Does the RPW Have ADHD?

Life at the Republican Party of Wisconsin must really be a confusing mess right now when it comes to the race for U.S. Senate. They already have two active candidates participating in their primary, yet they still seem to be holding out hope that Tommy Thompson will jump into the already unstable mix. Those desperate hopes were underscored by their rush to Tommy's defense yesterday via press release. In it, they attack One Wisconsin Now because they dared to put some actual numbers around the fact that Tommy has been cashing in on special interest dollars since leaving the public sector. One Wisconsin Now must be on to something, given the quick and disjointed response from RPW. To borrow a famous quote, OWN "must have hit her close to the mark to get her all riled up like that…"

The RPW's response was not only interesting because of its knee jerk nature, but it was also noteworthy for its total inability to stay on the actual subject. If their real problem was OWN reporting the facts surrounding Tommy's new and greatly improved financial status, then they should have made that point and been done with it. Instead they chose to throw together a virtual grab bag of unrelated issues. First, they attacked the wrong U.S. Senator (Herb Kohl), who isn't even up for reelection this year. Then they try to compare his independent wealth earned prior to becoming a public official to that of Tommy's special interest pay day directly afterwards. Apparently they can't even stay focused long enough to understand the point that OWN was actually making. It was clearly not about being wealthy and being a (potential) candidate for something. It was about Tommy Thompson using his past public sector job to fuel his special interest-funded bonanza – while the economy was collapsing no less.

OWN's point seemed pretty clear and focused, unlike the RPW response to it. Apparently the RPW can't stay focused long enough to actually engage in a substantive conversation on the actual subject. If using a past public sector job to cash in with special interests is no big deal to them, then they should have tried to make that case. Instead they chose to bounce all over the place with no real focus, making false comparisons that had very little to do with the actual subject.

The RPW's complete lack of focus is certainly entertaining, but it can hardly strike confidence in the two candidates that are actually running in their primary.