This is what apparently passes for discourse on the public airwaves from some conservative talk show radio hosts. I’ve called out Mark Belling’s racist, boorish and misogynistic rants in the past (Like the time he compared women who breast feed their infants to “sows”), so his latest rant against a New Berlin school board member may not surprise many.

Rep. Gwen Moore has another challenger in the 2010 election. Samantha Carter, running as an Independent, has announced her candidacy for Wisconsin’s 4th Congressional District. Her website is here. I’m all for more hats in the ring as I think it elevates the discourse and it’s always great to see citizens involved in the political process.

One thing Samantha should understand though is that “constituents” are those represented by an elected official, not simply supporters of an unelected candidate.

Samantha joins Dan Sebring (R) in the race to unseat Rep. Moore in 2010.

Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele on Fox news yesterday:

“And if you want an example of bad public policy, just look at the situation with our veterans, when you have a manual out there telling our veterans stuff like, ‘are you really of value to your community,’ you know, encouraging them to commit suicide. I mean, this is crazy coming from the government, and this is exactly what concerns people and puts them in fear of what the government control of health care will look like.”

As the debate has continued through August, the GOP has become more and more bold with their lies about health care reform. Scare tactics “Socialism! Death Panels!” have been running rampant and the GOP knows they’re effective in scaring and confusing millions of people about the possibility of health care reform. Seeing that they have an effective tactic, they’re cranking it up a notch with this lie about the VA encouraging vets to commit suicide.

Think about it again: the Chair of the Republican Party is the United States is openly lying about having the Veterans Administration encourage veterans to commit suicide.

It’s sick, and it’s your current Republican Party in action.

I rarely will point to Rep. Barney Frank as someone who should be setting the message on any issue, but his response to a woman comparing Pres. Obama to Nazi’s is just about right on. Indeed, what planet does she spend her time on?

I’ve always found it fascinating to watch people deal with the balancing act between wanting more “plain speaking” elected officials and then many of the same people express outrage that an elected official would talk in such “plain language”.

With all the history – much of it modern – of violence against American Presidents, I feel like these people showing up at Presidential events armed to the teeth with semi-automatic assault rifles is a troubling trend.

Last week it was a guy out East who had a holstered handgun, yesterday in Arizona it was a dozen “protesters” armed with handguns and semi-automatic assault rifles who showed up at an event President Obama was holding to.. well, I’m not sure. To “protest”? To prove that they have the right to “bear arms”? To intimidate? The fact is, it’s a very very troubling trend. If the escalation continues, how long is it until one of the more unhinged among them decides to take it to a whole other level?

If you don’t believe that these people are completely unbalanced and are simply “protecting their 2nd Amendment rights”, check out the video below the group they represent posted on YouTube and this particular quote about halfway in:

“We will forcefully resist people imposing their will on us through the strength of the majority with a vote.”

That isn’t a patriot talking, it’s a traitor to the Country.

There were two major stories that broke over the weekend in Wisconsin politics. First, Mayor Barrett was assaulted last night leaving the state fair when he confronted a man who was trying to assault another woman. He was apparently beaten with a metal pipe and will be in the hospital until Tuesday. Thoughts are with him and his family as he recovers.

The second story is that Gov. Doyle is going to make the announcement tomorrow that he’s not running for reelection in 2010. It’s been rumored for months that this was going to happen, and that he may take a job in the Obama administration or be appointed to the federal bench, but it looks like the rumors are true. Beyond the “why” of his decision are the ramifications of it as we’re under 18 months away from the election.

Obviously, the Republicans are pleased that they won’t have to face Doyle or his considerable campaign war chest. Many Democrats may also be pleased as well since Gov. Doyle isn’t the most popular politician in the State right now, and they see the chance to perhaps put forward a candidate who won’t have to deal with the baggage Doyle had.

First, the Democrats… The obvious names have surfaced as possible contenders for the 2010 race. Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton, Rep. Ron Kind, and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Of the three, Lawton and Barrett probably have the best name ID state wide, but some consider Lawton too far to the “left” and Barrett faces the problem of being from Milwaukee which is something that has plagued candidates for state wide office. Neither have the war chest that Doyle does, and whoever decides to throw their hat in the ring will have to step up the fundraising in very short order to match the head start a few of the Republican candidates have. Regardless,  as a Democrat I’m looking forward to having a good primary process and seeing who comes out ahead.

On the Republican side, it might seem at first like great news for County Exec. Scott Walker, considered the frontrunner for the GOP nomination. The Walker campaign though faces a pretty serious problem of having to retool their entire campaign strategy. They had planned – and up until now were focused on – making this a campaign against Gov. Doyle and his record. With Doyle out of the picture now, Walker can’t simply focus on being “against” the current administration and will have to run on his own record. A lot of the steam behind his candidacy was as the “anti Doyle” candidate, and I’m sure his staff is burning the midnight oil right now to adjust.

The other major GOP candidate Mark Neumann is probably the one who benefits most from Doyle not running in 2010. Up until this point, he has mostly been running as his own candidate who’s platform wasn’t tied to being “against” anything in particular, but in favor of traditional Republican ideals. As such, there’s not much readjustment needed from the Neumann campaign if Gov. Doyle does in fact decide not to run in 2010.

The other winners on the GOP side may be any undeclared candidates who were just willing to sit out this race knowing that they’d face a twice elected Governor with a considerable amount of money in the bank. It will be interesting to see if any more Republicans decide to jump into the race now that the field is wide open for the first time since 1982.