I’ve been telling people for months that there was no doubt there would be a recall election for the Governor of Wisconsin, that the number of signatures needed was trivial next to the swathes of people irritated, dismayed, or pissed off by Walker’s agenda and political style. For those of you who thought I’d developed an uncharacteristic streak of optimism or naivete, well, one of us was wrong and it wasn’t me. I suppose it’s possible that we won’t manage to get as many signatures in the next six weeks as we did in the last two, but color me skeptical.
That said, one of the things people on the ground have been noticing is a reluctance by some people to sign the second recall petition, the one for Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch. And honestly, the number of people who just blindly sign the petition for her because I tell them to squicks me out. I mean, yes, I am a reliable authority, the final arbiter of morality and justice, and deeply knowledgeable and right about everything, but that doesn’t mean you should just take my word for it and remove somebody for office. I have more respect for the people who say, “I don’t know anything about her, no thanks.” And utter contempt for the people who say that, then don’t go learn anything.
Dudes, Kleefisch is at least as scary as Walker. Here, let me show you how. And then you can go ahead and sign that petition and I won’t judge you for it, ‘kay?
Let’s start with a source that will be, I suspect uncontroversial: hers. We’ll set aside petty commentary about how she has the same creepy, toothed smile in every photo and move on to actual content. As of this writing, the top two articles on the website are a report about Wisconsin leading in manufacturing jobs, and another article touting how Wisconsin has swiped 111 jobs from Mexico. We’re open for business y’all, ain’t it grand? I’m particularly amused by the second article, what with the juicy implications that we’re getting good American jobs back from those Mexicans. It’s a shame this is hollow propaganda. So she gets points for well targeted rhetoric, which I can always respect, but loses them for being just a teeny bit out of touch with reality in a really obvious way.
The next two articles are, in my opinion, much more fun. The first talks about how she’s returning to her Tea Party roots. I’m glad this wasn’t the first article because so many people would have considered that damning enough and nobody would have read on about the Mexico rhetoric. There’s a great picture of her (I think?) with the Gadsden flag, which I still love, and will remain eternally bitter over its appropriation. I suspect her constituents get the same happy thrill, without the dirty self-loathing chaser.
The next article is about the summer recall elections. There’s nothing original there except the headline, “Media Agrees: Summer Elections Endorse Walker.” Then three quotes from three different news organizations. Not any direct shenanigans going on in that article, but I feel obligated to point out that while I can bitch extensively about the summer recalls, the Republicans outspent the Dems by a significant margin, yet the Dems won more of those elections than they lost. And the Republicans are frantically fundraising because they spent their war chest for the presidential campaign last summer. (Or, at least the ones who feel entitled to my wallet are) Were the summer recalls embarrassing? Yes. A defeat? Er, not really. I’d call it a draw.
The rest of her webpage is boring. Lots of Tea Party key words, no content. You have plenty of links if you want to poke at it yourself. Let’s move on.
May I take a moment to express my appreciation for the AV Club? I think I can. Also, bitch snarked at my train. My gut reaction to people snarking at my train is the best argument against conceal carry out there. That said, conceal carry and the castle doctrine have to be the two things they’ve done they don’t piss me off. But leave my train alone.
It gets a little bit touched on in the campaign ads linked to by the AV Club, but here’s the thing you all probably have heard about from Rebecca Kleefisch: Same-sex marriage is a slippery slope to dog marriage. Way back in the day a similar rant from a similar politician knocked me off my “Government should get out of marriage” stance and into enthusiastic support for gay marriage. His slippery slope argument was that after liberating teh gays we’d slide into permitting plural marriage. Can I bring sleds to this slope? Also, I like the ribbons on this hand basket.
And, finally, I leave you with her PolitiFact file. She gets up to half-truth, and that’s as far as she goes. Oops. Well, now you know. And now you can see why keeping her from sneaking into office behind Walker might be a really, really good idea.
Anaea Lay 