Republicans call her “Millionaire Mary,” but Mary Burke has plenty of assets aside from her wealth to make her a strong contender to derail the reelection of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, along with his dreams of the presidency.I am here in Wisconsin minutely following politics day by day — every single day — and I have never noticed the moniker "Millionaire Mary." I asked Meade if he'd ever heard that, and he said no. So Clift can't get 5 words into her column without hitting a blatantly false note. Scrolling down, I see the term comes from Burke herself, whom Clift interviewed:
Burke... was recruited to run for the Madison school board, a race that she won in 2012 with the help of $128,000 of her own money. “Millionaire Mary, they’re just using that,” she says of Republican efforts to denigrate her wealth. “I have been very clear that what I can put in is a fraction of what’s needed,” she says.Republicans denigrate wealth?
Googling, I see the descriptor "millionaire" used occasionally in GOP headlines with her full name, e.g. "Millionaire Mary Burke Says More Money for Taxpayer Is 'Irresponsible,'" but that's quite different from having a standard nickname using just her first name, "Millionaire Mary," like "Typhoid Mary" (or the more political — and, incidentally, more phallocratic — "Tricky Dick" and "Slick Willy").
But here's an article from PolitiFact, last November, specifically about the use of political nicknames in the Wisconsin governor's race:
Nicknames are much more personal than formal names, so "inventing a negative nickname in a political race is intended to insult as it would on the school yard," [said Robert Hickey, author of "Honor & Respect: the Official Guide to Names, Titles, and Forms of Address"].Those are apparently examples of efforts at coming up with a nickname that will stick, not ones that passed into common usage like "Scooter" for Governor Walker, which PolitiFact discusses next. ("[C]ritics have dismissed him as 'Scooter,' suggesting he’s fighting way above his weight.")
Much of the game plays out now on Twitter, a petri dish for hashtag mashups. But in other formats such as news releases, blog posts and email blasts, partisans also are test-driving electronic epithets and caricatures, and not just in the governor’s race.
"Governor Ultrasound." "Millionaire Mary." "‘Struggling’ Sean Duffy."
This makes me want to do a sidetrack about the Milwaukee Brewer Scooter Gennett and how he got his name. Oh, hell. I will do a sidetrack! I love this story:
Gennett said he adopted the name as a 5-year-old fan of the Muppets character Scooter...The Brewers are doing great, including Scooter, so efforts to denigrate Scott Walker with the old "Scooter" nickname may be less effective this year than usual, but let's be clear: Name-calling Walker is a much bigger phenomenon than name-calling Mary Burke. The PoliFact piece also notes the Walker nickname "Koch-head." That's what I've seen around here.
... and used it as a permanent alias after his mother, Tina, tried to impart a lesson about buckling his seat belt with a trip to a police station for a lecture.
"I thought I was going to be arrested,” he said. “So, I told the policeman my name was Scooter. After we left there, I didn’t answer to Ryan because I thought if I answered to my real name I’d get arrested.”
He has been Scooter ever since.
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50 comments:
Reading Clift's article reveals that Mary Burke's only argument is that electing a woman IS progress. That's about it.
So Scott Walker is guilty of being a man. That's about it.
Althouse said:
"Republicans denigrate wealth?"
Republicans don't denigrate wealth as an evil in itself. However Republicans do denigrate wealthy hypocrites who claim to be for the poor while they personally do nothing from their own wealth for the poor but instead take money from the middle class to buy political power for themselves. Republicans also despise lefties who constantly trash wealth gained by honest labor while hoarding as much wealth as they can gather for themselves from service at the public money trough.
The GOP calls her "Millionaire Mary" and constantly make denigrate references to her wealth on the fake web page they set up to confuse voters.
http://www.maryburke.com/
This makes me think of that scene with Kevin Costner in "Waterworld".
I predict Scooter gets at least one more key hit against the Reds.
And by "Scooter" and "Reds," I mean both Scooters and both Reds.
"The GOP calls her "Millionaire Mary" and constantly make denigrate references to her wealth on the fake web page they set up to confuse voters."
Could you link to a few of examples of calling her "Millionaire Mary" -- as a nickname in the "Tricky Dick" form? All I see at the one URL you provided is the use of "Millionaire" before her full name, which to my eye, doesn't feel like a nickname but a descriptor, like "billionaire David Koch."
It's very obvious to an observer in Wisconsin that there is a tremendous amount of hatred expressed about Scott Walker and nothing comparable against Mary Burke.
In fact, Burke's image is mostly just boring, too dull to excite anyone. She's rich, but not in an exciting way. It's family money. What has she done to acquire it?
Her money identified her as a good candidate because Democrats wanted to believe she'd self-finance. It's very hard for her to raise any additional money. How is she supposed to campaign against Walker?
That's the fix the Dems are in. If they'd held their fire and not gone with the recall 2 years ago, they might have built up some way to compete against Walker. But they had to do the recall, even though they had no good candidate to put up at the time, and all the energy they built up in the first year of Walker's term is gone.
Walker got the chance to show that his approach works well enough, and I don't see Burke offering to do anything much different (other than to veto some things that Walker would sign, like abortion regulations).
"madisonfella said...
The GOP calls her "Millionaire Mary" and constantly make denigrate references to her wealth on the fake web page they set up to confuse voters.
http://www.maryburke.com/"
That website doesn't prove your point, it actually disproves it. And it's not a fake website, it's a real website created to inform voters. If Mary Burke is too stupid to buy the domain maryburke.com then she is too stupid to be our guv.
In "Waterworld" the world is covered in water. Kevin Costner is a mutation with gills. This is where the train is headed, Mary Burke.
Curious George has a point. The website is obviously not Burke's and to be confused one would have to be too stupid to even find the internet in the first place. Also, at the bottom of the front page it says: "Paid for by the Republican Party of Wisconsin, Mike Jones Treasurer"
Nitpickers want to claim that the GOP isn't calling any names at all, but it is plain as day they are trying to slime her and her wealth with that moniker. Plays well with the whole "Scott Walker is just a regular guy who brings a brown bag lunch to work every day", ignoring the fact that he has made untold millions from his successful book sale.
And the GOP bought that domain name over 10 years ago. Smart on them to use their very deep pockets buying up every possible contender's name that may someday challenge them in the years to come, but is she really "stupid" for not thinking 15 years ago she may someday run for statewide office?
So Clift can't get 5 words into her column without hitting a blatantly false note.
She's a liberal. What do you expect?
The website is obviously not Burke's and to be confused one would have to be too stupid to even find the internet in the first place.
Isn't that what people said when Ann was confused & fooled by a webpage hosted by the Demmies a few years ago?
Curious George has a point. The website is obviously not Burke's and to be confused one would have to be too stupid to even find the internet in the first place. Also, at the bottom of the front page it says: "Paid for by the Republican Party of Wisconsin, Mike Jones Treasurer"
It probably didn't dawn on Mary Burke that the spiteful little juvenile delinquents in the WisGOP would register her name instead. She should have known long before she decided to run for office that they would do this.
But that's where Wisconsin is at. We're ruled by demented children. 12,000 Wisconsinites died fighting for the Union and these delusional carnival barkers are voting on secession this weekend. It's a Tea Party shock jock radio show and we're just living in it.
"Millionaire" is, at any rate, a bland descriptive. It doesn't generate strong feelings. Republicans should describe her as a wealthy pedalist.
madisonfella said...
"Nitpickers want to claim that the GOP isn't calling any names at all, but it is plain as day they are trying to slime her and her wealth with that moniker. Plays well with the whole "Scott Walker is just a regular guy ... Smart on them to use their very deep pockets buying up every possible contender's name that may someday challenge them in the years to come."
The only reason it is possible to slime Mary Burke with her wealth is because lefties have turned wealth into slime. It would be very difficult to slime a Republican candidate in Republican circles because of his/her wealth. It is entirely appropriate for Walker to point out to potential gullible voters that the left are complete hypocrites who love to wallow in wealth themselves but slime anyone else who is wealthy.
madisonfella said...
Nitpickers want to claim that the GOP isn't calling any names at all, but it is plain as day they are trying to slime her and her wealth with that moniker.
LOL
Garage finally has real competition!
"Nitpickers" can't help but notice that the latest lefty assertion is completely made up.
Not to mention funny.
According to madisonfella, that's unfair!
"madisonfella said...
Nitpickers want to claim that the GOP isn't calling any names at all, but it is plain as day they are trying to slime her and her wealth with that moniker. Plays well with the whole "Scott Walker is just a regular guy who brings a brown bag lunch to work every day", ignoring the fact that he has made untold millions from his successful book sale.
And the GOP bought that domain name over 10 years ago. Smart on them to use their very deep pockets buying up every possible contender's name that may someday challenge them in the years to come, but is she really "stupid" for not thinking 15 years ago she may someday run for statewide office?"
Just repeating your opinion does not make your argument stronger, nor does asserting your correctness.
And it really doesn't take deep pockets to secure urls's...it chump change.
And let me guess...you're the Purple Penguin, aren't you. Because the PP made the same dumb ass "deep pockets" statement, as well as contending that the GOP was trying to confuse voters, which is moronic.
"garage mahal said...
But that's where Wisconsin is at. We're ruled by demented children. 12,000 Wisconsinites died fighting for the Union and these delusional carnival barkers are voting on secession this weekend. It's a Tea Party shock jock radio show and we're just living in it."
Typical garage. No one in the WI-GOP is voting on secession this weekend. I think he knows it...but as usual it is impossible to tell if he is stupid or a liar.
I've never head of that nickname either. But I mostly ignore politics and don't watch TV.
I've tried to buy my name domain name, but it's been bought by someone else with my name - a realtor who is always promising that a new site is coming soon.
http://www.annalthouse.com is for sale -- someone squatting on it, trying to make a buck, I'm guessing. http://www.laurencemeade is available though.
Isn't the problem for Burke that her Dad built the company so she inherited her wealth? It's a similar problem with folks like the Obamas and Clintons who send their kids to private school. You can't stoke class envy and rail against the evil rich when you are full of shit.
No one in the WI-GOP is voting on secession this weekend.
In Wisconsin, the party of Abraham Lincoln will be deciding this weekend whether it favors not only the right to secession but also the right to nullify federal laws.
Yea, just like you said.
The model for the liberal paradise doesn't fit well in Wisconsin, although its not Texas, Madison is not so much different than Austin. But those dreaming of the public sector union control of state politics are still butt hurt little children. "Its so unfair waah waah You guys are mean"
No one in the WI-GOP is voting on secession this weekend.
I'm not sure what Garage means by "WI-GOP", but this was poking me in the eye this morning when I brought in the paper:
Proposed GOP resolution asserts state's right to nullify federal laws
"Be it further resolved," the proposal concludes, "that we strongly insist our state representatives work to uphold Wisconsin's 10th Amendment rights, and our right to, under extreme circumstances, secede, passing legislation affirming this to the U.S. Federal Government."
While the Koch Brothers may consider it chump change to purchase hundreds of different domains on the off-chance some of them may run for office in the next 10-20 years, most people would consider that an actual expense.
Also, Curious George must lead a very sheltered life if he thinks only one person has ever used the phrase "deep pockets". Under the premise of "He who smelt it, dealt it", I can't help but wonder how many different names he goes by.
"garage mahal said...
No one in the WI-GOP is voting on secession this weekend.
In Wisconsin, the party of Abraham Lincoln will be deciding this weekend whether it favors not only the right to secession but also the right to nullify federal laws.
Yea, just like you said."
Thanks for proving my point...they are not voting on secession at all. The are voting on a policy provision coming from one of the eight regions in the state calling not for secession, but the right to secceed under unusual circumstances. This provision is not endorsed by the GOP Assembly, Senate, or Governor Walker. It will, like you, fail.
The GOP calls her "Millionaire Mary" and constantly make denigrate references to her wealth on the fake web page they set up to confuse voters.
http://www.maryburke.com/
Can you name when they do so? Not on that site.
And the site does the Republicans paid for it.
For the record, the nickname "Scooter" was earlier applied by radio commentators to the famous Yankee shortstop Phil Rizzuto.
It's very obvious to an observer in Wisconsin that there is a tremendous amount of hatred expressed about Scott Walker and nothing comparable against Mary Burke.
So in other words just another election. I don't know why liberals, progressives and leftists are so full of hatred and anger. They have the most liberal president ever, highly partisan senate, media, education, wall street, silicon valley and winning the cultural wars. What more do they want?
"ronalddewitt said...
For the record, the nickname "Scooter" was earlier applied by radio commentators to the famous Yankee shortstop Phil Rizzuto."
The Blackhawks had a line called "The Scooter Line", consisting of Stan Mikita, Doug Mohns, and Ken Wharram.
The evidence has shown the Koch brothers are the greatest force the universe has ever known or will ever know.
Unstoppable.
All powerful.
Of unimaginable girth.
So the Left is right to fear them, the problem is the lack of fear compared to the scale of the cause of the dread, the Kochs.
.they are not voting on secession at all.
You can try to soften around the lunatic edges all you want, but you are the party of Glenn Grothman and Mary Lazich. Embrace them, they aren't going anywhere.
Also, at the bottom of the front page it says: "Paid for by the Republican Party of Wisconsin, Mike Jones Treasurer"
It takes a long time to see that, meanwhile you are caught in the deception and that time gap is quite intended.
madisonfella: "It takes a long time to see that, meanwhile you are caught in the deception and that time gap is quite intended."
Well, to paraphrase the lefties, if you like your false assertion, you can keep your false assertion.
I mean, if it's one thing the left does not like, it's "deception".
LOL
BTW, how long is a "long time" to see something?
Can't we just get back to "honest" campaigning with actors playing republicans pushing their own grandmothers off of cliffs and saying voting for republicans is voting to burn black churches?
Also Scooter Libby.
"madisonfella said...
It takes a long time to see that, meanwhile you are caught in the deception and that time gap is quite intended."
Another example of Democrats proclaiming to the world that they are the dumbest motherfuckers on the planet. Can't figure this is a GOP site, can't register to vote, can't even get a damn ID.
Who really cares. The race between Walker and Burke is boring because we all know the outcome. Walker will be easily re-elected.
garage mahal said...
...It probably didn't dawn on Mary Burke that the spiteful little juvenile delinquents in the WisGOP would register her name instead. She should have known long before she decided to run for office that they would do this.
But that's where Wisconsin is at. We're ruled by demented children. 12,000 Wisconsinites died fighting for the Union and these delusional carnival barkers are voting on secession this weekend. It's a Tea Party shock jock radio show and we're just living in it.
5/1/14, 9:52 AM
I've been paying for domain names for my name and my children's names for about 12 years. I'm not running for office, or famous in any way, but it makes sense to me to own the domains. It's only a few dollars a year, why not buy them?
Mike Lang nailed it. It was over before it began.
It's only a few dollars a year, why not buy them?
Then Republicans would be assaulting Burke over her narcissism. "She did what? Bought her domain name over 15 years ago???????" SHE'S BEEN PLANNING THIS ALL ALONG!"
I look forward to seeing Bitchtits froth at the mouth when Walker is re-elected comfortably.
Although I'm sure that indictment for SECRET ROUTERS! will be coming out any day now.
Nothing indicates a confident incumbent quite like making it as hard as possible for people to vote. If Walker & Republicans thought they were popular they would be trying to drag people to the polls.
"garage mahal said...
Nothing indicates a confident incumbent quite like making it as hard as possible for people to vote. If Walker & Republicans thought they were popular they would be trying to drag people to the polls."
Or offer them freesmokes and food.
Another example of Democrats proclaiming to the world that they are the dumbest motherfuckers on the planet
That's not what you and Meade and all the other Republicans said the last time those same exact words were used. Of course, that was when Ann was attacking the Dems, rather than the Republicans, so of course it is a different standard.
Thanks for proving you have no moral base at all, and instead are just a partisan hack who always follows the party line no matter what.
You can try to soften around the lunatic edges all you want, but you are the party of Glenn Grothman and Mary Lazich. Embrace them, they aren't going anywhere.
Speaking of lunatic edges:
Democratic Candidate for Governor Rep. Hulsey to hand out klansmen hoods in Milwaukee Outside GOP Convention
DA looking into free meals Democrat Marvin Pratt provided early voters
This guy sounds real smart;
"The lunches were donated," he said. When asked who paid for them, Pratt said, "If it was donated, no one paid for them, right? I'm not going to say who donated. But they were not paid for by me."
I've been paying for domain names for my name and my children's names for about 12 years.
What a waste of money! But it's your money.
(Both of my kids' names are taken already, by people with the same name).
I should have named my daughter Mildred and my son Ichabod.
garage: "garage mahal said...
Nothing indicates a confident incumbent quite like making it as hard as possible for people to vote."
hmmmmm.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/08/02/obama-campaign-sues-to-restrict-military-voting
For the dems, thats nothing new of course.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1375024/Gore-campaign-trying-to-block-military-votes.html
Just a bunch of dem actions to limit military personnel capabilities.
Of course, courageous garage never donned a uniform, so why should he care?
It takes a long time to see that, meanwhile you are caught in the deception and that time gap is quite intended.
Scrolling to the bottom of the page takes too long? There's no link to click. It's on the first page.
Nitpickers want to claim that the GOP isn't calling any names at all, but it is plain as day they are trying to slime her and her wealth with that moniker.
Can you demonstrate when they actually called her that?
Nothing indicates a confident incumbent quite like making it as hard as possible for people to vote.
...like how Dems always try to disqualify as many military absentee ballots as possible in every single election?
Honey! The neighbors are fighting again!
Lets watch.
At least, here in Illinois, we always know who is going to win. Keeps the bickering to a minimum.
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