Once in Office, Ron Johnson's Speeches will Consist Entirely of Him Reading Extended Passages from "The Protestant Work Ethic"

There's a big picture think piece at Politico this morning on the senate race here in Wisconsin. Hopefully readers will make it far enough into the article to catch this line:

This is what makes the outcome of this election so intriguing. If [Ron] Johnson and others like him win, they seem less interested in plunging into specific legislation and more inclined to wage a philosophical messaging war to change the GOP and the nature of governance. Asked what innovative ideas he might push in office, Johnson didn't talk of tax reform or private Social Security accounts, or of anything a conventional senator might do.

Instead, he committed himself to a "re-education of America" and talked about how expectations of government help are spinning wildly out of control, creating “a culture of dependency" that has little appreciation for what it takes for individuals and businesses to thrive. One could easily hear Angle in Nevada and Paul in Kentucky making the same case, with the same intensity, using the same words to win – and planning the same approach if elected.

Aside from the unfortunate -- but entirely in character -- use of the word "re-education," Johnson has basically vowed to do nothing but tell the state of Wisconsin that it's not working hard enough. While it remains to be seen if this is a way to get elected, it's certainly no plan to get re-elected.

Ron Johnson Valiantly Reduces the Federal Budget Deficit by 0.000084%

This is the most incomprehensible statement I've heard come from any candidate's mouth this cycle:

Johnson, who is challenging U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, said his opposition to embryonic stem cell research is dictated mainly by economics. The federal government needs to cut $1.5 trillion from its budget, he said, so it makes sense to achieve those cuts by eliminating unpopular programs.

If there's a program "that's morally objectionable to a high percentage of the American public, that's probably something we shouldn't spend money on," Johnson said.

NIH has earmarked $126 million for human embryonic stem cell research in 2011, a chunk of which would flow back to Wisconsin. Johnson's going to need to make lot more hard decisions if he's going to significantly cut the deficit.

The most interesting aspect of this statement is that it couches what is clearly a moral judgment in economic terms so not to appear like a raving religious fanatic whilst simultaneously appealing to raving religious fanatics. A "high percentage of the American public" is another way of saying "not a majority."

Not that any of this should come as any surprise.

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.

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.

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."

This is Getting Ridiculous

Shit like this is absolutely dumbfounding:

It's one thing to flip-flop on the issues.

But who's ever heard of a candidate rewriting his own company history?

That's exactly what U.S. Senate candidate Ron Johnson did last week.

For nearly nine years, his plastics company has carried this online description of its beginning:

"Founded in 1977, Pacur occupies a facility constructed specifically for sheet extrusion, which provides polyester and polypropylene sheet and rollstock to converters, distributors, and end users," said the website for the Oshkosh-based factory.

But that changed on Wednesday.

Ron Johnson Email #14

Ron Johnson for U.S. Senate Email #14

WI-08 Poll

It's basically from the Ribble campaign -- so take it with a grain of salt:
AAF WI-08 Poll Memo
WI-08 Poll: Toplines
WI-08 Poll: Crosstabs

Problems

Ron Johnson's got a few.

Government Cheese

Sure is expensive:

"Tax-free bonds allow a borrower to borrow at a lower rate," said Andrew Reschovsky, a professor of applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "That's a subsidy from normal borrowing."

"I have never lobbied for some special treatment or for a government payment"

It's an attack ad that writes itself -- via Taegan Goodard:

In an interview with WKOW-TV, Wisconsin U.S. Senate candidate Ron Johnson (R) blasted government subsidies.

Said Johnson: "I'm in business. I have never lobbied for some special treatment or for a government payment.... When you subsidize things...it doesn't work through the free market system very well."

Never ever ... for ever never?

However, it turns out Johnson actually received a $2.5 million government subsidized loan to expand his company back in 1985.

Get ready for a lot of parsing between what counts as a "subsidy" and a "subsidized loan" ... and a relentless barrage of well-deserved attack ads from Feingold.

This is about as flagrant a lie as one is going to find in politics and since Johnson has based a large swathe of his campaign on the evils of government spending -- in particular the dozens of press releases detailing the so-called pork in the stimulus bill -- this should cripple his credibility.

I don't expect too many deathbed conversions to Dave Westlake's campaign, but wouldn't be surprised if a few intellectually honest conservatives advocated as much in the face of this absurdity.

MORE: And here we go:

Campaign spokeswoman Sara Sendek says the bond in question wasn't special treatment or a subsidy, but a loan that was paid back in full.

Bullshit. If Johnson were to acting in accord to his "free market"/Ayn Rand rhetoric, he would have gone to a bank for the loan and paid off the interest. Instead, he went to the government because:

In the 1980s the company expanded through the help of a $2.5 million government bond issued by the city of Oshkosh - a bond that charged below-market interest rates.

[...]

Late this afternoon the Johnson campaign sent a one-sentence response to our story, saying the sort of bond issued by Oshkosh is neither special treatment nor a government payment or subsidy.

They also say the loan was paid back in full.

In case you missed it, Johnson's campaign apparently made no mention of paying off the equivalent interest.

So much for "free market principles"...

EVEN MORE: Here's the Memeorandum thread.

MORE STILL: The MJS points out that not only has Johnson been caught with his hands in the cookie jar, but his campaign's initial response to the matter has also been demonstrably false:

In a statement issued Wednesday, Johnson's campaign said, "An industrial revenue bond is neither special treatment nor a government payment or subsidy. It is a loan and was paid back in full."

Got that? RJ.com calls it a "loan" (as did several of the news organizations featured above). But:

An industrial revenue bond is a tax-exempt bond normally issued by a governmental body for a project. The City of Oshkosh was not making a loan; a bank or other lender would buy the bonds from Pacur and resell them to investors. Pacur would then have been responsible to pay back the bonds' principal amount, plus interest.

But at a lower rate of interest than he would have received from a private bank. That's good business, but completely contrary to his campaign message.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Velp Avenue in Green Bay is now hallowed ground.

Yes, the "pattern developing here" is the rapid spread of mass paranoia fueled by right wing opportunists with no more hope at public office, but who still have a raging hard-on for public limelight and the money to fuel their self-involved vanity projects.

Ron Johnson gets His own Memeorandum Thread over "Sunspots" Comment

It's kind of a sign of internet virality (no matter how thin the thread actually is).

Here's a helpful video detailing why Johnson is wrong on the sunspots theory:

Ron Johnsonomics, or How to Eliminate the Competition from Your Business Plan without even Trying

This sentence caught my eye reading an otherwise positive piece in the Onalaska Holmen Courier-Life:

Pacur started with just one customer, Curwood, a company co-founded by Johnson’s father-in-law, Howard Curler.

That probably sounds pretty innocuous, maybe even a little cute: a brash start-up valiantly trying to make it in this crazy world, the old man chipping in to help out ... but that's really not an accurate way of looking at things.

Curwood is actually a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Bemis Corp. and has been since 1965, twelve years before Johnson started Pacur. In other words, his father-in-law wasn't just helping out Pacur by throwing some business its way, this was a corporate giant (that made almost $5 billion last year and has been a publicly-traded company since the early 1970s) granting a lucrative subcontract to a company with no prior track record for delivery.

Those kinds of business relationships only come about through crazy connections and in this case the connections were familial.

Apparently, Bemis has remained Pacur's largest customer ever since.

This isn't a small detail. It's probably a lot easier to secure a loan for manufacturing capital when you can explain to the loan officer at the bank that your small business is guaranteed a fat contract from a local supplier once it gets up and running. It may very well be the reason why Pacur even exists in the first place.

I don't want to begrudge Pacur its success -- cashing in on family connections is just smart business -- but it is not, repeat, not an example of the "free market" principles that Johnson extols continuously on the campaign trail. I'm sure that Pacur provided Bemis with a quality product, but I sincerely doubt they have faced much competition. Let's face it: Curwood was never going to pull the plug on a contract co-owned by the owner's son and son-in-law. When a person or company is all but guaranteed a significant portion of it's annual income regardless of performance, well, that sounds an awful lot like welfare.

Johnson may rail against government handouts and sing the praises of Ayn Rand, but his career in business is an illustrative example of how even "Free Markets" are never actually completely "free." Even if we lived in a laissez faire paradise without any government regulation or taxes, we still would never live in a completely "free market." Had I produced a product for Bemis of higher quality and at half the cost, would anyone believe I would have stood a chance of competing for Pacur's contract with Curwood? Of course not: the livelihoods of the owner's son, daughter and grandchildren depended on money moving from Bemis through Curwood and to Pacur.

No wonder Johnson is such a big proponent of the "free market" -- it's been competition "free" for most of his career.

In a sense, Johnson owes much of his good fortune to a form of private sector welfare. Yes, Pacur has other clients, but a big part of business is building a foundation from which to work on, and that was essentially provided for Johnson by virtue of his family connections. Had he not married into the Curler family Johnson might still be keeping the books at a class ring-making company instead of becoming the President of a plastics manufacturing company.

The other angle to this story involves is the extent of Bemis' partnership with Pacur over the years. Part of the persona that Johnson is selling to voters is that of the savvy business leader who knows how to create manufacturing jobs. That may be true, but if Bemis is responsible for 50%, 60%, 75% of Pacur's business, then Johnson really hasn't been responsible for growing a business so much as that business is essentially a glorified subsidiary of Bemis.

In a recent TV spot Johnson tried to frame the Senate race as a common sense businessman with 30+ years of creating jobs vs. a career politician. It's easy to critique the "career politician's" record because Feingold's made thousands of votes in the last 20 years, so perhaps we should start giving Pacur the same level of scrutiny?

I don't doubt that Johnson is a hard worker, but his business history simply does not jive with his Randian conception of the economy. Johnson has been the recipient of numerous enormous breaks that a vast majority of people don't get in their careers and to pretend like he's some kind of economic ubermensch who will led us to prosperity through the sheer force of his own will to power is ridiculous.

Ads of the Damned: Ron Johnson, "The Johnson Way"

Hey, look: it's an account giving a PowerPoint presentation! Feel the excitement!

All that's missing is a TI-85 graphing calculator.

Final Grade: D+