A slice of Wisconsin politics.

I framed this screenshot from the lead article at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel webpage:



Meade sent me that link and highlighted the quote: "A few dozen protesters gathered in the rotunda, and their shouts were at times barely audible inside the Assembly chamber during the address."

Wistful echoes of 2 years ago, when thousands of protesters jammed the Capitol and banged drums and chanted for weeks on end.

Meanwhile, in the sidebar over there:

Feingold calls for legislation to rid election campaigns of corruption

And I call for peace on earth and goodwill toward men.

That second sidebar link — "Man arrested at Capitol had earlier run-in with police" — refers to something that is also in the Scott Walker article: "In one surprise at the Capitol Tuesday, police arrested a 20-year-old Milwaukee man for entering the building with what he claimed were Molotov cocktails in his backpack.... So far, however, no evidence has turned up that Smith knew about Walker's speech or was targeting it specifically."

Random Molotov-cockery, not necessarily Scott-Walker-related.

"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!

Russ Feingold on the Wisconsin recall: "I wouldn't have won either."

The audience gasped.

These were 500 people at First Unitarian Society who'd showed up for a talk  organized by the Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice of South Central Wisconsin — on "the role of interfaith communities in the labor movement."

Feingold said that interfaith groups will play a key role in healing the current partisan divide in the state. He said he saw that dynamic in action while in the Senate.

"Whenever we had a really tough fight," said Feingold, "we'd bring in the clergy. They seemed to just briefly lift us from our egos, our own infighting politics. They seemed to momentarily elevate us to talk more about fundamental values that underlie the political effort in this country."

The judge overseeing the John Doe investigation defends it against charges of partisanship.

"This has been an orderly and professionally conducted procedure... I realize the length of it frustrates some people. Once it's run its course, it's run its course."

Said former Appeals Court Judge Neal Nettesheim of Waukesha, interviewed by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Nettesheim declined to comment specifically on whether Walker was constrained under the John Doe law from discussing what he knows about issues under investigation or from releasing specific emails. Nettesheim noted that his secrecy order extends to all parties, including the judge. Violators can be held in contempt of court. Nettesheim would be the enforcer if violations occur.

I guess it's for the judge to decide how far he's allowed to go.

ADDED: At a Barrett rally last night in Madison:

The mayor again appeared with former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, who has joined Barrett on the campaign trail this week. Feingold called Walker's decision not to disclose John Doe documents "cynical" since voters cannot recall him again in his first term.

"If we do not prevail ... Scott Walker will have committed the perfect political crime," Feingold said. 

Oh, that's rich! As if Scott Walker schemed to set up a recall election against himself. Instead of calling Walker "cynical," he should call the people who demanded the recall idiots. Plus, Feingold.... if Feingold really cared about recalling Scott Walker, he'd have stepped up and become a candidate. Instead the Democratic Party got stuck with a lackluster candidate who had already lost to Scott Walker. Finally, there are remedies other than the recall, and in fact, the recall is a bad political remedy that ought to be abolished. If Scott Walker is actually guilty of some crime — if there's ultimately something of substance behind all this John Doe investigatory smoke — the remedy of impeachment will be available. There is also the political remedy: pressure on Walker to resign.

The political appropriation of public property.

There's a "National Nurses United" sign — saying "Don't Cut Wisconsin/Tax Corporate Profits" — stuck in the blooming tulip garden in front of the state capitol:



And on the granite ledge around the garden, someone has written — in permanent black marker — "Capitalism needs to be destroyed/Solidarity Sing-Along Is Pro-Capitalism & Pro-Democratic Party/Russ Feingold is a Capitalist":



Can we not have a moment's peace?



Jesus said:

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Russ Feingold's new book has a title that's so right wing... and I mean 1960s right wing.

"While America Sleeps."

Freaky!

Rick Santorum on feminism and abortion.

From his book "It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good":

It is obvious that for [women who feel regret], abortion was not a liberating choice. These women and many others say abortion was a last resort, or that they felt they had no other choice. It is a decision, often born out of loneliness and desperation, that can cause a lifetime of suffering.

Alice Paul, the feminist author of the Equal Rights Amendment, was right when she said, “Abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women.”

Dorinda Bordlee of Americans United for Life wrote recently, “Roe has ruined romance. Every woman's deepest desire to love and be loved has been distorted into a license to use and be used. Women have paid with their bodies and their souls. Abandoned emotionally and financially by the men they loved, and moved by profound grief at the loss of their children, they stand in front of crowds with signs that say ‘I regret my abortion.'” Serrin Foster of Feminists for Life sums it up well: “Women deserve better than abortion.”

... [I]f you were to ask one of the village elders their view of liberty they would say, “the freedom to do whatever you desire, as long as nobody gets hurt.” How does that square with abortion? Doesn't their support for abortion undermine the basic tenet of liberal orthodoxy? Can you honestly say that in an abortion “no one gets hurt?” What about the 327 women who died and countless others who became sterile from legal abortions between 1973 and 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control? What about the four women you just heard from: didn't they get hurt? What about the exploitation and misogyny? And, yes, what about the babies? Is this caveat to No-Fault Freedom just an obligatory yet disingenuous smokescreen? The village elders' response provides great insight into the liberal mind.

The village elders choose to ignore or deny the humanity of the child in the womb and the emotional trauma of the mother and choose to focus solely on freedom or “choice.” Think about it. When you hear an abortion supporter argue his or her position, nowhere do you hear that a baby's heart can be seen beating at three weeks; that new 4D sonograms show that from twelve weeks, unborn babies can stretch, kick, and leap around the womb—well before the mother can feel movement; from eighteen weeks, they can open their eyes, although most doctors thought eyelids were fused until 26 weeks; from 26 weeks, when partial birth abortions are still performed, they appear to exhibit a whole range of typical baby behavior and moods, including scratching, smiling, crying, hiccupping, and sucking.

Almost never do you hear about what is being chosen, other than the sterile words “terminating a pregnancy.” Nowhere do you hear that over 93 percent of abortions are performed on healthy mothers with healthy babies who were not the victim of rape or incest, which means that in the vast majority of cases abortion is actually postconception birth control. Nowhere do you hear that 48 percent of women obtaining abortions in any given year already had at least one abortion. Nowhere will you see the words infant, baby, or child.

The advocates of abortion, like Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Rights Action League, teach that if you have to say anything about what is in the womb you should use dehumanizing terms like “product of conception,” “embryo,” and “fetal tissue.” Or, if you must, fetus. Thanks to a lot of help from their allies in the news and entertainment media, they have turned the child in the womb into a nobody, and therefore “nobody gets hurt.”...

This chapter goes on to quote from the 1999 Senate debate over partial-birth abortion law. Santorum, as Senator, argued with Senators Boxer and Feingold in an effort to make them appear unprincipled if they tried to draw any line defining who is a human being deserving the protection of the law. Santorum's position is: "If you don't draw a bright clear line to give constitutional protection—i.e., personhood—to all human life at the moment when human life begins—at conception—then everything becomes just a power game."

"Politicians and political operatives far beyond Wisconsin will be watching closely..."

"... not just for what the recall effort may imply for other states’ leaders who are considering cuts to workers’ benefits and union powers as a way to solve budget problems, but also as a sign for the presidential race."

... In 2008, Mr. Obama won here by almost 14 percentage points, and a Republican presidential candidate has not won Wisconsin since 1984. But overwhelming Republican victories in 2010 and a State Supreme Court election in 2011... has raised new questions for races in the fall, including a United States Senate seat left open by the retirement of Herb Kohl, a Democrat.

“It’s an early skirmish, a dry run, a fight of proxies and laboratory for experimentation,” Mordecai Lee, a former state legislator who teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, said of the recall’s significance for the presidential election.

On both sides, the recall could create a testing ground for larger national themes about collective bargaining and unions, and build volunteer and political operations (not to mention a list of some 720,000 recall signers) long before fall.

I'd say it's more than just an early test. It's a place to shape public opinion. An immense amount of money will be spent focusing attention on a pretty specific set of issues: government employees (and their benefits and unions) and how to balance the budget. Presumably Mitt Romney will have the Republican nomination sewn up and presidential politics may be in a bit of a lull. I'm picturing national party politics overshadowed by the crisply ideological fight we're having here in Wisconsin. Suddenly, the spokesperson for conservatism will be the little seen but oft-denounced Scott Walker. And holding up the liberal end of the argument will be... somebody. We don't know who. I wonder how that will work out.

I happen to believe Russ Feingold will step forward, even though he's said he won't.  (I explained why back here.)

25 most-watched Althouse/Meade videos of 2011.

1. Wisconsin Capitol protesters disrespect the Veterans Memorial. 66,919 views.

2. Wisconsin protesters get children to chant. 37,011 views.

3. Gov. Scott Walker compared to Hitler. 28,944 views.

4. 14-Year-Old Girl at Tea Party Rally in Madison Drowned Out by Chants and Boos. 26,219 views.

5. First-hand View of the Attack on Althouse at the Wisconsin Capitol Singalong. 25,674 views.

6. Attack on Althouse at the Wisconsin Capitol Singalong. 24,054 views.

7. Protest at the Wisconsin Capitol, Saturday, Part 15. 15,359 views. (Doctors give excuse notes to protesters.)

8. Protesters re-take the Wisconsin Capitol. 12,111 views.

9. Sarah Palin in Madison, Wisconsin. 11,766 views.

10. Anti-Scott Walker protesters get aggressive. 11,657 views.

11. A Class War Is Coming. 10,668 views.

12. Scraping the Stickers and Tape Off the Wisconsin Capitol Marble. 10,502 views.

13. Meade washes communist graffiti off a Madison Civil War monument. 9,375 views.

14. The Silent Majority Walk and the Naked Bike Ride. 6,697 views.

15. Protest at the Wisconsin Capitol, Saturday, Part 12. 6,639 views. (I question a woman who yells about "teabagging.")

16. Althouse and Meade return to the Veterans Memorial at the Wisconsin Capitol protest. 6,217 views.

17. Russ Feingold stirs up the Walkerville crowd. 5,639 views.

18. At the Wisconsin protests: "Hang them all!" 5,007 views.

19. 6 Questions About the Kloppenburg-Prosser Election. 4,852 views.

20. JoAnne Kloppenburg Asks For a Recount of the April 5 Wisconsin Supreme Court election. 4,472 views.

21. Meade Is New Media. 4,087 views.

22. Madison city salt trucks circle Capitol Square blowing horns in apparent solidarity with protesters. 3,992 views.

23. Politicizing the Wisconsin Supreme Court Election. 3,510 views.

24. 2 teachers protest outside the window of Wisconsin State Senator Glenn Grothman. 3,781 views.

25. A Free-Speech Countervoice Takes the Center of the Wisconsin Capitol Rotunda. 3,643 views.

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!!!

Russ Feingold: "The big lie is beginning. The big lie is that this is an out-of-state movement...."

He was speaking about the movement to recall Scott Walker at a rally in Madison, Wisconsin yesterday.



"The big lie"? The "big lie" is a lie that has "a certain force of credibility" precisely because it is so big:

[T]he broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying.

Those aren't Feingold's words. Those are the words of Adolf Hitler, which Feingold evoked when he used the historically resonant expression "the big lie." In accusing his opponents of employing "the big lie," Feingold is likening them to Hitler.

Let me remind you that the Wisconsin protesters have been equating Scott Walker with Hitler since last winter.  From last March, here's a protester explaining why Scott Walker is like Hitler. Here's another explanation, from a woman with a sign portraying Scott Walker as Hitler. Here's a photo I took last February. I vividly remember this woman:



I asked her if she thought Scott Walker was like Hitler...

... and she said "Yes." So I said, "Are you saying that you think fascism could come to America," and she said, "It's what's happening."

Russ Feingold is a very intelligent and informed man. His allusion to Hitler is subtle, not — I think — accidental. He's sounding the deep chord. His speech continues:

"How can they even say it with a straight face? This movement is so grass-roots, so red-and-white Wisconsin, that it is absolutely ridiculous to say that."

Can you look at this picture of a truck parked on the Capitol Square during yesterday's rally and maintain a straight face?



It says: "Kentucky/West Virginia/Indiana." (And here's a golden oldie from last March: "Chicago is up in the house... Everyone left is from Chicago.")

Feingold continues:

Now, we've got a great football team. They may not be #1, except for a couple little problems there, but they're darned close, but when it comes to grass-roots activism that is all Badger, we are #1.

All right. Quite aside from the truth of the assertion that the recall movement is totally in-state and grass-roots, how can he say "Now, we've got a great football team. They may not be #1"? We've got a great football team that is most certainly #1, but it's not in Madison, Wisconsin. It's in Green Bay. You can even hear an audience member yell out "Two!" in a prompt that Feingold could have heard. But it's a Madison, Wisconsin crowd, and Feingold is Madison-focused. He used the expression "red-and-white Wisconsin" as if the colors of the University of Wisconsin—Madison were the state colors. Red-and-white Wisconsin? What about green-gold-and-white Wisconsin? Feingold is unwittingly displaying that he is out of touch with the rest of the state — which voted him out of the U.S. Senate in 2010, despite his vast popularity in Madison.

And this is the state that voted in Scott Walker. The people of Madison never supported him, but they weren't in synch with the majority of the state in 2010. Now, it's a year later, and the people of Madison want to force another election, using the recall mechanism from the Wisconsin constitution, which doesn't limit the reasons why we might recall a governor. Russ Feingold addressed the question of when recalls are justified:

Our law says you can be recalled if you simply attack the people of the State of Wisconsin, and that is what this is all about. 

The state constitution says no such thing. "Attack the people"? It is for us, the people of Wisconsin, to decide when and why we want to use the recall device. There's no attack-the-people standard, whatever that's supposed to mean. Feingold attempts to infuse meaning into his made-up standard:

Now, I'm going to be the first to say I don't believe you should do recalls just any old time. I don't think that's a good idea. I think it could be damaging. 

I agree!

For example, I don't think it would be a valid basis to recall Walker because he ruined our chances to have a railroad system. I mean that was totally dumb. It was $800 million from the federal government that he just threw away. 

He just threw it away. Isn't it shocking to think of federal money like that? The federal government is deeply in debt. There is no money to throw away. Once the federal government offers money for some specific purpose it may seem to acquire reality, and if you are completely fixated on what you want for yourself, you may think, I'd better snap that up now or I'm going to lose it, but that's a delusion. There is no money. And if we'd taken the money for the railroad line (to connect Madison to Milwaukee), we would have been on the hook — as a state — for endless additional expenses over the years.

But according to Feingold, the railroad "was our future." It's not right to recall Scott Walker over that, however, Feingold says, because "he said he was going to do that." (That is true. It's why I voted for Walker.) What Walker didn't say, and what is therefore the reason to recall him, Feingold says, "was that he was going to go at the basic collective bargaining rights and voting rights of every citizen in this state. That's a big deal. That goes to the foundation of who we are."

Now, Walker didn't go after "the basic collective bargaining rights... of every citizen in this state." He only went after some of the collective bargaining rights of some public employees. And he didn't go after the "voting rights of every citizen in this state" — only the "rights" of citizens who haven't yet acquired a state-issued photo ID.

But Feingold is stirring up the crowd. And the fact is, he's a great speaker. He ends: "Where do I sign?" and signs a recall petition.

Our recall procedure requires an election with an opposition candidate, and what's the point of going through the collection of all these signatures unless the governor can be ousted? Who will oppose Scott Walker? The only candidate with a real chance, it seems, is Russ Feingold, but Russ says he's not running. That's what he's saying now, before the signatures are collected. I happen to believe that if there is a recall election, Feingold will run. But that is a subject for another post.

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.

Russ Feingold says Occupy Wall Street "will make the Tea Party look like ... a tea party."

Interviewed by Greg Sargent:

“The worm is finally turning on the nonsense of blaming the wrong people for what happened in 2008,” said Feingold, whose new group, Progressives United, was formed to counter the Citizens United decision and corporate influence over politics. “The American people are saying, wait, we have the boot of corporations on our necks, and we’re sick of it. This is a significantly coherent message at the beginning of something like this.”

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.)

Russ Feingold: "While I may seek elective office again someday, I have decided not to run for public office during 2012."

That means he's not running for the Senate seat that Herb Kohl is getting up out of and not going to be the one to challenge Gov. Scott Walker in any recall that becomes a possibility beginning next January.

In an email going out to supporters early Friday morning, Feingold called it a difficult decision but said he wanted to devote his time to teaching full time at Marquette Law School, finishing the book he is writing on the U.S. response to the Sept. 11 attacks and leading the political committee he founded, Progressives United.

I take that to mean that he doesn't think he'd be able to win. I mean really, a book on the U.S. response to the Sept. 11 attacks? Shouldn't that have been done and ready to go on the 10th anniversary of the attacks? Or is it possible that Russ Feingold is a serious law professor writing a scholarly book of real depth?

I assume he'd rather be Governor now than Senator again, and I think it's sound judgment to stay away from the recall context. Wait for the next regular elections. Recalls have a nasty edge to them, and Feingold needs to reclaim the middle ground politically to win a state-wide majority. Being the hero of the protesters won't get him anywhere near far enough. Remember this Russ Feingold?



"This game is not over until we win" is not — ironically — what will win the governorship in Wisconsin. Better to be a law professor for a while, publish a serious book on national government, and be reborn as the wise moderate. Take the governorship and, with all that moderation and executive experience, there's still time to run for President. Even in 2016!

I'm creating my "2016 campaign" tag right now, in honor of (that insight about) Russ.

And by the way:

His decision leaves the Democratic Senate field wide open, though many Wisconsin Democrats will now regard U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, with her political base in vote-rich Dane County, as the early favorite for the party nomination.

Dane County — basically, Madison — may be "vote-rich," but having the Madison brand on you — and Baldwin, of course, deserves it — is going to hurt you elsewhere in the state. But, go ahead Tammy, run.

"You’ve got to send a message to Washington that it’s time for the games to stop."

"It’s time to put country first."

Paradoxically, that is a move in a game.

But is it ever the case that the person who decries "games" is not himself a game-player?

And speaking of the perception of politics as a game and what it takes to end the game, let me, once again, embed the classic Russ Feingold clip:



"This game is not over until we win."

IN THE COMMENTS: Meade said:

“I know it’s not election season yet, but I just have to mention the debate,” where Republicans said they would not increase taxes under virtually any circumstance, Obama said at a town hall. “Think about that. That’s just not common sense.”

Think about that. Obama common sense says: Increase taxes under virtually any circumstance. 

"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?

"Under the legislation, Democrats have little chance of attaining and retaining a majority in either the Senate or the Assembly, or in the congressional delegation..."

"... giving them little ability to overcome minority status at any point over the next decade."

That is a quote from the complaint in the lawsuit challenging the redistricting done this past week in Wisconsin. Read that again. Does it even pass the laugh test?

Let me trot this out again:



ADDED: Back in 1986, Justice O'Connor cogently observed that "there is good reason to think that political gerrymandering is a self-limiting enterprise":

In order to gerrymander, the legislative majority must weaken some of its safe seats, thus exposing its own incumbents to greater risks of defeat -- risks they may refuse to accept past a certain point. Similarly, an overambitious gerrymander can lead to disaster for the legislative majority: because it has created more seats in which it hopes to win relatively narrow victories, the same swing in overall voting strength will tend to cost the legislative majority more and more seats as the gerrymander becomes more ambitious. More generally, each major party presumably has ample weapons at its disposal to conduct the partisan struggle that often leads to a partisan apportionment, but also often leads to a bipartisan one. There is no proof before us that political gerrymandering is an evil that cannot be checked or cured by the people or by the parties themselves. Absent such proof, I see no basis for concluding that there is a need, let alone a constitutional basis, for judicial intervention.

With recall elections looming, the Wisconsin Senate Republicans get their congressional redistricting done.

There are cries of outrage, of course, but, without question, Democrats in the same position would do the same thing.

The proposed maps, which would take effect for the fall 2012 elections, would make three state Senate seats in southeastern Wisconsin dramatically more Republican and help the re-election bid of GOP freshman U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy of Ashland....

Democrats decried the maps as partisan and called it insulting to hold the vote on the same day Sen. Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) faced a recall election and just weeks before eight other senators will do the same.

"This is a huge power grab by a party that's worried about losing the majority in a couple of weeks," said Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton).

And "a huge power grab" is what your party wants. Here's Erpenbach's ex-brother-in-law Russ Feingold exhorting the protesters in Madison last month:



"This game's not over until we win."

The Blutarsky/Feingold Philosophy.

John Belushi as Blutarski in "Animal House":



Russ Feingold at the Wisconsin Capitol last Sunday:



And a few weeks ago, here at the Capitol:



"It's not over until we say it's over." That's the political theory. Meanwhile....

Unions representing public workers in Wisconsin filed a lawsuit in federal court on Wednesday to block the state's new curbs on collective bargaining... [claiming] the controversial measure is unconstitutional because it creates two classes of public workers in the state -- those covered by the new rules and those exempt from them.

What? Treating police differently from teachers is supposed to be an invidious discrimination under the Equal Protection Clause?! There's no suspect or quasi-suspect classification, so the courts will give this minimal scrutiny. How is this anything but a frivolous lawsuit?

Blutarsky/Feingold marches on.

NOTE: The "Animal House" epilogue tells us what ultimately happens to each character, and the biggest joke is that Blutarsky becomes a U.S. Senator! (Thanks to Bruce Hayden, in the comments, for reminding me of that.)