Charlie Sykes reality check

Charlie Sykes, gloating but pretending it's analysis in the Wisconsin Partisan Republican Institute's magazine:

Further down the ticket, Republicans had fresh faces from Paul Ryan to Sean Duffy to newly elected state Sen. Leah Vukmir.

Fresh faces, indeed. Ryan will be starting his seventh term -- his 13th year in the House.

Vukmir has already served four two-year terms in the Wisconsin Legislature.

Duffy was a new face as a Congressional candidate, but even he served eight years as Ashland County district attorney.

Now Ron Johnson, there was a fresh face. Most voters still have no idea what he stands for, even after the election, because his campaign wisely kept him far away from journalists, cameras and telephones. Sykes says Mystery Man, along with Walker and Ryan, is "poised to become national stars on the right."

Don't hang by your thumbs while waiting for that to happen.

Here's a prediction: Depsite the best efforts of talk radio and the Journal Sentinel to breathe some life into him, Johnson will be a non-entity in the US Senate.

Afterthought:  One fresh face who did win was a Democrat, Chris Larson, elected to the State Senate despite the best efforts of Sykes and Co. to defeat him.   Another was Rebecca Kleefisch, LG-elect and a Sykes favorite, but he didn't mention her.  Maybe she already has become an embarrassment.

Wish I had said:  There was no fresher -- or funnier -- candidate than John Heckenlively, the Democrat recruited as a last-minute entry to oppose Paul Ryan.  If voters were really looking for fresh faces, it would have been Mr. Heckenlively Goes to Washington.