The Juiciest Paul Ryan Gossip You'll Probably Ever Read

Wow.

I really don't know which paragraph to excerpt.

Scott Walker Really does Think You're that Stupid

Either that or he thinks everyone in Wisconsin is blind. Behold, Scott Walker's jobs plan in all of it's glory:

Scott Walker 68 Page Jobs Plan

An Actual Crazy Candidate

There's been a lot of talk about a certain candidate from Delaware being little nutty today, but did you know there's a candidate for statewide office in Wisconsin who has been endorsed by the state GOP and won his uncontested primary on Tuesday who has actually spent time in a mental health institution?

Of course not.

Said candidate is none other than Rev. David King, the Republican Party's choice to be the next Secretary of State. Here's an excerpt from a seven year-old MJS article:

For two years starting at the age of 9, Mr. King says, he was sexually abused by several men. He didn't tell his parents. He started smoking marijuana and crack. He fathered four children by two women. He would later write, "I was full of darkness."

Then his brother John died of a heart attack during a basketball game at age 24. Then Mr. King's wife left.

That was how Mr. King came to be on the bridge early Jan. 4, 1992. He was crying. When he looked into the water, he saw faces: his four daughters. He could not take his own life.

Instead, he took a bus to the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex and checked himself in. After he left, he went to church. On New Year's Eve, 1993, Mr. King, who had become a church deacon, asked God to forgive him. A few months later, Mr. King preached his first sermon.

In one respect this is a very positive story of personal redemption, a spiritual rags-to-riches story. But it's also remarkable that such a troubled past and history of institutionalization seems to have been ignored by one of the major political parties.

There's a ton to be said about King's campaign. He's running on expanding the scope of the SoS office to include mentoring troubled youth and funneling state funds to his "God Squad" organization to help accomplish this feat -- a conflict of interest to which King seems oblivious.

King is also a frequent speaker at Tea Party rallies that claim to not allow candidates to speak. He ran for state Senate in 2008 as a Democrat -- an association with the enemy that seemed to doom Dick Leinenkugel's brief run for U.S. Senate earlier this year. A number of his community outreach programs have folded over the years and his "God Squad" organization is still pending its tax-exempt status almost four years after it began -- a combination that reeks of financial incompetence (at best) or malfeasance (at worse). He also seems to lack the first clue as to what the Secretary of State actually does.

It all begs the question: what makes David King so special? The answer has many facets that involve race, minority outreach, the homogeneity of the GOP and other uncomfortable issues, but it's a discussion worth having.

I'm from Talk Radio and I'm Fucking Awesome!

Can we throw some cold water on today's McIlheran/Skyes mutual appreciation society lovefest? Seriously, the homoerotic tension between those two is getting downright volcanic.

The two seem to think that Scott Walker's win in last night's GOP primary was the result of how kick-ass talk radio is:

If a county was within the sound of Milwaukee talk radio’s voice, it voted Walker overwhelmingly. This is the power of ideas, well expressed.

Perhaps, though saying thoughts on Milwaukee-area talk radio are "well expressed" is an arguable point on it's best day.

In this claim, Sykes and McIlheran have neglected to ask themselves perhaps the most interesting question about last night's election results: was Walker's win over Nuemann because of or in spite of his last minute deluge of attack ads/mailers against Nuemann?

Walker has been the recipient of nearly daily tongue baths from likes of Sykes and Mark Belling for years now and yet despite the near constant adulation Walker still felt it necessary to devote an absurd portion of his war chest to merely winning a primary most people thought he was a lock to win months, even weeks, ago. That should actually suggest that talk radio probably isn't as powerful as some talk radio host would have their listeners -- or local newspaper columnists -- believe.

But lets look at this another way: If talk radio is the reason for Walker's win in the GOP primary -- how is Walker supposed to win the Gubernatorial race when a proxy unavailable to a large segment of the state promotes his message better than his own campaign?

Regardless of how one looks at talk radio's influence, Scott Walker begins the general election in a significantly weaker position than he had anticipated and the only person who can fix that problem is Scott Walker. Sykes may have taken Walker (and Rebbecca Kleefisch and Ron Johnson) this far, but now his preferred candidates are on their own.

Primaries!

Is it just me or are the primaries in Wisconsin a lot sexier this year than they have been in the past?

They really shouldn't be. The outcomes of just about every primary aren't in much doubt, but the details are still fascinating to pour over.

First off, we've got Ron Johnson ready to cruise to an easy victory over Dave Westlake, who has become something of the Tea Party candidate that many people thought Johnson was going to be. RJ, on the other hand, has morphed into a traditional party establishment candidate. The only real question will be how much Johnson wins by. Given the money Johnson's dumped into TV time there's really no reason why he shouldn't win by 60+ points.

Moving on we have the races for Lt. Governor. The Democrats seemed to have settled on Tom Nelson over scrappy insurgent Henry Sanders. And the Republicans? Good Question! On the one hand there's a handsome state assemblyman who has a track record of winning in a largely Democratic district in Brett Davis. But, on the other hand, there's a Charlie Sykes' henchman with no experience in elected office, so you can plainly see this is a really hard decision for Republicans to make...

Then there's the GOP gubernatorial primary. Scott Walker will probably win on Tuesday, but he apparently won't be winning by enough to make anyone happy, so he's going to be walking away with a few bruises that navel gazers such as myself will discuss ad nauseum for several weeks. The big question is whether Walker will use the occasion to retool his campaign -- as even some Republicans have suggested -- or if he will continue on his merry way.

If Walker pulls out the Nancy Pelosi comparisons against his Republican opponent, we can only guess what murderous 20th century dictator he's got lined up to endorse Tom Barrett.

Last, but certainly not least, is the race for the 8th CD GOP nomination, which really has been nothing short of a shitshow. Honestly, I think this race is cursed -- one of the former candidates, after all, dropped out of the race only to promptly commit suicide earlier this summer. The establishment candidate, Reid Ribble, seems to be plagued by questions about his residency and the publication of Spanish language version of his website ... by his own party. Terri McCormick is still batshit insane and apparently believes she's on a book tour. Roger Roth hasn't been able to get much traction (and may actually be suffering from the moderate legacy of his uncle, who occupied the seat for most of the '80s and '90s). Ribble will probably pull this off, but the race has been emblematic of the GOP's issues in the 8th CD. There's really no reason it shouldn't be in Republican hands, but the party just can't seem to get it's shit together to actually do anything about it.

So there you have it. There are national primaries too -- including a scorcher in Delaware that has parallels to the Alaska Senate and South Carolina gubernatorial races (and about a dozen others), but the races in Wisconsin are far more ... sane.

9 out of 10 Misanthropic Shut-ins Endorse my Candidacy!

Rebecca Kleefisch's campaign issued a press release touting endorsements from various state bloggers, including the proprietor of The Underground Conservative, Peter DiGaudio.

DiGaudio, as you may recall, threw one of the Cheddarsphere's epic temper tantrums on election night '08 over in the comments section at Boots and Sabres. Some of the highlights included repeated denunciations of his American citizenship as well as his desire to assassinate then President-elect Obama. He even added this astonishing claim:

I don’t hope for [Obama's] success. In fact, I seriously hope this country gets attacked by terrorists over and over again and every possible bad thing that can happen does happen ... to people like you.

His behavior was so over the top that Team Robinson told him to toss off.

And toss off DiGauido did, retreating back to his own blog, the now defunct Texas Hold'em Blogger, where he continued to take a shit with his clothes on, posting an upside down American flag with assorted other rantings before finally deleting the entire blog and starting a new one.

DiGaudio walked back some of his statements, but it wasn't the first time he's gone off the deep end, which begs the meta-question: is bragging about bloggers' endorsements wise? Or better yet: what does hyping bloggers' endorsements tell us about the candidate?

Sure, I guess, but endorsements are only as valuable as the credibility of the endorser. In this case, I find it hard to understand why anyone would want to be associated with someone whose sole claim to notoriety is a proclivity for cataclysmic melt downs.

Kleefisch is being backed by a number of people who occasionally have interesting things to say and appear to be influential in certain circles, but DiGaudio's inclusion into that mix diminishes everyone.

Then there's the small matter of a blog called "The Right Choice" -- which consists of exactly ten posts and hasn't been updated since May. That really only barely qualifies as a blog and certainly isn't anything to brag about. God only knows what that's all about.

By the way, Brett Davis appears to be carpet bombing Oshkosh cable TV with ads this weekend.

Compromise!

You know, maybe only some of the Koran needs burning...

Dick Morris Calls Russ Feingold Gay

Way to run a classy operation, AFP!

At this weekend's Sheboygan Freedom Rally, Dick Morris demonstrated why he's America's favorite visitor-of-prostitutes/FOX News contributor:

Nationally known multi-faceted political commentator/analyst/writer Dick Morris dove right into the Wisconsin scene. “For Russ Feingold to pose as a moderate, as an independent…my goodness, it shows how far we’ve come when Russ Feingold tries to dress up like us. But that act of transvestitism [sic.] is going a little far even for Greenwich Village and San Francisco – or Madison.”

No need for dog whistles with that statement.

Dirty Trick of the Day

Burqa-clad pension stealers:

The Wisconsin GOP Really is just Taking All it's Cues from Charlie Sykes...

... whether they're true or not.

Ron Johnson is Basically Trying to Buy a Senate Seat

Here's the Ron Johnson Strategy for winning in November:

1.) Avoid the press as much as possible.

2.) Meet only with friendly audiences.

3.) Spend a shitload on TV (and, later, direct mail):

Johnson has spent $4 million on broadcast TV in the state compared to $1.4 million for Feingold, according to figures obtained from CMAG, a northern Virginia firm that tracks television advertising.

The numbers refer to ads aired this year in the state’s five TV markets: Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, La Crosse/Eau Claire and Wausau/Rhinelander. They do not include radio or cable television spots.

The spending gap grows a bit bigger (to more than 3-1) when you include the $300,000 spent on TV recently by American Action Network, a national conservative group that has run an ad attacking Feingold for voting for the stimulus plan.

In Communist China, Money Makes You!

Another day, another gaffe:

In the interview, Johnson made reference to Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn. In paraphraising Wynn's feelings about business, Johnson said, "His point is...the climate for business investment is far more certain in communist China than it is in the U.S. here."

Followed by another absurd walk-back:

As the Johnson interview began to make the rounds on talk shows and Democratic partisans, campaign spokeswoman Sara Sendek issued this statement: "We unequivocally reject any notion that Ron Johnson ever said or implied that communist China is better for business."