Moe Lane

(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. (more…)

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.

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.

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

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
(more…)

…show tonight at about 4:20-ish, EST: I understand that you’ll be able to hear it here. Should be fun; we’ll be talking about Russ Feingold’s Imaginary Job Friends.

No, I’m not doing an update of Atlas Shrugged – the name doesn’t really scan, does it? – but I’d like to note that Ms. Ackland features rather prominently in a Russ Feingold ad:

One of the people whose Russ Feingold’s tireless work in the Senate has benefited with a job!  Isn’t she lucky, in this wonderful, Democratic-controlled economic environment of 9.5% national unemployment!  Just one small problem, though: she’s apparently not real. (more…)

I suppose that it’s for the best that Joe Biden never considered a medical career.

Vice President Joe Biden gave a stark assessment of the economy Friday, telling an audience of supporters, “there’s no possibility to restore 8 million jobs lost in the Great Recession.”

Appearing at a fundraiser with Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) in Milwaukee…

(Via The Daily Caller) If he had, Delaware would have the highest patient suicide rate on the Eastern Seaboard. As it stands, the only thing that took the system shock is Feingold’s re-election chances: I suspect that Feingold never thought that he’d be in this kind of mess at this point in the cycle…