Poor Tommy Thompson Gets "RINO'ed" by Right Wing "Club for Growth"

Governor Tommy Thompson, whose campaign adviser, Bill McCoshen says now has the fire in his belly that he didn't have last year.



Had a very interesting lunch today with Stanley Kutler, the UW historian and biographer of Richard Nixon.  Stanley documented the Nixon administration and revealed the nature of Nixon the man based in-part on the audio-tapes that were quietly rolling in the oval office during Nixon's presidency.  We discussed whether Tommy Thompson could be elected to Herb Kohl's seat and I expressed the opinion that Governor Thompson was too moderate to be acceptable to the forces now driving the Wisconsin Republican Party's bus.  (They don't have a train.)

The Journal Sentinel "All Politics Blog" reported late today that the right-wing 527 group, Club for Growth, has essentially told Tommy Thompson not to even think about running for Herb Kohl's seat.  These are the right-wing folks who coined the term "RINO" or "Republican in Name Only" to disparage GOP candidates who are unwilling to genuflect before their agenda to enact a flat income tax (or national sales tax in place of the income tax) and essentially defund or privatize every federal social program out of meaningful existence.  Club for Growth also hands out the quaintly titled "Comrade of the Month" award that went to our current president in his third month in office.

Money quotes from the J-S All Politics Blog:

Club for Growth, a pro-business group that advertises heavily in support of GOP candidates, issued the following statement from its president, Chris Chocola, who likened Thompson's candidacy to an April Fool's Day joke. Here is Chocola's full statement on the four-term Republican governor:

"Tommy Thompson raised taxes as Governor, supported ObamaCare, and now he wants to run for the United States Senate? April Fool's was weeks ago. Wisconsin Republicans should recruit a pro-growth conservative to run, not recall some big-government pro-tax Republican whose time has come and gone. Club members are watching Wisconsin’s Senate race closely."

So we will have to see if Tommy Thompson has any concern about what Mr. Chocola of the "Loonies for Loonies" club had to say.   Hopefully he will simply think "Why should I care what some wingnut 500 miles away is saying about me?"