Former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold (D–Wisconsin) is running for the Senate seat he feels he’s entitled to hold until death.

Feingold’s 2010 defeat resulted in primal screams across liberal Wisconsin. (That may be a redundant term.) Feingold’s loss to Republican political neophyte Ron Johnson may or may not have been an upset, but Feingold should not have lost under any circumstances based on his reputation on Wisconsin’s political left side. Unless, of course, it was because voters were smart enough to see the real Feingold, which is not the Feingold Feingold wants you to believe he is.

Indeed, one of the great frauds perpetuated upon the Wisconsin voter is the notion that Feingold is a maverick. In 18 years in the Senate Feingold took one of two positions on any issue: (1) the Democratic position, or (2) a position to the left of the Democratic position (for instance, favoring single-payer health care instead of Hillarycare and ObamaCare). Feingold has apparently never had a conservative thought in his entire life, because he never took a politically conservative vote in his entire U.S. Senate career. If Feingold is the maverick he claims to be, he would have had some non-liberal support because he had taken some non-liberal votes over 18 years. If you are a conservative Wisconsinite, you might as well be dead to Feingold, because he did not represent you and will not represent you should he be elected next year.

One example of this fraud is Feingold’s vaunted listening sessions, in which Feingold traipsed yearly to all 72 counties to hold listening sessions. At a previous employer before the 2010 election I chronicled, based on what online records I was able to find, statements made by either Feingold or attendees of his listening sessions. The number of non-liberal — forget conservative — statements I found? Zero.

Feingold’s crowning achievement, of course, was the McCain–Feingold campaign finance reform bill, found unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. Whether liberals like it or not, the Supreme Court is the law of the land until the Supremes change their mind. The lack of respect Feingold appears to have for the Constitution is revealing, though not surprising.

One supposed sign of Feingold’s maverickiness is that he was apparently disliked by his colleagues in Washington. That is not necessarily a bad thing (although the consequences of that are revealed in one more paragraph); his apparent disdain for staffers is a bad thing, because to treat those below you badly is a sign of poor character.

The media loves mavericks because they’re colorful and stories are improved by color. The dirty little secret about mavericks is that all they accomplish in elective bodies is generating media for themselves. Like it or not, politicians have to work with other politicians to get things accomplished in elective bodies.

Feingold’s supposedly courageous vote against the Patriot Act will come up repeatedly in the next year and a half. When you hear someone laud that vote, ask that person: What did that vote cost Feingold? (Nothing, since Wisconsin remains a Democratic-leaning state and Feingold already has the votes of the Blame America First crowd who thinks 9/11 was our own fault.) What did Feingold try to do to improve the Patriot Act? (Well, Russ?) Would Feingold vote for the Patriot Act since Democrats now run Washington instead of those icky Republicans from the 2000s? (Well, Russ?) How does Feingold feel about the Obama administration’s harassing conservatives? (Well, Mr. Civil Liberties?)

Wisconsin voters got rid of one arrogant yet ineffectual senator in 2010, then voted another into office two years later. As appropriate for a career politician from Madison, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D–Wisconsin) is utterly, totally dismissive of any political point of view that is not as left-wing as hers, and certainly fails to serve her constituents who don’t share her views. She must have learned that from Feingold.

If you want to go back to the days when Wisconsin had no representation in the U.S. Senate, Russ Feingold is your man.