russ feingold

This morning Russ Feingold was a guest on Sly in the Morning.  Sly played for him the Oshkosh Northwetern editorial board meeting "smoking gun" tape where Walker promises to negotiate with unions and then played the sound bite of Walker saying that "if anyone is suprised by this, they've been asleep for the last two years.  Here is how Feingold responded:

Sly:  Do those two things resemble eachother in the slightest in any way, shape or form?

.PolitiFact Wisconsin takes a double hit today, with a Shepherd Express article by your truly, and another piece from Erik Gunn at Milwaukee Magazine's website.

Regular Xoff readers know I'm a frequent critic of PolitiFact, but I tried to be more thoughtful and not just blast away as usual. See what you think.

And, yes, the Shepherd fact checked my piece before it ran.

"Russ Feingold says he will not run for any public office in 2012.

So let the campaigns begin.

The US Senate race could be a Tommy vs. Tammy contest, if Tommy Thompson can overcome the hostility of the Teavangelicals who have taken over the GOP.  Whatever questions there may be about her November viability, Tammy Baldwin looks unbeatable in a Dem primary.

But who runs for governor if there is a recall of Scott Walker? Tom Barrett is reportedly interested in another try. Dave Obey's name has been floated, but ler's hope that trial balloon quickly crashes.

Isn't there a fresh Democratic face somewhere out there?

RussFrom an unofficial, rush transcript of Russ Feingold's address Sunday to Walkerville residents at the State Capitol:

Yes, they chose this great state, this great capital, this great founding place of workers' rights as their first target. They went right for the jugular, and they used Scott Walker as their tool to get it done. They passed a law here that was wrong and unfair and against every Wisconsin tradition on the merits, and they did it in a way that was wrong and I think illegal and I hope to God that the Supreme Court sees that, the way they passed that thing, it was wrong and illegal and it should be struck down.

What is Russ Feingold running for in 2012? Nothing, it appears, after someone (the Associated Press) finally asked him directly what he meant when he mentioned 2012 on election night:

What I was saying was, people who care about our country should be concerned about re-electing Obama," he told The Associated Press. "I was trying to urge all of my supporters to understand that even though we had a bad night, we will have good night in 2012. There was no agenda regarding myself."

 

He also said he hoped Kohl runs for a fifth term, and denied that he planned a presidential bid in two years.

"I certainly would not do that. I support President Obama," he said. "There is no truth whatsoever that I have thought about that."

Plans and circumstances are always changing in politics, of course.

1998 and 2010 were both relatively close races for Feingold and there has been alot of opinions floating around about why he won in '98 and lost in '10. 

In a nutshell, Feingold had a better turnout and better margins in 2010 in his two strongholds: Milwaukee and Dane.  The problem, though, was that while Feingold was eating his spinach and turning into Popeye in Dane and Milwaukee, the GOP was turning into the Incredible Hulk in the suburban areas accross the state-- most profoundly in the South East part of the state.

You need look no further than Waukesha.  In 1998, the margin was 36,830, while in 2010 it was a monsterous 80,430 --actually a larger margin of victory than Milwaukee!

Below are the numbers for the 20 largest differences in victory margins between 1998 and 2010:

U.S. Supreme Court

This is a slim possability if Ruth Bader-Ginsberg decides to retire anytime soon, which is not likely.  However, if she does, the Senate tends not to attack one of their own and he would probably be a relatively safe choice for Obama.

Job Somewhere in Obama's Administration

I would love to see this-- especially something like U.S. Trade Ambassador.  But, realistically, Obama has shown that he is a corporatist and Feingold's resume is probably the last one they consider.