Hogwash out of Oshkosh

From David Boddinger at SPLINTER:

Chuck Todd, the normally insufferable host of NBC News’ Meet the Press, has appeared increasingly uncomfortable over the past few days with the talking heads who appear on his show to repeat GOP talking points about Donald Trump.

…snip…

But something happened on Sunday to trigger Todd, and that something was Republican Sen. Ron Johnson from Wisconsin, which rhymes. Johnson appeared on NBC acting like a combative, right-wing lunatic, and spewing pro-Trump conspiracy theories that sounded like they came straight from Fox News, Breitbart, or even InfoWars.

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He’s leaving to spend more time with his phony medals

From the Minneapolis StarTribune:

MILWAUKEE — The tough-talking sheriff of Milwaukee County, David Clarke, resigned without explanation Thursday, capping a tumultuous year for the divisive, provocative lawman whose unabashed support for President Donald Trump and in-your-face personality earned him a national following among some conservatives.

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(Don’t squint, my darling Raisinettes, click on image for larger version)

I thought he would have preferred Herb-al tea

From THINK PROGRESS:

Former pizza executive Herman Cain’s rise to the top of the Republican presidential pack will undoubtedly put smiles on the faces of two brothers: Charles and David Koch.

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Raid!!!!!

From THINK PROGRESS JUSTICE:

New details are emerging about a potential corruption investigation into Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) and his staff after FBI agents this week raided the home of Cindy Archer, who until last month was Walker’s deputy administration secretary. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that authorities last year launched a secret “John Doe investigation” into Walker’s time as Milwaukee County executive, looking into allegations that county staffers did political work while at work, and thus on the taxpayers’ dime.

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A Pasch of Blue

From the Los Angeles Times:

During her son’s graduation in May from Bowdoin College, Sandy Pasch listened as filmmaker Mira Nair urged students to get involved in society, citing the impact of citizen uprisings around the world.

“And then she gave as examples what’s happening in Libya, in Egyptand Wisconsin,” Pasch recalled.

“I thought, ‘Wow. I don’t know that everyone sees us in the same light as Egypt and Libya, but there’s something happening here,’ ” she said. “There’s something happening, and the common refrain I hear is that people want to take their state back.”

Pasch, 57, who for three years has represented Milwaukee’s northern suburbs in the state Assembly, is among six Democrats challenging Republican state senators in special recall elections Tuesday.

The elections are the latest fallout from controversial moves by the Republican-controlled Legislature and GOP Gov. Scott Walker to eliminate most collective bargaining rights for public employees.

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I’ll take ‘Rigging Elections’ for a few million, ALEC

From Sandra Khalifa at CAMPUS PROGRESS:

If there has been any doubt regarding the intent behind this year’s upsurge in voter ID legislation, Governor Scott Walker’s latest move leaves little room to question the conservative disenfranchisement agenda, at least in the state of Wisconsin. In what seems like a blatant attempt to lessen the accessibility of photo identification, Governor Walker’s administration has announced the closure of sixteen DMV centers throughout the state – for “economic” purposes.

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Rethugs love small businesses? The beer hypocrisy!

This one’s for okjimm.

From THINK PROGRESS:

Tucked into Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) much-discussed budget was a little-noticed provision to overhaul the state’s regulation of the beer industry. In a state long associated with beer, the provision will make it much more difficult for the Wisconsin’s burgeoning craft breweries to operate and expand their business by barring them from selling directly to restaurants and liquor stores, and preventing them from selling their own product onsite.

The new provision treats craft brewers — the 60 of whom make up just 5 percent of the beer market in Wisconsin — like corporate mega-brewers, forcing them to use a wholesale distributor to market their product. Under the provision, it would be illegal, for instance, for a small brewer located near a restaurant to walk next door to deliver a case of beer. They’ll have to hire a middle man to do it instead.

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The Right’s Guff

From John Avlon at THE DAILY BEAST:

The cycle of over-reach and backlash is in over-drive these days—with significant implications for the 2012 presidential election. In pivotal swing-states where voters narrowly elected Republican governors in 2010—like Florida and Ohio (with 47 electoral votes between them)—evidence of buyer’s remorse is piling up fast.

The latest sign: on Tuesday, Alvin Brown became the first Democrat elected mayor of Jacksonville—Florida’s largest city—in 20 years.

Just seven months ago, Republicans swept the Sunshine State with Tea Party-backed candidate Rick Scott winning the governor’s office with a 1.2 percent margin of victory.

But instead of consolidating support by reaching out and winning over the reasonable edge of the opposition, as popular past Republican governors like Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist have done, Scott continued with his campaign posture of refusing to talk to the press. He canceled a $2 billion federal high-speed rail project and is seeking to delay (and functionally deny) implementation of an anti-gerrymandering reform ballot referendum overwhelmingly passed in 2010.

Now Rick Scott finds himself the least popular newly elected governor in Florida history. It’s not just a matter of the honeymoon being over—this looks like a drunken Vegas marriage heading for a shotgun divorce.

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