Thursday, March 02, 2006

Is a GOP Street Fight Brewing?

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Spivak and Bice report today on a possible GOP street fight. State Rep. Leah Vukmir is supporting the compromise between Assembly Speaker John Gard and Governor Doyle on school choice. It appears that this could be a very close vote in which the result could hinge on a few people. State Senator Tom Reynolds (R-Looney Bin) may be voting against the compromise. This has ticked of Leah. Spivak and Bice provide the following email exchange between Vukmir and Reynolds' disciple Bob Dohnal. Sounds kind of feisty to me:



"Make no mistake, I love serving in the State Assembly, and I would rather stay there. It's not my choice to run . . . but if Tom contributes to this defeat, then he will have forced my hand. And there will be many there to support me."


Dohnal, Publisher of the Wisconsin Conservative Digest, responds with:


"The way you are going at it is the dumbest thing you can do," wrote Dohnal, a retired pharmacist. "You will never win a battle with tom making threats, especially empty ones."
He continued: "As far as I'm concerned, go ahead and run. He will swamp you 2-1, and you will be out. If you think you can trot out some of those slippery friends of (Sen. Ted) Kanavas, whom no one trusts, and win something, you will be surprised. Line up the money people and we will bury them."

Already far from the Republican mainstream, Dohnal all but guaranteed with his rant that he and his buddy the senator will remain on the party's fringes.
"(Republican Party Chairman Rick) Graber and that bunch are so corrupt that will blow the whole bunch of them out of the water," Dohnal wrote Friday night. "It really is a good time to blow up the corruption in Madison from the GOP side and the democratic side."
Is it just me, or did Dohnal just declare war on Vukmir, Kanavas, his "slippery friends", and Rick Graber? I must admit that this is a fight that I'd like to watch. If I had any money I'd put it on the lady. These extreme right wing guys seem to always overcompensate with false bravado. I think that Reynold's win was a fluke in the first place because the district is rather moderate. Since he has done a very good job in showing just how extreme and wacky he is, he will have a hard time if challenged. Part of me would enjoy this GOP street fight, but since I believe that Vukmir would win, it would make it more difficult for a Dem to take the seat. I don't know if that is a price I'd be willing to pay for that kind entertainment.

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