Doyle retirement presents opportunity for GOP

Publication:Waukesha Freeman (Conley); Date:Aug 20, 2009; Section:Opinion; Page Number:10A

Doyle seemed to be gearing up for re-election bid

(James Wigderson is a blogger publishing at http://wigdersonlibrarypub.blogspot.com and a Waukesha resident. His column runs Thursdays in The Freeman.)


I am surrounded by people who tell me, “Of course. I knew Gov. Doyle would never run for reelection.” They reasoned (or so they claim) that by proposing the most radical state budget of his tenure, Doyle must have known he could never seek re-election.

By that logic, every Democratic state senator on the ballot last November would not have sought re-election after their even more radical “Healthy Wisconsin” proposal. And we can all look forward to President Obama only seeking one term.

Until recently, there was every indication that Doyle was intent on seeking re-election, despite his “two terms” claim in Monday’s address. (Someone should have asked him: If two terms is such a reasonable limit, why did you serve three terms as the state’s attorney general?)

Doyle has spent the last couple of years raising campaign money – campaign money that could have gone to Democratic candidates. His current war chest is approximately $2 million.

Meanwhile, the Greater Wisconsin Committee, a Democratic special interest group often supportive of the governor, ran television advertising in July in an attempt to boost the governor’s poll numbers after the state budget was passed. These things don’t happen unless the governor was planning on running for re-election.

Unfortunately for Doyle, his numbers never improved; he was out-fundraised by one of the Republican candidates and his consecutive election winning streak was in serious danger.

Democratic candidates are already lining up.

Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton is already in the race. As a member of the Democratic Party’s “progressive” wing, if Lawton gets the nomination, the Republican candidate can coast to victory. There will be some weak attempts to portray her as a formidable candidate, but even if she is not a lightweight, as is generally believed, she will still have the problem of being blamed for everything that went wrong during Doyle’s tenure without receiving any of the credit.

The same holds true for State Sen. Jon Erpenback who will be stuck with the state budget as his albatross. The only one who really thinks Erpenbach has a chance is Erpenbach.

Congressman Ron Kind is likely to take a run and would be the front-runner in fundraising, except that the Democrats were successful in 2006 in stopping Congressman Mark Green from using his federal campaign funds for his race for governor. However, Kind will have plenty of time to fundraise. What will hurt Kind is the unpopularity of Congress. Kind will be forced to explain his support for cap and trade legislation, the stimulus bill and whatever health care reform comes out. He will have to shore up his relations with the party’s liberal wing during the primaries, but that will hurt him in the general election.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett is also talked about as a candidate. However, his recent injuries may make him reluctant to take on a state campaign. Besides, as the mayor of Milwaukee, Barrett would have a hard time appealing to out-state voters. Barrett may have a problem, too, with African-Americans in his own city unhappy with the amount of development in their community and Barrett’s meddling with the local school district. The latter also hurts him with the teachers unions, the strongest voice in the Democratic Party.

There is a misperception that not having Doyle as an opponent will hurt the eventual Republican candidate, whether it is former Congressman Mark Neumann or Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker. Nonsense.

Democrats are still complaining about President Bush. They ran against him last year even though he was not on the ballot and his intraparty rival was. They are going to try to run against Bush again next year.

Does anyone seriously think not having Doyle to kick around anymore will prevent the Republicans from tying the Democratic nominee to Doyle’s record?

Besides, it’s almost always easier to win an open seat than to defeat an incumbent. This time the open seat means easier fundraising for the Republican challengers and the same amount of organizational time after next year’s primary election as the Democrats.

Doyle’s departure creates a huge opportunity for the state Republican party to turn around its fortunes. Now if the Republicans could only find a candidate to take on Sen. Feingold.

JAMES WIGDERSON

I spent the week talking to Libertarians

As I explain in my column in the Waukesha Freeman, it's been a heady week for the Libertarians.

Former Republican Congressman Bob Barr announced he’s running for president as a Libertarian. Zogby polling currently has him at 3 percent, just enough to have a Nader-like effect on Republican chances in November.

Meanwhile, Texas Congressman Ron Paul, the Libertarian candidate for president in 1988, continues to chug along to the Republican convention where his supporters hope to be noisier than his estimated 19 delegates would suggest.

However, this was also the week that saw Kevin Barrett enter in the race for Congress as a Libertarian against Ron Kind.

This is not to say that Barrett is unanimously endorsed by the party. The state party chairman wasn’t sure "what the next steps are" and indicated that there was some opposition to Barrett within the party. However, he admitted, there is a strong component within the party that believes in 9-11 conspiracies. He hoped Barrett’s candidacy wouldn’t be solely about 9-11. He also told me Barrett is a member in good standing.

I checked with Randy Palmer, the Libertarian Party’s 3rd Congressional District representative, and he hoped Barrett would not use his campaign as a soapbox for his conspiracy theories. Palmer had no firm beliefs about what happened on 9-11 and conceded again that there are "lots of people" in the party that believe in the conspiracy theories.

And I conclude,

I would add that any hope of the party leadership that Barrett’s candidacy would not be about 9-11 conspiracies misses the point. That’s how he gained his notoriety, his Web site is plastered with 9-11 conspiracy material, and WEAU television reported Barrett’s call for another investigation into 9-11.

If the Libertarians, both locally and nationally, want to move out from their fringe status and kook reputation, they should issue a strong statement condemning 9-11 conspiracy theorists like Barrett. And they may want to have a long talk with Tommy Thompson’s little brother as well.

Meanwhile, I wrote another piece that complimented my Freeman column over at Jo Egelhoff's FoxPolitics.net. There I went into greater detail of my conversation with Marquette University Professor John McAdams about conspiracy theories. Because of the later deadline, I was also able to include a follow-up conversation with national Libertarian Party Political Director Sean Haugh.

Haugh did end up calling me back to say that he could not support Barrett’s candidacy for Congress. Not because of the 9/11 conspiracy thinking. It was Barrett’s support for Holocaust denier David Irving that had given him pause. “Oh, my.” And then Haugh’s research also led to discovering Barrett had called for the execution of journalists “complicit in the 9/11 cover-up.”

So it’s interesting to note that the Libertarian Party does have some standards. Calling for violence against journalists and denying the Holocaust are, in Haugh’s words, “beyond the pale.”

We’ll see if the Wisconsin Libertarian Party also finds Barrett to be “beyond the pale” or if Barrett will continue to run as a Libertarian without opposition from the party leadership.

Given former Libertarian Party candidate for governor Ed Thompson’s seeming endorsement of much of Barrett’s 9/11 conspiracy views in a February 19 radio interview, it’s a fair bet the Libertarian Party will continue to be the home of the political fringe.

Profile in courage

Wisconsin Congressman Ron Kind (D) stands up for taxpayers against his party and the farm lobby.

Educating the Idiot Politician of the Week

Time for another installment of Idiot Politician of the Week. I didn’t want to, but I felt I owed it to them somehow.

Welcome to Cudahy where the mating call is, “I’m so drunk.” Yes, the punch line of Milwaukee County is too good for Wal-Mart. Casting the deciding vote was Mayor Ryan McCue. You may remember him from such documentaries as “Screw the Taxpayers” and “Your Milwaukee County Board: Good Work If You Can Get It.” According to McCue, well…, nothing. He’s refused to say why he’s opposed to Wal-Mart. He prefers to remain silent and be thought an idiot rather than open his mouth and remove all doubt.

Removing all doubt this week was former Vice President Al Gore, who took advantage of a cyclone that perhaps killed 100,000 people in Myanmar to suggest that it was the result of global warming. Perhaps if they had the Internet in Myanmar, they would understand that tornados have never happened before the introduction of the internal combustion engine, and really all those deaths have nothing to do with living in an especially impoverished third-world brutal kleptocracy.

Dropping into Milwaukee to remind us all why she was President Ronald Reagan’s biggest mistake, former US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor told her audience that electing judges is wrong, and that Arizona has a better way. Of course, the Arizona method made her a judge, and her tenure on the US Supreme Court is strong evidence that an unaccountable judiciary is not a good thing.

Then there’s Senator Barack Obama who announced in Oregon he has traveled to “57 states” and has “only one left.” He must’ve figured it out using the same math that shows a windfall profits tax will lower gas prices. I’m not even going to comment on the apparent sad state of education in Illinois.

But speaking of the sad state of education, this week’s “Idiot Politician of the Week” is conspiracy theorist and Muslim convert Kevin Barrett who has decided to take on Congressman Ron Kind (D) as a Libertarian. Barrett once proved idiots are in control of UW-Madison when he was allowed to teach despite publicly supporting a theory that the events of September 11, 2001 were somehow planned and carried out by the US government.

Details of Barrett’s candidacy can be found in the online conspiracy theory newsletter Capital Times where associate editor John Nichols called Barrett, “the 9/11 skeptic” and “the media-savvy activist.” Nichols’ next interview will be with a spokesman for conspiracy theorists that don’t believe man walked on the moon. Unfortunately for Nichols, the Weekly World News is no longer publishing.

Barrett will fit in well with the misfits of the Wisconsin Libertarian Party. But aside from the wacko conspiracy theory, did he really feel the need to tell Nichols he plans to run an, “all-out no-holds-barred truth jihad”?

I’m sure local Muslims are wishing he would convert to something else. “Really, no problem, no death threats. Just go.” After all, other than the Libertarians, who would want to be associated with the Idiot Politician of the Week?