My post-recall question: What did Rahm Emanuel say to Tom Barrett to get him to run against Scott Walker?

Here's what things looked like on March 28th, before Barrett declared his candidacy for governor in the recall election:

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel helped raise money for Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett during a luncheon at the Italian Community Center Wednesday – a strong sign that Barrett will enter a likely recall race against Gov. Scott Walker.

Tickets for Wednesday’s luncheon ranged from $400 each to $2,500 for a table. The luncheon was closed to the media, and outside, there were about 75 demonstrators.

Barrett is running for re-election as mayor. He has said he’ll announce whether he’s jumping into the governor’s race sometime between Friday and Tuesday. Earlier this month, Barrett said: “I’m seriously considering that office, but again, I love being the mayor of the city of Milwaukee, so that’s what I’m focusing on right now.”

On March 30 — 2 days later — Barrett announced his candidacy. His message at that point was that he would support collective bargaining, but he wanted to get to a compromise, bringing in all sides. "I'm going to try to heal the state. I'm going to try to restore the trust." This contrasted to what was being said by his rival for the Democratic Party nomination, Kathleen Falk — who'd announced her candidacy back in January. Falk had captured the unions' endorsement by pledging to veto any budget that did not restore public unions' collective bargaining powers.

Now, I think the polling numbers showed all along that Scott Walker was going to win the recall election, so something else was at stake that drove Emanuel to Milwaukee to propel Tom Barrett into the race. The real interests had to do with the national Democratic Party and the fall elections.

Here's something David Blaska wrote back on March 19 —  before Emanuel came to Milwaukee, but with the fundraiser planned. Blaska noted that Emanuel had unsettled the unions in Chicago:

Rahm... criticized his predecessors’ deal with the teachers union. Bill Daley and schools chancellor Arne Duncan (now U.S. Secretary of Education) gave the union “hefty” pay increases and a shorter school day in return for some union love. Says the new mayor, “I know what the teachers got and I know what the politicians got. But I don’t know what the kids got.”

Mayor Emanuel got legislation giving districts greater authority to fire teachers, reform tenure, pay for performance, and lengthen the school day and school year. He’s also a big fan of charter schools. His new school chancellor, Haitian-born Jean-Claude Brizard, worked with school reformer Joel Klein in New York City.

Meanwhile, in Milwaukee, Barrett was no big friend of the unions:

The major downside to a Tom Barrett candidacy is the same as his strength: public sector labor bosses hate him. Barrett tried to take over Milwaukee public schools; despite a Democratic governor and both houses of the Legislature, they could not beat the teachers union. Barrett has also used Walker’s “tools” to balance his budget. He actually wanted greater pension and health insurance leverage vis-a-vis his police and firefighters, although those unions are specifically exempted from Act 10 reforms.

“With Emanuel set to appear in Milwaukee for Tom Barrett on March 28, it is clear that Barrett is poised to become Obama’s pick to unseat Walker,” claims The Badger Democracy blog.

In “Why would Tom Barrett run for governor ... again?” Badger Democracy says it “examined the role Rahm Emanuel played in Free Trade policies (NAFTA), union busting, and privatization from his years with Bill Clinton to Barack Obama to the Chicago Mayor’s Office. Does Tom Barrett represent the energy and power of this recall movement? How many times has Barrett marched with teachers and firefighters? How many times has Barack Obama actually stood with Labor in Wisconsin ...?”

Blaska’s Bottom Line: next time someone asks why can’t Republicans elect a moderate, turn the question around on them. Why can’t Democrats elect a moderate?

But Barrett got the Democrats' support in the primary, knocking out Kathleen Falk who would have wedded the Democratic Party's image in Wisconsin to the unions. And Barrett proceeded to avoid talking about collective bargaining, making his issue some vague blather about healing and trust. That is, he ended up with a generic non-message of the sort that has worked for Barack "Hope and Change" Obama.

So what did Rahm Emanuel say to Tom Barrett? Was he conveying the message that you are Obama's pick, and we need to do this for the sake of the party's future? And this includes losing, because we know from the polls that you are going to lose. And, after today, we are not going to help you. In fact, although you are Obama's pick, you are picked for the purpose of keeping this pro-union message off of the President. He will not appear by your side in Wisconsin. He might do fundraisers just over the border in Minneapolis, making a show of shunning you. We'll throw you a tweet of support — in less than 140 characters — on the eve of the election. This is all understood.

In that light, Barrett stoically did what he was supposed to do. He lost, and he did it in a way that allowed much of the media — which is substantially pro-Obama — to interpret the June 5th election as a crushing loss to the public sector unions but somehow nevertheless good news for Obama.

Now, let's look back to that Badger Democracy ("Progressive Truth in Journalism for Wisconsin") item that Blaska linked to (above). That was written on March 15th:

For over 14 months, this struggle has begun and continued without the support of Barack Obama and his Administration. He was not on the ground with us marching against Act 10 – in fact, many of us have pleaded  for his support since this struggle began. Now, facing an election, Obama needs Wisconsin as a critical battleground state. His obvious intention – to link his campaign with the energy and power of the Wisconsin grassroots movement with Tom Barrett as the capital “D” Democratic candidate.

The "energy and power" maybe, but not also the lefty politics.

Does Tom Barrett represent the energy and power of this recall movement? 

No, but that was the point. To capture the energy, but launder out the left-wing issues and ideology. Barrett was to be exploited by the Party as a firewall, allowing Party insiders to use the energy of the Wisconsin protests without getting burned by issues and attitudes that scare off mainstream American voters. (The Party was struggling with a similar problem with respect to the Occupy Wall Street movement.)

How many times has Barrett marched with teachers and firefighters? How many times has Barack Obama actually stood with Labor in Wisconsin or against job-killing free trade bills? When has Rahm Emanuel honored the negotiating process of collective bargaining? The political actions of these candidates speaks volumes about who they are, and what they represent.

Exactly.

If Tom Barrett were to decide to drop out of the Milwaukee Mayor’s race to run for Governor because people are overwhelming in their demanding that action, so be it. If he were to win a competitive primary, so be it. But – if Barrett intends on running as a pawn to the Obama Administration and beholden to that corporate money; and using the grassroots momentum for that political end – it will serve no good for the people at the heart of this movement or Wisconsin itself, and we all lose the potential to change the politic in Wisconsin for the benefit of the people.

Ask yourself the question – what does this movement represent, and do the actions of Barack Obama, Rahm Emanuel, and Tom Barrett embrace those beliefs?  

Responses are welcome. Solidarity.

Here's my response: They owned you.

2 photographs from this week in Wisconsin politics.

(The first photo, by me, is from the People's Brat Fest. The second photo, by Meade, is from an equal pay press conference.)

Anti-Walkerites will have a tough time celebrating a Falk victory.

UW-Milwaukee political scientist Mordecai Lee expects 95% of Republicans voters to cross over in today's recall primary and vote for one of the Democrats — most likely Kathleen Falk, who stands to the left of her Democratic opponent Tom Barrett, because she polls much worse against Scott Walker. But Barrett has been so far ahead of Falk in recent polls, that if Falk wins, it should be interpreted as a victory for Scott Walker, even though Falk has campaigned as an embodiment of the values of the anti-Scott Walker protests.

Ironically, the anti-Walkerites might need to protest.

"Together, let's break the glass ceiling to the Governor's office."

A robocall from Kathleen Falk, the evening before the primary in the Scott Walker recall. It's very gender politics:



Who enters an office through the ceiling?

Recall candidate Kathleen Falk says: "It takes mom to get people back together. That’s how families do it."

More gender politics:

Falk characterized herself as a woman who has broken through anti-women barriers and glass ceilings all her life, a woman with a “big-tent” theory of bringing people together.

“We just want our opportunity to do what the men have had their opportunity to do,” the 60-year-old mother said. “That’s what’s fair. The fact that we haven’t had a woman governor in 164 years is a little bit lame. I say, if not now, when? But I believe I am the most qualified of all the candidates.”

Speaking of lame! That's the lamest argument I've heard in a long, long time.  Elect me, I'm the female?

You know, she actually does have credentials and experience, but apparently, the voters are too stupid to receive relevant information. Women, women, women. God help us. Have we become a nation of morons?

To be fair, she did also say she had an idea to create jobs "in the wood-pulp industry by finding new uses for that resource, including for jet fuel."

ADDED: Get on your jet plane. It looks like this.

"We need a mom and I'm anxious to be that mom and bring us back together."

Said former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk at the Scott Walker recall candidates debate.

I'm breaking that out of the context of my much longer post, below, because it's the most blatant and absurd gender politics I've ever seen. I want it out there where everyone can see it.

I'm thinking: motherhood... apple pie... Will she bake us an apple pie?

♫ I'd like to bake Wisconsin a pie and keep it company... ♪♪



Feel free to steal my ad idea, Executive Falk.

ADDED: Meade says:  "Anxious? Anxious to be that mom?" Me: "Who wants an anxious mom?"

By the way, is this the "Age of Anxiety"?

It’s hard to believe that anyone but scholars of modern literature or paid critics have read W.H. Auden’s dramatic poem “The Age of Anxiety” all the way through, even though it won a Pulitzer Prize in 1948, the year after it was published. It is a difficult work — allusive, allegorical, at times surreal. But more to the point, it’s boring. The characters meet, drink, talk and walk around; then they drink, talk and walk around some more. They do this for 138 pages; then they go home.

Digression: Are they drunk yet at the Mifflin Street Party? It's 10 a.m.

ADDED: From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report:

The winner will take on Walker, and the Democratic Party has scheduled a rally for Wednesday on the Capitol steps to unite Democrats and build momentum for the recall election....

Falk said moms are the ones who bring fighting families together and she would be like a mom for the state.

Putting the mom in momentum.

AND: The Miffliners were drunk and tweeting it by 9 a.m.

Oh! I forgot to watch the recall candidates debate!

Forgot even to tape it. I did notice at one point that there was a debate and made a mental note to tape it. I had the motivation of wanting to tell you all about it, but I forgot. It was a Friday night. Did anyone watch?

Well, I'm sure it's on line. Yeah, here. And we can always check out the Wisconsin State Journal report:

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, State Sen. Kathleen Vinehout, D-Alma, and Secretary of State Doug La Follette appeared at Wisconsin Public Television's Madison studios for their last debate before Tuesday's primary. The winner earns a shot at unseating Walker in a general recall election June 5....

The Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls were careful not to jab each other too hard Friday and risk alienating each other's supporters; the nominee will need a united front going into June. Instead they spent most of the evening trotting out well-rehearsed talking points against Walker.

Trotting out well-rehearsed talking points and not attacking each other? Then there was no test of who would do better actually wrangling with Walker.

But Barrett accused the governor of caring more about traveling around the country and parlaying his reputation as conservative superstar into loads of out-of-state campaign contributions.

"I'll stay here in Wisconsin to work and retain jobs," he said. "I won't be a rock star to the far-right movement."

That's a relief! I'm sure Barrett will be quite the non-rock-star — of the left or the right.  That's his pitch: I'm very bland. How that retains jobs, I have no idea. He's not even offering to grow jobs (as Walker did). Just retain them, okay?

Meanwhile, Falk said:

"No one will work harder than I to get people back working."

So she'll work hard. No Walkeresque claim of creating job, nor even a Barretty assurance of retaining jobs. Just working really really hard.  It's the diligence, the very earnest diligence that matters so much. Diligence and good grammar. No one will work harder than I [will].

They also talked about restoring civility, because you know how Scott Walker caused that terrible outbreak of uncouthness:

"That's what's missing in Madison right now," he said. "The basic human respect is gone."

Falk likened the state to a broken family. Sometimes, she said, it takes a mother with a firm, strong hand to bring it together again.

Oh, no! Falk is playing the gender card.

"We need a mom and I'm anxious to be that mom and bring us back together," Falk said.

Oh, no! Ha ha. That's laying it on really thick. I'm live-blogging my reading of the article, so I hadn't seen that when I was making fun of her "No one will work harder than I" idea for building economy. I was going to say it sounded like a school girl running for class president. I was even going to break out the Tracy Flick comparison...



I decided not to. My feminist scruples won out and I decided not to lay a gender template on that striving overachievement attitude. But then she outright played the gender game. So Tracy Flick must be noted. It's simple pop culture literacy to cite Tracy Flick. I'd just plain not be doing my job as a blogger if I didn't embed that.

Now, I'd like to embed something comparable for Barrett, because I'm not endorsing anyone. But what pop culture reference could I make? He said himself that he's not going to be a "rock star," and that's actually pretty comical in itself. You know, you have somebody who has zero capacity to be something, and he assures you that he'll refrain from being that.  What's the pop culture reference for that?

ME: "Can you think of someone who was in a famous rock band, but was totally in the background, like somebody completely boring and schlubby, where you'd be all look at the bassist, why is that guy in the band?"

MEADE: Maybe Phil Lesh.

ME: No, he's too cool.

MEADE: Phil Lesh is cool?



So... the candidates were asked how they'd restore the public workers' collective bargaining rights:

Barrett promised to use "any vehicle I can to get to the destination," but said he'd start with a special legislative session shortly after taking office.

That reminds me. Speaking of "any vehicle"... I note that they didn't even mention one thing that Doug La Follette said at the debate. Here at Meadhouse, we've been laughing for days about this:

... La Follette says he would "fly to Washington, D.C." to try to reclaim funding for high-speed rail that Walker nixed....

Meade said: "Fly to Washington! Why doesn't he take the train? There's a train to Washington."

I said: "Well, let's be fair. Maybe he has little wings and he can fly. Make Way for Douglings...."

"Wisconsin Recall Amnesia: Why aren't Democrats running against Scott Walker's union reforms?"

Asks the Wall Street Journal:

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, the front-runner, has focused his campaigns on jobs, education, the environment and "making communities safer." One of Mr. Barrett's ads singles out "Walker's War on Women," with nary a mention of collective bargaining. Former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk is heavily supported by union groups, but even her issues list makes only passing reference to collective bargaining.

The Governor's office has estimated that altogether the reforms have saved Badger State taxpayers more than $1 billion, including $65 million in changes in health-care plans, and some $543 million in local savings documented by media reports. According to the Wisconsin-based MacIver Institute, Mayor Barrett's city of Milwaukee saved $19 million on health-care costs as a direct result of Mr. Walker's reforms. Awkward turtle.

Wait. Pause. "Awkward turtle"? Is this an expression everyone's supposed to already know? Google says yes. It was the Urban Dictionary Urban Word of the Day 5 years ago.



Okay. Resume Wisconsin stuff. Blah blah blah. Walker reforms working...

All of this is making an impression on Wisconsin voters. According to a Marquette University Law School poll released Wednesday, only 12% of Wisconsin voters say "restoring collective bargaining rights" is their priority, which explains the Democratic decision to fight on other issues.

One of Barrett's other issues is civility. We need to restore civility in Wisconsin... because, you know the way Scott Walker caused everyone to become so uncouth.

"Marquette Law School Poll shows Barrett leads Falk in recall primary; Walker and Barrett within single percentage point."

The primary is next Tuesday, and the poll has Tom Barrett ahead of Kathleen Falk 38 percent to 21 percent — a big, but not that big margin.

More interesting is looking ahead to next month:

In a June general election between Barrett and Governor Scott Walker, Barrett leads by one percentage point, 47-46, among all registered voters, while Walker leads by one percentage point, 48-47, among likely voters. Both results are well within the margin of error of the poll. Walker leads former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk 49 percent to 42 percent among registered voters and 49 percent to 43 percent among likely voters.

No one should be complacent. Turnout will matter. Here's the pollster, Charles Franklin talking about the poll:



It should be noted that Walker is the one with the money:

Gov. Scott Walker's campaign announced today he raised more than $13 million during the most recent reporting period pushing his overall haul to fend off a recall attempt at $25 million. 

Walker's campaign said in a release he finished the pre-primary period, which covers through April 23, with $4.8 million in recall and general campaign funds....

Barrett's campaign announced Friday he raised $750,000 in a little more than three weeks after getting into the race March 30. Falk's campaign said she raised $1 million between mid-January and April 23.

After next Tuesday, Walker will spend all that money attempting to crush his opponent. We've seen all the attacks on Scott Walker for the past year, but what we haven't seen is the sudden, intense barrage of negativity against whoever it is that wins the primary.

A scientific calculation of the advantages and disadvantages of the 2 leading candidates in the Wisconsin recall primary...

"Final score: +1 for The Kathleen. (Toasting Mary Bell of WEAC and Marty Beil of AFSCME.)"

Salon analyzes "Who’s better to beat Scott Walker?"

Lots of background on Kathleen Falk, including the story of how she challenged the incumbent Democratic attorney general, Peg Lautenschlager, and then went on to lose to the Republican in 2006, when the Democrat (Jim Doyle) won the governorship:

The official margin of victory for Van Hollen was 9,071 votes, a difference of 0.4 percent. In Dane County, Falk received 11,850 votes fewer than Doyle; had she simply run even with him on her home turf, she would have won the race. 

“Those were folks pissed off that she challenged Lautenschlager,” said [Joe Winike, a former state Democratic chairman who is neutral in the Barrett-Falk race]. “So you could make an argument that the leftist base that refused to vote for Kathleen cost her the election.”

In the recall primary, being from Dane County (that is, Madison and the surrounding area) is characterized as a negative, because people around the state see Madison as a big lefty enclave. So many anti-Walkerites gravitate to Tom Barrett (the Milwaukee mayor), who seems more detached from the protests that led to the recall... which seems to undermine the whole idea of the recall. In fact, the Barrett ads I've seen talk about how he's the one that can make things normal again. But what's abnormal is a recall.

ADDED: Looking forward to seeing Scott Walker and Tom Barrett debate over who should be governor? Wait no more. It's right here:

"When will ‘The Kathleen’ Falk and Tom Barrett get their Walter Mondale on?"

Asks David Blaska, very intraWisconsinly, except to the extent that Walter was over there in that state that looms to our left.

Who's pushing the female candidate aside in the Scott Walker recall primary?

"Labor group's pro-Falk TV ads vanish," headlines the Milwaukee State Journal:

Public employee unions had everything lined up.

Their nemesis, Gov. Scott Walker, was facing an unprecedented recall election. Their hand-picked candidate, former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, came out of the blocks running. Their front group was set to spend millions to help push Falk over the top.

So what went wrong?

Read the whole grisly story of how the mayor of Milwaukee, Tom Barrett, who already lost to Scott Walker in 2010 (by a lot!) horned in on the Dane County lady's territory. The unions had all clustered around her, and now, Barrett has swept in. It seems like the lady is supposed to cede her ground and let the man take over. Talk about a war on women!

"No one can see a path for victory for Falk right now," said a veteran Democratic campaign insider not affiliated with either campaign. "Absent going in and tearing down Tom Barrett - which no one has expressed a desire to do, based on what I've heard - I don't know how Falk wins."

Give up, lady! You've already lost. You'll only hurt the man if you continue. That's the message. And Scott Walker himself is helping the Dem men push the lady out of the race. On Mark Belling's radio show last Thursday, the famously demonic Wisconsin governor — asked "Do you acknowledge that, that Falk's the weaker opponent?" — said:

"Let me explain why I think she is.... Because she has clearly staked herself out as being in the pocket of the public employee unions. That has not clearly been attached to Tom Barrett....

"I think her weakness was coming out early and acknowledging that she - and doing, not just acknowledging - that she signed a pledge saying she'd veto any budget that did not include a full repeal of our reforms"...

The very thing that makes her tough — that makes her the embodiment of the protest movement that produced the recall election — makes her easier for Scott Walker to attack, and that's supposed to be a reason for Democrats to turn to the man, the man who kept his distance from the movement — the movement he'd like to ride into power — until  2 weeks ago, when he announced his candidacy. Yes, in just 2 weeks he has elbowed the woman to the sidelines, and she's supposed to defer to that.

It's the war on women, right here in Wisconsin.

By the way, when Barrett lost the 2010 election to Walker — by a 5 point margin — he conceded saying:

The voters have spoken, and I respect the voters in the state of Wisconsin, and I honor their decision.

Where's that honor now? Wisconsinites are supposed to drag ourselves back to the polls to try to defeat Walker again, with the same drab candidate who, back then, "didn't have a serious primary challenge and seemed to struggle to get widespread enthusiasm behind his campaign"? We're supposed to vote for him after he shunts the woman candidate to the side? The woman who's supposed to give up, after fighting for the nomination since January? Who pledged her heart to the unions — the unfaithful unions! — and who embodied the values of a protest movement without which there would be no new opportunity for Barrett?

Ironically, Barrett's 2010 opportunity came after he gained a reputation as a hero when "he was brutally beaten outside State Fair Park after trying to protect a 1-year old girl and her grandmother from an assailant." (That happened in 2009, so don't confuse it with the famous racial mob attacks at the State Fair in 2011.) He had one opportunity because he defended a woman from an attack, and now he attacks a woman to seize a second opportunity.

IN THE COMMENTS: Some people don't understand my writing, and — just like a woman — I kick "them" in the (metaphorical!) balls. But that's not what I want to front-page here. I want to front-page this set-up by Bruce Hayden:

It does make sense a bit. The problem with being closely tied to the unions is that the unions are a big part of why your fair state got into so much financial problems in the first place, and a lot of people have seemed to have sighed relief a bit as a result of non-safety workers having their collective bargaining rights curtailed.

So, tying the recall candidate too closely to the unions would tie the recall movement too tightly to the government unions. But, if the Dems get someone else running, they can go after the entirety of what Gov. Walker and the Republicans have done, instead of making the recall election a referendum on government union power.

And here's what that sets up, from Michael:

In other words, the actual issue behind this invented election is kind of a loser, so we need to run on fake invented reasons with a boss-picked candidate. Then later we can do whatever we want.

I thought one of the complaints against Walker was that he did something he hadn't said (enough) that he was going to do. But that rule only applies to Walker, Bruce, is that it?

Pro-Walker signage.

At Saturday's Tax Day rally, as photographed by Meade:



That's actually David Blaska, by the way. (Should we be repurposing the female candidate's name like that? Doesn't it make it harder to bitch about Sly mocking Rebecca Kleefisch?)

I don't know who this is, but I like the composition:



And I like this composition and don't know who this guy is, who looks like he's in more of a relationship with me than he really is:



Meade says I backed up into him, which accounts for the composition.

By the way, lots of people came up to me and asked me if I was Ann Althouse, and I invariably confessed that I was (and am). They all said they read the blog and liked it or thanked me for it, and none of them said "Where's Meade?," which made me realize all the more that those people at those other rallies who come up to me and say "Where's Laurence?" are really creepy.

Let's review the newest ads in the Wisconsin recall race.

Tom Barrett — the Milwaukee mayor who is running in the Democratic primary — has an ad in which state senator Jon Erpenbach — who, we hear, "helped lead the fight" in the "war" that Scott Walker started —  does all the talking:



We see pictures of the protesters filling the state capitol rotunda. Erpenbach is being used to vouch for Barrett's fidelity to the ideals and agenda of the protesters.

Next is Kathleen Falk — the former Dane County executive, also running in the Democratic primary:



Like Barrett's ad, this one begins with a black and white photograph and a female voiceover. Barrett had a picture of mean-looking Scott Walker and an unnamed script-reader telling us about the "war in Wisconsin." Falk's ad has a super-cute picture of Falk as a little girl, and the voice is Falk's — she grew up in Milwaukee and Waukesha county. There's tinkling piano music. Then we see, in color, Kathleen Falk, sitting in a warmly sunlit room, her hands clasped around a warm yellow mug. She's murmuring about "simple Wisconsin values" — "work hard, be honest" — "trust," "truth." She brings people together: "That's the Wisconsin way."

Isn't the comparison interesting? Barrett — over there in Milwaukee — needs to connect himself to the protests in Madison, and he employs the handsome Erpenbach to assure us he's down with the struggle. Falk — who really was here during the protests and is a Dane County politician — relocates herself to Milwaukee and Waukesha, Barrett's neck of the state. There are no views of the protests or even of anyplace that reminds us of Madison. She represents "Wisconsin values" and "the Wisconsin way," which "our leaders" have "lost sight of." She doesn't even name Scott Walker.

Here's Doug La Follette. He's Wisconsin's Secretary of State, also running in the Democratic primary. He begins with a little mechanical cow, representing Wisconsin. It used to work, but it has stopped working, "because Scott Walker has betrayed the Wisconsin idea." The mechanical cow walks, then stops walking, at which point we see some unpleasant-looking protesters:



"It's time for a steady hand," says the voiceover, as we see La Follette's hands winding up the little cow and sending it to continue walking again. Okay.

The other candidate in the primary is Kathleen Vinehout, who's a state senator. Here's her YouTube channel, which doesn't seem to have any ads. I started looking at this video, because it seemed like the closest thing to an ad over there:



When I clicked through to get the code to embed that video, I saw it had "0 views"! I was the first view on that, which I'm not really even sure she wants people to see. She's giving a speech in some dark bar or casino-like place. I don't know if anyone is listening, but at 1:12, somebody off-camera drops something metallic. A pan, perhaps. Apparently, La Follette's campaign is just not modest enough to embody Wisconsin values. Undercutting the minimalism of La Follette — it's not easy!

"Once upon a time there was a little red hen named Kathleen."

Writes Meade:

She lived in a party of Democrats with a cat named Tom and others and they all lived in a pretty little state which the little red hen Kathleen liked to keep clean and tidy and unionized. The little red hen Kathleen worked hard. The cat Tom liked to sleep in the sun in Milwaukee.

One day the little red hen Kathleen was working in the garden when she found a grain of discontent.

"Who will help me nurture this grain of discontent?" she asked.

"Not I," purred the cat Tom from his sunny patch in Milwaukee.



So the little red hen Kathleen hoed and watered and fed the grain of discontent all by herself.

During the summer the grain of discontent grew. First it grew into a tall stalk, then it ripened in the sun until it had turned a lovely golden color. Soon the little red hen Kathleen saw that the discontent was ready for reaping.

"Who will help me reap this discontent?" asked the little red hen Kathleen.

"Not I," purred the cat Tom from his sunny patch in Milwaukee.

"Very well then, I will reap it myself," said the little red hen Kathleen. Carefully she counted signatures, made pledges to union bosses, and collected all the petitions of discontent.

"Who will take this bushel of discontent to the unionized mill so that it can be ground into recall election flour?" asked the little red hen Kathleen.

"Not I," purred the cat Tom from his sunny patch in Milwaukee.

So the little red hen Kathleen took the discontent to the unionized mill herself, and asked the union bosses there if they would be so kind as to grind it into political power flour.  Deals were discussed, quids were proed for quo's, pledges and promises were made.

In time the union bosses sent a little bag of political power flour down to the party where the little red hen Kathleen lived with the cat Tom and others.

"Who will help me to make this political power flour into governor bread?" asked the little red hen Kathleen.

"Not I," purred the cat Tom from his sunny patch in Milwaukee.

"Very well," said the little red hen Kathleen. "I shall make the governor bread myself." She went into her neat little unionized kitchen. She mixed a yeasty dough, kneaded it, set it to uprise, and put it in the hot oven.

Soon there was a lovely smell of hot fresh governor bread. It filled all the corners of the house and wafted out into the garden. The cat Tom came into the kitchen from his sunny patch in Milwaukee.  When the little red hen Kathleen opened the oven door the dough had risen up and had turned into the nicest, most delicious looking loaf of governor bread either of them had ever seen.

"Who is going to eat this governor bread?" asked the little red hen Kathleen.

"I will," purred the cat Tom.

"Oh no, you won't," said the little red hen Kathleen. "I nurtured the seed of discontent, I reaped it and took it to the unionized mill to be made into political flour, and I made the governor bread all by myself (after deals were discussed, quids were proed for quos, and pledges and promises were made). I shall now enjoy the governor bread all by myself."

"Not so fast," said three big old Democratic party race horses, standing at stud — horse Kohl, horse Obey, and horse Erpenbach. "WE are the wise male noble steeds of the party. Behold our reservoirs of testosterone and wisdom.  WE shall decide who gets to enjoy the governor bread."

And with that the little red hen Kathleen was told to go back to her unionized kitchen and the cat Tom shared the bread with his friend, the snake Rahm from Illinois.

Falk and Barrett — rivals in the Wisconsin recall primary — are debating tonight.

Says the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which doesn't say where or when. There's absolutely zero information that would give us a chance to see this debate, in a post that's been up for more than 3 hours.

In the comments: "Nice writing JS, you might want to put a where or when in your story." And: "The debate will be at 7PM tonight at the Clocktower motel in Rockford,Il." Ha ha ha.

Here's the Cap Times. It says the debate will be at the Madison Concourse Hotel. I still don't know what time.

"Are public union labor leaders trying to save Scott Walker?"

Paul Fanlund, editor of Madison's venerable (and very liberal) Capital Times, says that many Democrats are asking that question. These Democrats are the Democrats who support Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in the recall primary, who don't like the way his Democratic adversary Kathleen Falk is beating up on him, portraying him as insufficiently union-friendly. Barrett's angle is he's more likely to win, and if Walker is the enemy, then ixnay on Barrett criticism.

It's amusingly similar to the Republican primaries, where some people love Santorum because he's more hardcore, and others want Romney, because you've got to win over the moderates, and they really don't much like the hardcore of your party.

Fanlund seems to spend a lot of time listening to Democratic State Senator Sen. Jon Erpenbach, who has decided to support Barrett:

While loath to criticize Falk... Erpenbach’s decision certainly implies he thinks someone not from Dane County would run strongest statewide: “For me personally, the goal is to get him (Walker) out of office before he does any more damage.”

Erpenbach says he has spoken with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people across the state and collective bargaining is only one of many issues on voters’ minds....

Erpenbach aside, my interviews with other Democrats elicit phrases like “labor leaders are blowing it” and are “being selfish.” One says, “What we don’t need is a circular firing squad” during the next month....

Ha ha. This is just like the way the Republican establishment tries to shush the Tea Party. After all the hard ground work is done by a passionate, ideologically committed group, the party insiders move in to claim a valuable political foothold that they never would have fought for personally, and the theory is they're doing everyone a favor because the protest kids just don't look right in mainstream politics.

Kathleen Falk is getting Christine O'Donnelled! She's getting Sharron Angled!

Wisconsin "will be at the epicenter of American politics" for "at least the next two months."

Says Dan Balz at the Washington Post, explaining the importance of the recall effort to unseat Gov. Scott Walker.

This homegrown fight has national implications. Walker has become a symbol of Republican governance in today’s GOP. He is campaigning energetically and unapologetically, arguing that he took courageous action to deal with his state’s severe fiscal problems — the same thing Republicans are saying should be done nationally. Walker contends that his policies have been good for the state’s economy and its taxpayers.

His opponents see those policies almost exactly the way President Obama described the federal budget written by Walker’s Wisconsin soul mate, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, and passed recently by the House. Last week, Obama called the Ryan budget a radical document that would put the country in decline. That echoes the view of Walker’s opponents, who say his actions have hurt the state and unfairly punished state employees....



Walker is a hero to Republicans. Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum were the featured attractions at the Waukesha County dinner before last week’s primary, but it was Walker who generated by far the most energy in the room. He was greeted with several standing ovations.

Republicans don’t just approve of the job he’s doing; they enthusiastically embrace him. More than nine in 10 “strongly approve” of the job he is doing, according to exit polls from Tuesday’s presidential primary. Among strong tea party supporters, strong approval is 94 percent. Among very conservative voters, it’s 92 percent.

There's a big upside for Republicans here, though the Democrats brought this showdown upon themselves. In the first of the 2 months, as Balz describes at the link, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk are tearing each other apart to get the Democratic Party nomination. You've got the man beating up on the woman just when Democrats want to demagogue the "war on women." The election is very much about the power of public unions, and because she has the backing of the unions, Falk may win the primary only to be "cast... as a tool of the unions who would do their bidding as governor." This is our little drama here in Wisconsin, but as Balz says, it has national implications.

I'd love to know what the Obama people really think of this immense distraction their Wisconsin Democrats have kicked up. I doubt if they want Tom Barrett and Kathleen Falk — fighting each other — as the face of the party in these crucial 2 months when there's not much else going on in the political arena. Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see how Mitt Romney and (Wisconsin's own) Paul Ryan will  exploit Scott Walker's (heroic?) struggle for survival.

"Tonette taped American #Idol. We are watching it now. I like the 80s music!"

A tweet from Gov. Walker. I'm reading his Twitter thread, looking for some links to material explaining/justifying all that legislation he just signed. In particular, I'd like to know more about the repeal of the 2009 Equal Pay Enforcement Act, which I referred to a couple posts ago.

In the comments there, I was asked to analyze the new law, and I looked around a bit and only found criticism of the change. HuffPo is writing about it. Walker's recall challengers — Kathleen Falk and Tom Barrett — are lambasting him predictably. Eventually, I found something, but not before I got sucked into Walker's fascinatingly banal Twitter feed (which I once compared to "Jim's Journal").

Also in the recent Walker Twitter feed:

Up early for a haircut then out enjoying the beautiful sunshine! What a beautiful day the Lord hath made....

Sadly this is not a good Fri for the #Brewers....

Spent am signing bills in Milwaukee office then off for Good Friday and later for #Brewers Opening Day @ #MillerPark....

I drink several bottles of #cranberry juice each day. Glad our output is up 11% according to USDA...

This is charming... unless you hate the guy, as many do. In which case, I assume you're jeering or beating your head against the wall. He needs to explain these new laws persuasively. His opponents get so far out in front of him. He reminds me of George W. Bush, who seemed to believe that decent people would give him credit for doing the things he believed were right. Meanwhile, his antagonists controlled the narrative.