Wednesday, November 03, 2010
WTF Wednesday: In Which WTF Stands For "Wisconsin Trashed Feingold!?"
I will spare you all the lengths at which I am capable of decrying the results of yesterday's election. It's been a draining day, and it would have been even if Republicans hadn't taken the House. I couldn't let WTF Wednesday go by, though, without mentioning what I consider the worst casualty of this election: Russ Feingold. Phrases like "one of the last true progressives," and "the most reasonable senator" are being wailed at the top of blue lungs all the way across the state. I would have a moment of silence, but my style is really more a moment of screaming like this: WISCONSIN, WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM!?
People on both sides of the aisle consider Feingold one of the good guys. He checked his own spending and demanded accountability from himself and from his colleagues, doing things like refusing raises, relying on individual donations, and sponsoring the McCain-Feingold act to reform campaign finances and limit lobbyists' financial influence over sentators (notice the other name on that bill, red-staters.) He was the sole senator to vote against the PATRIOT act-- take note, goverment-interference-shy tea partiers. He voted against the Wall Street Bailout. Even taking into account the fact that his social views are more in line with, say, mine than with, say, Sarah Palin's (and I think I can be just as much of a Mama Grizzly while still believing in universal health care, thankyouverymuch), he sounds like he's one folksy metaphor away from a tea party darling.
And yet. Wisconsin has replaced him with Ron Johnson, about whom, again, I could say a lot more than I will. Two choice anecdotes from his Wikipedia entry to illustrate Ron Johnson to you: "opposed a Wisconsin bill that would have made it easier for child sex abuse victims to sue their abusers," and "Johnson has called scientists who attribute global warming to man-made causes "crazy" and has said the theory is "lunacy." He has said the source of the climate change is "sunspot activity or just something in the geologic eons of time." "
When I moved here, Wisconsin, I thought you were better than this.
Read or Post a Comment
Yeah. *hugs and gin* This might make you feel better, though: http://www.timwise.org/2010/11/an-open-letter-to-the-white-right-on-the-occasion-of-your-recent-successful-temper-tantrum