Third time's a charm?

So Tom Barrett is in, after months of delay.  I will reiterate what I said here long ago and elsewhere - absent Ron Kind and Russ Feingold, Tom Barrett is the Democrats' best option.  It sets up a buyer's remorse election, where voters are afforded the opportunity to reconsider the choice they made about 18 months ago.  Barrett is geographically more appealing and less polarizing than Kathy Falk, who I believe has a strong record as Dane County Executive but unfortunately has decided that being the organ grinder for Mary Bell and Marty Beil is the path to success.  It's not.

If this campaign is about how can Wisconsin do better than a guy who seems to delight in being the most polarizing governor in state history while accomplishing virtually nothing in the last year, then the Democrats have a fighting shot. 

But if the unions are hell-bent on making this election about them and trying to re-fight last year's battles, Scott Walker will win.  The unions need to be pushing from behind, not waving the flags and leading out front.

Nobody likes Keith Olbermann anymore.

Talk about a guy who overplayed his hand in the worst way.  Divisive + high maintenance = train wreck.

Current TV said Friday afternoon that it had terminated the contract of its lead anchor, Keith Olbermann, scarcely a year after he was hired to reboot the fledgling channel in his progressive political image.

Starting Friday night, the former New York governor Eliot Spitzer will take over Mr. Olbermann’s 8 p.m. time slot, according to a letter to viewers. His program will be titled “Viewpoint With Eliot Spitzer.”

Mr. Olbermann did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Current indicated that he had failed to honor the terms of his five-year, $50 million contract, giving the channel the right to terminate it.

In the letter, the channel’s founders, Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, wrote: “We created Current to give voice to those Americans who refuse to rely on corporate-controlled media and are seeking an authentic progressive outlet. We are more committed to those goals today than ever before. Current was also founded on the values of respect, openness, collegiality, and loyalty to our viewers. Unfortunately these values are no longer reflected in our relationship with Keith Olbermann and we have ended it.”

Flunked out of MSNBC, flunked out of Current  What's left?

Romney channels Joe Everyman

Because, of course, Joe has an elevator for his cars too.

SAN DIEGO — At Mitt Romney’s proposed California beach house, the cars will have their own separate elevator.

There’s also a planned outdoor shower and a 3,600-square foot basement — a room with more floor space than the existing home’s entire living quarters.

Those are just some of the amenities planned for the massive renovation of the Romneys’ home in the tony La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, according to plans on file with the city.

A project this ambitious comes with another feature you don’t always find with the typical fixer-upper: its own lobbyist, hired by Romney to push the plan through the approval process.

It's spending, unless it's on DoD

.... and then somehow it's always an "investment."

Paul Ryan delivered on a doppelganger budget proposal that looks the polar opposite of what the president rolled out. Ryan cuts debt, doesn’t raise taxes, shrinks government and invests in defense rather than cutting it. There is so much work to be on defense from reinvesting in new capabilities, to recovering from the grind in Iraq and Afghanistan and preparing to meet future challenges that even Ryan’s investments won’t be enough to meet all the nation’s security needs.

Pretending that the Department of Defense isn't filled with waste, fraud, and abuse after decades of being sheltered from public scrutiny by the GOP is about as asinine as pretending there aren't efficiencies that can be found in K-12 education or our nation's colleges and universities after decades of being sheltered from public scrutiny by Democrats.

Randy Hopper wasn't driving drunk, just a conspiracy victim

Please, please, please run this guy against Jessica King in November.  Just when you think the gift can't give anymore, it finds new ways to entertain.

Former state Sen. Randy Hopper claims that politics played a role in his drunken driving arrest in Fond du Lac County following a Packers game last fall.

Hopper got on the stand Thursday morning on the first day of his two-day trial and said his vote to eliminate collective bargaining for most state employees was the catalyst for numerous threats aimed at him.

"The day everything broke loose in Madison I had members of the union in my office who said, 'If you don't support us, we are going to destroy your life,'" Hopper said. "'We're going to picket your kids' schools, we're going to tear apart your reputation, we're going to have you recalled.'"

Reading further, you'll discover that Hopper's arrest was a conspiracy not only among police officers, but also by the individuals driving behind Hopper who reported his driving as reckless.

I suspect we will soon hear about the bartender who was slipping Everclear into Hopper's beer to juice up the alcohol content, and the DOT officials that designed the road to swerve left and right when ex-GOP senators drive over it.

Say Anything?

And Santorum accuses Romney of being the guy who will say anything to win?

Rick Santorum's latest attempt to use a Mitt Romney aide's "Etch-A-Sketch" remark against the Republican front-runner instead gave his rival a chance to fire back on Thursday, after Santorum seemed to say he'd rather see President Obama reelected than send Romney to the White House.

Speaking at an event in Texas, Santorum again made the case that Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom's comments Wednesday on CNN about a "reset" of the campaign if Romney clinched the nomination showed the former Massachusetts governor's efforts to appeal to conservatives were insincere.

"You win by giving people the opportunity to see a different vision for our country, not someone who's just going to be a little different than the person in there," Santorum told a crowd in San Antonio, according to NBC News. "If you're going to be a little different, we might as well stay with what we have instead of taking a risk with what may be the Etch-A-Sketch candidate of the future."

Be careful what you wish for...

For all the Dem rejoicing over Pam Galloway's resignation, this isn't an improvement.

KRONENWETTER -- Long-time Republican state Rep. Jerry Petrowski of Marathon announced his bid Wednesday for the open 29th Senate District seat vacated last week by Republican Sen. Pam Galloway.

Petrowski joins another veteran state Rep. Donna Seidel, D-Wausau, in what could be one of the most hotly contested races, outside of the governor's race, in the upcoming recall elections.

Petrowski, who made his announcement at G3 Industries Inc., a metal parts manufacturing plant in Kronenwetter, touted the need for more jobs in Wisconsin and access to the best and most affordable health care and education. He also said politicians must play nice together to guide the state through the tough economic times.

I'll gladly go on record saying that I think Rep. Seidel had a better chance running against Sen. Galloway than she does running against Rep. Petrowski.

In her year in office, Galloway drifted rather far from her reasonable, health-care focused rhetoric in her campaign.  As a result, I've heard there was a fair bit of buyer's remorse by summer; that many people who supported Galloway didn't get what they thought they were getting.

Meanwhile, Petrowski might be the butt of a lot of good-natured jokes in Madison, but he's always done a great job of connecting with his district and managing his business back home.

Not sure I'd put much money on picking a winner right now, but the GOP's chances of retaining this seat definitely didn't get worse by changing candidates.

Court makes right call on redistricting

Given the limited issues in play, a narrow decision that addresses relevant concerns is the prudent course of action.

Wisconsin lawmakers will have to redraw voting maps for two districts in Milwaukee because their first attempt unfairly weakened Latino voting power, a panel of federal judges ruled Thursday.

The maps changed voting boundaries throughout the state, were drawn by the GOP-controlled Legislature last year and signed into law by Gov. Scott Walker in August.

The three-judge panel found that the maps unfairly hurt Latino voters in two south side Milwaukee districts by diluting their voting power.

The panel ruled that because Assembly Districts 8 and 9 in Milwaukee violate the Voting Rights Act, the state Government Accountability Board cannot implement the new maps in their current form.
But the court upheld all of the other legislative and congressional districts that Republicans drew.

That means that, unless there is another counter ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, the maps — which favor Republican candidates — will be in place for the next decade. They are set to go into effect in November.

Save for the GOP procedure steeped in paranoia (like asking legislators to sign agreements not to discuss a matter of public business), the process wasn't any more private or crooked than it's been in the past.

Should the legislature fail to comply with the court's ruling, I would expect the federal court to do not much other than reapportion the 8th and 9th Assembly Districts.

It's STILL not working (regardless of Walker's spin).

First, I'm flattered that Governor Walker is putting out press releases to combat me and a few other bloggers.  I appreciate your efforts, guys.  I will face off against Cullen Werwie in a battle of wits any day of the week.  Perhaps over the summer.  I don't work in the summer and, well, Cullen might not be working in the summer either.

Per the offer of the Governor's office, I sauntered over to the Philly Fed website to see what they may have been conveniently omitting - or misinterpreting.  Statistics are hard, after all.

Using the leading index, which measures the projected change in the coincident index, roughly 60% of states have seen month-over-month improvements.  Here's your map!

There's a great deal of volatility in one-month comparisons.  For example, West Virginia experienced a 254.8% change in its score from last month.  Louisiana is up 327.5%. 

Relative measurements in general are specious.  If Wisconsin has one widget this month, and two widgets next month, Wisconsin now has 100% more widgets.  If Iowa has 20 widgets this month and 21 widgets next month, it only has 5% more widgets, even though Iowa still has 20 more widgets than Wisconsin and each state gained one widget.

If your economy has sucked over the last year, like Wisconsin's, any improvement will appear larger than a improvement of identical size in the economy of a state whose economy has not sucked. Any perceived change from nearly zero growth is going to appear enormous when using a relative measurement.

Walker's claim in his release that Wisconsin "experienced the most improved forecast in the nation" is an outright lie and one that can only be told by people who don't understand statistics.  Per the Philly Fed itself, Wisconsin's six-month growth rate ranks 33rd of the 50 states.  No amount of spin can correct Walker's statement.

Walker is correct in asserting that Wisconsin's 1.95% growth reading is the best monthly score since 2003.  It would be equally correct to assert that Walker also has the five worst monthly scores in a non-recession period since 2003.  Here's your proof!

Congratulations?

Now, let's take a look at the three-month change in the coincident index, which measures nonfarm payrolls, average manufacturing hours worked, unemployment, and wage and salary disbursements in a single measure.

Again, to be clear, the coincident index uses data to evaluate what has actually happened.  The leading index represents the forecasted change in the coincident index over the next six months.

Now look where Wisconsin ranks compared to its friends.  Another map!

Awwwwww.  Who's that sad grey blob in the middle of a sea of green?  That'd be YOU, Wisconsin!  Per the three-month coincident index, Wisconsin is ranked 49th, above Alaska and only Alaska.  48 states saw positive change in the last three months, one saw negative change, and then there's Wisconsin, spinning its wheels in the mud.

So is it any wonder that Wisconsin's six-month forecast is improving relative to other states?  It's because compared to other states, Wisconsin's economic recovery is still DEAD IN THE WATER.  The only way Wisconsin's economy could be looking down is if you flipped the corpse over in the coffin before you buried it.

In a nutshell, America is doing better.  That's great.  The Philly Fed thinks things are likely to improve in Wisconsin.  That's also great.  Unfortunately, the reality Walker avoids is that Wisconsin's recovery is dreadfully lagging and behind that of nearly every other state.  And to no great surprise, that seems to have missed Cullen's talking points.

Ladies and gentlemen, if this is Scott Walker's idea of good news, I'd hate to see what the bad news looks like.

Vos gets the message right.

Unfortunately for politicians of all stripes, the chasm between saying the right things and doing the right things is larger than it should be.

The marathon Assembly sessions that became the norm the past two years need to come to an end, says the man most assume will be the next Assembly Speaker.

State Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester, used an end-of-session wrap-up Wednesday with several members of the media to highlight his party's accomplishments this past session and to discuss the need to tweak the Assembly's rules to bring a sense of order and civility back to the body after one of the more contentious sessions in memory.

"I think that whoever is the leader next time around is going to have to change some of the ways that we operate in order to make our body move forward in a way that gets the people's business done, without making us look like a circus," he said.

Who did worse today?

The New Orleans Saints...

New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton was suspended without pay for the 2012 season by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, and former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams was banned indefinitely on Wednesday because the team's players were paid bounties for big hits on opponents from 2009-11...

Handing down sweeping and serious punishment for a system that paid out thousands of dollars for knocking specific players out of games, Goodell also banned Saints general manager Mickey Loomis for the first eight regular-season games next season, and assistant coach Joe Vitt for the first six games.

Or the New York Jets?

Tim Tebow, who made the Broncos arguably the biggest NFL story in 2011, will bring his athleticism and fervent followers to New York.

The Broncos have traded their star quarterback with the polarizing skill set, and a seventh-round draft pick, to the New York Jets in exchange for a fourth- and a sixth-round pick, according to an NFL source.

The Saints have a grumpy quarterback under a franchise tag, a giant pile of starters who are due to walk in free agency, and a decimated front office.

The Jets, having the benefit of observing the Broncos last year, still chose to bring Tim Tebow to a team that just signed its struggling, mediocre starter to a new five-year, $58 million deal.  To heck with getting to the regular season; can Mark Sanchez get to the end of today without hearing the calls for Tebow to replace him?

It's over.

Would someone like to tell Santorum and Gingrich?

Mitt Romney crushed Rick Santorum in the Illinois primary Tuesday night, padding his delegate lead and once again forcing his Republican opponents to find another moment to mount a guerrilla challenge to his campaign.

With 55 percent of precincts reporting, Romney had 48 percent of the vote to Santorum’s 34 percent, Ron Paul’s 9 percent and Newt Gingrich’s 8 percent. That puts Illinois on track to be Romney’s biggest win in a large state since the Florida primary in January.

While Santorum campaigned in Illinois and spent money there, an adviser to his campaign acknowledged even before the polls closed that the state was likely lost to Romney.

If Romney’s victory margin holds, it may prompt national Republicans to try more aggressively to conclude an already drawn-out primary season. And speaking to supporters in Schaumburg, Ill., Romney sought to cast the win as part of a national political tide in his direction.

Southern Miss disciplines band members

Odds they also think Obama is a Muslim?

HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- The University of Southern Mississippi has revoked the scholarships of five members of its pep band who took part in the heckling of a Kansas State basketball player at last Thursday's NCAA men's basketball tournament game.

The school announced Tuesday that the five students also were removed from the band and will be required to complete a two-hour cultural sensitivity training course this week.

The students have not been identified.

Southern Miss issued an apology last week to Kansas State point guard Angel Rodriguez after he was the target of chants of "Where's your green card?" during the Wildcats' 70-64 second-round victory. Rodriguez had 13 points and four assists in the game.

Why Tim Tebow is made for Jacksonville

So Peyton Manning is on his way to Denver, barring unforeseen complications.  That's great.  The Broncos are a very good team and are getting the elite quarterback they need to contend.

Which of course means the evangelical phenomenon, Tim Tebow, needs a new home.  And that home must be Jacksonville.

The Jaguars have a new billionaire owner, Shahid Khan.  He's got a team with two problems.  First, the Jaguars suck.  Second, they play in a half-empty stadium.  Tim Tebow will never be able to solve the first problem.  He will, however, solve the second problem overnight, and solving the second problem puts the franchise in the financial position to solve the first problem later.

North Florida might as well be Alabama, or Mississippi.  It's Florida in name only.  Trading Tebow to the Deep South is like trading Jerry Seinfeld to the Beth Shalom Community Center.  Seinfeld could sell out for a decade telling the same five jokes.  Nobody would dare criticize his act because it would betray one of their own.

Plus, Jaguars games would be like the Nutcracker at Christmas.  Nutcracker performances sell out in communities across America year after year because there's always a new crop of parents who want to bring their little daughters on a pilgrimage to watch young Clara dance.  It doesn't matter if the show is great or if the show sucks.  That's not the point.

Similarly, there will always be redneck, toothless evangelicals who just got a new credit card from Citibank, who will borrow some more money and take their families in their beat-up Chevy truck to J-ville and watch Tebow praise Christ with his poor play.  The parking lot at EverBank Field will be replete with pissing Calvins, truck nutz, and Bauer '00 bumper stickers.  Fans will swill their awful light beer, they will cook hot dogs on their engines and wrap them in Wonder bread because they're too cheap for hot dog buns, and then they will go into the stadium and watch Jacksonville lose.

What does Tebow get?  An opportunity to be an NFL starter for the rest of his playing career without ever having to worry about his fan base turning on him or criticizing him for not being very good.  With Tebow at the helm the Jaguars would win - if God wanted them to win.

And all the while, Shahid Khan will sit in a luxury suite and marvel at how quickly his investment has paid off.  The highly successful Muslim businessman squeezing the downtrodden, blue-collar evangelicals for every dime they've got.

It's the perfect marriage.  Everyone wins.  Let's make it happen.

Conservatives to attempt recall of Jauch, Schultz

Please try.

Madison -- A conservative group says it's targeting one Democratic senator and one Republican for recall over the recent failure of mining legislation.

The group Citizens for Responsible Government Network said affiliated groups are moving ahead with possible recalls of Sen. Bob Jauch (D-Poplar) and Sen. Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center). The opposition of those two senators helped block Senate passage of mining legislation passed by the Assembly.

What a waste of time and energy.  Recalling Jauch is about as likely as the lefty recall of Scott Fitzgerald, and beating Schultz in a GOP primary with a right-wing nut ensures a Dem pickup of the 17th Senate District unless the Dems run a candidate to the left of Che.  The trends in that district over the last 20 years simply don't bode well for a hard-line conservative.

Rick Santorum is not deterred by the facts.

This is nearly as asinine as Jon Kyl asserting last year that abortions account for 90 percent of Planned Parenthood's services.

The American right sure seems to like stories about foreign countries killing their citizens. Most recently, leading GOP candidate Rick Santorum claimed that 10 per cent of the Netherlands' deaths were from euthanasia, 5 percent forced, and that "elderly people in the Netherlands don't go to the hospital" or, if they do, wear bracelets saying "do not euthanize me," all of which is false.

The furor was only just beginning to die down when, Monday, a video of Santorum spokeswoman Alice Stewart began to circulate. Asked about Santorum's bizarre claims, Stewart, astonishingly, held her ground. "Rick is strong pro-life," she repeated.

Ignoring the shakiness of Santorum's statements seems like an odd strategy. Many Americans have already stepped forward to denounce the "bogus statistics," as the Washington Post calls them, and the Dutch seem to be somewhere between bewilderment and outrage. What's behind the Santorum campaign's bizarre insistence that the Dutch are icing their elderly at such an appalling rate? Well, it's part of a pattern.

Of course, it's easy to lie to social conservatives about Europe since most of them don't have passports.

What does a Santorum say? Pander pander pander!

We get it, Rick.  You think the key to winning the GOP primary is suck off the social conservatives.

America is suffering a pandemic of harm from pornography.  A wealth of research is now available demonstrating that pornography causes profound brain changes in both children and adults, resulting in widespread negative consequences. Addiction to pornography is now common for adults and even for some children. The average age of first exposure to hard-core, Internet pornography is now 11. Pornography is toxic to marriages and relationships. It contributes to misogyny and violence against women.  It is a contributing factor to prostitution and sex trafficking.

Every family must now be concerned about the harm from pornography. As a parent, I am concerned about the widespread distribution of illegal obscene pornography and its profound effects on our culture.

For many decades, the American public has actively petitioned the United States Congress for laws prohibiting distribution of hard-core adult pornography.

Congress has responded.  Current federal “obscenity” laws prohibit distribution of hardcore (obscene) pornography on the Internet, on cable/satellite TV, on hotel/motel TV, in retail shops and through the mail or by common carrier. Rick Santorum believes that federal obscenity laws should be vigorously enforced.  “If elected President, I will appoint an Attorney General who will do so.”

Like most social conservatives, deep down Rick Santorum hates personal freedom because he doesn't think people will do what he (or God) wants them to do.

Are voters dumb?

Because they sure act like it.

Voters are appalled at President Barack Obama’s handling of gas prices, even though virtually every policy expert in both parties says there’s little a president can do to affect the day-to-day price of fuel in a global market.

Americans are disgusted at Washington’s bailout culture, and especially the 2008 rescue of the financial services industry. They’re so fed up with bailouts, in fact, that a majority of them now think federal intervention in the auto industry was a good idea that helped the country.

They’re aghast at the trajectory of the war in Afghanistan, which Obama helped escalate and extend, and they don’t think the war was worth it in the first place. And many also think Obama is handling the conflict acceptably well.

That’s presumably a different set of voters than the ones who routinely tell pollsters that they still believe the president is a Muslim, despite all public evidence to the contrary.

Add up that litany of contradictory, irrational or simply silly opinions, and it’s enough to make a political professional suspect the electorate is, well, not entirely sophisticated about the choices it’s facing in 2012.

The increasingly schizophrenic mindset of the average voter is not helpful to American democracy.  People would be better off treating public policy more like science and less like religion:

Alas, one of these approaches requires a lot more intelligence than the other.

Walker still leading from behind

The Governor doubles down on his position that he'll do something if other people figure it out first.

The legislative session may be over this week, but the controversial mining bill is one bill Gov. Scott Walker isn’t ready to let die.

“For me ... I'm not going to put a stake in it," Walker told reporters on a conference call Tuesday. “I still think there are so many jobs that could potentially come from this.”

Walker said he would be willing to bring lawmakers back to the Capitol by calling a special session of the Legislature if he knew there were 17 senators willing to support the mining bill.

The bill failed to pass the Senate by a 17-16 vote last week. Sen. Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center, broke ranks and voted against it along with the Senate Democrats. Schultz also co-authored an alternative mining proposal with Sen. Bob Jauch, D-Poplar, that was rejected by the GOP.

Walker said he would only call a special session if enough senators were willing to vote on the mining bill approved by the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee, not the Schultz-Jauch alternative. Schultz strongly criticized the JFC-backed bill last week.

Walker seems to have retreated from his brazen, devil-may-care style of last year to the Walker we knew as county executive; the one who would make broad statements and then leave his county board to work out the details and do all the lifting.

When does Newt's ego realize Newt's not winning?

Just wondering.  Santorum has blown Newt's Southern Strategy to hell, and that's like the 17th incarnation from Newt as to how he was going to win the nomination.

Someone please show Newt the door, so Romney can play McCain, Santorum can play Huckabee, and we can watch these two fight to the death while that awful, half-black, science-believing Muslim sits back and laughs at his good fortune.

Stay classy, southerners. And please secede.

Likely GOP primary voters, Alabama:

Q22 Do you think Barack Obama is a Christian or a
Muslim, or are you not sure? 

Christian.....................................................14%
Muslim ............................................................ 45%
Not sure .......................................................... 41%  

Q23 Do you believe in evolution, or not?

Believe in evolution....................................26%
Do not ............................................................. 60%
Not sure .......................................................... 13% 
  
Q24 Do you think that interracial marriage should be legal or illegal?

Legal ............................................................... 67%
Illegal .............................................................. 21%
Not sure .......................................................... 12%

Likely GOP primary voters, Mississippi:

Q22 Do you think Barack Obama is a Christian or a
Muslim, or are you not sure?
Christian.....................................................12%
Muslim ............................................................ 52%
Not sure .......................................................... 36%

Q23 Do you believe in evolution, or not? 
Believe in evolution.....................................22%
Do not ............................................................. 66%
Not sure .......................................................... 11%

Q24 Do you think that interracial marriage should be legal or illegal?
Legal ............................................................... 54%
Illegal .............................................................. 29%
Not sure .......................................................... 17%

I'll just come right out and say it.  There's no way in hell our country is a better place for letting some of these people vote.  If you think our president is Muslim, don't believe in science, and think black and white people shouldn't be allowed to marry, stay home, don't vote, and don't procreate.  You're everything wrong with this country; a country that increasingly celebrates and wallows in its own ignorance.

As Isaac Asimov said so perfectly, "anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'"

Justice Department rejects Texas voter ID law

Any surprise that states that have enacted photo ID requirements are disproportionately southern states that are subject of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act because of past issues with, shall we say, suppressing voter participation?

WASHINGTON—The Justice Department's civil-rights division on Monday objected to a new photo ID requirement for voters in Texas because many Hispanic voters lack state-issued identification.

Texas follows South Carolina as the second state in recent months to become embroiled in a court battle with the Justice Department over new photo ID requirements for voters.

Photo ID laws have become a point of contention in the 2012 elections. Liberal groups have said the requirements are the product of Republican-controlled state governments and are aimed at disenfranchising people who tend to vote Democratic—African-Americans, Hispanics, people of low-income and college students.

Proponents of such legislation say the measures are aimed at combating voter fraud. But advocacy groups for minorities and the poor dispute that and argue there is no evidence of significant voter fraud.

To be clear, I don't think showing a photo ID is a huge deal, but I can also look at a data and recognize that there's not a widespread problem with fraud compromising our elections.  Voter fraud is just another political bogeyman used to prey upon unfounded fears of the masses.  Which of course, leads any rational person to question the true motivation of those advocating the policy.

Centrist Women Tell of Disenchantment With Republicans

Not big on anecdotal stories, but this is certainly reflective of an important constituency.

As baby showers go, the party Mary Russell attended to celebrate her niece’s first child was sweet, with about a dozen women offering congratulations over ice cream and cake.

But somewhere between the baby name game and the gifts, what had been light conversation took a sharp turn toward the personal and political — specifically, the battle over access to birth control and other women’s health issues that have sprung to life on the Republican campaign trail in recent weeks.

“We all agreed that this seemed like a throwback to 40 years ago,” said Ms. Russell, 57, a retired teacher from Iowa City who describes herself as an evangelical Christian and “old school” Republican of the moderate mold.

Until the baby shower, just two weeks ago, she had favored Mitt Romney for president.

Not anymore. She said she might vote for President Obama now. “I didn’t realize I had a strong viewpoint on this until these conversations,” Ms. Russell said. As for the Republican presidential candidates, she added: “If they’re going to decide on women’s reproductive issues, I’m not going to vote for any of them. Women’s reproduction is our own business.”

I'm not sure what the GOP electoral strategy is anymore on a national level.  There seems to be a belief that one can win the presidency while Hispanics, African-Americans, and women vote in large majorities for the other side.  Yet white male evangelicals/Catholics aren't exactly a burgeoning sector of the electorate.

It's the Tea Party dichotomy all over again.  You can use extremist positions to move districts with large Republican majorities to the right, but as the races become larger and the districts become more competitive, the strategy rapidly becomes less effective.

And for the Democrats, Rush Limbaugh talking about women's ladyparts is the best thing that could have happened to this discussion.

Pridemore to abused women: Stick around! Maybe he'll change!

Sometimes words just cannot adequately describe the idiocy of Don Pridemore.

The bill's co-sponsor, Representative Don Pridemore, told TODAY'S TMJ4 he thinks even in abusive relationships, there are other options than divorce.

"If they can refind those reasons and get back to why they got married in the first place it might help," said Representative Don Pridemore.

Perhaps Pridemore can introduce a bill requiring abused women to turn the other cheek, so that their violent partners can hit that one as well.

GAB recommends May 15/June 12 for recall elections

Relevant info and discussion is at the end of this file, provided by WisPolitics.  Personally, I never would've bet on GAB and interested parties completing their responsibilities (and exhausting potential legal options) so quickly.

I expected this would've taken another 4-6 weeks.  It's probably good for Wisconsin if it doesn't.

Some leadership.

Once again, Governor Walker courageously sits back and asks others to do his heavy lifting.

As hopes faded Wednesday for a $1.5 billion northern Wisconsin iron mine and its 700 jobs, the finger pointing began.

Republicans blamed Democrats. And Democrats blamed Republicans. Just about everybody seemed to be blaming somebody else after the mine company, Gogebic Taconite, announced late Tuesday that it will shut down its operation in the state because of the Legislature's failure earlier in the day to pass a bill to make mine permitting easier.

Most seemed doubtful that the legislation could be resuscitated before the Legislature ends its session next week. But some also seemed reluctant to completely let go of the possibility.

In a statement released Wednesday, Gov. Scott Walker left open the door to more negotiations but seemed to place the burden for initiating those talks on the Democrats and on state Sen. Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center, the lone Republican who voted against the GOP-authored mining legislation.

"While it seems like a long shot," Walker said, "there is still time for those who opposed mining reform to change their mind. We are still hopeful that in the future we can provide certainty to the mine permitting process so we can get more Wisconsinites back to work."

When it comes to tough issues, Scott Walker is the Republican Barack Obama.  "Hey, you guys do all the hard work, and when you've got an answer, I'm going to stand at this podium and pretend I did something to make it all happen."

The price of those urgent collective bargaining reforms

Bet they miss Hopper and Kapanke right about now.

Republican legislation meant to streamline mine permitting and clear the way for a $1.5 billion iron mine in northern Wisconsin failed to pass the Senate on Tuesday, and within hours of the vote, the head of the company looking to open the mine said the project was being dropped.

The legislation was headed back to a committee for more discussion, but Gogebic Taconite President Bill Williams issued a statement late Tuesday saying the company was leaving the state because the Senate sent a "clear message that Wisconsin will not welcome iron mining. We get the message."

Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, R-Horicon, said Assembly Republicans are done compromising because Gogebic Taconite won’t accept any more concessions.

The Republicans hold a 17-16 majority in the Senate, but couldn’t get a 17th vote because Sen. Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center, opposed the measure.

$1.4 billion in state and local tax revenue and 700+ jobs likely flushed away because Scott Walker thought public employees were killing the state's economy with their lavish compensation packages.

There's one thing we know now about a broken watch: it's right two more times a day than Scott Walker.

It's still not working.

Na Na, Hey Hey...

Kiss him goodbye.

Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, has defeated fellow Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich in the state's 9th District congressional primary.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer called the race for Kaptur near midnight. With 84 percent of precincts reporting, Kaptur led Kucinich 60 percent to 36 percent.

Kaptur and Kucinich were drawn into the same district after slow population growth forced Ohio to contract two seats in congressional redistricting last year. Kucinich ran strong in his Cuyahoga County base outside Cleveland, but Kaptur more than made up the difference around her home in Toledo and the sliver of territory between the two cities that was new to both representatives.

Too late to run in Washington?

Remember when Tommy was an innovator?

What happened to that guy?

Tommy Thompson’s RESTORE AMERICA plan will:

• Build the Keystone Pipeline

• Open new sources of U.S. territory to oil and natural gas drilling

• Expand natural gas production by protecting “Fracking” process

At least he didn't promise $2.50 gas.  Yet.

I'll wager that other elements of the plan will include generic sounding platitudes about lowering corporate income taxes, making our tax system "fairer and flatter," whatever that means, and doing a bunch of vague stuff to help working families, whatever those are.

GOP leadership offers interesting perspective on compromise

As time continues to tick away, it'll be interesting to see if something gets done with the mining bill.

A compromise on a bill that would streamline permitting for iron mines in Wisconsin appeared much less likely Monday with State Sen. Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center, refusing to support a new version of the legislation put forth by Republican leaders.

The state Legislature's finance committee is scheduled to vote Monday on the GOP compromise that reflected changes hashed out in intense discussions Friday and over the weekend between Schultz and his party leaders, including Gov. Scott Walker. Schultz has refused to support the Republican version of the bill approved by the Assembly because it did not include provisions for public legal challenges and also exempted iron mines from several environmental protections...

In a press conference prior to the Joint Finance Committee meeting, Schultz had harsh words for the latest GOP offer.

"I would say the compromise they just offered is no compromise at all. It makes a bad idea worse."

State Rep. Robin Vos, R-Burlington, in turn, slammed Schultz. "If people want to continue to say they are in favor of mining, they have to find common ground, not just say 'It's my way or the highway.'"

I'm curious as to what it is that Robin Vos has that Dale Schultz needs that would warrant Schultz moving away from his current position. 

Appealing to common ground only works if both parties have something to gain by compromising and something to lose by not compromising.  Vos needs a 17th vote in the Senate in order to avoid another cluster@#$% in which the GOP fails to deliver on a high-priority economic bill (where did that venture capital bill go?).

But what exactly does Schultz need?  As best one can tell, nothing at all as it pertains to this bill.

At this point, it would appear that Schultz can demand whatever he wants.  Either GOP leadership makes him happy or the bill dies.

That's compromise.

Burn it down.

Hardly a new concept - lots of people (including me) have been suggesting for years that a big loss by the GOP's lunatic fringe is the only real path forward for the party.  But it's nice to see Chris Cillizza say it in print.

In “Batman Begins” — the 2005 movie about the origins of the caped crusader — there is a group of villains who believe the city of Gotham is beyond saving and that the only way to fix it is to first destroy it.

As the Republican presidential race has worn on (and on), there are some within the party wondering — privately, of course — whether the only way for the party to face the growing divide between its moderate and conservative wings is for the 2012 election to be its Gotham moment.

“I’d personally enjoy all the ‘we can’t nominate another Republican In Name Only’ crowd getting a stomping by an incumbent with an 8.5 unemployment rate,” said one senior party strategist, granted anonymity to speak candidly, warning of nominating a strictly conservative candidate like former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum...

The GOP’s problem, according to party insiders, is most evident when it comes to the issue of immigration. All of the major Republican presidential candidates — with the exception of former House speaker Newt Gingrich — have largely rejected the idea of a path to citizenship for the 11 million people in the United States illegally.

That view has contributed to a broader sense among Hispanic voters that the Republican Party is not a friendly place for them. In the 2008 election, President Obama won the Hispanic vote nationwide with 67 percent of the vote. Given that more than half of the total growth in U.S. population over the past decade came in the Hispanic community, Republicans simply can’t afford to keep losing this largest minority group 65 percent to 35 percent and have a fighting chance of winning national elections in four or eight years’ time.

Until the GOP lets the conservative bomb throwers have their way - and fail spectacularly - it will continue to be saddled with loudmouths who actually believe "true conservatives" can always win, no matter the race.

George Will gets it.  And now he's getting it from the self-anointed prophets of the right for suggesting what every right-thinking person knows - the GOP isn't beating Obama in November.  Not with these candidates.

In the seven years that have lapsed since I washed my hands of partisan politics, either the GOP base has gotten way crazier, or the gatekeepers are letting all the wrong people into the big tent.  Either way, the GOP establishment's continued refusal to distance itself from its raging Hispanophobes will eventually ensure the party never wins another presidential election.

Who needs science when you have polemics?

Not Rush Limbaugh.

Once you wade through the bile and the realization that the country's most popular conservative radio host has devoted hours on his show to attempting to bully a woman into silence for her views on birth control, it becomes clear that Limbaugh, a man over sixty who is now on his fourth marriage, does not seem to understand how birth control works. On Wednesday and Thursday, Limbaugh repeatedly suggested that the amount of sex a woman has is related to the amount of birth control she needs to take, as though women take birth control pills every day they have sex. This is how say, Viagra, the erectile dysfunction medication works. Aside from the morning after pill*, when and how much sex you have is unrelated to the amount of birth control you need.

Fortunately for Limbaugh, who at 61 is on his fourth marriage but is still childless, his many wives do seem to understand how birth control works.  Or perhaps there are, um, other problems with the plumbing for which Limbaugh is overcompensating.

Who said it: Mitt Romney or Mr. Burns?

Courtesy of MAD magazine.

The 3 A.M. Phone Call

For those interested in such things, there was a fairly comprehensive publication of documents from FOIA requests a few days ago regarding false warnings of Soviet missile attacks that occurred in 1979 and 1980.  You can access the documents here.

Most interesting to me was the sheer lack of accountability taken by military officials and the Department of Defense, which seemed to think that false warnings were just part of the process.  There's also a hilarious State Department response to these statements, which Soviet affairs expert Marshall Shulman categorized as "gratuitously snotty."

Heck, even Brezhnev seems reasonable.  Everyone seems reasonable except DoD, which avoids accountability like the plague.

I guess some things never change.

Kos I'm an idiot

I'll never understand this mentality.

Bob Kerrey took a lonely position against banning gay marriage in the 1990s. He opposed a ban on flag desecration, voted against welfare reform and ran up high Americans for Democratic Action scores while serving as the senator from one of the most conservative states in the nation.

But when he announced his plans to run for his old Senate seat earlier this week, it was greeted with boos, hisses and expletives from the left...

In the liberal blogosphere, the most energetic quarter of the party, Kerrey’s comeback bid was lambasted as the return of yet another mushy moderate. The online left says it won’t lift a finger for him — and in some cases, it’s even rooting against Kerrey.

It’s a reaction that’s emblematic of the new normal in Washington, a place where there’s no room for committed centrists like Maine GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe, who announced Tuesday she’ll retire after three terms — and perhaps even for members with a record of orbiting the center, such as Kerrey.

“I hope he gets carpet bombed. The more Republicans spend in Nebraska, the less they’ll have to go after Democratic Senate candidates who actually act like Democrats,” said Markos Moulitsas, the founder of the influential blog Daily Kos. “And if it turns out he needs the help, then too bad. F—- him.”

The left may not like some of Bob Kerrey's positions any more than Olympia Snowe was a darling of conservatives, but you still need to get to 51 in the Senate to govern.  And whether Kos likes it or not, a Kos-style liberal is never winning a Senate seat in Nebraska.

If the choice is between a guy who gives you half a loaf or getting no loaf at all, take half the loaf and be happy for what you're getting.

MLB to expand playoffs

Yuck.

NEW YORK -- Major League Baseball expanded its playoff format to 10 teams Friday, adding a second wild card in each league.

The decision establishes a new one-game, wild-card round in each league between the teams with the best records who are not division winners, meaning a third-place team could win the World Series.

This is the only change in baseball's playoff structure since the 1995 season, when wild-card teams were first added.

"This change increases the rewards of a division championship and allows two additional markets to experience playoff baseball each year," commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement.

A one-game series is not a playoff - it's a lottery.  If one insists on a ten-team playoff structure, at least make the play-in round a best of three, which coupled with a travel day or two affords the winning team an opportunity to throw its #1 starter in the first game of the divisional round.  All this does is put the wild card winner at a tremendous disadvantage in the subsequent series.

Now seating Schultz, party of one

If the mining bill fails, don't blame Dale Schultz.  Blame the tone-deaf GOP leadership for failing to anticipate problems and deal with them in advance.

MADISON, WI (WTAQ) - The Wisconsin Senate Republican who broke ranks with his party and tried to kill the Assembly’s mining bill says he’ll meet with the finance committee co-chairs Friday afternoon on a possible compromise.

But Dale Schultz of Richland Center says he won’t compromise on the two things he wants in a mining package – preserving environmental protections, and keeping people’s rights to challenge DNR decisions.

The bill passed by the Assembly goes against Schultz’s stands on both counts. And without Schultz’s support, Senate leaders say they don’t have the votes to ratify the mining package that was approved by the Assembly in January.

Whether conservatives like it or not, Schultz is damn near invincible in his district.  Nobody down in southwest Wisconsin cares about this mine.  And the Senate GOP is likely destined for the minority in this summer's recalls.  So for now, Schultz has all the cards.

The only real question is how badly the GOP leadership in the legislature wants to get this bill done.

Santorum's problem, in a nutshell

To paraphrase a dear friend of mine, "Rick Santorum's problem is that he's convinced himself that people are supporting him because of his beliefs, and not just because he's not Mitt Romney.  Which is why he succeeds when he's not talking and fails when people hand him a microphone."

I think that might be the best summary of the Santorum campaign in fifty words or less that I've heard to date.  But this column from Joe Scarborough isn't bad either.

BuzzFeed’s Ben Smith quoted a frustrated GOP operative who said, “All Santorum had to do to win Michigan was turn his Iowa speech into a f—-ing TV ad and stick to it on the stump.”

But as he has shown on the campaign trail all year, Rick Santorum has absolutely no discipline when it comes to tempering his message.

In the end, the problem with all the GOP candidates is discipline.  Santorum can't keep himself away from fringe issues of faith and morality.  Romney can't stop making clueless references to his wealth and lifestyle.  Gingrich can't stop patting himself on the back for thinking big/crazy.

And it's why any one of them will lose this November.

Ways to lose elections, Volume 258

Let your craziest members of the Order of the Tinfoil Hat dredge up conspiracy theories that were already in the rear view mirror.

PHOENIX – An investigative “Cold Case Posse” launched six months ago by “America’s toughest sheriff” – Joe Arpaio of Arizona’s Maricopa County – has concluded there is probable cause that the document released by the White House last year as President Obama’s birth certificate is a computer-generated forgery.

The investigative team has asked Arpaio, who is at a news conference in Phoenix live-streamed by WND TV that began at 3 p.m. Eastern time, to elevate the investigation to a criminal probe that will make available the resources of his Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.