I have an idea that the U.S. Senate race between Tommy
Thompson and Tammy Baldwin is about to get down in the mud. WAY down in the mud. Hope I’m wrong.
But if it does get down and dirty, I think I’ll enjoy
watching the ads. And I’ll even seek out
ads that don’t run in the Madison market.
In some ways, what happened in the Republican primary is
kind of like the old rule of radio programming, which goes something like “if
you’re going to change format to compete with an existing station within that
format, bring a large checkbook, and prepare to lose”.
Tommy, Eric, and Mark (Fitz the lesser was never a factor)
were all competing in the same format: conservative. Tea People in the Fox Valley liked Eric
better, and he won those counties. Mark “Partial
Birth Abortion” Neumann won….ah….I can’t remember, a couple counties way up
north where they speak a different dialect of ‘sconnie. And Tommy – well, Tommy flirted with the Tea
Persons just enough to get them interested, and carried the vast majority of
counties in the state. Tommy was able to
navigate the waters well enough to stay just far enough to the right….while
keeping Eric and Mark to his right, causing a fractured vote that left none of
them with a majority, but Tommy with enough votes to win.
Now that Tommy has vanquished his opponents, he can set his
sights on destroying Tammy. Quite a few
of my lefty pals here in the bluest county in the state are whispering things
like “why Tommy? Why not Eric? Jeez, Tammy, it’s Tommy Thompson. Why didn’t you just stay in your seat in
congress forever? The second district would have sent you back there every
election, but now….you’ve got to beat Tommy.”
I believe Scot Klug would still hold the 2nd
Congressional seat if he wanted it, and hadn’t taken himself out of the race after
his promised 8 years, and the seat which had been held by Bob Kastenmeier since
the earth began to cool went back to a Democrat. And Tammy’s held the seat since Klug gave it
up. But that was back in the days when
bat-shit crazy didn’t fly with the electorate, like it often does now.
So Tammy – who will be positioned as a Dane County Liberal
HOMOSEXUAL – will take on the guy who, if he isn’t the most popular politician
in state history, is in the top 3. Tommy
is on first-name basis with folks in all 72 counties. Tammy is on first-name basis with people in…oh,
say three counties.
Pocan’s a lock for Tammy’s seat in congress; but it’s gonna be real interesting to see how
dirty the Tommy-Tammy race gets.
