Stick it to Madison

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel picked up a comment of Gov. Scott Walker Thursday:

In the tightest race of his political career, Republican Gov. Scott Walker turned up the rhetoric Thursday by saying many voters in the liberal bastion of Madison are driven by anger and that his supporters need to counter that tide by showing up at the polls.

During an appearance in Pewaukee, Walker quoted former Gov. Tommy Thompson as saying, “Unfortunately, anger is a greater motivation than love.”

Walker continued, “There are a lot of people who love what we’ve done across the state. There are many people in Madison who are angry and they’re going to vote no matter what. We have got to make sure that people who love what we do understand they have to come out just as strong. If they do, we’ll win this election.” …

It’s not unusual for Republicans to attack the two biggest cities that support Democrats — Milwaukee and Madison.

But Walker’s aim was a bit more personal, since he appeared to be attacking voter motives as well as Madison, where Burke is a member of the school board. Madison was also the site of large protests against Walker and the Republicans during the battle over Act 10, which curtailed collective bargaining for most public-sector workers.

Walker quoted Thompson, so I will too: During the debate over state funding for Miller Park, Thompson at one stop encouraged people to tell their state legislators to “stick it to Milwaukee.” Hence the headline.

Walker’s statement shows, however, that he is certainly kinder and gentler than I am. I would have been using the “stick it to Madison” phrase every day starting with day one of my first gubernatorial campaign. Sticking it to Madison would be a great unifying theme for such initiatives as decentralizing state government — moving the Justice Department to Milwaukee, for instance (since Milwaukee is the state capital of crime and other social pathologies).

Walker also used an sufficiently strong word — “anger,” when the word “hate” is more appropriate. Remember when Ann Richards described George H.W. Bush as having been born on third base and he thought he had hit a triple? Replace Bush with Madison, and there you have Madison. Though not the highest point in Wisconsin, Madisonians look down on the rest of the state. Madisonians ostracize anyone with more conservative views than theirs. Consider the screed from Ruth Conniff, editor of Isthmus, when a lawsuit was filed against the Madison Metropolitan School District over its violating state law in its contract with Madison Teachers Inc.

And then there was the Recallarama embarrassment: