Wisconsin Dem Bloggers Need to Knock this Bullshit Off Immediately

This type of idiocy needs to end now:

Expect the famous prank call to Scott Walker from "David Koch" to be back in the spotlight, as State Sen. Tim Cullen says he's launching a campaign for governor.


Walker, in the end, says Cullen's "not one of us," and is "just a pragmatist," but Cullen, the state senator who says he's going to run against Walker in a recall, might get a few questions from Democrats about this.

Hmmmm?

It was Cullen and State Sen. Bob Jauch who conducted their own negotiations with Walker's office when the 14 Democrats were in Illinois to prevent passage of a union-busting bill.

From the outside, Cullen certainly looked like the one trying to cut a backdoor deal.

There's nothing wrong with that, of course -- except the backdoor part, and the fact that the Democratic base now wants Walker's scalp, smells blood, and is not likely to unite behind a pragmatic compromiser who Walker says good things about.

Honestly, I felt embarrassed for xoff when I read this. Then I cringed when I read that this nonsense left Steve Carlson "speechless."

For starters, using Walker's prank call against a Democratic candidate makes no logical sense whatsoever. Many bloggers on the left, xoff among them, have spent years, and this last one in particular, calling Scott Walker a liar. Why any of his opponents should start parsing his words for the appearance of someone trying to make a "backdoor deal" now makes no sense and reeks of opportunism. If you don't like Cullen, come out and say it. Don't pussy-foot around it. These types of insinuations and leading conjectures are what conspiracy theorists do.

Next, the whole argument against Cullen is that Walker may kinda sorta like him, which is at best a stretch given the transcript's text. But let's posit for a moment that it's true. Is having a functional working relationship with a member of the opposite party a bad thing? It sure as hell shouldn't be and in xoff's case it isn't ... at least when its a Republican siding the Dems. Consistency and intellectual honesty are good things and without them we may as well oppose Cullen because he shares a surname with a character in those fucking Twilight books.

Lastly, this is pretty bush league stuff, and I mean lower than ticky tack. One of the most potent arguments the Democrats have in recalling Walker is that they are the adults in the room, but when Dems start attacking each other with horseshit like this that argument evaporates like a proverbial fart in the wind. And that's really what this Walker prank call business is: a phantasm created out of thin air that's really nothing. Wisconsin will not use a recall to exchange one extremist for another and that's a very important point that I see quickly escaping many of the more voluminous voices on the Left. If this recall is strictly about claiming scalps and inflicting revenge it will be a waste.

Right now the Dem base is whipped up into a berserker frenzy. That might be a great way to get people to the polls, but it's a shitty way to govern. Just ask Scott Walker. When Dems start playing these trite opposition research gotcha! games they're signaling to voters that they're not interested in doing the hard work it takes to govern.

So, if I haven't made myself perfectly clear, then let me do so: anyone candidate who uses Walker Prank Call tape as any kind of evidence against any candidate isn't worthy of anyone's vote and anyone who suggests as much shouldn't be taken seriously. I know emotions are high right now (and this post is a perfect example of just how high they really are), but Dems need to hold themselves to a higher standard, especially when it comes to internal affairs.

It's OK to oppose Tim Cullen, but do it on legitimate grounds. Use Cullen's words and actions, not Scott Walker's. Don't create controversy where there isn't any. Don't strain to create a quasi-Walker endorsement of Tim Cullen -- which is exactly what xoff is trying to do in his post -- out of thin air. If these are the kind of bush league antics we can expect during the rest of the recall then the Dems will have already lost before the contest even begins.