Kohl Elected to Fourth Term

Alan J. Borsuk tries to answer the question "How did Kohl get a free ride?" in Saturday's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

My blood begins to boil just reading the headline.

Excerpts from Borsuk's analyis:

"Our attention now is fully on the governor's race," said Rick Wiley, executive director of the party. "It's unfortunate that Herb Kohl is going to get, for all intents and purposes, a free pass on this one."

Unfortunate?

I call it an absolute disgrace and a betrayal, especially for the contributors to the Party.

It's a major embarrassment for the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

[F]or all practical purposes, Kohl won re-election when the mainstream Republican Party failed to come up with a strong candidate to run against him.

I said the same thing. When Grothman backed out, Kohl should have made his victory speech, putting everyone to sleep.

Have you noticed that Kohl isn't exactly a dynamic speaker?

The failure of the RPW to put up a strong candidate to run against Kohl is unforgivable.

The Party had SIX YEARS to prepare. There is no excuse for Kohl running virtually unopposed. NONE WHATSOEVER.

In that lies a story of Kohl's advantages of wealth, 18 years in office and favorable standing in opinion polls, all of which clearly discouraged some potential opponents.

But it is also a story of Republican leaders - starting with Sen. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina, who heads the National Republican Senatorial Committee - banking heavily on a long shot that they appear to have thought was their only real chance to win the election. That long shot was that former Gov. Tommy G. Thompson, who had often said he did not want to be a senator, would change his mind and run against Kohl.

In a nutshell, that's Borsuk's explanation for Kohl's free ride to a fourth term in the U.S. Senate.

Isn't it, like, kind of embarrassing for a major party not to be able to come up with a candidate it backs for a major office?

What?

What is that?

"Isn't it, like, kind of embarrassing" that Borsuk sounds like a ditzy teenager?

I agree completely that it's an embarrassment for the Wisconsin Republicans. I also think that Borsuk has an embarrassing way of saying it. He should be on the MTV News team.

I don't get it.

Is the JS trying to appeal to a younger, borderline illiterate audience?

What's next? Will we soon be reading online-speak and seeing emoticons on the JS editorial page?

OMG! :-O ROFLMAO! :-D

"It's not from lack of trying, that's all I can say," said Mary Buestrin, a Republican National Committee member from Mequon. "It's one of those things that happen."

..."There is not a whole lot to say," Terry Kohler, also a Republican National Committee member, wrote in an e-mail. "Herb Kohl will spend what he needs to, to stay in office, thereby precluding a challenge by any front line potential candidates. His negatives outside of the 'right-to-life' issue are, at most, very mild. He stays well under the radar most of the time, thereby giving hardly anything as a reason to diss him, except to argue he is 'ineffective.' Not a winning issue, apparently."

When I read those comments, it makes me sick!

"It was just one of those things."

"Don't blame us."

"Sh*t happens."

Not so fast. The RPW is giving Kohl a free pass, but the RPW isn't getting a free pass from me.

They screwed up royally. I don't accept their excuses. There should be a Republican on the ballot that at least has a snowball's chance in hell of beating Kohl.

It's really inexcusable.

Borsuk also gets into the recent dirt on Kohl's Republican opponent Robert Lorge.

[Lorge] is the target of an allegation of sexual misconduct that became publicized in recent days.

...WisPolitics, an Internet news service, reported last week that a civil lawsuit filed in December in Dane County Circuit Court accused Lorge of molesting a female relative 20 years ago, when she was 3 years old.In a press release, Lorge called the accusations false and vicious.

Thank you Republican Party of Wisconsin!

What a candidate!

Lorge does have backers within the party. Don Taylor, chairman of the Waukesha County Republican Party, called him "an honorable, hard-working, common sense man who would represent us very well in Washington."

And Lorge is actively campaigning across the state, though he is expected to have limited, if any, ability to buy television advertising.

Lorge should suggest that he and Kohl have a few debates. If Kohl agreed and the debates were televised, Lorge would get a little exposure, even if it's only on public TV.

I'd be surprised if Kohl would bother to return a call from the Lorge campaign. At most, Lorge might get one of Kohl's fence-sitting form letters, the kind that he sends to constituents six months after they contact him.

There also are others on the Senate ballot this fall:

• Rae Vogeler, 50, from Oregon in Dane County, the Green Party candidate who describes herself as "a working mother, a community activist and a peace organizer."

• Masel, organizer in recent years of "Weedstock," a marijuana celebration, who has run in other elections as a Republican or a Libertarian. His presence on the ballot means there will be a Democratic primary on Sept. 12.

I would love to see a debate between Masel and Kohl.

It's funny that Masel keeps switching party affiliations. Maybe he just forgets which party he belongs to.

• Ben Glatzel, 44, a construction manager for the Milwaukee Water Works who has never run for office and is on the ballot as an independent who opposes abortion and same-sex marriage.

And come November, I'll be receiving some votes as a write-in candidate. I have an energized base of four extremely committed individuals.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee provides millions of dollars to campaigns. If Thompson had run, it presumably would have directed large amounts to Wisconsin.

"You look at the different races, you size up the political landscape, you size up who's going to be vulnerable in terms of incumbents and where you have opportunities . . . and you make those funding decisions," said the committee's press secretary, Brian Nick.

Nick said that so far, no money had been committed to Wisconsin. There is no indication that that is likely to change.

The NRSC would be crazy to direct a dime to Wisconsin.

Borrowing from Dan Rather, Kohl will sweep through Wisconsin "like a tornado through a trailer park."

It's disgraceful.