Russ Feingold's biggest fan: Ron Johnson

For only those most dedicated of masochists, a 30-minute interview with Tea Republican Ron Johnson, the Manhattan-based Fox News Channel's hand-selected "rich guy from Wisconsin" reportedly seeking to challenge U.S. Senator Russ Feingold.

Fast forward past internets "vlogger" Ed Morrissey's nearly equal measure of introductory self-love (the host's host is the aptly-named "Hot Air"); Johnson gets on the blower around the 28:00 mark.

Further to the obligatory "Obamacare is an assault on our Freedoms," Johnson is asked about carbon emissions trading proposals, and specifically a bill currently under consideration in the Senate.

Ron Johnson: As a manufacturer myself who uses electricity, in the Midwest where we use basically fossil fuel-based electricity, we would be put at a huge economic disadvantage to even competitors on the East Coast and certainly competitors globally.

If that sounds familiar:

WisBusiness.com: "I'm not signing onto any bill that rips off Wisconsin," Feingold declared, arguing the bill's mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions could put the coal-dependent Badger State at an economic disadvantage compared to other regions and nations.

"Western Wisconsin is particularly strong in being concerned about this because of their reliance on coal," Feingold said of the bill, which has already passed the House. "There is a real possibility ... that it will be unfair to Wisconsin and Wisconsin ratepayers."

In sum: 'Thanks, Senator Feingold, for maintaining vigilance over me and my business' interests. Keep up the good work, just like you did with that other massive federal government undertaking, the TARP.'

Mind you, Johnson thinks air pollution, the reduction of which is the objective of cap and trade plans generally, is a "problem that doesn't exist," a position shared neither by Feingold nor

military officials, including retired admirals and generals, [who] concur with the intelligence community that climate change acts as a threat multiplier for instability and presents significant national security challenges for the United States.

— S.1733

I believe even the most assiduous Randian Tea drinkers* would concede that challenges to national security are of legitimate interest to the federal government. And it's borderline pathological to contend that the deleterious effect of increasingly rapidly burning the contents of the Earth's crust into the atmosphere "doesn't exist."

Next, somebody needs to ask Ron Johnson about that madcap liberal Russ Feingold and the Second Amendment or whether he's on board with those Marxist-Leninist zanies over at the Rutherford Institute.

* See also: Wisconsin's John Galt or 'Who is Ron Johnson?'