Tommy Thompson Considering Wisconsin Bid (but waiting for Paul Ryan to decide)

[iwishiwas]

We still are a slightly Red state-but turning towards purple now. (Red in 2010 election-and turning purple april 5 with the Posser win.--especially the eastern part of the state.


http://hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com/archives/2011/05/thompson-consid.php

Thompson Considering Wisconsin Bid
By Reid Wilson
May 14, 2011 | 2:57 PM

Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson (R) is considering running for retiring Sen. Herb Kohl's (D) Senate seat, according to several Republican officials who have been involved in initial conversations with Thompson.

Thompson has spoken with top officials at the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, two GOP officials told Hotline On Call. However, he is waiting to see whether Rep. Paul Ryan (R) runs for the seat, one official said.

If he gets in the race, Thompson would give Republicans a top-tier contender who has won statewide in an historically Democratic state four times. Thompson served as Wisconsin's governor from 1987 until 2001, when President George W. Bush tapped him to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

But Thompson has not run for election in Wisconsin since 1998, when he won with nearly 60 percent of the vote. He has toyed with a return to politics in recent years; he mounted a brief bid for the Republican presidential campaign in 2007, dropping out after just more than four months after formally entering the race. Thompson also considered running for governor or against Sen. Russ Feingold (D) in 2010, though he passed on both races. ..................

[xchrom]

1. An ugly blast from the past. Nt

[rurallib]

2. like sewer gas, they just keep bubbling to the surface.

[HereSince1628]

3. Born in 1941...he'd take the seat at age 71

My opinion of his chances isn't due to his age per se, but rather that his age reflects his developmental history that led him to being a very traditional conservative. I'm thinking that will not work very well with Wisconsin's north-country libertarians and beer-hadists (who would probably prefer Thompson's libertarian tavern owning brother).

The votes of those curds are typically determined by the size of the delusional chip on their shoulder against 'urbane out-of-touch liberals' in Madison and their 'tax-guzzling/voting cheat' supporters in Milwaukee. Currently, the size of that chip looks to have been produced by Paul Bunyan's ax.

In short, the Wisconsin R's Munster-mafia still seem pretty strongly attracted to the corporatist revolutionaries on the right. A guy like Thompson, whose world view was shaped by balancing the strain between Eisenhower and Goldwater republicans, seems very last century. IOW, not likely at all to get the nomination of the R's.

Of course, that could be different if the R's radical A.L.E.C.-armed Randites like Ryan spectacularly lose in their national-wide gambit and cut loose some really repulsively stinky cheese.

[Scuba]

4. Tommy as Gov again? He could finish paving the state. One giant highway....

...leading to a multitude of prisons. Nary a school to be found.

[a kennedy]

5. Aw h*ll no.......

:mad: :puke: :grr: