I created a new tag this morning and I noticed an old tag that I can never use anymore.

The new tag: Frugality. This morning's post about the "stingy challenge" in Chinese social media pushed me over the line. I went back into the archive and found 10 old posts that deserved the "frugality" tag — Remember the FIRE movement? Voluntary houselessness? "Financial Secrets of the Amish"? Remember when Scott Walker branded himself with Kohl's? Do you care about Sir Jeffery Amherst? Is Mr. Money Mustache still around? Remember me seeing "potential for resurrecting the old division-of-labor model in which one spouse earns a good income and the other contributes in kind, unpaid, saving many expenses and keeping the couple's tax-bracket low"? Want to know how frugality links the "Xi jacket" to the "Mao suit"? How Salon tried to make us hate Trump for his cheapness? It's all there, under the "frugality" tag.

The old tag: "Written strangely early in the morning." There's no earliness in the morning that can be strange anymore. I used to think it strange to put up the first post in the 4-o'clock hour, but now, it would only be strange if I put up the first post before midnight, and that wouldn't be "morning" yet — no "a.m." The last post in this once-important tag was January 23, 2022 — "Why Ayn Rand is trending on Twitter under the heading 'Sports.'" — published at 3:10 a.m. Yes, that seemed notably early, 3 years ago. But now, when I wake up, feeling refreshed after what seems like a long sleep, and I look at the iPhone hoping it's not too early — which wouldn't be strange at all — I'm pleased if I see it's at least 3 a.m. Yesterday, when I looked — ready to leap out of bed — it was only 12:35 a.m. There are so many old posts with that tag! Here's the first one, in my first year of blogging, 2004: "Did you see that the first post today has a 4:33 a.m. timestamp? And yesterday's was 5:02? My two-hour 8 a.m. class has completely transformed my biorhythms, apparently. I was already a morning person, but this is a bit eerie. At least the NYT is already here at that hour...." That was 20 years ago, back when "the NYT" referred to a folded paper concoction stuffed in a blue plastic bag.

"In battle for authenticity, Scott Walker looks to Kohl's."

A CNN article about how Scott Walker has branded himself with a brand — the Wisconsin-based retailer Kohl's. CNN enumerates 4 reasons for Walker to use the Kohl's brand: 1. It signifies frugality, 2. He has a way to connect it to tax policy, 3. He can contrast himself to Hillary who probably shops at more expensive places, and 4. He can leverage easy jokes like saying "Is it from Kohl's?" when someone gives him something.

What I find weird is that CNN writes an entire article about how Walker has connected his name to Kohl's and seems to try to find everything possible to say about that but never got around to the fact that the name Kohl's has long been connected to a Democrat. Has everyone forgotten Herb Kohl already? It's his family's business and the source of all the money that allowed him to run as "Nobody's Senator But Yours":



Great slogan for a rich guy, no? It argued that he could care for us and connect with us precisely because he was wealthy, and he didn't need to get money from other people. And now, ironically, the always middle class Scott Walker is using Kohl's name to send the message that his lack of wealth connects him with us.

ADDED: WaPo has a similar article "Scott Walker stresses his discount attire and ‘regular guy’ credentials," and it also misses the Herb Kohl connection.

"I will put into this race what I can, but I can't self-fund it," said Mary Burke.

"I'm not a Ron Johnson or a Herb Kohl. I don't have that type of wealth."

She only has the type of wealth that makes Wisconsin Democrats allow her to waltz into the nomination because they think she can self-fund it and to decline to give her any money because they were hoping she'd self-fund and because she's not the candidate they'd have picked if they were looking at criteria other than ability to self-fund.

Who will hear the plaint of the rich-but-not-that-rich politician?

"I'm not going to go away, but I'm not going to run again," says Tommy Thompson.

Who seems to have said that in 2010 when he opted not to challenge Russ Feingold for the Senate seat that Ron Johnson went on to win. But 2 years later, when Herb Kohl decided he'd sat in his seat long enough, Tommy decided to run or saunter over what was an empty seat. It should have been really easy, especially with the Democrats putting up the most left of the liberal Democrats in Congress. Well, it wasn't that easy.

ADDED: Here's Tammy Baldwin's victory speech. Congratulations. I remember her as a student in my class!

Photos from the dismal, dull Obama rally in Madison today.

Get ready!



Block off all the streets! The hordes are coming!



Apparently not.

Blaaaaah.... Herb Kohl... zzzzz....



Oh, my lord, it's Bruce!



(All photos by Meade, who tells me it was very subdued.)

Tommy Thompson is crushing Tammy Baldwin in the race to replace Herb Kohl in the Senate.

Rasmussen says it's 52% to 36%. Ouch.

Thompson isn't the candidate yet. Popular though he is, other Republicans are giving him competition. Meanwhile, on the Democratic side, no one is challenging Tammy Baldwin, the congresswoman who has for many years represented the district that includes Madison. Where are all the Democrats in this erstwhile blue state? Is there no one out there or have they somehow agreed to let Tammy have it? There ought to have been some very serious concern about her ability to appeal to people outside of the Madison area.

"Defeated in Walker recall, Democrats vow to fight on."

At their annual convention.

And yet, in the recall, their candidate Tom Barrett, made it his central issue that he would "end the civil war in Wisconsin." We were supposed to oust Scott Walker so that the fight would end. That was always, obviously, a bogus issue. It only meant: Our side will stop fighting when we win. Did anyone fall for that?

But the Democrats, out of power, have spent the last year and a half depriving us Wisconsinites of the feeling of peace. They offered to take over as the only way to get to peace. The offer was rejected, and less than a week later, they tell us they'll keep fighting.

Now, we are headed into the election season this fall, and it is time for the political parties to gear up for a fight. Unfortunately, however, the Democrats forced us into off-season fighting that has gone on since February 2011, and we might be sick of fighting. That was Tom Barrett's theme over the last month — that we're sick of fighting.

But the Democrats are up for a fight. Or am I making too much of a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel headline? What's the evidence that Wisconsin Democrats remain bellicose? Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (from my district) urged Wisconsin Democrats to keep fighting "our fight for Wisconsin's middle class," which "isn't a political fight, it isn't a partisan fight, it is a moral fight." (Baldwin is the near-certain Democratic candidate for the Senate seat that Herb Kohl is declining to continue to occupy.)

Nothing else sounds particularly pugnacious. Herb Kohl, Congressman Ron Kind, Party chairman Mike Tate, and Tom Barrett himself made remarks. Nothing particularly worth quoting. It sounds like they tried to minimize the significance of Scott Walker's win in the recall. Maybe people just oppose recalls. It wasn't really a mandate for Walker. We need to do a better job of getting our message out.

Is the headline justified? Obviously, the Party must fight on. That's built into the idea of a party. No vowing is involved. They didn't disband. But they sound weak — depleted by the recall fight and unready to trudge forward into the fall elections. Does anybody picture Tammy Baldwin beating Tommy Thompson for that Senate seat? Are they stoked about helping Obama win this state?

The Party needs "to do a better job of connecting with the middle-class people to make them understand that on the economic arguments, that what we are talking about is really in the best interests of everyone," said Tom Barrett, whose defeat in the recall showed that the Democratic Party in Wisconsin has no idea how to do that better job of making the assertion that it could do a better job improving life for people in this state.

They need to do a better job of impressing me that they could do a better job of getting out their message that they can do a better job.

And the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel needs to do a better job of writing headlines or a better job of collecting sentences to support the headlines they've chosen to write for whatever reason. I'd like to know what the reporter (Tom Kertscher) really thought of that convention.

I'm guessing: Wow, this is lame. This is sad. Barrett is pathetic, and everyone knows Tammy Baldwin is going to lose, but there's nothing they can do about it. And no one seems to give a damn about helping Barack Obama here after the way he treated them...

Shouldn't Democrats have had a viable candidate lined up before they went to all the trouble to get a million signatures on those Recall Walker petitions?

This list of 11 potential candidates is horrifying — or hilarious, depending on how much you like Governor Scott Walker. I mean, Citizen Dave has the 11 in order, and #1 is Herb Kohl! Herb Kohl is a 76-year-old man who's retiring from the U.S. Senate after a quarter century (and very little to show for it). According to Dave, the great thing about Kohl is that he's very rich, so he can use his own money. Note the implied concession: People aren't going to want to make contributions to the other candidates. But, look, there are no donation limits in the recall election. If Kohl wants to dump his money into the election, he can hand it to whomever he wants.Maybe one of the other 10 characters on Dave's list. Maybe #6, Kathleen Falk, who is, you know, the only person on the list who's actually announced her/his candidacy.

ADDED: Here's the Government Accountability Boards memo about contributions for recall expenses. The exemption applies to money used "for the purpose of payment of legal fees and other expenses incurred in connection with the circulation, offer to file or filing, or with the response to the circulation, offer to file or filing, of a petition to recall an officer prior to the time a recall primary or election is ordered, or after that time if incurred in contesting or defending the order."

"Tommy [Thompson] was beside himself that [Scott] Walker was so dogmatic."

"We had lots of conversations about this — about how it was going to do nothing but cause chaos, and it was bad for the state. Businesses aren't going to move here in the middle of all this conflict."

A Democratic Wisconsin state senator talks to The Progressive's Ruth Coniff about his purported conversations last winter with Tommy Thompson about Scott Walker.

"After a certain point, Walker quit taking Tommy's phone calls... I think Tommy was giving him advice he didn't want to hear."

Democratic State Senator Bob Jauch says that during the crisis, after he and 13 other state Democrats had fled the state to stall a vote on the collective bargaining issue, he spoke with former officials in Tommy Thompson's administration who said Thompson was trying to persuade Walker to reach a deal. "I heard it from three different people who talked to him," says Jauch....

"I said, 'Tommy, you and I could have solved this whole thing over a cup of coffee.'" Jauch says. "Tommy put his hands on my shoulders and said, 'Bob, it would have been a pot of coffee, but absolutely we could have solved it.' " ...

"Tommy Thompson spent his career unifying Wisconsin," Jauch adds. "It has to be stressful for him to watch Governor Walker divide the state."

Hmmm. Jauch is a Democrat, and Tommy Thompson is running for for office right now (trying to get the U.S. Senate seat Herb Kohl is vacating). Thompson — as the linked article notes — is getting criticized from the right for being too moderate. It doesn't help Thompson's candidacy to have Democrats slathering him with love. Read the whole article. There are more quotes from Democrats who think Thompson is just dreamy compared to Walker.

By the way, if Walker is ousted in a recall — highly unlikely, in my view — I'd like to see him vie for that Herb Kohl Senate seat.

And look: Scott Walker was proclaimed "Governor of the Year" by Governors Journal.

Prediction: Russ Feingold will run against Scott Walker in the recall election...

... if there is a recall election. I'm not predicting that the governor's antagonists will succeed in getting 540,208 signatures in 60 days, which is what they need to force an election. Once they've snapped up the easy signatures in Madison they've got to venture out to chillier places. For example, at yesterday's Packer game:


(Ha ha. The last guy in that video is great)

I'm only saying that if they get the signatures, Russ Feingold — despite repeated statements to the contrary — will step forward and run to take the governorship away from Scott Walker.

The fact that the signature effort may fail is just one of the reasons why Russ Feingold has taken the official position that he will not run. Yes, some people might be more willing to sign the recall petition if they knew the strongest-polling Democrat was ready to go, but the signature-gathering-effort would turn into a discussion about whether Feingold is preferable to Walker, and — as I read Feingold's mind — Feingold would prefer for people to leave him out of it and concentrate on how bad Scott Walker is.

By disclaiming the desire to take power, Feingold is able to present himself as a statesman, appearing at numerous anti-Walker events to bolster the morale of the protesters and, seemingly selflessly,  to criticize Walker. Here he was at Saturday's recall rally. Here he was at the Walkerville protest in June. And here he was embodying the Wisconsin protests for Netroots Nation people. That was back in March, before he'd done much at Wisconsin protests (oddly enough!), but when folks outside of Wisconsin, like FireDogLake, were straining to connect Feingold to the protests. FireDogLake noted that "practically every rally in Madison has included some variant of a 'Feingold for Governor' sign."

Back then, Feingold had only appeared at — I think — one anti-Walker protest: On February 18th, he marched with some firefighters. That was 2 days after he announced that he was starting a new organization called "Progressives United" (which hasn't made much... progress), about a month after he signed on to teach "Current Legal Issues: The U.S. Senate" at Marquette Law School, and 3 months after he was humiliated by the loss of his Senate seat to a political newby, the tea partier Ron Johnson.

As the protest season unrolled, and Walker-haters chanted "Recall Walker" and carried signs picturing Feingold with the slogan "This is what a Governor looks like," Feingold had to be careful not to look too eager to grab the governorship. Under Wisconsin law, there could not be a recall election until early 2012, and the time-line had to be managed. Feingold figured out — I'm guessing — that he needed to stay in the background, act as though he wanted nothing for himself, and let the demand build. People would have to beg to run.

If and when the recall Walker campaign come to fruition, there will be a painful, embarrassing dearth of willing Democratic candidates. The cry will reach a crescendo: Help us, Russ Feingold, you're our only hope!

And then, not for himself, not because he lost the Senate seat, not because he'd like to set himself up for a run at the presidency in 2016, but humbly, out of a pressing sense of duty, for the sake of the People of Wisconsin, Reluctant Russ will step forward. Oh, the liberal love that will gush forth that day!

Will he win? I don't know. He could be rehumiliated. First, that tea partier Ron Johnson, and next, that weasel Walker!

But what else can Feingold do with himself? Teach more courses about law and politics at Marquette? No, he has big ambitions, and the most ambitious path leads to the presidency. Russ wanted the presidency in 2008, (and his campaign collapsed early). What is the one thing that would — by far — help launch Feingold to the presidency if anything is going to launch him? Executive experience — successful executive experience — running a state.

He can't wait until 2014 — when Walker's term runs out — to run for governor. He must have realized that when he lost his Senate seat. This recall is exactly what he needs to restore his political career. Note that he declined to run for the Senate seat Herb Kohl is vacating. Why? I think it's that he already had fixed his ambition on the governor position. Why? It would be too small an accomplishment to crawl back to the Senate, where Ron Johnson is sitting in his seat. And the Senate is not a good path to the presidency. Feingold learned that the last time around, in the 2008 campaign. You need executive experience (or you need to be Barack Obama). Senator doesn't cut it. Especially for 2016, after Barack Obama.

So you take over as Governor of Wisconsin. You bring peace to our state after all of this discord. The liberals lapse into a snooze of bliss. Realistically, they know you can't do anything, because the Republicans hold the legislature. All you need to be is our dear Russ, the liberal, who ended the pain that was Scott Walker. While the liberals are sated and sleeping it off, Russ will build his new reputation. He'll demonstrate bipartisanship, working with the Republican legislature, gathering in a few symbolic accomplishments. The economic outlook will probably brighten — with Walker's reforms remaining in place — and Governor Feingold will glow over every tick upward. Feingold will seem so mature and moderate, so responsible and effective, so intelligent... so excellent!

Blah blah blah...  

President Feingold!!!

Which party will take the Senate in 2012?

Control of the Senate is crucial, perhaps more important than the Presidency. The NYT has assembled the information about the different races very clearly on this page, though I suspect the estimates are skewed in favor of the Democrats. There are 30 Democratic seats and 37  Republican seats that are not up for reelection, so there's no skewing there. But the NYT counts 11 Democratic seats and only 7 Republican seats as "solid," which puts the teams at 41 and 44, and then it has 5 seats as "leaning" Democratic and only 2 "leaning" Republican, which — lo and behold — puts them even at 46-46. Hmm.

Who's going to run against Scott Walker in the recall election?

Assuming enough signatures are collected for a recall, there needs to be a candidate. Who's it supposed to be? Shouldn't the people asked to sign the recall petition want to know? Here's a little interview with former U.S. Rep. David Obey on the subject, and Obey himself has been suggested as a candidate. But look at him:


Slouching with his pot belly aimed at the camera and repeatedly scratching his ratty beard, he can't be serious about running. Why would Walker opponents want to set up a race that will give Walker a big platform for promoting himself unless the other guy (or gal) has a great fighting chance?

In the interview, Obey cites the names Tom Barrett and Herb Kohl. Barrett is the Milwaukee mayor who already lost to Walker (back in 2010). And Kohl is 76 and retiring from his not-too-onerous seat in the U.S. Senate. Assuming he'd run against Walker, how good a fight would Kohl put up against the 43-year-old governor who will be battling for everything he's worked for and defending himself after year's worth of over-the-top assaults on his integrity?

By the way, Obey is quoted — at the link — saying that the new Wisconsin law requiring that voters show an ID card "is not only a recallable issue; it ought to be an impeachable issue." You'd impeach elected officials for passing legislation? Ridiculous. Of course, if you had the votes in the legislature to impeach, you'd have the votes to repeal the legislation, so Obey is simply spluttering from his out-of-office dream world.

ADDED: Let me take Obey's nutty idea about impeachment and run with it. If we get a new governor through the recall of Scott Walker, the ouster of the governor ought to be seen as an impeachable offense. Let the Republican legislature impeach the new Governor Obey/Kohl/Barrett/Feingold. Why not? The Democrats have set the theme: Use anything and everything you can get your hands on to defeat your opponent. As one possible future governor likes to say: "This game's not over until we win."

Jeff Fitzgerald — the speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly — will run for the U.S. Senate seat that Herb Kohl will vacate.

AP reports:

[Fitzgerald,] one of the key backers of Gov. Scott Walker's proposal curbing bargaining rights for public unions... said... he believes his role in passing that law is his largest asset heading into the race. The proposal drew protests as large as 100,000 people and made Wisconsin the center of a national fight on union rights,

"It's the No. 1 thing I've got going for me. It's fresh in people's minds," Fitzgerald said. "We did it right in Wisconsin. ... There are conservatives who think Wisconsin is ground zero for the movement."

There is one Democrat in the race so far. It's Tammy Baldwin, who walked arm-in-arm with Jesse Jackson, demonstrating strong support for the protesters.

On the Republican side, Tommy Thompson has declared his candidacy. One difference between Thompson and Fitzgerald is age. Thompson is 69. Fitzgerald turns 45 tomorrow. Thompson is taking the opportunity to run for a seat with no incumbent after he declined to challenge Russ Feingold in the 2010 elections. Back then, when the hard work of unseating Feingold lay ahead, Thompson asserted that it was time for a new generation. That bothers me.

An Isthmus writer finds it "startling" to see an attack ad against Tommy Thompson so long before the primaries for the Herb Kohl Senate seat.

Here's the ad:



Judith Davidoff writes:

[T]he ultraconservative Club for Growth... has made it a habit in recent years to oppose moderate Republicans.... [but] Thompson has not officially entered the race and the Republican primary is still a year away.

"I think it is pretty remarkable," says Barry Burden, a political science professor at UW-Madison. "It tells me something is at stake here. Conservatives in the party are really concerned about Tommy winning the election. They are trying to head off his really owning the nomination at this point, and I think that's why they're in so early."

I remember back in 2010, when people thought Thompson would challenge Russ Feingold. I video-recorded the speech he made to the Tea Party crowd, when he said he would not. He said "I told my family... that it's time for new voices and new faces." He declined the hard work of unseating the longtime incumbent, and Ron Johnson stepped up to that task. Now, it's a year later and nobody's gotten any younger, yet Thompson sees himself as the man for the Senate. What happened to the need for "new voices and new faces"? Why are old faces good? Because now it's a shot at a vacant seat?

The 2012 GOP primaries are about defining conservatism, and the Club for Growth ad has its idea of what the conservative message should be, and it's not Tommy Thompson. Let Thompson present a crisp version of his definition.

On the other side of the equation, the Democrats have to define liberalism, and if Isthmus is genuinely worried about candidates swinging too far to the extreme and losing the moderate voters in our passionately purple state, they ought to handwring about Tammy Baldwin. (But they won't.)

"Tommy Thompson is IN" — running for the Senate seat Herb Kohl is about to get up out of.

Says David Blaska, who used to work for Thompson.

My old mentor will have beaucoup de competition in the Republican primary for Herb Kohl’s U.S. Senate seat this time around. He can bring in boatloads of national cash, name I.D. up the wazoo, and residual good will. Question: Will he be outflanked from the Right and if so, by whom?

I vividly remember hearing Thompson say, a year ago, that he shouldn't be the one to challenge Russ Feingold:

Thompson took a lot of credit for his work as Governor and claimed to have instituted many of the Tea Party values. But, he said, it's time for a new generation to take over, and, besides, he promised his family...

Ron Johnson accomplished the task of defeating Feingold. Now, looking at an empty seat, Thompson no longer wants to leave things to the younger generation? Why not?

Why isn't anyone protesting this new abomination from the Wisconsin state senate?

It has passed a bill making the cream puff the official state dessert. The cream puff!

"The Senate’s Education Committee recently endorsed the new symbol. It was first suggested by Janine Coley’s fourth-grade class in Mukwonago. Their senator, Republican Mary Lazich, introduced the cream puff bill – but only after the youngsters studied the history of the confection, and had supporters sign petitions on Facebook."

The Education Committee?! School children studied the history of the confection?!

Where does that go on Michelle Obama's "food plate"? Dairy?



ADDED: Here's the "Make cream puffs the official dessert of Wisconsin" Facebook page.

AND: Speaking of Wisconsin's kid-oriented, milk-related politics, with Herb Kohl's impending retirement from the U.S. Senate....

What about the flavored milks at State Fair?!... Relax, Dairylanders. Herb's Superb Milk House will go on, even after the four-term senator turns in his congressional badge.

"It has no expiration date," he said.

ALSO: If the bill passes the Assembly and is signed by the governor, the cream puff will join all the other state symbols, including the state fossil (trilobite), the state soil (Antigo silt loam), the state dance (the polka), and the state animal (guess!).

"The excuse that you're not breaking new gossip you're just helping to spread gossip seems like a pretty lame excuse."

Jack Craver — the Isthmus writer who did that hit piece on me — takes some heat for writing "Oh, and Herb Kohl is long-rumored to be gay." That came in the context of talking about whether Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin — who is openly gay — could run successfully for Herb Kohl's Senate seat.

If the question is what counts as outing? then it's not outing to report the existence of well-known rumors. How well-known are the rumors about Herb Kohl?

But the question isn't really how to define the term "outing." It's whether it's whether a journalist should bring up the subject of rumors in a particular context. Here, the context is whether an openly gay candidate will be successful running for an political position now held by a rumored-to-be-gay person. Another context where it might seem justified is reporting the rumored-to-be-gay person's vote on the repeal of Defense of Marriage Act or Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

I think the mainstream norm is to avoid mentioning the rumor and to wait until the person identifies himself as gay — even in those special contexts. Perhaps it depends on how obvious the rumors have been balanced against how gay-related the context is. And the thumb on the scales is: How edgy/mainstream do you want to be?

Isthmus is our "alternative newspaper." We could talk about what that term means. And Craver's on-line writing self-identifies as a "blog," whatever the hell that is.

If Tammy Baldwin were to run for the Senate seat vacated by Herb Kohl, could she simultaneously run for reelection to her House seat?

You know, like the way Joe Biden ran for Vice President and for reelection to his Senate seat in 2008 (and then resigned the Senate seat). The answer is: no.

ADDED: I've reworded the title to this post because somebody in the comments found it ambiguous.

Paul Ryan won't run for the Senate seat Herb Kohl is vacating.

All right then. Who do we want to see run?  Surely, not the 69-year-old Tommy Thompson, who said, a year ago, when he decided not to challenge Russ Feingold, that it was time for a new generation to take over.

So who is there? J.B. Van Hollen?

"Ryan will decide soon on Wisconsin Senate race."

He said, this morning on a CNN show.

Do you want Paul Ryan to run for the Senate?
	No, because he's powerful in the House and I like what he's doing.
	Yes, because I like him and want to see him move up.
	No, because I don't like him and don't want to see him move up.
	Yes, because I want him to lose his power in the House and maybe he'll lose the Senate run too.
pollcode.com free polls

ADDED:

Forget the Senate, should Ryan run for President?
	Yes, he'd be a great candidate and I want him to win.
	Yes, because I think it would help Obama win.
	No, he's good but he should wait.
	No. He's not presidential material.
pollcode.com free polls

AND: I wish I'd put one more option in the first poll, and it's not No, because he should run for President. It's: Yes, because he's the best hope for the Republicans to take another Senate seat. The fight for control of the Senate may be far more important than Ryan's retaining his position in the House. Some other Republican can take over where Ryan leaves off.