Russ ‘Raise the minimum wage!’ Feingold wants to get himself some unpaid interns!

I don’t know know whether the news that Feingold’s campaign is advertising for unpaid interns represents Russ Feingold’s hypocrisy – after all, he’s looking specifically for people who will commit to spreading for free the message that there should be a generous minimum wage hike – or just his general cluelessness about how things work now. I mean, ever since Ron Johnson sent him packing from the Senate Russ Feingold has been bitterly licking his wounds in academia, which is about the worst place in the world for keeping on top of current societal trends.  Guess we’ll just have to go with the healing power of ‘and’ on this one:

In this position, interns are given a wide range of tasks and are guaranteed to learn a great deal about a campaign for U.S. Senate. Strong writing, research, and organizational skills are required; having a positive attitude and being outgoing are also appreciated. Scheduling is extremely flexible. All internships are unpaid and require a commitment of 8 to 12 hours per week.

…Guy won’t even shell out $180 bucks a week for this? Talk about a cheapskate!  A brazen one, at that. Continue reading Russ ‘Raise the minimum wage!’ Feingold wants to get himself some unpaid interns!

Russ Feingold used his outside candidate Super-PAC to …pay his once-and-future campaign staff?

You know, it’s sad when you see somebody whose basic motivation in life is so self-evidently Where am I gonna get my next fix from, man? Sad, and a little embarrassing. You want ’em to get help, but it’s not your place to tell ’em to shape up:

Former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold — long a champion of campaign finance reform — founded a political action committee that has given a mere 5% of its income to federal candidates and political parties.

Instead, nearly half of the $7.1 million that Progressives United PAChas spent since 2011 has gone to raising more money for itself, according to data compiled by OpenSecrets.org. The data also show the group has paid another sizable chunk of money on salaries or consulting fees for Feingold, his top aide and eight former staffers.

Continue reading Russ Feingold used his outside candidate Super-PAC to …pay his once-and-future campaign staff?

Russ Feingold, campaign finance ‘reform’ hypocrite.

Of course he is.  Being in Washington is a drug, for some people: “Democrats expect that, unlike in 2010, [Russ Feingold will] green-light independent expenditures from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to aid his effort. (Super PACs, which were conceived in the middle of Feingold’s last election but not yet popular among Democrats, might also help.)” As the NRSC is more than happy to note, this is potentially a remarkable change for the former Senator, who rather famously told the DSCC to ‘get the hell out‘ of his 1998 Senate race. Continue reading Russ Feingold, campaign finance ‘reform’ hypocrite.

We *will* have Russ Feingold to kick around again!

This should be entertaining.

Former Sen. Russ Feingold (D) on Thursday announced he will challenge Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) in 2016, setting up a rematch in the critical swing state of Wisconsin.

In a Web video announcing his candidacy Thursday morning, Feingold portrayed himself as an independent voice that will reach across the aisle to get things done.

Continue reading We *will* have Russ Feingold to kick around again!

The Last Temptation of Russ Feingold.

Oh, poor Russ Feingold.  He must be so sorely, sorely tempted to run: “Former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold’s departure from the State Department has political experts predicting a highly contested rematch of the 2010 race in which the Madison-area senator was defeated.” Russ Feingold, of course, lost to Ron Johnson in that race; and as Senator Johnson is at the top of most people’s Senators Most At-Risk lists it makes a good deal of sense that Feingold might want a rematch. I can’t imagine that losing in 2010 made Feingold feel good about himself, after all.  The man had (still has, I suppose) a carefully-constructed mental vision of himself as being a Servant of the People: that the People took the opportunity to remove him from service very probably eats at Mr. Feingold.  At least a little.

But there’s a solution, right? Russ Feingold runs for office again, beats Ron Johnson, and goes back to his old life.  And then everything will be good again and there will be pie.  No problems there, no problems at all… well. There’s a small problem. Continue reading The Last Temptation of Russ Feingold.

Russ Feingold (D, NOTHING) cuts and runs.

(Via Hot Air) Russ Feingold’s not running for Senate in 2012. He’s not running for Governor in a hypothetical (and futile) 2012 recall election. He’s not running for Governor in the 2014 general election[*]. Russ Feingold’s just running away:

“After twenty-eight continuous years as an elected official … I have found the past eight months to be an opportunity to look at things from a different perspective,” Feingold said in the email, first reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Craig Gilbert. Feingold said he is “thoroughly enjoying the life of a private citizen.”

Funny about that: I’m enjoying Russ Feingold’s life as a private citizen, too. More than I suspect that he is, brave words to the contrary. Continue reading Russ Feingold (D, NOTHING) cuts and runs.

Joe Conason lies about PPP WI recall poll.

This is very entertaining, because it takes real skill to muck up reporting this PPP poll about Scott Walker’s chances in a hypothetical recall election; fortunately, Joe Conason is up to the challenge. Let’s look at what Conason wrote (bolding mine):

Asked whether they would support or oppose [Scott Walker’s] removal from office in a recall election, 50 percent said yes and only 47 percent said no.

The same poll found that Wisconsin voters are also apparently sorry that they replaced progressive Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold last fall with a tea party extremist named Ron Johnson. Today, they would re-elect Feingold with a comfortable margin over any Republican…

I’ve already gotten a screenshot of this, by the way. Just in case Truthdig decides to memory-hole the entire thing.

Anyway, again: Conason is reporting that 50% of PPP’s respondents favor a recall of Walker. So far, so good for the Democrats. PPP also reports that in that hypothetical election Feingold would win. OK, piece of data to consider. But what Conason did here – and probably deliberately, seeing as he didn’t link to the original poll – was falsely claim that this means that Feingold would win re-election against Senator Ron Johnson, despite the fact that PPP did not poll that hypothetical match-up.  You see, Feingold was never governor of Wisconsin, so he cannot be re-elected to that position.  The poll is strictly about the Wisconsin recall situation*; not about Ron Johnson.  Perhaps PPP will poll a hypothetical rematch between the two, although why anybody would bother is beyond me completely (it’s not going to matter before 2016 anyway); but until then, it’s dishonest to use polling results in this manner.

Yes, ‘dishonest.’  Remember, we know that Conason meant this poll, because the numbers that he did specifically quote (but not source) are the same; and we know that Conason meant Feingold’s re-election as Senator, because he did specifically use the word “re-elect.” If Joe Conason tries to claim that this was all an innocent mistake – which he undoubtedly will – then said claim should be seen as the calculated insult to his readers’ intelligence that it is.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*As to the poll itself: yup, pretty harsh.  Guess we’ll see in July how those legislature recall numbers hold up, huh? And the obvious problem that the Democrats face in exploiting their hypothetical advantage is left as an exercise for the reader: I don’t give free hints to the Left unless it suits me.

#rsrh Russ *who?*

Wasn’t he the guy that helped pass that blatantly unconstitutional piece of legislation miscalled ‘campaign finance reform?’  So why am I caring what he thinks?

…Yes, I’m joking: removing Russ Feingold from office was one of the single most enjoyable experiences that the Right experienced in the 2010 election cycle, which was a time where we were having a lot of enjoyable experiences.  It was fun, partially because the man was a perfect object lesson in What happens when you try to defend your Obamacare vote; partially because the DOOM started early and just kept rolling; and partially because the netroots really, really didn’t enjoy losing that one.  Mind you, they didn’t enjoy losing Wisconsin in general – that’s supposed to be “their” part of the Midwest – but watching Mr.-What-part-of-“Congress-shall-make-no-law”-didn’t-I-understand? lose to Ron Johnson was the veritable frosting on the veritable cake.

If you’re wondering why I’m linking this article, well, it’s because there’s bad news in there: in it Russ Feingold admits that he doesn’t currently have the guts to challenge Barack Obama for the 2012 nomination.  (shrug) Progressive Democratic politicians.  Can’t live with them, pass the beer nuts*.

Moe Lane

*Classical reference.

#rsrh ‘Help us (by quitting) Barry-O! You’re our only hope!’

So.  The Left has gone from “We must elect Barack Obama to the Presidency so that He may unleash His awesomeness upon the country, and make everything better” to “We must convince Barack Obama to not run for re-election so that He may… unleash His awesomeness upon the country, and make everything better.”

This is progress, I guess?

It’s also just not going to happen.  Everybody else is linking to this American Narcissus post by Jonathan Last, so I might as well, too.  After reading, you may be forgiven for deciding that people might as well get used to the idea that the only way that President Obama is not going to be the Democratic nominee in 2012 is to have somebody beat him in the primary.  Fortunately – for the GOP – there’s a PERFECT liberal candidate for that sort of thing.  He’s even going to be looking for work next year!

Hope that helps.

Moe Lane

#rsrh The dependent independent Feingold.

Gail Collins of the NYT wants to know why Wisconsinites are poised to throw Democratic Senator Russ Feingold – a man whom she categorizes as ‘independent’ – out of office in favor of Ron Johnson.

Ask me an easy one. It’s because this self-proclaimed ‘independent’ is a big-government liberal who voted for a stimulus that’s hurt employment, a cap-and-trade bill that would have gutted American industry and business, and a health care monstrosity that seems almost designed to kill off old people in carload lots*. Add to that the minor detail that Feingold is personally responsible for one of the worst assaults on the First Amendment in recent history**, and, well, he’s earned his bad electoral karma.

Since Gail asked.

Moe Lane
Continue reading #rsrh The dependent independent Feingold.