Milwaukee's Staggering and Ongoing Attack on Blacks Is SOP

Milwaukee in one image. Never has one major political party,
white Republicans, so inflicted one community in modern
history. But the Democratic Party is not much better.
Source: MacGillis and Schulberg, The New Republic

Inequity, Hate and Oppression 

Madison, Wisconsin — In Milwaukee, police know when they harass, malign, beat or kill black people, the city's liberal mayor, Tom Barrett, has their backs.

It's the way it is.

White-and-proud-of-it folks have a haven in Milwaukee; black folks live on an island in the most segregated metro area in America.

The economic disparities are staggering in American leading apartheid city.

Nina Turner, consultant for the Bernie Sanders campaign, emphasizes today that racism persists, pointing to the comprehensive empirical study released by the National Urban League in 2016.

This must be fixed!👇🏾
Urban League released in May examined economic data for blacks in 70 metro areas and found that Milwaukee has the largest gap in unemployment between blacks and whites in the country and the second biggest income gap. @CNN https://t.co/OwNDldswe8

— Nina Turner (@ninaturner) May 3, 2019

A related question going into the 2020 Democratic National Convention sited in Milwaukee is how badly, how deadly, will Milwaukee police, loaded with Trumpists, abuse the protesting citizenry next Summer.

Mass protests of Democratic Party duplicity are likely.

Then again killing folks in public during the 2020 Convention might dampen the party.

Better to pick off black people in slow-motion, day-by-day, year-after-year — the Tom Barrett,  Democratic Party way.

Wisconsin Metro Clerks Stand Up for Voting Rights

Voters in Wisconsin are getting help from
municipal bureaucrats who administer
elections at the local level, reports the
Chicago-based In These Times.

'Republicans won't let me vote.' But many city workers help against Republican Party efforts

Madison, Wisconsin — Since 2011 Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) worked on his ambitious agenda that obstructed voters, closed early-voting sites, gerrymandered districts and even blocked elections until Walker was ordered by judges to follow the law, allowing voters to choose their state representatives.

The extraordinary state judicial intervention was preceded by less than two years by a major federal case, One Wisconsin Now v. Thomsen (2016), that swept away much of Walker's work against voters.

But it's not just judges defeating Walker's anti-voting purposes.

A nonpartisan effort by Wisconsin election administrators in metro voting districts is offering expanded access for voters, reports a piece in the Chicago-based In These Times.

Four out of the five most-populous Wisconsin cities are implementing or contemplating expanded voter access to the ballot box this summer. Green Bay, Wisconsin's third most populous city, has no such plans though it reportedly includes voter info in its water utility bills.

The mayor of Milwaukee, Tom Barrett, posted a communication on Facebook this week, saying:

Barrett linked to a piece at Fox6Now News-Milwaukee.

From voting rights worker and attorney, Molly McGrath, who works around the state to help voters blocked by Wisconsin Republicans' anti-suffrage work:

"They won't let me vote." That's what one Wis woman told volunteers from this @peoplepower group when they knocked on her door. She didn't have the ID required by the state's strict #voterID law.

Are you near SE Wis? Join their canvass on May 12 and May 20. DM me for details. pic.twitter.com/0sNSxHfrYW

— Molly McGrath (@votermolly) May 10, 2018

Wisconsin election clerks are helping voters now against a determined foe, the Republican Party.

Concludes In These Times: Near-presidential-level turnouts will signal the end of the Scott Walker voter obstruction project by defeating Walker at the polls with a lot of help from voters' municipal friends.

Milwaukee Cop Kills Another Black Guy, Some Blacks Object

For a period of time in the spring and summer in 2008,
following Obama's victory in the February 2008 Wisconsin
Democratic Primary, hope defined black and brown Milwaukee.
This writer has never encountered such a phenomenon, not
like '08 and it was palpable, before or since.

The slow-motion pogrom of segregation in Milwaukee

Stupid white people in Milwaukee will call for the restoration of "order" soon, amid calls to police their way out of "violence". Lots of atonal whitesplaining to come.

Updated - See Callen Harty, On the Milwaukee Riot.
See Miles Brown, Madison365 for rational commentary devoid of whitesplaining.
---
Woke up this morning to reports police killing a man in Milwaukee was met with violent objection, CNN.

First things first, the Milwaukee police officer who killed a man will be cleared of any wrongdoing.

Report Aaron Mak, Jacob Carpenter and Ashley Luthern in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

A standoff between police and an angry crowd turned violent Saturday night in the hours after a Milwaukee police officer shot and killed an armed suspect during a foot chase on the city's north side.

After an hours-long confrontation with officers, police reported at 10:15 p.m. that a gas station at N. Sherman Blvd. and W. Burleigh St. was set on fire. Police said firefighters could not for a time get close to the blaze because of gunshots.

Later, fires were started at businesses — including a BMO Harris Bank branch, a beauty supply company and O'Reilly Auto Parts stores — near N. 35th and W. Burleigh streets, a grim and emphatic Mayor Tom Barrett said. He spoke at a midnight news conference at the District 3 police station at N. 49th St. and W. Lisbon Ave. [Google Map link added]

The slow-motion pogrom of Milwaukee.
Victims are black and brown.
Image: George Grosz, God of War, 1940
- Fear of the Other

Milwaukee Aldermen Khalif Rainey calls Milwaukee a "powder keg" this morning in the Journal Sentinel. Said Rainey:

This entire community has sat back and witnessed how Milwaukee, Wis., has become the worst place to live for African-Americans in the entire country. Now this is a warning cry. Where do we go from here? Where do we go as a community from here?

Do we continue – continue with the inequities, the injustice, the unemployment, the under-education, that creates these byproducts that we see this evening? … The black people of Milwaukee are tired. They’re tired of living under this oppression. This is their existence. This is their life. This is the life of their children.

Now what has happened tonight may have not been right; I’m not justifying that. But no one can deny the fact that there’s problems, racial problems, here in Milwaukee, Wis., that have to be closely, not examined, but rectified. Rectify this immediately. Because if you don’t, this vision of downtown, all of that, you’re one day away. You’re one day away.

Here is what you will not read: Greater Milwaukee is the most segregated urban area in the country, a segregated dynasty. Philly? St. Louis. Those two cities are fountains of integration and equality compared to Milwaukee.

Republicans armed with their toxic, racial politics want violence and the current titular governor of Wisconsin has made his political career on appeals to racism. No Republican is going to give up what works, and demonizing and preventing the lives of black folks is good politics.

"Love and rage. Righteous rebellion," reads a tweet from the Coalition 4 Justice, Lamont Lilly, early Sunday morning.

"Love and rage. Righteous rebellion," reads a tweet
from the Coalition 4 Justice, Lamont Lilly
early Sunday morning.

I would not bet on righteous protests nurturing any of the rotten fruits of racism. It's rancid and beyond repair.

Too many white people are vested in social arrangements just the way they are.

Racial problems that have to be closely examined, and rectified? Not going to happen in Milwaukee. Not in Wisconsin. And Alder Rainey, you know this is the truth.

Maybe after decades and decades, the horror of racism and worsening police oppression will bend under the weight of a supportive white Milwaukee community, cheering civil liberties and putting their bodies on the line against hate and social injustice.

And maybe the Milwaukee Brewers will take the World Series this year. Maybe Scott Walker will hold a no-rules, anybody-can-come townhall-style listening session in the black areas of north Milwaukee, say wards 1-280, (pp. 74-84; Wisconsin Elections Commission). Have a look,  (pp. 74-84; Wisconsin Elections Commission), and contemplate the question, why do Republicans want to suppress Milwaukee voters where most of Wisconsin blacks live.

Take it easy in the sun, folks, because Milwaukee is utterly, irretrievably, fucking hopeless.

Thought about the housing-segregation UW-Madison scholar Karl Taeuber the year Scott Walker assumed office, the enlightened nature of today's youth, and other such matters after talking with some folks on Madison Wisconsin's black Leland Drive.

Good talks. But forget what I said about hope, if you are black and brown you are crazy indeed if you move to Wisconsin.

Better think about rural Georgia or some other urban center. Like my Aunt Jerre said, "Mikey, it's more matriarchal than racist, here, sweetheart," referring a cultural referent emphasizing the values of motherhood and a generic feminism in the rural south.

The slow-motion pogroms of northern United States cities such as Milwaukee are more invidious today than the most vile rural, southern community.

Stop killing us, said some black folks in Milwaukee in 2014. The Milwaukee
Police and the Milwaukee community had a simple reply: No.

Milwaukee in one image. Never has one major political party,
white Republicans, so inflicted one community in modern history.
Source: MacGillis and Schulberg, The New Republic

On jobs—Scott Walker v. Center for Wisconsin Strategy

Scott Walker on jobs - Grifting and winnowing

Scott Walker's lies against empirical rigor; state's jobs deficit over 225,000

Wisconsin lost jobs again in April 2012, ending the month 5,900 jobs behind where it started.

This means Wisconsin continues to fall behind even as the national labor market slowly grows.

Job losses hit the private sector, which lost 6,200 jobs. The public sector grew by 300 jobs.

By the Center for Wisconsin Strategy



From the Center for Wisconsin Strategy



After a very weak 2011 — indeed using Current Employment Survey (CES) data Wisconsin posted the worst 2011 job performance in the nation — the state started 2012 on a better footing, with two consecutive months of job gains. March and April’s losses undermine that trend and should serve as a reminder that recovery in the state remains weak.

Even using the recently released data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, which shows jobs slightly up in 2011 in contrast to the decline shown in the CES, growth is so weak (2,000 jobs per month) that it will take more than a decade to recover from the recession at this pace.

The state’s jobs deficit remains over 225,000, a gap which accounts both for job losses and population growth. We still need 150,000 jobs for Wisconsin simply to get back to the number of jobs it had before the recession began in December 2007. And to keep pace with population growth since December 2007, we need to add another 75,500 jobs.

Both manufacturing and construction lost jobs in April. The recession was brutal for manufacturing, leaving the sector with a loss of 15 percent of its jobs, but the sector’s recovery has been fairly steady. Though the sector lost 1,300 jobs in April, it has posted growth over the last two years and is now 10 percent below December 2007. Construction, by contrast, was hit harder by the downturn and posted declines into the last year. There is little evidence of economic turnaround in this sector, which lost another 1,700 jobs last month.

Unemployment fell slightly from 6.8 percent to 6.7 percent in April. It remains well above prerecession levels but is drifting slowly downward.

Tom Barrett, The First Debate on Friday; Look into the Camera and Say

Scott Walker - Smile and smile, and be a villain

My fellow Wisconsin citizens it gives me no pleasure to say what's on my mind tonight. To be blunt and candid about my opponent, Scott Walker who was recalled by the Wisconsin people:

Scott Walker is lying to you.

And I don't mean the polticians' spin on why Scott has established a legal defense fund and why his top aides are charged with stealing from veterans to running Scott's 2010 campaign from the Milwaukee County executive's office, among other crimes.

Scott won't address these charges tonight; he'll just respond to questions of his criminal culpability as a "distraction," from him. It's all about him.

I mean he has pursued a secret agenda: Telling billionaires one thing, and then telling the Wisconsin people another thing.

On jobs, on fiscal policy, on taking over community democracies, on SeniorCare, on turning our capitol, the people's house into a palace in which he think he rules as a king, not an elected servant.

These are not polite words I'm speaking tonight.

But the stakes are too high, and never in my life in Wisconsin have I seen anything like what Scott Walker is doing to our state.

I have run commercials demanding Scott Walker tell the truth about his aides' law-breaking, and release the 1,000s of e-mails on his secret computer system designed to elude the eyes the Wisconsin people, as Walker campaigned on the taxpayers' dime.

George Grosz - God of War (1940).
Fear of the Other, the people.

If elected governor, I will instruct each and every member of my administration that they are doing the people's work, and not mine.

And if any staff member of mine is ever charged while working in my campaign or administration; I say you cooperate with prosecutors 100 percent or I'll testify myself.

So, I ask again. Scott Walker, release these secret emails and be straight with the Wisconsin people.

And I'll say it again: Scott Walker is lying to you. He's thinks you're too busy to notice and he can get away with it.

As Journal-Sentinel Flacks Away, Scott Walker Goes off Script

Scott Walker meets with his propaganda team

Scott Walker said Kelly Reinfleish, "did what she was expected to do" after Walker hired and promoted her in 2010 in the Milwaukee County Executive's office.

Meanwhile, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel again parrots the GOP line: "Two weeks out from Wisconsin's historic recall election, Gov. Scott Walker appears to have momentum, money and motivated supporters on his side."

Momentum and motivated supporters?

Did Marley, Stein and Bergquist really write this lede?

Their piece's supporting facts and data present far less than a rigorous empirical case supporting their conclusion.

Scott Walker's campaign headquarters

To the contrary, out of the GOP bubble Scott Walker for the first time in Wisconsin history, has to hide his campaign headquarters so unpopular is he with a broad coalition of Wisconsin families.

The MJS piece quotes Mark Graul, GOP operative four times; cites Walker spokeswoman, Ciara Matthews twice; cites Ben Sparks, spokesman for the state Republican Party three times; and omits Walker's war on women.

Its reference to the criminal John Doe probe omits quoting from the criminal complaints that have resulted so far in 15 felonies and three misdemeanors, and in another first a sitting govenor establishing a criminal defense fund; no mention of Walker's top aides stealing from veterans; no mention of Walker usurping local control of communites; power grabs, massive cuts to education and so on.

The rest is false equivalence and tripe not worthy of Marley and Stein's typical writing. Don't know much about Bergquist.

For example:

Walker still faces considerable challenges, from determined opposition from union supporters to a John Doe investigation of his former aides while Milwaukee County executive and the fact that the previous two governors facing recalls in the country both lost. But Democrats face challenges of their own, from Walker's modest lead to the small numbers of undecided voters who could still be persuaded.

Out of the GOP bubble, Cognitive Dissidence offers this today:

Walkergate: He Said, She Said

He, being Scott Walker, discussing Kelly Rindfleish in a radio interview. [Walker] said:

'She did what she was expected to do.'

She, being Kelly Rindfleisch, discussing what she was doing while employed by Walker at Milwaukee County, said (top of page 4 of criminal complaint)

'really, half of what I'm doing is policy for the campaign...its policy stuff but its for use over there...I'm also doing operation freedom'

Isn't it refreshing to hear Scott Walker finally tell the truth?

Walker hired several aides who committed felonies that Walker says are a "distraction," so presumably Walker should get a pass from breaking several criminal state and federal statutes.

Rindfleisch's reference to Operation Freedom is Scott Walker's PR gig pretending to support veterans by appointing cronies who embezzled $10,000s meant for veterans and families, and using "the money to pay for Caribbean and Hawaiian vacations and a political trip to Atlanta to meet with Herman Cain's presidential campaign," among other dishonorable and criminal deeds.

One would think this would be quite a story dominating the campaign. But the Milwuakee Jounral-Sentinel has buried the story along with every GOP media outlet.

Kelly Rindfleisch was brought in from Columbus County, violated the residency requirement for Milwaukee County employment staying at the home of James Villa, former Chief of Staff for the Milwaukee County Executive Office and long-time personal friend of Scott Walker, and informal advisor to the Friends of Scott Walker in 2010. (The Brad Blog)

The MJS doesn't think what looks like conspiracy to secretly break Wisconsin law is sexy enough to cover during the historic recall campaign.

As the apparently weary Walker said, Kelly Rindfleisch "did what she was expected to do."

Enough of that, MJS, tell your readers about Donald Driver's dancing.

Barrett and Allies in Political War with Walker and Underground Movements

Tom Barrett for Wisconsin governor

A rematch between Tom Barrett and allies against Scott Walker is a 27-day war already begun.

Many refuse to refer to Walker as Wisconsin governor as he runs from a secret campaign headquarters at an undisclosed location (seriously); and pulls in $millions out-of-state that still cannot buy him a 50 percent approval rating, mired by a criminal path in his 2010 election, top aides stealing from veterans, and the worst-in-the-nation jobs record.

Never has Wisconsin had such a fetid, corrupt governor.

Wisconsin swings three points from 2010 and Walker and secret alliances with post-Citizens United groups are defeated.

Some numbers:

• The Recall movement, 21.6 percent of the voting-eligible population (900,939) signed the Recall Scott Walker petition during the 60-day recall period over the Holidays, begun on November 15.
• Scott Walker won the 2010 election in Wisconsin with 1,128,941 votes (52.25%) to Tom Barrett's 1,004,303 votes (46.48%). 
• President Obama won the 2008 election in Wisconsin with 1,677,211 (56.22%) to John McCain's 1,262,393(42.31%).

Many of 2008 voters stayed home in 2010. The same won't happen again.

God and Gop

Walker who acts like he gets his orders from God is a turn-off to a more modest Wisconsin culture. "Walker said that God has told him what to do every step of the way, including about what jobs to take, whom to marry, and when to run for governor," writes Matthew Rothschild, though presumably the Almighty didn't tell Walker and Tim Russell to set up his secret router and e-mail system in the Milwaukee County Executive's office.

Field work

The one thing the recall movement has in electoral advantage is field work. Whether it's 20 percent or five to six percent of undecideds, there are 10,000s of people who will knock on doors, call, drive voters, bake cookies, enter data, ID supporters, and do everything it takes to win an election.

Milwaukee county, which underperformed horribly in 2010 for the Democratic Party, will make a huge difference, and Walker has managed to, in the words of Tommy Thompson, stick it those guys. Milwaukee, Kenosha and Racine together might actually be enough because Walker failed [for now] in obstructing voters with the GOP voter-control project.

But battling Walker in Fond du Lac, Dodge, Wood, Marathon and Green Lake counties may also make the difference, together with racking up huge margins in traditionally progressive-voting counties: Dane, Bayfield ... .

Jobs

Jobs will be the killer issue in a target-rich environment. Wisconsin remains dead-last in jobs lost.

Women

I can only hope women as a demographic are as disgusted by the GOP war on women as really most people are. This is another game changer, potentially.

Walker

To conclude, one must note even if Walker is not charged before June 5 in the criminal John Doe probe, reading the criminal complaints of those who are should be sufficient. These top aides of Walker's whom Walker refuses to publicly instruct to tell the truth are involved in the rat's nest of illegal and shady dealing that is the 2010 Walker campaign for governor run out of the Milwaukee County Executive office. We need to get the word out.

One final note. We have not read much about Scott Walker setting up his criminally charged friends—multiple Kelly Rindfleisch, Tim Russell and Kevin Kavanaugh—as paid employees of non-profits intended to help veterans and their families. This news of betrayal is an outrage and should get wide coverage. Stealing from veterans. I'm on it, and so are a lot of my veteran friends. We won't count on WTMJ and Charlie Sykes who condone this crap.

As Walker once said about a proven-innocent women who was a civil service employee (Walker's gang are all political appointees) when Gov. Doyle was governor: "Unfortunately we have a Governor and administration that condones unethical and illegal behavior. The people of Wisconsin deserve better."

Yes, and Walker knows fully well his cronies are guilty as sin.

Many Dem Voters Fleeing to Falk after Walker Head Feint

Kathleen Falk

As Scott Walker floods the airwaves with anti-Tom Barrett ads, many are wondering why he presumes to know the will of Wisconsin voters he deceived last year.

No one knows who is going to show up today at the polls, or for whom voters are casting their lot.

But many, out of concern of electing the strongest general-election candidate to knock off Walker, are seeing the anti-Barrett commercials [unfair and inaccurate though they be] and considering if a 14-year executive like Kathleen Falk might be the tougher Walker foe. Maybe this is what the GOP wants.

After living as a constituent for all of Falk's tenure, I can tell you that when addressing Falk with policy disagreements, few walk away without feeling they have encourntered a mind able to repeat back objections to the satisfaction of the speaker.

Policy is made from there. And the results lead the state in every category voters care about.

Republicans may think they are being clever, but if the GOP wants Falk as a general election foe, the Party proudly off-the-bend will regret getting what it wished for.

Tom Barrett's Message Is Clear Among Four Strong Dem Candidates

Tom Barrett, Kathleen Falk, Kathleen Vinehout and Doug La Follette—each candidate represents a return to open government, a less divisive political culture, and the idea our state government belongs to us. Each candidate should repeat these truisms as a mantra, noting the high caliber of his and her Democratic primary opponents.

In the last 14 months we have seen Scott Walker's decimation of local democracy, violation of open meetings, secrecy, closing and literally locking down the capitol (the people's house), power grabs and lies, unprecedented out-of-state money, secret gerrymandering, misrepresenting the budget process, top aides charged with embezzling $10,000s from veterans and their families, secret criminal campaigns, libels made against the Wisconsin people fighting for basic civil rights, violation of pledges for clean and open government, corruption on an unprecedented scale, and on and on.

Tom Barrett's campaign message is easy:

In 2010 I told you the truth; Scott Walker lied to you.

In 2012 I will again tell you the truth, and Scott Walker will again lie to you.

By United Wisconsin

Scott Walker has defended his attack on collective bargaining by telling us that he "campaigned on it." Despite this blatant lie being debunked, Walker has continued to use this defense in an attempt to deceive the people of Wisconsin. But this lie can finally be put to rest.

Video (below) has recently surfaced exposing to the world how Scott Walker played politics with Wisconsin values. In the video, Walker explains one week before the election how he would “negotiate” wage and pension changes with unions, and compared it to his time as Milwaukee County Executive, when he “did that at the county”.



After seeing this, you know once and for all that Walker lied to the people of Wisconsin. Scott Walker assaulted workers rights in an effort to further the extreme agenda he and his corporate allies have for our state. This was NOT a budget decision, but a political one.

Tell Scott Walker that his lies and deception will not be tolerated. Call his office (608) 266-1212 and let him know his radical agenda is out of step with Wisconsin values, and his pink slip is coming!

Election Report From Fitchburg (Dane County) Ward Spells Trouble for GOP

Update: See Dane County couldn’t save Feingold this time

Here's a report from what is typically a relatively low-turnout district in Fitchburg, a city adjacent to Madison in Dane County.

Same-day registrants, with a high teen-20s presence, kept three election registers busy the moment the doors opened up through mid-afternoon, with a crush expected after 5:00.

If this district is at all representative of the turn-out in Madison-centered Dane County, the Republicans are in some serious trouble.

The youth vote is alive and well.

Word is Madison and Fitchburg are expected to exceed 80-plus turn-out.

With long voting lines reported in Milwaukee, when you're watching the results pour in tonight at WTMJ, be advised that Madison wards report in last and late in Dane County.

President Obama Is Pitch-Perfect

- "Stakes could not be higher," said President Obama as Democrats Mayor Tom Barrett and Sen. Russ Feingold address 1,000s in Madison belying an alleged political enthusiasm gap.

[Check out MJS's photo slide show by Benny Sieu—killer shots.]

From The Obama Mamas:

Think about it, when I arrived in Washington 20 months ago, my hope and my expectation was that we could pull together, all of us as Americans - Democrats and Republicans and independents - to confront the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. I hoped and expected that we could get beyond some of the old political divides between Democrats and Republicans, blue states and red states, that had prevented us from making progress for so long because although we are proud to be Democrats, we are prouder to be Americans. (Applause.)

And this country was confronting a crisis. Instead, what we found when we arrived in Washington was the rawest kind of politics. What we confronted was an opposition party that was still stuck on the same failed policies of the past, whose leaders in Congress were determined from the start to let us deal with the mess that they had done so much to create.

Because their calculation was as simple as it was cynical - they knew that it was going to take a long time to solve the economic challenges we face. They saw the data. They were talking to the economists. They realized that Obama was walking in and we had just lost 4 million jobs in the six months before I was sworn in; 750,000 jobs the month I was sworn in; 600,000 jobs the month after that; 600,000 jobs that month after that. So before our economic policies could even be put into place, we’d already lost most of the 8-million jobs we would lose.

And they knew that people would be frustrated. And they figured, if we just sit on the sidelines and just say no and just throw bombs and let Obama and the Democrats deal with everything, they figured they might be able to prosper at the polls.

And that’s what they’ve done for the last 20 months. They have said no to just about every idea and policy I’ve proposed - even ideas that historically, traditionally, they agreed with. So now the pundits are saying that the base of the Republican Party is mobilized. The prediction among the pundits is this is going to be a bloodletting for Democrats. That’s what they’re saying in Washington. ...

So what the other side - you know what the other side is counting on this time around? They’re counting on you staying home. They’re counting on your silence. They’re counting on amnesia. They’re betting on your apathy, especially because a lot of you are young folks.

So Madison, you’ve got to prove them wrong. (Applause.) Let’s show Washington one more time, change doesn’t come from the top. It doesn’t come from millions of dollars of special interest-funded attack ads. Change happens from the bottom up. Change happens because of you. (Applause.) Change happens because of you. Change happens because of you. (Applause.)

Desperate Wisc GOP Ineptly Reprises 1986 Gov Race

With Tommy Thompson likely out of the race for governor, a desperate Wisconsin GOP is attempting an old trick.

Back in 1986 it was the dump "Tony the Taxer (Earl)" campaign [and the Thompson-pushed image of black welfare recipients in Milwaukee] that launched Tommy Thompson's entry into the governor's mansion and national prominence.

Now, a Wisconsin GOP Google ad reads:

Tom "the Taxer" Barret (sic)
Higher Taxes, Fewer Jobs
Wisconsin Cant (sic) Afford
Tom the Taxer
www.wisgop.org

Sure, the GOP misspelled Barrett's name and the word "Cant", but that's not the only advertising mistake the GOP will make this campaign season.

Tom and Tommy?

The Wisconsin gubernatorial race is wide open, even though the reported Obama backing of Tom Barrett led the heroic Democrat to throw his hat in the ring against two heavyweight Republican contenders.

A Tommy Thompson supporter this weekend described Thompson as a "tremendous bundle of energy," having what appears as a personal inclination to run for governor in 2010. But no official decision is expected until after the holidays and a personal inclination is but one factor among many.

There is growing GOP-muckity-muck sentiment to push aside Mark Neumann [in favor of whom?], a short-sighted move that may not sit well with a guy with razor-sharp, multi-appendaged elbows.

One GOP-leaning blogger in favor of moving out Neumann tries lamely to belittle him for not having finely-tuned field and press operations, as if money and ideology were not the consummate political organization.

Anyway, Thompson and Tom Barrett both culturally fit Wisconsin as does Neumann to a lesser extent.

But will Thompson get in after declared GOP candidate Scott Walker has invested nearly two years in running?

That Tommy is considering a run and is being repeatedly urged is revealing that politicos believe that the too-slick-by-half Walker [an admiring John Nichols calls him the Wisconsin William Buckley] and the ideological Neumann would not fare well against the affable Milwaukee mayor who looks like he belongs in Fondy or Superior downing beers as much as smacking punks in Milwaukee.

See also: One-term Tommy Thompson in 2010 Has Appeal.