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| Gail Collins, circa 1997 |
Elections: Oshkosh Shrugged
Published: October 22, 2010
“I’m in Sheboygan!”
That’s sad. Not even the people from Sheboygan want to be in Sheboygan.
said Senator Russ Feingold over the phone.
No wonder he wants to go back to Washington.
“It’s the bratwurst capital of the world!”
I presume that Senator Feingold has a 17-step plan to save the bratwurst industry with combination of federal subsidies and Main Street stimuli.
Truly, I am learning something new every day in this long campaign season. People, did you know that the official state bird of Alaska is the willow ptarmigan? Or that Alexandria, Ind., is home to the world’s largest ball of paint? Well, you do now.
I’ve forgotten it already.
But about Russ Feingold.
That’s not a sentence. It has neither a subject nor a verb. I have a new level of respect for newspaper editors and the level of basic journalistic incompetence they overlook.
He is running for a fourth term, in a very tough race against Ron Johnson, a plastics manufacturer
Read: fake, cheap, yielding.
and one of those rich political virgins
The sexual metaphor is apt, I suppose. After all, it’s not like we have an entertainment culture that sexualizes and promotes youthful, virginal women. Clearly they’re not more desired than an old industry veteran like, say, Madonna.
who have been popping up in races across the country, waving a checkbook and a copy of “Atlas Shrugged.”
One begets the other.
It’s ironic that Feingold, who is possibly the most independent member of the Senate, a Mr. Clean who votes against his party regularly, is among the incumbents in the most danger from an anti-Washington voter rebellion.
That’s not ironic at all. This would be ironic if a) Russ Feingold was truly a moderate and b) the anti-Washington voter rebellion was poised as a voice against political extremism and partisanship.
First, Russ Feingold is not a moderate. Feingold voted for Obamacare, for the Stimulus, against the Iraq war, and against the PATRIOT Act. While Feingold is ranked as a somewhat moderate Senator, these rankings are misleading. Consider Feingold’s vote on the Financial Regulatory Act. Feingold opposed, considered a “conservative” vote, but his justification was far from conservative. Feingold opposed the bill because it did not go far enough. This happens frequently and obfuscates Feingold’s true beliefs with a moderate voting record. His “conservative” actions are largely justified with hard-line liberal ideology. Consider Bernie Sanders, avowed socialist and too liberal for the Democratic Party. Sanders weighs in as a paltry 38th most liberal Senator. That alone is enough to discredit moderation.
Secondly, for Ms. Collins drivel to be “ironic,” the groundswell of conservative grassroots activism in this election cycle would have to carry an anti-partisan tone. Far from it, the Tea Party has eliminated centrists and liberals alike for reliable and ideological Conservatives. Here we are, just over a week from the greatest electoral landslide of the last 50 years, and Gail Collins still doesn’t get what the opposition is all about.
Especially since Johnson is not all that impressive.
The man is the type of self-starter that should be welcome anywhere, especially the senate. Russ Feingold, meanwhile, entered politics two years after getting his law degree. In what world is going to Harvard Law more impressive than starting and running a highly successful company?
Unless you
[comma]
like Ayn Rand
[comma]
and are yearning to see the country run just like a plastics business.
I, for one, am. Most Americans don’t think business is evil.
“My opponent never even refers to Wisconsin,”
Neither does the New York Times.
said Feingold, 57, a twice-divorced policy wonk who thinks the election is being hijacked by big money conservative forces outside the state.
Boy, that sounds moderate.
He loves to talk about Wisconsin’s “great progressive tradition,”
Boy, that sounds moderate.
as well as “the rich tradition of clean government.” Still, you have to acknowledge that the state that gave America Fighting Bob LaFollette also created
Lo, he sprung from forth from the earth.
Senator Joe McCarthy.
“Well, there are other traditions,” Feingold conceded.
How articulate.
I’ve gotten sort of tired of independent spirits in the U.S. Senate,
The Juan Williams/NPR story has showed how liberals deal with dissent and unpopular opinions.
and when Feingold decided to vote against the financial reform bill
Kind of surprising he still has kneecaps.
because he just felt it should have been better, I felt an unexpected surge of sympathy for the majority leader, Harry Reid.
I kind of get that. He’s such a sad-sack.
But there are two things about Feingold’s campaign that won my heart.
First, unlike the majority of Democrats running for re-election in Middle America,
Or anywhere else. That vote is a political albatross.
he is not trying to pretend that he didn’t vote for the health care bill, or that he voted for it with his fingers crossed,
Does that mean their votes don’t actually count?
planning to completely overhaul it in 2011. “You bet I voted for that bill! I’m proud I did it!” he hollered during a campaign stop with Michelle Obama.
That’s probably why Johnson, the challenger, is polling up 7 with over 50% of the vote.
He keeps pointing out all the good and popular things the law contains.
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Obamacare — if he really wants to reopen the hated “doughnut hole” in the Medicare prescription drug program
Any conservatives knows that you don’t fix inefficiencies created by government intervention with more government intervention.
or go back to allowing insurers to refuse to cover children with pre-existing medical conditions.
Yes. This is called the free market. To thrive in it, parents must be responsible and forward-looking enough to buy insurance for their children instead of expecting the government to do it for them. Safety nets abound for dire situations, and charities exist for exactly such a purpose.
Second, Feingold is actually sticking to his principles even though it could cost him the race.
Not to sound like a broken record, but boy does that sound moderate!
This is the Lone Ranger year in American politics,
What the hell does that mean?
when big money donors
Like Unions and Trial Lawyers? Oh right, you’re talking about the Chamber of Commerce and conservative PACs.
have been able to buy campaign TV ads without revealing their identities,
Also known as “exercising their First Amendment rights.”
Laundering
I’m confused. Is she accusing Republican candidates of breaking the law?
the money through groups like the United States Chamber of Commerce or blandly named newbies like the American Action Network.
Since we’re now officially talking about campaign finance, this seems an apt time to talk about McCain-Feingold, yes?
The Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit group for government transparency, says there’s been more than $2.7 million spent by these outside groups in the Senate race in Wisconsin.
…Apparently not.
About $2.67 million of that went for ads to praise Johnson or attack Feingold. Less than $40,000 was spent on Feingold’s behalf.
That’s because everyone knows Feingold’s going to lose.
This is because the senator told outside groups, including the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, to stay away.
Great idea, champ.
“He lives by his rules,” said Fred Wertheimer, the guru of campaign finance reform and chief
Chief? Is it an Indian tribe?
of Democracy 21, a nonprofit organization. “He’s true to his school,
So…the University of Wisconsin-Madison?
which makes him a freak of nature in Washington.”
Well the only reason Johnson isn’t true to the University of Minnesota is because…well have you seen a Gophers football game this season?
This is not the first time Feingold has risked his seat to hang onto his convictions about the proper way to finance political campaigns. In 1998, in a race he ultimately won by a whisker, he told outside groups not to come into Wisconsin with unregulated “soft money” ads on his behalf. “No career, including mine, is as important as breaking the hold of this system of legalized bribery,” he told R.W. Apple of The Times.
Adorable.
Then he and John McCain managed to push a bill through Congress to control soft money.
It’s no coincidence that the law was largely determined to be unconstitutional. In fact, it was probably because McCain Feingold was designed “to control soft money.”
But it was upended
That’s an odd verb for this situation. Try “overturned,” “rejected,” or “shut down.”
this year by the Supreme Court. In response, the House passed a bill
The absurdly acronymed DISCLOSE Act, which even the ACLU opposed.
requiring the liberated attack-ad machines to at least reveal the names of their major donors.
A description that’s particularly rosy. The bill would have also required DISCLOSURE (Dramatization of Issues Staunchly Codified Lacking Overt Seismic Undulations Really Exciting!) of all donors.
It was killed by Republicans in the Senate, with McCain’s help.
Good thing McCain remembered he was a Republican.
“I think John will be back,” said Feingold. “He had a tough primary.”
How on earth is that a relevant quote? Yes, John McCain will be back in the Senate.
Which is sort of the point. There is a law in Washington, followed by politicians great and small from both sides of the aisle, that principles are fine, but not something you’d want to lose your seat over.
Except that anyone with any legislative acumen knows that the DISCLOSE Act was a reactionary disaster designed by partisans to injure their political opponents.
Feingold disagrees. And Wisconsinites, if you decide to re-elect this guy I will be so happy I will personally lead a movement to make the rest of the country stop calling you Cheeseheads.
And, as with everything else you do, you will fail.
Unless that’s something you like. Really, whatever you want is fine.
They like Ron Johnson. They don’t like Russ Feingold.
Let's all take a moment to stop making fun of these near-Canadians. I commend them for their decision.
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