Sen. Russ Feingold

Here's a report from what is typically a relatively low-turnout district in Fitchburg, a city adjacent to Madison in Dane County.

Same-day registrants, with a high teen-20s presence, kept three election registers busy the moment the doors opened up through mid-afternoon, with a crush expected after 5:00.

If this district is at all representative of the turn-out in Madison-centered Dane County, the Republicans are in some serious trouble.

The youth vote is alive and well.

Word is Madison and Fitchburg are expected to exceed 80-plus turn-out.

With long voting lines reported in Milwaukee, when you're watching the results pour in tonight at WTMJ, be advised that Madison wards report in last and late in Dane County.

1. While Tommy may have highrollers on speed dial, his Wisconsin contacts are still on a Rolladex.

As Governor, he put in long hours appearing in every corner of the State, and was very accessible. One to one, if you were having a problem with the State bureaucracy, and the request was reasonable, he'd try and help out.

His problem, now, many of those folks he helped out are now deceased, or moved to Florida.

He managed the long hours for a few weeks in Iowa for his abortive Presidential run, but it was wearing him out. I don't think he can sustain it all the way to November, and Russ doesn't give much to work with on a strictly negative ad-driven campaign. Unlike his opponents in the Governor races, they won't beable to paint Feingold as a gungrabbing nannystater. (Feingold voted against renewal of the assault weapons ban, a position that synchs well with his battle against the PATRIOT ACT.)

Tommy Thompson for US Senate?

Really?

I'd like to think Tommy is more politically savvy than to take on Russ Feingold, but it's possible that, with enough encouragement and flattery from Republicans who don't like their current candidates, that he could talk himself into running this year.

One thing we know for sure: He likes to be touted. I've never known a political figure who didn't like to be mentioned for some higher office. Tommy takes it a step farther and starts the buzz himself.

There's a certain Brett Favre quality to it. At least half a dozen times since he left the governorship in 2001 -- and left Wisconsin in a deficit hole it has never been able to dig out of -- Tommy has floated the idea he might run for something. "Governor, US Senator, Mayor of Elroy," he likes to say. "Who knows?"

We can rule out mayor of Elroy, although he still owns a home there. And it's a little late for the governor's race, with Scott Walker and Mark Neumann already in, and most Tommyites already committed to one or the other.

Then there's the US Sente race, where the guy who appears to be the leading GOP candidate, multi-millionaire Terrence Wall, has only paid personal state income taxes once in the last 10 years. That could be a problem.

“The Supreme Court plays a unique and central role in the life of our nation.  Those who sit as Justices have extraordinary power over some of the most important, and most intimate, aspects of the lives of American citizens.  It is therefore not surprising at all that the nomination and confirmation of a Supreme Court Justice is such a widely anticipated and widely covered event.  The nine men and women who sit on the court have enormous responsibilities, and those of us tasked with voting on the confirmation of a nominee have a significant responsibility as well.  I consider this one of the most consequential things I must do as a United States Senator, and I am honored and humbled to have been given this role by the people of Wisconsin.