Gubernatorial Race

Tom Barrett already lost in 2010. How can he possibly win in 2012?

• 2010 was one of the worst years for Democrats in modern history. There were very few Democrats left standing.
• It can't be understated that Barrett was still recovering from being beaten repeatedly in the head and upper body by a maniac wielding a tire iron.  He was not only hospitalized after the attack, but had to return to the hospital to have his right hand surgically reconstructed.  So, with pain medication, ongoing therapy, and the physical drain of such a serious injury, he wasn't in peak physical condition to run for governor in 2010.  Barrett simply wasn't on his game the same way he has been historically, and the way he is now.
• Jim Doyle had the unfortunate luck of being governor during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.  Even though Wisconsin was recovering when he left office, most Wisconsinites weren't going to give the incumbent party a third term. 
• Even with all that wind at his back, Barrett only lost to Walker by a 52-47 margin-- and most of that was due to Democrats not getting out to vote. We'll be getting out to vote this time around.
• Barrett is very likeable, and will be a welcome change for those many independents suffering from Walker fatigue.
• Lot of Irish and lot of Catholics in Wisconsin-- in a close election, now is a good time to be running an Irish Catholic Democrat like Barrett.

“I thought you as State Senator would get an answer right away,” said the man who needed information from one of our state agencies. I called him to say after two weeks of phone calls I still didn’t have an answer.

With the change of power in Madison comes change in many state agencies. People come and go. But the mass exodus of public employees this month seems unusually great; and with it the state’s ability to continue efficient operations.

Talk swirling around the Capitol is among those leaving state service were ten top employees from the Department of Revenue.

Our state Department of Revenue has superb staff. Their expertise makes us one of only eleven states able to conduct our own economic forecasting. And the accuracy of those forecasters in predicting a fickle economy benefits all of us.

As sure as the sun rises in the East, it was predictable that John Nichols, after last week's electoral carnage, would posit that if only his friend Barbara Lawton had been the Democratic candidate for governor, she and Russ Feingold both would have won.

I am not making this up. If you must, you can read it yourself.

Nichols blames the party bosses for her getting out of the race, but she's never said what caused her sudden and surprising decision. If there was ever a year to challenge the "bosses," whoever they are, this would have been it.

A little slow on the uptake, I wasn't sure what Gretchen Schuldt meant by calling Scott Walker's proposed toll lanes Lexus lanes.  Here's how she describes his ideas:

freeway way lanes that allow rich folk to pay tolls to move faster than the rest of us

Ah, I get it.  They're for Lexus drivers, not us common folk. Makes perfect sense, says this California blogger about a similar plan there:

Now there's an image for you.

The Journal Sentinel's "fact check" gave Rebecca Kleefish a "pants on fire" rating for a TV commercial in which she claims Tom Barrett wants the government to take over the health care system.

But she's not some off-message independent voice out there on the fringe.  The commercial in question, in  which her running mate, Scott Walker, saunters out with a smirk at the end like he's her daddy and isn't she just darling, is a Walker commercial.  It is paid for by Friends of Scott Walker.  He's responsible.  Kleefisch is simply doing what she used to do in TV news -- reading the script.

Think that's obvious?

"In the end, when you're the chief executive officer, the buck stops with you."-- "Scott Walker.

Walker was talking, of course, about Tom Barrett, not himself.  Walker has made an art of never taking responsibility for any of the many problems or failures in Milwaukee County government, always finding someone else to blame.

The Journal Sentinel "Fact" check team, in a snit because a Tom Barrett ad rearranged a page in the paper for a TV spot, was so anxious to light Barrett's pants on fire that it skipped right over this little piece of its own reporting:

In the second claim, [in the commercial] the narrator declares: "County debt has skyrocketed 85 percent." ...

On this point, county debt has risen 85 percent under Walker, according to Cynthia Archer, the county’s director of administrative services.

That's especially telling because Scott Walker has been traveling the state, telling people that he reduced the county's debt, as One Wisconsin Now points out, with lots of direct quotes from Walker.

Gee, will the fact checkers ever get to that one?  If anybody's pants are ablaze, it's Scott Walker's.

If the fact checkers think it's more important to check on Mark Belling or see if Russ Feingold is really a lawyer, it says more about the ne

WisPolitics.com reports that Tom Barrett has called for six or seven more debates, but Scott Walker says he's too busy not reading reports about the mental health mess in his Milwaukee County government.

Barrett has accepted invitations for more debates in Wausau, Green Bay, Eau Claire, Kenosha, Platteville, Superior and Milwaukee, but Walker has not.

Walker campaign manager Keith Gilkes said, "“We have already agreed to three statewide debates.”

That wasn't the question.