Today in 1957, the sixth annual New Music Express poll named Elvis Presley the second most popular singer in Great Britain … behind Pat Boone. That seems as unlikely as, say, Boone’s recording a heavy metal album.
The number one British song today in 1962, coming to you via satellite:
Britain’s number one album today in 1969 was the Beatles’ “Abbey Road”:
The number one album on both sides of the Atlantic today in 1975 was Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here”:
The number one single today in 1980:
Birthdays start with LeRoy Van Dyke, whose number one country and number five pop song in 1961 is not the “Walk on By” you might think it is:
Who is Patricia Holt? You know her better as Patti LaBelle:
Jim Fielder was the original bass player for Blood Sweat & Tears:
Chris Lowe played keyboards for the Pet Shop Boys:
Barbara Kooyman MacDonald, half of Timbuk 3, which claimed …
Two deaths of note today: Janis Joplin in 1970 …
… and Bruce Palmer, who played in the Buffalo Springfield and Crosby Stills Nash & Young, today in 1974:
A fellow former member of the UW Marching Band had a perfect three-word description for this past weekend: “Fear the beer!”
Indeed, it’s hard to imagine this past weekend could have gone any better for Wisconsin sports fans. The Brewers took a 2–0 National League Division Series lead by beating Arizona 4–1 Saturday and 9–4 Sunday. The Brewers can clinch their first National League Championship Series berth in their history by winning one of the next three NLDS games.
This was apparently Offense Weekend for the Badgers and Packers, given UW’s 48–17 corn-squeezing of Nebraska and Green Bay’s 49–23 corralling of Denver. I haven’t checked, but Saturday and Sunday’s combined 97 points might be the record for most combined points by the Badgers and Packers in the same weekend.
Photo by Tom Lynn, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
First, though, the Brewers. I listened to parts of both Brewers games on the radio. On a couple of instances, it sounded as if 76-year-old Brewers announcer Bob Uecker was going to expire on the air due to overexcitement. Uecker is concluding his 40th season calling Brewers games, and those 40 seasons have included far more bad baseball than today. So I’m particularly pleased that Mr. Baseball is getting to work in October, which is the point of baseball’s first six months. His 40 years of quality work (even if he doesn’t announce the score as often as he should) have earned him the right to announce the Brewers as long as he wants.
Announcing bad teams is not as fun as announcing good teams. (Duh.) Ripon High School’s season is ending in two weeks; in fact, the Tigers have yet to win a game this season. There have been just two running-clock games (and ironically both lasted at least as long as regular games, one due to the lights going out and one due to a lengthy delay waiting for an out-of-town ambulance to arrive for an injured player), and Friday’s was a good game, a 13–6 loss to 40-year-long rival Winneconne.
But bad high school football seasons are just nine games, and bad high school basketball seasons are 23 games (22 regular-season games plus, most likely, one playoff game). A bad baseball season is 162 regular-season games — at least 1,400 innings — plus however many exhibition games the network decides to broadcast. When the All-Star Game arrives and your team is already out of the race, the end of the season must look a long way away, particularly if, as with Uecker, you announce only baseball — no weekend getaways to do football.
But at Miller Park, who’s thinking of football? Well, truth be told, there is divided attention, since baseball scheduled game 2 at the same approximate time as the Broncos–Packers game. (In 1982, when the Brewers went to the World Series, the Packers weren’t playing because of the NFL strike, and in 2008, when the Brewers were last in the playoffs, the Packers were not very good.) So there was manic channel-flipping in Ripon between channel 5 0r 9 (CBS, which carried the game) and channel 35 (TBS).
(That situation, by the way, demonstrates how poorly run Major League Baseball remains in media. Almost half of Americans cannot watch any Division Series or the National League Championship Series because they are on TBS and not on broadcast TV. NFL games on ESPN or the NFL Network are required to be carried on local TV in the participants’ home markets. Major League Baseball has no such contract stipulation, so Brewers fans without cable or satellite TV will get to see the Brewers only if they reach the World Series.)
Anyway, the Brewers had quality pitching Saturday (something exceedingly rare in the history of that franchise) and big hitting Sunday, with a five-run sixth inning ignited by, of all things, a suicide squeeze, something to gladden the hearts of those who believe the Brewers are incapable of fundamental baseball. While comebacks are fun (such as in 1982, when the Brewers dropped the first two games of the American League Championship Series in California only to win the last three in Milwaukee), it is better to make the other team try to come back, regardless of sport.
And Saturday night’s Camp Randall stomping (my favorite headline: “Forlorn Corn”) was a come-from-behind 48–17 win, a thrashing so embarrassing to Nebraska coach Bo Pelini that he actually apologized to Cornhusker fans. There is a certain arrogance in assuming you should roll to victory against a fundamentally sound team in what has become one of the most hostile places to play in college football. And it looked good early for the Cornhuskers until quarterback Taylor Martinez did his best Jay Cutler impression (as in three interception), which the Badgers compounded by scoring touchdowns on each. So 21 points of the 31-point margin started in Martinez’s right hand.
Photo by Eric Gregory, Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star
Martinez’s counterpart, Russell Wilson, continues to amaze. My favorite play was his touchdown run that started with a fake handoff to the right side, with Wilson rolling out to the left side. After the faked handoff, Wilson slowed down as if he had handed off the ball so his work was done, only to take off with the ball. Pelini had a long sideline conversation afterward with the poor Nebraska defender whom Wilson faked out of his compression shorts.
Wilson might be the best quarterback Wisconsin has ever had, and the hyperbole in a comment about someone who has played exactly four games is starting to fade. No UW quarterback in memory has had the combination of running ability and throwing ability that Wilson has. (You’d have to put together two or three recent quarterbacks to equal Wilson’s skills.) Opponents are forced to pick their poison — defend against UW’s vaunted run game and have Wilson pick them apart, or defend against the pass and have UW run them over like a road grader flattens asphalt.
Photo by Rick Wood, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Meanwhile, Wilson’s Packer counterpart, Aaron Rodgers, now appears able to throw a touchdown pass whenever he wants, and to whomever he wants. On Sunday, Rodgers’ four touchdown passes were to four different receivers. And none were of the methodical carve-up-the-defense variety. Flick, zip, cue up “Bang the Drum All Day.” As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tyler Dunne put it, “This regular-season game quickly resembled a 7-on-7 tournament with Rodgers needling passes into every window of the offense.”
This season, of course, featured no between-season minicamps and hastily assembled training camps due to the NFL lockout. This season has also featured high-scoring and fun games to watch. Perhaps the NFL and the NFL Players Association can arrange future lockouts.
This season is starting to look like the 1996, 1997 and 2010 seasons in one aspect: The Nemesis. In 1996, the Packers had to fight off the Vikings to win the NFC Central before their march to New Orleans. The next year, the Packers had to beat up-and-coming Tampa Bay three times to return to the Super Bowl. And in 2010, the Packers had to get past Da Bears twice to get to Super Bowl XLV. This year’s Nemesis is Detroit, which improbably came back to defeat Dallas and remain as undefeated as the Packers. And they meet twice in the last part of the season, starting on Thanksgiving Day.
Long-time Wisconsin sports fans know that sports success is not our usual lot in life. While rooting for the Packers, Badgers or Brewers hasn’t been the exercise in futility rooting for the Cubs is, history says a season where each team is winning is rare. The more normal circumstance has been, say, 1986, when the Badgers were 3–9, the Packers were 4–12 and the Brewers were 77–84. There have been other years where one team was good but the other two weren’t, and there have been years where two were good but the third wasn’t. Before, it seems, this year, the best season may have been 1982, when the Brewers made the World Series, the Badgers won their first bowl game, and the Packers reached the second round of the playoffs. But now, we have, thanks to someone on Facebook:
I can say unequivocally, though, that this weekend will not be repeated next weekend.
Blogger Rich Galen begins by relating the story of the British War Cabinet, formed by Prime Ministers Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill as part of Britain’s 100-year-long tradition “when it was determined that the very survival of the Kingdom is at risk and it is necessary to bring the best minds in Parliament to bear on the threat, notwithstanding party affiliation.”
Galen wants President Obama to do the same thing today, because …
At the end of March of 2009, remember, we were six weeks into the $787 billion stimulus package about which President Obama had claimed,”We have begun the essential work of keeping the American dream alive in our time.”
You know where we are. More than fourteen million Americans are out of work. Last week the government announced the economy – measured by the Gross Domestic Product – had grown at an annual rate of only 1.3 percent in the second quarter.
Worldwide the news is no better. … The chief economist of the Paris-based think tank said:
“There’s a clear drop in confidence in both business and households which reflects what they see as a lack of policy response from governments.”
Ah. “A lack of policy response from governments.” That’s what we need to focus on.
President Obama should come in from the campaign trail to reach out and call upon the best economic minds in the nation to come to Washington and figure out that the “policy response” from his government should be.
He should form an Economic War Cabinet. It even has a nifty acronym: The EWC.
He should, as Chamberlain and Churchill did when England was threatened by Germany, reach out not to just Keynesians like Paul Krugman, but to Conservative economic thinkers like Larry Lindsay. …
We wouldn’t ask them to check their ideology at the door. We would want them to set their ideologies, like their iPads, in front of them at the table. The idea would be to have them apply their considerable intellects to the problem of seeking common ground within their ideologies to help get the nation’s economies moving again.
There is no one economy of the United States. From the financial/service/engineering centers on the East and West coasts, to the vast agricultural areas between them, to the industrial Midwest (and increasingly the Southeast) there are many different economies.
It is quite likely that the EWC would decide that certain programs would help in Illinois and Michigan and others would be more beneficial to Iowa and Kansas.
If President Obama is looking for a bold idea that doesn’t include the suffix -illion, the appointment of an Economic War Cabinet would be a good place to start.
Well, Obama isn’t looking for “a bold idea that doesn’t include the suffix -illion.” He is looking to win the 2012 presidential election. Republicans in Congress are looking to prevent that from happening as well as to improve their majority in the House of Representatives and get control of the Senate.
It says a great deal about Obama’s political powers, such as they are, that Obama is reduced to complaining about Republican obstructionism when Obama’s party controls the other half of Congress. Obama’s allies in Congress, and 2012 Democratic candidates for Congress, are not exerting themselves touting Obama’s American Jobs Act, which makes one think even Democrats think it’ll prove ineffective.
It is also difficult to broker a deal when at least one side will be asked to ignore what one would think is their core principles. Republicans are not interested in raising taxes on job producers. Democrats are interested in raising taxes on millionaires (defined as a family with more than $250,000 in income), ignorant of what raising taxes in a down economy will do to that economy, because the gap between (Republican) rich and (Democratic) poor offends their sense of fairness.
An economic war cabinet that represents the complete political spectrum will never happen, of course, because Obama has at least one similarity to former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold (D–Wisconsin) — they both listen only with their left ear. Obama has yet to propose a budget-balancing initiative that would include cuts that anyone would notice. Obama claims that it would be crazy to raise taxes during a recession, and yet how does he propose to fund the American Jobs Act? By raising taxes, of course. (If you eliminate tax breaks, and people end up paying more in taxes, you have in fact raised their taxes.) The fact that businesses will use tax credits for hiring new employees does not mean those credits compelled hiring new employees; businesses hire employees when the amount of their business justifies hiring new employees. And that’s not happening now.
One assumes the country will survive the next 13 months until the November 2012 elections. (Of course, you know what they say about assuming …) Just hope your savings last that long, because the only people getting rich in today’s economy are those who were rich before August 2008. And nothing coming out of Washington is likely to change that until January 2013 at the absolute earliest.
We begin with this unusual event: Today in 1978, the members of Aerosmith bailed out 30 of their fans who were arrested at their concert in Fort Wayne, Ind., for smoking marijuana:
Britain’s number one single today in 1987:
Today in 1992 on NBC-TV’s “Saturday Night Live,” Sinead O’Connor torpedoed her own career:
The number one British album today in 1999 was Tom Jones’ “Reload,” which made Jones the oldest performer ever to have a number one album with new material:
Birthdays begin with Eddie Cochran:
Who is Ernest Evans? You know him better as Chubby Checker:
Victor Martinez of Los Bravos:
Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac:
Ronnie Laws played saxophone for Earth Wind & Fire:
Jack Grondin was one of .38 Special’s two drummers:
Stevie Ray Vaughan:
Gwen Stefani, no doubt:
One death of note: Benjamin Orr of the Cars died of cancer today in 2000:
Today in 1953, Victor Borge’s “Comedy in Music” opened on Broadway, closing 849 performances later. (Pop.)
Today in 1960, Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs released “Stay,” which would become the shortest number one single of all time:
The number one single today in 1965:
Today in 1971, Rod Stewart had the number one album, “Every Picture Tells a Story,” and single:
Today in 1983, the number one British single was a song whose original title, “Pass the Kutchie,” was changed to avoid its being banned due to drug references. So, of course, the new song title came to mean the original title:
Today in 2008, Pink had Britain’s number one album, “Funhouse.” The album’s title was changed from its original name for some strange reason:
Birthdays begin with Mike Rutherford of Genesis:
Gordon Sumner is better known as Sting:
Greg Jennings, not of the Packers, but of Restless Heart:
Robbie Nevil:
Today’s final birthday: Back in my first journalism job, I got a news release package from a record company announcing a shopping mall tour for a new female artist. My part-time colleague and I decided this was a stupid idea going nowhere and threw it into the vertical file. Who was the new artist? Tiffany:
Some enterprising individual designed a logo for this weekend and possibly longer:
It seems like Wisconsinites are being blessed by big sports weekends more and more these days.
Our sports cornucopia begins with the Brewers’ second appearance in the National League Division Series in four years, after their first division title since their American League East title in 1982. That season, of course, went farther than 2008, when the Brewers lost their first playoff series:
The 2008 Brewers’ postseason was disappointing as are all that don’t end in a World Series win. But the 2008 Brewers seemed on the cusp of big things, even though they didn’t play like that in September and had to win their playoff berth on the last day of the season.
This postseason seems as if it’s the Brewers’ last, best hope for a title. The round mound of pound, Prince Fielder, seems to be on his way out to an American League team where he can be their designated hitter, with no obvious replacement on the roster. The Brewers traded away most of their minor-league prospects to dramatically improve their pitching. And they did improve their pitching, so it’s ironic that their best starter (Yovani Gallardo, who starts game 1 against Arizona Saturday afternoon) and closer (John Axford) are homegrown products. (Sort of, in Axford’s case; he was in the Reds’ and Yankees’ minor leagues, but never pitched in the majors before signing with the Brewers in 2008 and arriving in Milwaukee barely a year later.)
One thing the Brewers haven’t improved is their defense, which statistically isn’t very good. Baseball experts scowled earlier this year that the Brewers were trying to win with poor defense. And the Brewers finished 24th out of 30 in fielding percentage, though their Defense Efficiency Package was 16th. One could wonder how important defense is, however, given that there are as many teams in the playoffs that finished in the top eight in fielding (Philadelphia, Tampa Bay and Arizona) as in the bottom eight (St. Louis, Milwaukee and Texas).
This team compares mostly favorably to the 1982 Brewers in terms of team color. The ’82 Brewers had Robin Yount; the ’11 Brewers have Ryan Braun. The ’82 Brewers had Rollie Fingers and his handlebar mustache until his late-season injury; the ’11 Brewers have John Axford and his Zappa mustache. (Read here for facial hair definitions.) The out-there personality of Nyjer Morgan (loved by his teammates, close to hated by their opposition) lacks a match in ’82, but the ’11 Brewers have no one as, well, ugly as Gorman Thomas and Pete Vuckovich. (A book about the ’82 Brewers chronicled an insult contest between Thomas and Vuckovich with one claiming the other’s face looked as if it had lost an acid fight.)
The ’82 Brewers’ power (216 home runs) was better distributed than the ’11 Brewers (185 home runs), whose biggest sticks (not to mention providers of the most majestic home runs you’ll ever see, homers where drinks should be served after the Fasten Seat Belt lights go out) are Braun and Fielder. Then again, few teams today have a 6-foot-6 leadoff hitter with some power (26 home runs) and a second baseman who hit his share of home runs before his ankle injury (20). Yuniesky Betancourt appeared to be the worst shortstop in baseball to begin the season, but he became at least serviceable by the end.
The ’82 Brewers were a veteran team, and the ’11 Brewers are still relatively young. This year’s team is slightly more home-grown: 1982 starters: 3B Paul Molitor (Brewers), SS Robin Yount (Brewers), 1B Cecil Cooper (traded from the Red Sox), C Ted Simmons (traded from the Cardinals), LF Ben Oglivie (formerly with the Tigers), CF Gorman Thomas (traded from and to the Brewers), DHs Don Money (Brewers) and Roy Howell (formerly with the Blue Jays), RF Charlie Moore (Brewers) and 2B Jim Gantner (Brewers). 1982 pitchers: Starters Mike Caldwell (formerly with the Reds), Don Sutton (formerly with the Astros and Dodgers), Pete Vuckovich (traded from the Cardinals) and Moose Haas (Brewers); reliever/starter Jim Slaton (traded to and from the Tigers), closer Rollie Fingers (free agent formerly with the Athletics and Padres). 2011 starters: RF Corey Hart (Brewers), CFs Nyjer Morgan (traded from the Nationals) and Carlos Gomez (traded from the Twins), LF Ryan Braun (Brewers), 1B Prince Fielder (Brewers), 2B Rickie Weeks (Brewers), SS Yuniesky Betancourt (traded from the Royals) and C Jonathan Lucroy (Brewers). 2011 pitchers: Starters Yovani Gallardo (Brewers), Zack Greinke (traded from the Royals), Randy Wolf (in order, Phillies, Dodgers, Padres, Astros and Dodgers again) and Shawn Marcum (Blue Jays); eighth-inning pitcher Francisco Rodriguez (started with the Angels, traded from the Mets), and closer John Axford (Brewers after getting cut by the Reds and Yankees).
The 1982 approach was the brainchild of general manager Harry Dalton, who traded for or signed as free agents Cooper, Simmons, Oglivie, Thomas, Caldwell, Sutton, Vuckovich and Fingers. The 1977 Brewers weren’t very good, but after Dalton arrived, the ’78 through ’83 Brewers were suddenly contenders every season. In an era when salaries weren’t so insane, Dalton found the small core of his team and augmented it with trades that nearly always benefited the Brewers more. (Only Brewers fans probably remember that they gave up outfielder Sixto Lezcano, pitcher Lary Sorenson, a pitcher and a prospect to get Simmons, Vuckovich and Fingers, or that they traded first baseman George Scott to get Cooper.)
The 2011 approach was the brainchild of general manager Doug Melvin, who developed more position players than Dalton, but who put together a pitching staff largely by acquisition.
The NLDS starts Saturday at 1 p.m. Six hours later on the other end of Interstate 94, the undefeated Badgers host Nebraska in the Cornhuskers’ first game in the 12-team Big Ten Conference.
The last time the Badgers played the Cornhuskers was in 1974, when a late touchdown pass from Eau Claire native Gregg Bohlig to wide receiver Jeff Mack (whose son later played for the Badgers) beat the mighty Cornhuskers 21–20, a win sealed by a late interception by safety Steve Wagner of Green Bay. My grandfather, a longtime Badgers season-ticket-holder, invited his sister, an ardent Cornhuskers fan from Lincoln. Great Aunt Mildred was, I’m told, mortified at the postgame conduct of the uncouth Badger fans.
And of those still-uncouth Badger fans, one commentor at HuskerExtra says:
Madtown is a great place for a game…festive atmosphere. However, if you’re going, be prepared for some interesting fan traditions. Besides the “Jump Around”, there is the cheer when an opposing player gets hurt, “Shoot him like a horse!” That is one of the nicer cheers. There are others that wouldn’t make it through the LITR profanity filter. Having sat in the student section at Memorial Stadium in recent years, it makes me realize how true it is, “There’s no place like Nebraska.” Stay classy Husker fans.
Another has a traditional view of the Badgers that omits their scintillating new quarterback:
The nature of our offense is ‘the big play’. We run 65 plays, and 58 of them are ‘duds’. No big deal. We still score 4 touchdowns and 3 field goals.
The Badgers are boring, like Nebraska used to be back when they won consistently.
New age technology offense vs. old school.
Nebraska: 37
Badgers: 21
This game will look like an intersquad game (the “scarlet” and “cream” Cornhuskers and the “cardinal” and white Badgers), and not just because of their uniforms and white helmets, reports the Lincoln Journal Star:
Barry Alvarez can’t wait to show off to his Nebraska football friends what he’s helped build at Wisconsin.
They’ll certainly notice similarities to what they’ve become accustomed to in Lincoln. Not just the fan support and electric gameday atmosphere, but also the big, burly linemen in red jerseys, some of whom joined the program as walk-ons.
That’s how they did it at Nebraska, where Alvarez played linebacker from 1965 to 1967, and it’s the model Alvarez followed to pull Badger football out of the doldrums. …
“We were able to build a program and sustain it,” Alvarez said.
Much like Bob Devaney did at Nebraska. Alvarez played for Devaney, who also took a lethargic program and turned it into a consistent winner.
Would Alvarez consider himself the Bob Devaney of Wisconsin football?
“I would be flattered if anybody would consider that,” Alvarez said. “We did some very similar things here that Bob did.
“I felt fortunate to play for a great coach in Bob Devaney. He had a tremendous staff. As far as fundamentals, physical play, sound play, all those things are things I took with me and took to this program.”
Alvarez, who began his career as an assistant coach at Lincoln Northeast and head coach at Lexington, said he “stole” the walk-on program from Nebraska.
Wisconsin, like Nebraska, is the only NCAA Division I football school in the state.
“I really felt there were a lot of players that were borderline — guys that you’re not quite ready to pull the trigger on that we would actively recruit,” Alvarez said.
“Quite frankly, they’ve been our savior. I call them our erasers. They make up for any mistakes you make in recruiting.”
The least important game in the scheme of things is the Packers’ game against Denver Sunday during NLDS Game 2 (or vice versa). That’s because it’s an interconference game, which, as we learned last year, counts less in getting a playoff berth than, in order, overall record, divisional record and record in your conference.
Nevertheless, the Packers and Broncos have an interesting history, independent of the abomination that is Super Bowl XXXII. One of the Packers’ most impressive wins in their Super Bowl XXXI season was their 41–3 win over Denver, a game that looked like a Super Bowl preview given that the Packers and Broncos ended up as their conference’s number one seeds. (The Broncos’ path to Super Bowl XXXI was rudely interrupted by a home playoff loss to Jacksonville. We won’t mention what happened the next season.)
In the 2003 season, the Packers needed to beat Denver and, more unlikely, to have the Vikings lose to the Cardinals to clinch the NFC North title; had either of those not happened, the Packers would have missed the playoffs. The Packers handled Denver easily, and then during Lambeau Field’s two-minute warning:
And then in 2007 in Denver:
This weekend once again is why TV remote controls were invented.
Paul Fanlund, editor of the former daily newspaper The Capital Times, deigns to give advice to Republicans, which is like asking the Communist Party how capitalists could be better people, or asking the Chicago Bears how the Green Bay Packers could improve:
I was reminded of Jerry Brown last week.
Brown was elected governor of California again in November by arguing that his experience would help revive a state where, as much as anyplace, anti-government fervor had shredded public schools and other services and ignored infrastructural needs. …
Today, though, California associates describe Brown as stunned and bewildered. His proven techniques for partnering with Republicans have failed so utterly he is “aghast,” according to one friend in a front-page New York Times story on Brown’s political re-education.
Join the crowd, Jerry.
Many of those I speak with regularly describe themselves as more deeply disconsolate about Wisconsin’s and America’s prospects than at any time in memory. And most would not call themselves liberals.
For me, the central disconnect is between the Republicanism that spews from talk radio and what I have always understood and observed to be the true character of the party during my lifetime: a strong devotion to personal responsibility and limited government. …
In Wisconsin, this type of Republican, upon winning the governor’s office and narrow control of both houses of the Legislature, would have passed a bipartisan budget requiring public employees to pay more for pensions and health insurance. There was general agreement that costs were out-of-step with the private sector and what taxpayers could afford. That approach would have preserved collective bargaining rights and allowed the focus to be on bipartisan approaches to fixing a Wisconsin economy so desperately in need of transition from our never-to-return reliance on manufacturing jobs.
That kind of GOP would not have rammed through absurd political maps in an unprecedented assault on fair play, nor pushed through voter identification changes in a transparent gambit to suppress Democratic votes.
But these traditional Republicans, exemplified by governors like Warren Knowles, Lee Drefyus and Tommy Thompson, actually liked Democrats and considered it their job to represent them as well as their base constituency, maybe even winning some to their side. …
So, I’ve a question for you smart folks who preferred the big-tent GOP characterized by compassionate conservatism …
Is what you have now what you want? Really?
Whenever you decide to change things — and we hope it’s within our lifetimes — many Democrats and independents are eager to work with you. It’s what real patriots would do.
First, it demonstrates the bizarre world the left lives in when California — a state with even worse finances than Wisconsin, and a state that has one of the highest rates of outmigration in the country — is a positive example.
David Blaska, a former Capital Times staffer (and out of respect to Dave I will not call his former employer what I usually call it: The Crapital Times), replies pithily:
Once again The Capital Times is asking “When will genuine Republicans strike back?” My old alma mater has sung the same song before. Whenever Republicans take the majority in government, someone from Dane County’s Progressive voice asks plaintively why can’t more Republicans be like Democrats?
The news source that hero-worships the likes of Ben Manski, Michael Moore, Dennis Kucinich, Lena Taylor, 9/11 truther Kevin Barrett, Amy Goodman, fake native-American Ward Churchill, and whatever socialist is speaking tonight at Pres House is in no position to determine what constitute a “genuine Republican.”
My introduction to the Crapital Times’ pervasive bias came during the 1980s, when John Patrick Hunter, who started his Capital Times career with a bang, wrote, in a news story, about, directly quoting, “the so-called Moral Majority.” The Capital Times can be as stupid as it wants on its opinion pages, but allowing its left-wing bias to leak onto its news pages is simply unprofessional, and Hunter, who had been at the Capital Times for more than 30 years at the time, should have known better.
Fanlund’s anti-Republican screed might have more credibility had it even the pretense of objectivity during the years of the aforementioned governors Dreyfus and Thompson. (I can’t comment on what the Capital Times wrote about Knowles, since my parents subscribed to an actual newspaper, the Wisconsin State Journal.)
Toward the end of Dreyfus’ one term in office, the Capital Times published a front-page editorial calling on Dreyfus to resign for daring to find a job before his term as governor was up. (Dreyfus, who didn’t run for a second term, became the president of Sentry Insurance, which then was led by a favorite antagonist of Democrats, John Joanis. The same Milwaukee Sentinel story that notes Dreyfus’ hiring also noted that Dreyfus’ predecessor, Martin Schreiber, who after Dreyfus defeated him became a Sentry vice president, was taking a leave of absence to run for governor.)
In the 14 years Thompson was governor, the Crapital Times regularly blasted Thompson for those things that, Blaska also points out, made him a national pioneer — welfare reform and school choice — as well as for his cutting income taxes. According to the Capital Times, every government budget cut is like sticking a knife into the guts of the poor.
As it turns out, Capital Times readers have more insight into the GOP than Fanlund. Comments include:
Perhaps the “real” Republicans tired of seeing the inaction of their party on the very items the writer notes as “core” issues, particularly limiting the size, scope, and intrusiveness of the government.
Tommy was a big spender. Not thinking that is what people want right now. To be a true Republican you need to be fiscally conservative.
Actually a pretty amusing looonnng whining piece written by someone who longs for the “good old days”. Of course if he truly examined his writings or opinions from those days he would likely find that he was desperately disappointed then as well because those with similar political persuasions are never satisfied or happy. Back in the glory days of Jim Doyle the dems pulled all sorts of the same tricks but of course that was ok even though you wanted more.
>> There was general agreement that costs were out-of-step with the private sector and what taxpayers could afford.
That wasn’t what voters heard from the Democratic side leading up to the 2010 election, nor is it the message that Democrats put out now. If it was, you’d see more Democrats in charge of the state right now.
>> approach would have preserved collective bargaining rights and allowed the focus to be on bipartisan approaches to fixing a Wisconsin economy
Again, I didn’t hear calls for “bipartisanship” from the CapTimes in 2010 when Democrats were in charge of our executive and legislative branches. (Instead, people saw more taxes and an attempt to sneak a budget in during a lame duck session after voters had their say.)
Like many independents, I’m happy to wait and see where Walker’s reforms take us. Hope and change we can believe in – at the state level, at least!
“Whenever you decide to change things — and we hope it’s within our lifetimes — many Democrats and independents are eager to work with you. It’s what real patriots would do.”
Except when an ideological disagreement exists, dissenters get the following reaction, which is found a few short paragraphs earlier in this same piece:
“They recoil from a smart and centrist president, one with the brains for pragmatic collaboration, and decide they apparently would rather witness economic calamity than risk anything that might give the guy with the funny name and dark skin an enhanced shot at a second term.”
Sorry if folks aren’t eager to walk over, shake your hand, and ask “what other fine thoughts do you have, sir?”
More CT political spin. The author just doesn’t get it. How about this – the quite majority has been pushed too far. The failure of democrat policies and programs, along with their extreme rhetoric, lying and loony demonstrations are what contributed to their demise.
… This claim that Walker should have just worked with the unions is ridiculous. They never offered the cuts, until after it was clear that Walker was going to curtail their collective bargaining privileges. Those cuts were never offered in any real negotiations. Illinois public employee unions are suing the state over not getting a raise. That’s the kind of cooperation that you get with unions. So to claim that they would somehow have been willing to sit down with Walker and negotiate cuts is lunacy. To be fair, they would have told Doyle or Walker to f-off if either would have proposed the cuts.
I always enjoy how a “progressive” yearns for the days of old. The days that put this Country $15 trillion in debt. The days that put CA in the $20 Billion+/yr in debt. (using brown as your shining star…now that’s funny, I don’t care who you are) and then to top it all off, why not criticize the folks who would like some more accountability when it comes to our elected officials. Our elected officials overseeing the Solyndra loan, our elected officials who paid out $600 million in benefits….to DEAD PEOPLE!!! and now fanlund and the cap times have the audacity to tell us we’re supposed to shut up and take it or get called really bad names. and then he mentions “talk radio”. are you kidding me??? aren’t you the party who supports views from all sides yet you’re so threatened by less than 10% of the stations?? it makes you wonder what it is you stand for when such a small majority is threatening. And finally, you had to reach down for the “dark skin/funny name card” one last time didn’t you fanlund? in case you didn’t notice, others with “dark skin and funny names” are turning on your centrist smart president as well. any time you would like to continue with adult conversations, the real patriots will be ready.
>> California…a state where…anti-government fervor had shredded public schools and other services and ignored infrastructural needs.
Illegal immigrants swamping public services, ridiculous wages/benefits for public servants, failed attempts to even out social strata and general corruption are probably more to blame in that failed state.
>> Brown…exuded a competence and JFK-style charisma
…but lacked actual competence or his own charisma, then? Please, go on.
>> Many of those I speak with regularly describe themselves as more deeply disconsolate about Wisconsin’s and America’s prospects than at any time in memory. And most would not call themselves liberals.
That’s because the “most” in this country are sick of funding every idea dreamed up by liberals. (Actually, this isn’t a refutation, just connecting the dots for you.)
>> central disconnect is between the Republicanism that spews from talk radio and what I have always understood and observed to be the true character of the party during my lifetime: a strong devotion to personal responsibility and limited government.
Right-wing talk radio hits those topics almost ad nauseum. What have you been listening to?
(The voices in his head, apparently.)
What Fanlund doesn’t bother to tell you is that the Republicans he prefers are Republicans on the losing side. Before becoming governor, Thompson was the Assembly minority leader, a position without much power given the Assembly’s dictatorship of the majority. Dreyfus ran for governor because he believed the Republicans were in danger of becoming a permanent minority party in this state. Republicans controlled both houses of the Legislature for 18 months out of the 14 years Thompson was governor. Care to guess how often the Capital Times endorsed Thompson in his four races for governor?
I wonder how “many” Fanlund speaks to who pronounce themselves “disconsolate” about the state’s and country’s prospects notice that the Wisconsin Republican near-sweep Nov. 2 was in response to two disastrous years of complete Democratic control of state government, during which the state amassed $2.9 billion in red ink. Or that Democrats still control the White House and the U.S. Senate. Or that the growth in government at every level has occurred in lockstep with the ratcheting nastiness of political discourse and political campaigns, something for which both parties can be faulted.
I don’t consider myself a social conservative, but I do believe social conservatives have as much right to be heard in the political marketplace as liberals do. Fanlund disagrees. And as for Fanlund’s comment about older Republicans who “actually liked Democrats,” you try finding something positive about such spittle-flinging snarling Dumocrat dogs as Sens. Mark Miller (D–Monona) and Jon Erpenbach (D–Verona) and Reps. Lena Taylor (D–Milwaukee), Peter Barca (D–Kenosha) and Bob Jauch (D–Poplar). They’re the political children of former Senate Majority Leader Chuck “It’s been the rich vs. the rest of us” Chvala, and that’s not intended as a compliment.
I will be on Wisconsin Public Radio’s Joy Cardin program Friday at 8 a.m.
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Steve Prestegard.com: The Presteblog 
