Tea party

Michelle Litjens: Obama is a lunatic

September 11, 2011 by Uppity Wisconsin

CORRECTION/UPDATE: I misread the story and attributed the "lunatic" agreement to Kleefisch, when it was actually Litjens.   The description of Kleefisch stands.

Lest you think these people are going away, our LtGov and US Senator spent the eve of 9/11 stoking up the Tea Party at an Oshkosh rally:

Kleefisch garnered roars when she said Republicans were responsible for instituting concealed carry laws, photo ID voting requirements and a business-friendly environment to Wisconsin while [State Rep. Michelle] Litjens elicited laughs when she jokingly “thanked” President Barack Obama for uniting the Tea Party, and responded with a “you’re right” when an attendee shouted “he’s a lunatic!”

Gee, and we thought Kleefisch and Litjens (that's Kleefisch pictured, in her new mascara) were the lunatics. Go figure. (Ron Johnson is not smart enough to be a lunatic.)

Johnson, who made his political debut at a Tea Party rally, was back for more.

"Why I left the Republican cult": The ultimate self-interest of a working man in peril from the GOP

September 4, 2011 by Uppity Wisconsin

I left as an act of rational self-interest. Having gutted private-sector pensions and health benefits as a result of their embrace of outsourcing, union busting and "shareholder value," the GOP now thinks it is only fair that public-sector workers give up their pensions and benefits, too. Hence the intensification of the GOP's decades-long campaign of scorn against government workers. Under the circumstances, it is simply safer to be a current retiree rather than a prospective one.

If you think Paul Ryan and his Ayn Rand-worshipping colleagues aren't after your Social Security and Medicare, I am here to disabuse you of your naiveté. They will move heaven and earth to force through tax cuts that will so starve the government of revenue that they will be "forced" to make "hard choices" - and that doesn't mean repealing those very same tax cuts, it means cutting the benefits for which you worked.

-- MIKE LOFGREN, who retired on June 17 after 28 years as a Congressional staffer. He served 16 years as a professional staff member on the Republican side of both the House and Senate Budget Committees.