Welcome to the Party, Ms. McBride. Can I Take Your Coat?

Jessica McBride is about 6 weeks behind the curve:

Did I miss it or did John Gard announce against Steve Kagen?

The Gard campaign is now putting out press releases against him.

Good. This is a seat conservatives should reclaim.

My, that was insightful!

She's probably right about the 8th CD being a district that conservatives should reclaim, but that's not going to happen. At the moment the 8th is a toss-up, at best, for the GOP and that's not good for Gard. Larry Sabato calls the 8th a toss-up and that's with Mark Green running to reclaim his seat (something that's not easy to do from Tanzania) -- and John Gard is no Mark Green.

Let's face it, no one's going to confuse the WI-8 '08 race for being a battle of political wits. Both candidates are going to be scripted to within an inch of their lives and if they veer ever so slightly off message there will be someone from DC to smack them in the back of the head to remind them to stay the course (as it were). The difference will be money. Gard will not be able to marshal the kind of resources he was able to pull in last year and Kagan now has a whole new set of friends on the East Coast who exist for little more in life than to help him (and his ilk) raise funds. When two less than dynamic candidates go head-to-head, I'll take the one with more money any day of the week.