An editorial in The Capital Times slams Mark Green as being out of touch with Wisconsin voters.
Is it surprising that the voice of the People's Republic of Madison is anti-Green?
Not at all.
But is it really necessary to start the personal attacks already?
Apparently, it is. The editorial board clearly doesn't have a lot of faith in Jim Doyle when it comes to his ability to appeal to voters on issues.
Is this an indication of what's to come?
I guess.
Editorial: Mark Green's out of touch
(Excerpts)
Of all the lamentable prospects for this fall's election season, none is more unappealing than the notion of listening for six months as charisma-challenged Mark Green attempts to make a coherent case for his Republican gubernatorial candidacy.
The Green Bay congressman is a nice enough fellow. But that cannot erase the reality that he appears to be the worst public speaker to win a major-party nomination for governor since the happily forgotten Phil Kuehn carried the party banner down to defeat in his 1960 challenge to Gaylord Nelson and his 1962 contest with John Reynolds.
Unless Green can improve his speaking style quickly, Republicans are going to want to avoid placing him on the same stages with Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, who party bigs shoved aside to clear the way for the congressman's candidacy, and former Gov. Tommy Thompson, who dramatically re-emphasized Green's flaws by flirting with a save-the-party candidacy of his own this year.
At the Republican convention in Appleton over the weekend, both Walker and Thompson delivered more impressive addresses than Green, as did various and sundry other GOP hangers-on.
Four paragraphs critiquing Green as a speaker -- Lame!
Yeah, speaking style is a campaign issue that Wisconsin voters care about.
What makes The Cap Times' obsession with Green's supposed lack of charisma so silly is the implied notion that Jim Doyle is Mr. Charisma and that he is a compelling speaker.
Jim Doyle doesn't exactly ooze charm and enthusiasm. Doyle shows about as much excitement as Herb Kohl does at a Bucks game -- positively immobile with a mask-like face.
If The Cap Times believes that Doyle can beat Green based on oratory skills, that is a BIG mistake.
It wasn't just Green's style that was off-putting. It was his ridiculous message. It will be hard to top the comic moment that was achieved when the Boston-born candidate attempted to paint himself as the embodiment of what makes Wisconsin tick.
"Boston-born." Give me a break.
Green has spent the vast majority of his life in Wisconsin.
If Hillary Clinton is fit to be New York's senator because some supporters bought her a home in Chappaqua, surely Green, a Wisconsin resident, is fit to run for governor.
In a convention speech thick with silly charges and bumbled cheap shots, Green claimed at one point, "Jim Doyle and his crew say they want to keep Wisconsin moving forward, but they just can't seem to grasp the fundamentals of what makes us different, what makes us special, what makes us Wisconsin."
Speaking of bumbled cheap shots, The Cap Times has just described its anti-Green editorial.
Is Green serious?
The congressman has just spent the better part of a decade voting in lock step with Tom DeLay on every federal issue - often to the detriment of Wisconsin. And he is running a campaign for governor that follows the national party playbook right down to the issues that are emphasized and the slogans that are employed.
This is desperation.
Mark Green = Tom DeLay.
And who is Doyle in "lock step" with?
The teachers' union?
Casinos?
Furthermore, it's ironic that the editorial faults Green for following the "national party playbook" in the very paragraph that it mentions Tom DeLay. Sounds like something right out of Dr. Dean's DNC playbook.
Green was a willing lieutenant in the corrupting crusade of Scott Jensen, whose assault on Wisconsin's tradition of clean government was so severe that it earned the former Assembly speaker a criminal conviction for abusing the public trust. And he has been on the campaign contribution payroll of DeLay since he arrived in Congress, answering "yes" every time the crooked former Republican majority leader sought to redistribute more tax dollars from Wisconsin to the pork-barrel projects of Texas and the other Sun Belt states, which have been living large at the expense of the Upper Midwest for the past decade.
There is no substance in this editorial regarding where Green stands on the issues.
It's an impotent attempt to demonize Green by connecting him to the Dems' favorite scapegoats and demons.
Following The Cap Times reasoning, should Wisconsinites reject Doyle because of Chuck Chvala or corrupt Dems like Robert Torricelli or Alan Mollohan or William Jefferson or... (too many others to mention)?
This newspaper has been more critical of Jim Doyle than most. And we certainly think that the governor has handed his critics plenty of ammunition for the 2006 campaign.
But for Green to suggest that he is more in touch with what makes Wisconsin special than Doyle is comic.
As a state legislator and as a member of Congress, Green has consistently sided with those who attack Wisconsin's values of clean and open government and undermine the ability of the state to function by steering our tax dollars elsewhere.
If he wants to be taken seriously as a candidate for governor, Mark Green needs to break with his past and reconnect with Wisconsin. He is not going to do that by suggesting that Jim Doyle is the one who is out of touch with what makes the state special.
It's clear that The Cap Times is out of touch, not only with Wisconsin but with reality.
It's "comic" to suggest that Doyle abides by the "values of clean and open government" or that he is more connected with the people of Wisconsin than Mark Green.
Do the people of Wisconsin want higher taxes?
Do the people of Wisconsin want a photo ID bill to help prevent voter fraud and assure the integrity of elections?
Do the people of Wisconsin want School Choice?
Do the people of Wisconsin want their Second Amendment rights protected?
Do the people of Wisconsin want an advocate for religious freedom?
Do the people of Wisconsin want a respect life advocate?
Let's talk issues.
Let's talk reality.
Then, let's determine who's out of touch with Wisconsin.
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