Dave Westlake now defeated: Murdoch paper

That was quick.

The Wall Street Journal's September 15 issue hits the stands today

The Wall Street Journal's right-wing editorial pages have long been a leading expert source in Wisconsin judicial politics as well, predicting several years ago a terrifyingly Alabamian tsunami of product liability litigation in the Badger State which, uh, never actually happened.

Observers suggested the WSJ's mandarins may have mistaken video footage of Ron Johnson at the Republican Party convention last May for the September 14 primary. In the footage, a Johnson aide is shown tearing down a 'Dave Westlake for Senate' political free speech campaign poster while Johnson pulls down one of Terrence Wall's.

Johnson's campaign subsequently claimed the pair were rendering freelance janitorial services — just helping out with the tidying up.

A spokesperson confirmed no union jobs were displaced to Macau.

Since that time, Ron Johnson has been touring Wisconsin complaining that his own personal Freedoms are under government attack and that the Communist Chinese "climate for business investment is far more certain ... than it is in the U.S. here."

The Chairman of the Party Reince Priebus issued a decree that all discussion of Ron Johnson's bizarre proclamations must cease immediately [Need to clarify he is Republican Party chairman — ed.].

Earlier: Dave Westlake concedes solar system only 13 days young

Dave Westlake: This week in Bible physics

Tea Party favorite Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Dave Westlake finally emerged from contemplative seclusion yesterday, and he's reportedly going for the wing-nut gusto:

When asked if the Earth was around 6,000 years old, as some creationists believe, Westlake said, "That's probably a general timeline. There are very solid supporting evidence [sic] out there, or data out there, that shows that it's very reasonable to expect that it's not nearly as old as science says it is."

Let's have it then.

Earlier, Westlake had been endorsed by Joe the Plumber. One of Westlake's former rivals, Terrence Wall, caused havoc in February when he told a fundamentalist Christian teevee station the Universe was "billions of years" old. Mr. Wall received an irate telephone call.

He was eventually forced to withdraw from the race. Westlake battles Ron "Sunspots" Johnson in the September 14 Wisconsin primaries.

Ron Johnson's own special scientific theories received emphatic support through a letter to the editor published in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel last Tuesday from one Nils-Axel Morner, who "claims to be an expert in 'dowsing,' the practice of finding water, metals, gemstones etc. through the use of a Y-shaped twig."

As Noah of Ark fame said to the Argentinosauruses, "Oy vey iz mir."

Terrence Wall needs Jesus

Then maybe he could find it in his heart to forgive Ron Johnson.

(Mr. T. Wall also must repent for asserting the age of the Earth.)

Inside Ron Johnson's bag of dirty tricks

• hiring away my direct-mail vendor
• trying to hire away my staff at the [WISGOP] convention
• [fomenting] chaos during the balloting
• party official ordered my staffer to vote for Johnson
• delegate instructed to change his vote [to] Johnson
• man with a woman's credentials trying to vote
• unrecognizable individuals voting in [someone's] county
• County chair told to keep his mouth shut
• Republican "kingmakers" had kicked into high gear
• delegate stuffed a few [ballots] in his pocket
• hotel room paid for by Johnson in exchange for vote
• Johnson float[ed] rumors and lies about his opponents
• skipped Lincoln Day dinners, threw money around

"[W]e continue to hold other negative information on Ron Johnson in confidence. (No doubt the Democrats will take care of that.)"

Terrence Wall is bitter.

Wisconsin GOP primary getting mighty confusing

One candidate is referring to himself in the third person:

Dave Westlake said he has gotten pressure [from people within the Party] to drop out of the race so that Ron Johnson can cruise through the September primary. "They're a little less willing to go along with me, but there's not been an all-out push to have Dave Westlake drop out of the race," said Dave Westlake, "because they know that I'm not going to."

Another has either lost or gained a hotel room.

And: Terrence Wall grants another interview.

Terrence Wall stokes the far right against Johnson

Ron Johnson's Republican endorsement "incredibly suspicious"

The Republican Women of the North are "shocked."

Says one of the Rock River Patriots, before whom Ron Johnson's disastrous performance forced him to flee to the woodshed for nearly a week:

I've heard rumors that there was "funny business" going on at the convention from other TEA Party / Patriot Groups.

Affirmation of suspected "funny business" also appears at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel version of the Terrence Wall bombshell:

I was at the convention — this is NOT "out of thin air." I guess it would be difficult to understand if you weren't there, but, Ron's endorsement was incredibly suspicious.

And:

I sent a letter to Ron Johnson and the RPW requesting an honest, prompt response to the allegations. I was a delegate who always felt robbed after the endorsement process. We need honesty and integrity in Madison and Washington DC. We need honest voting and results whether it be at the polls or at the convention. We need to demand this.

Best of all, the gang at RedState.com, where on Wednesday Ron Johnson was described as "contemptible, shameful, and disgusting":

Ron Johnson, Wisconsin candidate for U.S. Senate, is not, perhaps what he's been attempting to make himself out to be.

Terrence Wall will surely return with more. You don't campaign for months and months only to have some unknown character turn up out of nowhere and scoop the Party's official endorsement right from under your nose and then be expected to go lay down and be quiet.

Especially when the first thing that other character does is start ripping down his rivals' election posters off the convention wall.

More: Terrence Wall righteously protecting delegates' identities
See also: Terrence Wall is my new hero
Earlier: Tea group warns of Johnson's authoritarian streak

RoJo: You Should Never Have Opened That Door

eta: Sly In The Morning ("absolutely stunning" audio):

I've got over 100 stories like that, of corruption, bribery ... coercion. My own employee being forced to vote for Johnson, being told absolutely that he was not allowed to vote for me, what he had to do is what the [GOP] vice chair told him to do.

— Terrence Wall

To paraphrase the late Dee Dee Ramone,* Ron Johnson should never have torn that election sign off the (Terrence) Wall:

Former Republican Senate Candidate Terrence Wall told WTDY News Director Zach Stein that Ron Johnson engineered his surprise endorsement vote, less than a week after Johnson entered the race, by using "corruption, bribery (and) coercion."

Oh dearie, dearie me.

Jeez, guys, can't we all just get along?

You Should Never Have Opened That Door — Ramones

* I'm one of several hundred who actually bought that record. In my defense, I don't think I ever made it past the third or fourth track.

Terrence Wall's farewell gift

Local paper resumes Thirty Years War

Word under the dome is that the issue may have been raised as a farewell gift from Terrence Wall, who ended his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat after Ron Johnson jumped in and won the GOP endorsement by promising to spend $10-15 million of his own money against Russ Feingold.

— Xoff

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reporter Dan Bice got run up one side and down the other by nearly all of 100 readers who responded to his column. Some good reasons were given. But none mentioned the most obvious: Reporter Bice's fomenting the undoing of the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia between the Lutherans and the Catholics.

Feingold in "deep trouble"

Salivates Fred Barnes in Bill Kristol's organ, the Weekly Standard:

Republican businessman Ron Johnson is two points behind (Rasmussen) Democratic Senator Russ Feingold. The tightness of these contests is especially worrisome to Democrats because once seemingly safe incumbents are now in deep trouble.

Rasmussen's is so far the only poll available for the Feingold/Johnson matchup. Nobody's ever heard of Ron Johnson. He has no platform other than "Obamacare is an assault on our Freedoms," whatever that's supposed to mean, and he's pledged to repeal it as his Senate Job One, which is akin to a hellbound snowball's entreaties.

He appeared on Fox & Friends (literally, his most appropriate venue) yesterday to mouth the identical vacuous Tea Party platitudes that WISN-TV's Mike Gousha subtly undermined over the weekend.

And he unreservedly commends Russ Feingold's opposition to one of the most significant and costly pieces of legislation forged by the 111th Congress, the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.

If the theory is that Wisconsin voters will choose anybody — even an unknown — over the incumbent Feingold, then why did the same pollster show Feingold trouncing the other competing Republican hopefuls Terrence Wall (since withdrawn) and Dave Westlake?

Expect Rasmussen Reports' tiny sample size/wide margin of error* science to achieve outlier status in a hurry, just as several of Rasmussen's other U.S. Senate polls already have.

And somebody please hand Fred Barnes a tissue. Or a box of them, just in case Johnson gets an opportunity to debate Feingold.

Johnson's sense of civic and political responsibility is certainly admirable, but he better start boning up on some substance.

Further reading.

* According to which Johnson is actually leading Feingold.

George Will's man love letter to Ron Johnson

Sheesh, get a room already:

Ron Johnson ... now is ablaze, in an understated, Upper Midwestern way. This 55-year-old manufacturer of plastic products from Oshkosh, Wis., is what the Tea Party looks like. He is trim, gray-haired and suddenly gray-suited. For years he has worn jeans and running shoes to his office, but now, under spousal duress, he is trying to look senatorial — "My wife upgraded me to brown shoes."

Ron Johnson tells the poor man's Roger Angell his "foundational book" is Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, which is not the Foundational Book you'd expect out of a pro-life Lutheran hailing from the Wisconsin heartland. Or is it. What the hell, there was no commandment about naked political pandering (even Noah of West Bend public school board fame did a little naked pandering, come to think of it).

And Johnson thinks the tome — whose author's opinion of religion makes PZ Myers look like Francis of Assisi — is "too short,"* which is actually a pretty great line. But he also thought Terrence Wall and Dave Westlake were a couple pages too long, so he tore their campaign posters down (which he now says reporters made him do).

Johnson may be even more entertaining than Rand Paul.

Asked how much of his wealth he will spend, if necessary, [Johnson's] answer is as simple as it is swift: "All of it."

Remember: No bailouts, no entitlements.

* Its relentless, one-note tedium exceeds 1,000 pages.

No love for ol' capper

WisPolitics.com first reported the expected end to Terrence Wall's campaign early this morning.

— Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, 05/27/10

But see: 05/26/10 7:43 P.M.

Damned lamestream media, scooped by an amateur.

Google Terrence Wall

That ain't right.

Speaking of Ron Johnson, who is best known for tearing his two political opponents'* campaign signs from the wall (no pun intended) at last weekend's Wisconsin State Republican jamboree:

Ron Johnson won the Republican nomination to run against Russ Feingold. — Dick Morris, time-traveling Wispundit

Somebody inform Dick the Wisconsin party primaries aren't until September. No wonder Morris is a valued Fox News "contributor."

[Ron Johnson is] an independent, successful businessman with great access to funding ... Please give him money.

Can the Palin endorsement be far behind?

* One personally, the other on a theory of respondeat superior.

Ron Johnson caught abridging freedom of speech

To an extent not contemplated by McCain-Feingold

Tea Party Republicans Ron Johnson & Co.* tear Johnson's two Republican adversaries' election posters clean off the wall at the Republican State convention in Milwaukee. (h/t James Rowen.)

The convention endorsed Johnson, whatever that's worth. Johnson's travel coordinator told the Oshkosh Northwestern he was personally summoned to said vocation by the Son of God Himself.**

Nobody knows anything about Ron Johnson, who is apparently running for the U.S. Senate, except that he is a multimillionaire extremist who was recruited televisually by Bill O'Reilly and Dick Morris.***

Could he be a lolbertarian, also?

* Candidate Ron Johnson removes a Terrence Wall sign, Johnson's compadre reaches up and pulls down the orange Dave Westlake sign.

** You can't leave everything to the market's invisible hand.

*** Which is about all you need to know, really.

Feingold opponent will debate self

At 10:15 am, Dave Westlake, candidate for the U.S. Senate, will be introduced. His Republican challenger, Terrence Wall, is unable to attend. Westlake will participate and face questions from the moderators.

What, no Richard Leinenkugel either?

No, I'm the Reagan Republican

"I'm Brian, and so's my wife."

An earlier version of this story incorrectly said Sen. Feingold presented himself as a conservative Reagan Republican. The story should have said candidate Richard Leinenkugel presented himself as a conservative Reagan Republican.

— Chippewa Falls (WI) Herald

It's funny because Leinenkugel the sudden Reaganite is a former member of the detested liberal Democrat Wisconsin governor Jim Doyle's cabinet, now running in the Republican primary for the opportunity to oppose Russ Feingold in the November election.

Since Leinenkugel formally announced his ambitions earlier this week and on account of that résumé, he's been mercilessly attacked by the conservative True Believers as a "Republican In Name Only," and tarred with the disparaging Freeperish moniker, "RINOkugel."

Much of that opposition, it seems to me, arises from the fact that he's got lots of money and instant name recognition and is by all appearances considerably more competent than either of his two current GOP rivals, Terrence Wall and Dave Westlake.

That is, the local conservative Twit-terers aren't exactly renowned as the sharpest knives in a drawer. Unless they want to get trounced in November, Leinenkugel's probably their best bet against Feingold. He's certainly the least clownish of the three potential candidates.

But apparently the successful GOP candidate will need to present his credentials to the base as being slightly to the right of Attila the Hun.

And then move back toward Genghis Khan for the general election.

"Health care wasn't much of a debate. It was back room deals made by Senators," Leinenkugel said.

What a silly talking point. Those bills were in Congress — and the country heard about virtually nothing else — for 18 months. And it's comically disingenuous for an aspiring Senator to assail that chamber over "back room deals." The Senate operates on back room deals.*

* See, e.g., Robert Caro's marvelous account.

WisDems take aim at guy who isn't running

24/7/365 campaign cycle broaches Fourth Dimension

Video via Cory Liebmann.

Republicans will say, 'This proves beyond any doubt that Russ Feingold is running scared from Tommy Thompson.' But I don't know about that. Thompson, despite his legendary profile in Wisconsin, is laden with baggage, much of which he's collected since he left the State (literally and figuratively: most significantly, the latter) to saddle up with the fondly remembered G.W. Bush administration.

For example, Secretary of Health and Human Services Thompson was cited by the Union of Concerned Scientists for rejecting a nominee — a Nobel recipient — to a department position because physiologist Torsten Wiesel had signed letters to the editor critical of Bush. (And as conservative Republicans teach nowadays, criticizing the President of the United States, well, that just isn't done in polite society.)

On the other hand it's not completely unreasonable that an individual of Tommy Thompson's entrenched position has long since lost count of how many corporations he's been serving in Washington, D.C.

Wait ... no, that's the same hand.

Feingold has been taunting Thompson ever since the "nonpartisan" (spare me) Wisconsin Policy Research Institute released "polling data" showing Feingold trailing significantly in a hypothetical match-up. WPRI, whose principals are closely connected to Thompson's career and fortunes, could scarcely contain its glee, and issued a statement for which they were "scolded" by UW Prof. Ken Goldstein, the academic-on-contract who'd collected the underlying numbers.

Comes now the result of a Rasmussen tally, showing Thompson and Feingold in a dead heat. Further, adjusting for Rasmussen's demonstrated historical propensity to skew conservative and Republican, that makes Feingold actually a polling favorite to beat not only Thompson, but also Feingold's two current (allegedly) non-hypothetical challengers Terrence Wall and Dave Westlake.

Thompson "hasn't ruled out" — as the saying goes — challenging Feingold so the WisDems campaign isn't so much one of fear but rather simply preparedness. Besides, they've got money to spend (good for the economy) and since neither T. Wall nor D. Westlake are serious candidates, they've got to spend it on something.

Feingold on that WPRI polling "fiasco"

"As has been widely reported, WPRI is a group with strong Republican ties, most prominently to Tommy Thompson. As the Associated Press reported last week there have been serious questions about WPRI manipulating polling results so the media and voters should think twice about the credibility of WPRI's polling." — Feingold spokesman Trevor Miller

Veteran Wisconsin poll watcher Bill Christofferson notes that another Republican hopeful appears to be trending rapidly toward complete obscurity since daring to question the age of the Earth:

Bad news for Terrence Wall. In a recent Rasmussen poll, GOP Senate candidate Terrence Wall had 69% name recognition. But in the WPRI poll it had slipped to 18%. Do you think maybe someone's numbers are a little off?

xoff: We Prop up Republican Ideologues

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Political Science disavowed its relationship with WPRI in early February.

Terrence Wall touches his inner Liz Cheney

Maybe they will save a seat for Russ Feingold - After Russ again stated his support for giving special rights to foreign terrorists. — "Tweets" Terrence Wall

And maybe Terrence Wall could identify what "special rights" those are (Feingold isn't even mentioned in Wall's Politico.com item).

No wonder not even Republicans take Terrence Wall seriously.

Terrence Wall is only a theory: Fox "News"

'I am not at all believing one cent of this whole Terrence Wall thing'

Thompson is the only one of three hypothetical GOP opponents in the poll who bests Feingold, one of the most liberal senators in the Senate.

Faux.

On Feb. 26, 2009, the United States Senate adopted an amendment "to restore Second Amendment rights in the District of Columbia." Russ Feingold voted in favor of the amendment, together with the Jims DeMint and Inhofe.

They sure don't come any more liberal than that.

Terrence Wall admits he's unfit for federal office

GOP man "appalled" by his own electoral failures
"No. No. No," announces Republican, as if by rote

It's fatuous enough that pumpkin farmer Terrence Wall, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, has been denouncing Russ Feingold's honesty and integrity. Even Senator Feingold's most defiant political opponents concede him both of those qualities.

Now Terrence Wall, speaking to Milwaukee's fundamentalist Christian teevee station WVCY, is "appalled" that former State Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler has been nominated to the federal court for the Western District of Wisconsin. Appalled! I tell you.

Jim Schneider: One of the nominations that's pending before the Senate at this very moment, just passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is Louis Butler, former Supreme Court justice here in the State of Wisconsin. You're sitting on the Senate. Would you be voting to confirm Justice Butler, or not.

Terrence Wall: No. [See "No, Party of."]

Schneider: Would not meet your criteria?

Wall: No. [Ibid.]

Schneider: Twice rejected by voters here in the State of Wisconsin.

Wall: I think it's appalling to think that we would, uh, appoint a justice [sic] to the court that failed to meet the criterion that the voters want, on two occasions.

Really, because Terrence Wall — on two occasions, no less — lost popular elections, right here in Wisconsin. So according to his own reasoning, he's unqualified for the federal office he seeks. Indeed, Mr. Wall is "appalled" that his own self is even being considered.

Obviously it's a ridiculous thing for Terrence Wall to say for a number of reasons. Success in State elections is hardly any criteria to assess the qualifications of a federal judicial nominee. In fact Louis Butler has received the American Bar Association's highest rating, the same conferred on U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.

Furthermore within the jurisdiction covered by the Western District, Louis Butler actually won the election by more than 21,000 votes.

What's truly appalling is how Michael Gableman has been fighting tooth and nail since October, 2008 against charges he lied about a sitting Wisconsin Supreme Court justice.

[That's. Enough. Terrence. Wall. — ed.]