No Where to Run to Baby

I notice that David Broder interprets the meaning of end of Arlen Specter.

For 30 years, Arlen Specter has been the emblematic figure -- a man who started as a Democrat, became a Republican for most of his political life, and then switched back. He was notorious for his "flexibility" on policy. A labor leader here once told me he had mockingly congratulated Specter for "staying on the same side of the debate all the way from breakfast to dinner."

With rare … successful politicians in [Pennsylvania] have hugged the center line at the expense of ideological clarity. But Specter's fate signals that the era of ambivalence may be ending.

Broder is right about Arlen Specter, of course. Specter's frequently liberal voting record protected him when Pennsylvania shifted toward the blue end of the spectrum, while his party affiliation simultaneously protecting him against a challenge from the right. For a while, that is.

This year the jig was up. Neither Republicans nor Democrats in Pennsylvania were interested in watching more of the Specter two-step.

If the Specter dodge didn't work in Pennsylvania, it might not work elsewhere. Patrick McIlheran notes a quick dodge by Senator Russ Feingold in Wisconsin.

President Barack Obama's spending Labor Day afternoon in Milwaukee at an annual union festival. It's quite a party: Parade organizers were still looking for volunteers to help carry the giant protest puppets of the Earth Goddess and such. Pity, then, that Russ Feingold, the incumbent Democratic senator in a neck-and-neck race, can't hang out with the president.

Feingold, three terms in office and now tied with a plastics manufacturer no one heard of five months ago, will be at Laborfest earlier in the day. By afternoon, he'll have scampered far from Obama, to a parade in his hometown, Janesville, where the General Motors bailout didn't save the truck plant and unemployment is now double-digit. A spokesman said Feingold asked the White House to change its schedule, but you know how these things go.

Feingold doesn't want to remind Wisconsin voters he is somehow connected to the President, let alone the Earth Goddess. He wouldn't be neck and neck with a Republican challenger if voters needed reminding.

What was true of Specter and is true of Feingold is more or less true of the Democratic Party as a whole: they think their best chance this year is to stand against the wall and mumble: invisible, invisible, invisible. Consider this from the Politico:

At least five of the 34 House Democrats who voted against their party's health care reform bill are highlighting their "no" votes in ads back home. By contrast, party officials in Washington can't identify a single House member who's running an ad boasting of a "yes" vote — despite the fact that 219 House Democrats voted in favor of final passage in March.

Okay. So the only Democrats running ads about the healthcare vote are running ads boasting of voting against it. Will the voters forget that the 34 Democrats who voted against the abhorrent legislation voted for the party leaders who greased it through? What about voters in the districts held by the most vulnerable of the 219 Democrats who voted for the health care reform bill? Will these voters forget that the bill passed just because no Democrat anywhere is talking about it?

I find it hard to remember a time when a political party was so furiously trying to run away from itself. In the past, this sort of subterfuge often worked. This year, there is nowhere to run to baby, nowhere to hide.

Comments

[Donald Pay]

This statement is wrong: "Feingold doesn't want to remind Wisconsin voters he is somehow connected to the President, let alone the Earth Goddess. He wouldn't be neck and neck with a Republican challenger if voters needed reminding."

Feingold's poll numbers reflect his maverick status. He never runs away with an election because he takes principled, rather than politically motivated stands on issues.

Feingold needs Obama to drive voter turnout in Milwaukee and Dane County. Feingold will not run away from Obama, but he regularly points out where he has stood up to both Republican and Democratic administrations, which plays well with the independents.

[KB]

Donald: "Maverick" and "flexible" are what you call someone who pretends to in the middle when he is really on your side. "Ambivalent" and "wishy-washy" is what you call him when he is really on the other side.

When you skip a meeting with the President, it is because you don't want to be seen meeting the President.

[George Mason]

Obama is there to shake the union money tree. Feingold is bailing to avoid the Obama taint while taking advantage of people willing to shell out big bucks to get a picture with the President, any President.

[Donald Pay]

Um, even the FOX News affiliate is reporting just the opposite of the righty hallucinations here. Apparently I know Wisconsin politics better than youse guys. And, Mr. Mason, there is little money in Milwaukee area union circles, but there are a lot of grassroots people (you know, the middle class that the Republicans have been trying to eliminate) willing to organize.

FOX11 reports:

U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold praised President Barack Obama's latest plan to stimulate the economy Monday, saying the president is "building the structure of the economy."

Feingold, who faces a tough re-election challenge, praised the president Monday morning but decided against standing with him at a speech at a Labor Day rally in the afternoon. Feingold said he didn't want to break his commitment to make the Labor Day parade in his hometown of Janesville about 60 miles away.

"Some people are trying to distance themselves from the president, but I am not," Feingold said at a downtown Milwaukee park before the start of a Labor Day parade there. "I want to be with the president, but I have never figured out how to be two places at once."

While Feingold praised the president's approach to the recession, Republicans marked Obama's third visit to Wisconsin in a little over two months by again predicting Democrats will pay in November for the stagnant economy. Feingold is being challenged by Republican Ron Johnson, an Oshkosh businessman who has said he will spend millions of his own money to win. Polls show a tight race, and Johnson is already outspending Feingold 3-1.

http://www.fox11online.com/dpp/news/feingold-says-obama-building-structure-of-recovery

[duggersd]

Donald:
I read the article. Wow! What praise for Obama! Well not really. "U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold praised President Barack Obama's approach to jump-starting a stagnant economy Monday, but stopped short of endorsing his latest plan to spend another $50 billion on roads, rails and runways." He qualifies his "building the structure of the economy with waiting to see how it is going to be paid for. He is in the fight for his political life. He has an opponent who is able to spend money to get his message out. Isn't it refreshing to have someone who is not spending someone else money for a change?
Feingold does not want to be in the same city as Obama, let alone the same picture. He also says people who claim the stimulus was a failure is talking it down. He might check in with Christina Romer who has admitted the stimulus was a failure. Actually, Obama is telling us his stimulus was a failure when he says he wants to do more stimulating. Quite a disconnect between reality and his fantasy.

[Donald Pay]

No, duggersd, that's not faint praise. It's smart politics. During his speech in Milwaukee Obama addressed Feingold's concerns saying that he would work with Congress to see that the $50 billion was paid for.

Let me spell it out for you so maybe even you can understand. You have Obama announcing a program, Feingold praising the program but insisting that it be "paid for" (touching on issues of concern to both the left and the right simultaneously) and Obama agreeing to have the program paid for in his speech (showing Feingold's ability to influence the President's programs). This is a brilliant politics, and way to dominate free media where Ron Johnson is spending his wife's money like a drunken sailor.

[duggersd]

Donald,
I was in Madison, WI today. The downtown area is beautiful. I listened to some of the local radio stations with their liberal slant. Most of what I heard was a lot of whining with not a lot of action. One of the things I found was the attitude of the people on the shows and the people calling in were very condescending towards people who did not agree with them. They think they are so much more intelligent than the people who do not understand why liberals believe as they do. I find people of this attitude very offensive and when you come up with a statement of "so that even you can understand", it tells us a lot about you.
One station had the president of the AFL-CIO talking about jobs and what needs to be done and how we need to change the way things are done in other countries in order to make us in the US more competitive. A caller lamented the jobs being sent overseas. Instead of looking at the root cause and making it advantageous for someone to start a business in our country, they want to make it more difficult for people in other countries to start a business.
As near as I can tell, you have Milwaukee and Madison that are very liberal and the places in the state that have people who actually own businesses seem to be conservative.
As for someone who is spending his own money, at least it belongs to him! So Russ Feingold cannot raise enough to keep up. That tells us a little about him as well. Perhaps when he praises President Obama from afar it shows just how much he wants to be seen in the same city as him? I can guarantee you if President Obama invited me to meet with him, I would be there politics be damned. Yet Feingold takes the cowardly approach so he can try to have the cake and eat it too. Perhaps when he goes to a city that lost its car plant and tells everyone how great things are, the union people who lost their jobs just don't feel like contributing? Perhaps when he plays the middle by touching issues both the conservative and liberal are concerned with, they see him for what he is a politician who is more interested in saving his job than getting the country on the right track.
As for Feingold's influence, perhaps he can show a little of that by getting Obama to cut back on the spending he and the President seem to want to continue. A while back you told me Johnson was not going to win. By your posts on the subject you show a certain degree of concern that perhaps he will. And your jealousy of the man shows as well.

[Donald Pay]

Duggersd,

Glad you liked Madison's downtown area. I hope you got to walk State Street, which ties the University to the Capitol Building. Labor Day is a slow day downtown, so you didn't see all the energy there is. Actually, Madison and Milwaukee have a lot of businesses. Banking and insurance have always been huge in Madison, and Milwaukee has a lot of heavy industry. In Madison, there are a huge number of startups and spinoffs in high tech areas. The inventor of stem cell research has a company here. And the largest company in the US that is responsible for electronic medical records is located in Verona, just 5 miles away. It's a real mistake to think that business has to be stuck in conservative areas.

Yeah, there is intolerance for the conservative point of view among some of the liberals in Madison. It's the same sort of intolerance you get in Rapid City from the right toward liberals.

There is a lot of liberal talk radio here, but we still have Beck and Rush, and there are local righties.

I'm not sure Johnson will win the Republican primary, though I suspect he will. The more conservative Republicans and the Tea Party people are supporting Westlake. Johnson is the corporatist Republican who supports gun registration.

[George Mason]

Donald old boy; No money in Milwaukee's labor camp? I lived there for 20 years. The unions there shake down their members just as they do every where else so they can maintain the Wis. dems as a wholly owned subsidiary. The AFL-CIO has already pledged $40 million to Obama and company this fall. Obama, like the rest of the dems look upon the "grassroots" as assets to be exploited and the unions carry out the exploitation.

[duggersd]

So the Republicans have not even had a primary yet? I would think that would explain a 3-1 spending difference between Feingold and Johnson.
Yes, we visited State street. We ate at Tutto's. I visited that place about 10 years ago and vowed to bring my wife there some time.

[Donald Pay]

Tutto Pasta. Like.

With Wisconsin's open primary I get to choose which party I vote in. I'm thinking of becoming a Republican on September 14.

I can vote for the real Tea Party candidate against RoJo, as he is known here. Ron Johnson is spending all this money because he's a total disaster when he gets involved in a debate. Westlake mopped him up in the one debate they had.
After that and a series of disastrous press briefings, RoJo turned strictly to paid media and friendly audiences. He didn't want to rile up the Tea Party folks, so all his ads are aimed at Feingold, not Westlake. RoJo will probably win the primary because upstate conservatives don't come out to vote in primaries, leaving it to the corporate conservatives around Milwaukee to decide who runs the state.

To put the Republican primary in terms that South Dakota Republicans might understand, RoJo is using the Tim Johnson strategy against the Tea Party.

I will vote for Feingold in the general election, but Westlake is at least an honest conservative.