January 28, 2010

Tommy vs. Russ.

Oh, my!

ADDED: I voted for Tommy Thompson once, when he was running for Governor, and that is the only example I can think of, outside of a presidential race, where I voted for a Republican. Why did I do it? Because the Democratic candidate was too far left. I have always voted for Russ Feingold, going back to his first race for Senator, when I actually gave him money. He was the first candidate I ever gave money to (mainly because he kept calling me on the phone!), and he's the only candidate I've ever given more than $25 to. But maybe now Feingold is too far left for me. Ah! It would hurt a lot not to vote for Russ!

43 comments:

traditionalguy said...

Your Wisconsin voters must have rascism as a motive and think Feingold is a black man. What else could there be going on???

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

That's bad news for Russ. It looks like voters might be looking for something more than cute commercials this time around.

Original Mike said...

I have never found Tommy to be very impressive when I listen to him. I think, in the end, Feingold would mop the floor with him.

Hoosier Daddy said...

I don't know if this is a message to the Democrats or to all incumbants.

In all honesty, I think the hype that Obama generated has really hurt the Democrats. I think there was so much expectations on him that after watching them eat each other alive over HCR has left a lot of people disenchanted with the ruling party. Maybe I'm wrong but it seems like a lot of safe Dem seats are now suddenly in play.

Meade said...

That's interesting. A new Meadhoussen Reports face-to-face survey of likely voters in one particular household in Wisconsin finds a hypothetical U.S. Senate match-up to be 50% to 50% with a margin of error of 50%. (That, of course, would be the Feingold 50%).

traditionalguy said...

What the socially liberal Wisconsin farmers have in common with the bible belt southerners and the Massachusetts super liberals is the human reaction to the arrogance of politicians who REFUSED to listen while the power to destroy health care we have and implant Government Death Panel solutions in its place was merrily voted in under a cover of lies. Sarah Palin blew the whistle and everyone has seen this and reacted as if their lives and their children's live are threatened. It's free speech that stopped the fifth columnists before they got away with it. Now the people want a new set of rulers that are not out to kill them.

Scott M said...

Boxer, Boxer, Boxer, Boxer. She's the only one I really have a burning desire to see gone.

Followed by Reid.

Is Sheila Jackson up for re-election? She needs to go too. I'm betting the woman she cut off mid-sentence to take a cell phone call won't vote for her. Truly disgusting.

garage mahal said...

Awesome analysis by Instapundit.

TosaGuy said...

"I have never found Tommy to be very impressive when I listen to him. I think, in the end, Feingold would mop the floor with him."

TT won four statewide elections, most by wide margins. He even carried Milwaukee County.

Russ has had a real opponent in 1998, but no serious opponents in 2004 and none yet for 2010. Russ BARELY beat Mark Neuman in a year that Dems did well nationally. He is not nearly as popular as Herb Kohl. Feingold only has a patina of invicibility, which can easily be removed by a well-known, well-funded candidate.

TT would have to work and not rely on his past success. Fortunately for Russ, I think that is what TT would do.

Ted Kanavas would be an interesting opponent. He is known in SE WI and would work hard, he would also attract enough funding to get known in the state, which would be his greatest challenge.

Peter V. Bella said...

It's free speech that stopped the fifth columnists before they got away with it.

Right on the money!!!!!!!!
If the Democrat Party has its way free speech will be a thing of the past.

Original Mike said...

Hell, I voted for Tommy, probably 4 times (don't remember). I just think he'd struggle against Feingold.

MadisonMan said...

TT's gubernatorial candidates were as weak as Feingold's Senatorial ones. And I'm not sure what you can read into 1998's Feingold/Neumann race given the fiscal restraints Feingold bound his campaign by.

I think it would be an interesting race. I think TT would be able to advocate for WI in DC. Would he be better at it than Feingold? I'm not sure.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Meade:

I hope you are voting in Ohio too. Every little bit helps.

wv = abled

I'm Full of Soup said...

Meade:

I hope you are voting in Ohio too. Every little bit helps.

wv = abled

AllenS said...

Get rid of McCain, Feingold...

Joan said...

AllenS, don't kid yourself. McCain's not going anywhere. Sadly. It would be great to see both of them get the boot, though, wouldn't it?

AllenS said...

One can only hope, Joan.

Cassie said...

Both have had decent support across party lines. TT, though not at all a fiscal conservative, was always smart to take care of the unions. Feingold doesn't sugar coat anything, isn't hyperbolic - you know where he stands. There are plenty of in-laws who have told me this is why they've voted for him. It'll be a great race to watch.

Sloanasaurus said...

Remember Wisconsin barely went blue in the 2004 election. If independents have truly abandonded Obama in Wisconsin as they did in Mass, Feingiold will lose in November.

AllenS said...

I'm just anti-incumbent. We need new blood in there.

Hoosier Daddy said...

Well the talk in Hoosierland is that Evan Bayh is vulnerable. When I first heard that I thought I had somehow crossed into a parallel universe.

Alan said...

Scott M.:

Sheila Jackson Lee is in the House; therefore, she's up for re-election every term.

However, given her district, there's *no way* to mount Republican opposition to her. It'll have to be a more moderate (minority) Democratic candidate.

It's amazing that she's representing the same district as Barbara Jordan. Heck, even Mickey Leland wasn't such a demagogue. I have liberal friends in the TX state government (staffers, naturally) who breathed a huge sigh of relief when she left the TX legislature.

w.v.: thoted--Rep. Shiela Jackson Lee is "the hothead", alright...

MadisonMan said...

Vulnerable in January means bupkiss. Vulnerable in October is more meaningful.

However, if the talk of vulnerability brings out better candidates to challenge entrenched incumbents, I'm all for that. Like AllenS, I'm all for new blood -- but not just for the sake of new blood, at least in my state. I want someone who can go to DC and advocate for WI.

AllenS said...

MadMan, would you agree that Thompson would advocate for WI? He doesn't appear to me to be a DC kind of guy.

Original Mike said...

"Vulnerable in January means bupkiss."

True, but your second paragraph is the rejoinder, "the talk of vulnerability brings out better candidates to challenge entrenched incumbents".

MadisonMan said...

AllenS, see my 10:42 comment.

IOW, Yes :)

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

Russ and Herb have been about the two most useless senators that one can imagine. Neither senator is an advocate for Wisconsin. Russ spends his time cultivating his "mavricky" image and Herb? Well, who the hell knows what Herb does.

I think that after 18 years it is up to a candidate to show some level of accomplishment. The only claim to fame Russ has is his failed attempt at campaign finance reform. It's time for this one to go home.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I just heard Sallinger is dead.

Big Mike said...

@Meade, as a true conservative blogger, your wife has the positive duty to talk you out of voting for Feingold and into voting for Thompson.

AlphaLiberal said...

That would be a great race. I expect that Tommy Thompson's teflon coating has gone and the press would actually report on his record of corruption, which extends to this day.

Bring it on!! We'll bury him deep!

AlphaLiberal said...

Nick Hurtgen was a big Tommy Thompson aide back in the early 1990s. Nick left state government to work for Bear Stearns. After he left the contracts from Wisconsin to BS went way up.

I think he's still in prison, but the story would get new life with a Thompson run.

AlphaLiberal said...

Thompson's run for President was certainly inspiring.

This race shapes up better the more I think of it: Mr Clean Russ Feingold vs Mr Dirty Tommy Thompson.

Then there was Thompson's philandering, which was widely known but not reported (even while we were bombarded with Clinton blow job news).

Then there are the Thompson malapropisms:
Tommy Thompson. Wisconsin’s former governor once again puts his foot in his mouth. At last week’s debate for Republican presidential candidates, Thompson said employers should be allowed to fire gay workers; he later apologized, saying he misheard the question. A few weeks earlier, Thompson had to apologize for saying he thought earning money was “part of the Jewish tradition.” .

Phil 314 said...

Garage;
Awesome analysis by Instapundit. I assume you've visited Instapundit before. Generally little analysis just tags to "interesting" articles elswhere.

So that snark won't flush.

Joan;
Sadly. It would be great to see both of them get the boot, though, wouldn't it? I've voted for him before and I will vote for him again. Frankly, he's the sort of politician I like. He is to the Republican Party what Lieberman is to the Democratic Party. I guess that's why they're friends.

I do have to comment that I continue to be amazed at the disgust towards McCain. I can only assume it is for two key reasons:
1) He's not conservative enough and/or he talks to Democrats too much
2) He lost

PS His primary opponent, JD Hayworth is a douchbag. If I lived in his district I would have gladly voted against him and for Harry Mitchell in '06.

Sheriff Joe, Russell Pierce and Chris Simcox are enough. The AZ Republican Party doesn't need JD. With the desert we already have enough hot air.

EnigmatiCore said...

Althouse-

Which is it:
a) You've drifted right
b) The Democrats (and Feingold) have drifted right
c) Some combination of the above

Mark said...

Feingold is one of the few Senators whom I believe sticks to his core principles, so even though I don't agree with him on much of anything, I'd hate to see him go.

Boxer, though....

And Reid....

Dare I hope for good times ahead?

Balfegor said...

Feingold is one of the few Senators whom I believe sticks to his core principles, so even though I don't agree with him on much of anything, I'd hate to see him go.

That's my reaction too, actually. He is also a serious and reasonably thoughtful senator, something that cannot be said of, say, Barbara Boxer.

Anonymous said...

Ann, you are experiencing what I did in mid-life--the Democratic Party is moving awa from you to the left.

AllenS said...

In 2004, I was active in my local VFW. I was pro Tim Michels. How could I not back up an Airborne Ranger? I liked Michels. New blood in the Senate! The state VFW endorsed Feingold. I quit the VFW the next day.

Mutaman said...

isn't Tommy the guy who blamed his dopey answers during the debate on the fact that his hearing aid wasn't working and he had to go to the bathroom? Yeah, he'd fit right in.

cf said...

Feingold? C'mon, Ann. Make a list of everything he supports and see if you still want to vote for him.
P.O.S.E.R. does not spell Cicero.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

I don't see how Feingold has moved farther to the left lately.

Opus One Media said...

I gather from this Ann that after marriage to a rightwing fella from that part of Cincinnati that my sister and brother in law call rightwheel hell, that you are now sleeping on the right side of the bed? ohsayitisn'tso.

any district that can vote in the numbskulls that one does..well...that just isn't right....

MadisonMan said...

I also voted for TT as governor, but it was really a vote against Chvala, not for TT. I can't remember if I voted for Garvey when he ran against TT.