pretty much every fundraising record on that score, actually.

It would be much better for Feingold to campaign on fiscal sanity and opposition to bailouts without trying to paint the opponent in a false light.