Pipsqueak Propagandist (Who Doesn't Know How to Start a Sentence with the Word "Despite") Continues to Make Little Sense

Oh, Kyle Maichle, the joy you bring me!

Recently Mr. Maichle called Mark Neumann a "career politician," a pejorative phrase if ever there was one in today's parlance. We thought this wasn't exactly fair considering Neumann has only been an active office-seeker for a little over eight of his 55 years. He's made a living in the private sector for the last ten years. I assume he's dabbled here and there in politics since he left office, but he hasn't tried to run for office in over a decade.

This isn't good enough for Maichle, who defines a "career politician" thusly:

Neumann sided with liberal, radical Republicans like Jim Jeffords of Vermont, Bob Livingston of Louisiana, and the RINO establishment during his entire tenure in Congress. Despite he may tout his private sector experience all he wants, voting with establishment Republicans and saying you have private sector experience is a political double negative.

First of all: Learn how to begin a sentence with the word "despite" properly or just piss on a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary every time you sit down at your computer. This is just painful to read.

Secondly: What the fuck?

This line of reasoning makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Maichle seems to think that the way someone votes while in office can negate years of experience in a certain field when out of office ... an assertion for which there exists no phenomenological or epistemological argument (of which I'm aware) that applies to accepted standard of fact in the public discourse. Maichle's welcome to give one a shot, but I think we all know where that would lead.

In other words: if you've spent 10 years being a carpenter, you've spent 10 years being a carpenter. End of story. Even if you're elected to the school board and you vote to eliminate shop class from the curriculum, no one can take away the fact that you've been a carpenter for ten years.

And that's just the first point Maichle makes. In his second point Maichle actually gives what appears to be the minimum time required to be a career politician:

Neumann made a career of eight years in total running full time for elective office in which he was unsuccessful in three out of the five times he ran for office. That is losing the Wisconsin-1 Congress seat in 1990 and 1992 and losing the Senate seat to Feingold in 1998.

So not can years of private sector experience can magically disappear according to how one votes while in office, but there's also a minimum service requirement of about eight years that can win a candidate the dreaded label of "Career Politician." So even though Neumann has spent more of the last two decades in the private sector than he has seeking office, he's still a "career politician" -- got that?

Moving on ...

Here's Maichle's last point:

Neumann is back this time running for Governor at the blessing of old guard Republicans such as Jim Klauser, former Administration Secretary under Tommy Thompson. Also, add on former state party chairmen like Rick Graber who have made a career of singing the praises of Mark Neumann. Those old guard Republicans are career politicians too.

Translation: A candidate that is supported by "Career Politicians" becomes one by osmosis.

Now Maichle is on the Scott Walker side of the GOP divide, and the reason we found he assertion that Neumann is a "Career Politician" so amusing is that is guy Walker is an actual "Career Politician," not only by Maichle's own definition, but pretty much by anyone else's. Walker has held elected office for 16 of his 42 years ... that twice as much political experience in 13 fewer years. Also, Walker's got more than a few "Career Politicians" backing him as well.

The moral of the story is: if you're going to insult someone for the benefit of a third party, it would be wise to make sure that the third party doesn't qualify as the insult just levied.

Frankly, we don't care who wins the GOP endorsement. Why Walker supporters feel the need to go after Nuemann is beyond us. By just about every measure we've seen, Walker has a commanding lead and no real reason to engage with his opponent at all. The optics of doing so aren't very flattering: it looks spiteful and unbecoming of such a clear front runner.

At some point in the next year, Walker is going to have to say publicly that he thanks Nuemann for his record of public service and that he ran a hard fought campaign, and that his presence in the race made Walker a better candidate yadda yadda yadda. That's a much easier statement to make when you've just ignored the guy. Try sounding sincere after months of throwing nonsensical insults and farcical arguments at someone, it's not easy to do credibly.

Which brings us back to Maichle. We've seen his ilk before. He's the kind of kid who flocks to where he perceives Power resides. He may talk a big game about "principles" and "selling out" and all that jazz, but the moment he starts to feel like the horse he's backing isn't going to win, he'll disappear faster than the best man at a shotgun wedding.