First Nancy Mistele, now this. The Wisconsin State Journal is confirming the rumors that another 1998 loser, former Congressman, victim of Feingold beatdown and wingnut of the highest order Mark Neumann will be making a run next year at Governor Doyle.
You remember him, kids, don't you? He was the man who took the serious enterprise of running for the United States Senate and reduced it to millions of dollars of on-air shrieking about cow farts and Russian monkeys in space. Russ Feingold, who essentially tied one arm behind his back by refusing to accept soft money while the Republican Party dumped millions into Wisconsin to try and beat their #1 target, still managed to win.
This news isn't a surprise to me or anybody else who has been observing the sad state of the Republican Party as it continues its decline. Like the archetypal characters in Bruce Springsteen's song "Glory Days," the Grand Old Retread Party is looking to recapture the glory days of the 1990's. That's why these losers are coming back out from whatever rocks they were hiding during the last decade and looking to run again. And that's why you're seeing them being lead nationally by Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich. It makes a little sense as Republicans from this century are pretty low these days, but I expect next November will be like this spring -- high entertainment and higher fail. Run Neumann! Run!
Spin City's "How to think like a wingnut": Another in a continuing series
What demonstrations! 50,000 in New York, 100,000 in DC, 200,000 in San Francisco, untold hundreds of thousands elsewhere nationwide. Such outpouring should surely cause the President to change his policy.
Last week's teabaggers? Oh no, those were just left-wing moonbats demonstrating against the Iraq war in the Spring of 2003. Despite the fact they got those numbers without Fox News and the Dane County Republican Party (0-3 in April) humping their demonstrations 24/7, you can't take that seriously.
What you do take seriously, however, are demonstrations a mere fraction of those dotted with signs questioning Obama's citizenship (merely questioning your opponent's patriotism is passe), calling his plans to bring the tax rate for the richest Americans to a level lower than Reagan's "White Slavery", and making him analogous to Hitler and Osama bin Laden.
Variations on a Theme
Earlier this week, another blogger from the Isthmus stable wrote this:It's 11 p.m. Do you know where your elected officials are?
At Tuesday night's Common Council meeting, I knew where mine was. Ald. Satya Rhodes-Conway was firmly planted in the Council chambers doing her damn job. But I couldn't answer that question if I lived in the 20th and was "represented" by Thuy Pham-Remmele. As she's done for too many meetings to count, she bailed on her job early. This time, it's been reported she left in a fit of pique over her committee assignments. Or perhaps she thought her proposed curfew applied to her as well (though she does look a little older than 17, just sayin').
Memo to Alder Pham-Remmele: If you can't be bothered to do the job and stay at the meetings you were elected to go to, maybe you should resign.
And finally...
There's not much more to add to the fine tributes Stu Levitan, Tammy Baldwin and Barry Orton and George Hesselberg paid to local political icon Midge Miller, who passed away last Friday after a long life fighting for progressive values. There is nobody who better defined being a Dane County Democrat than Midge Miller. That Democrats do so well here is due in no small part to the decades of work she did for the party and its candidates.
And while every loss is tragic, this one is tempered by the fact that she spent so much time and energy inspiring and mentoring future generations of activists and officials. She's at rest now, but her work will continue.
