All This And 1992

As my Scrunchieback Saturday review of the climax of the 1992 election campaigns in Wisconsin and the U.S. continues, things are looking very good for the Democratic Party candidates.

Only a year earlier, President George H.W. Bush seemed a shoo-in for reelection. His popularity immediately after defeating Saddam Hussein's army in Gulf War I was off the charts; leading Democrats had demurred from the race; and Republicans had developed a lock on the southern states. But as the war euphoria wore off, popular anxiety over the economy lingered well after the recession of 1990-91, and the Democrats had named two southerners to their ticket. With Texan H. Ross Perot also in the race, southerners had plenty of their own to choose from. Bush found himself running second — occasionally third — in the polls.

The Bush team attempted to contrast Bush's heroic record as a pilot in World War II with Bill Clinton's student deferment and protests against the Vietnam War, but found that U.S. voters were less than eager to re-litigate the Vietnam era.

Here in Wisconsin, Republican Senator Bob Kasten found himself running behind his Democratic challenger, Russ Feingold. Democrats in the state benefited from having fresh faces on the ballot in a year favorable to fresh faces, and Feingold's sunny, upbeat, populist campaign contrasted with the nasty one Kasten had survived against Ed Garvey six years before.

In a move that no Republican would dare make today, Kasten aired TV and radio ads likening his own positions to those of Democrats Bill Clinton and Wisconsin's other Senator, Herb Kohl, owner of the Milwaukee Bucks. Coming from a Republican who had come into office with the Reagan sweep of 1980, the comparison just didn't ring true.

(Evie is Kasten's wife's name.)

Returning to the presidential race, this next cartoon comments on an argument President Bush made at a three-way debate on October 19. (With three candidates at each of the debates that month, the result was that the challengers were able to gang up on the incumbent.) I also tried to emulate Mr. Bush's speaking style.

As it turned out, President Clinton would enjoy having the power of a line item veto in 1996 and 1997, only for it to be ruled unconstitutional in Clinton v. City of New York.

Millionaire H. Ross Perot, meanwhile, conducted his campaign exclusively on television, guesting on Larry King Live, and purchasing air time for 30- and 60-minute infomercials as well as more traditional 30-second spots. He nevertheless maintained that he was the leader of a populist revolt against the two major parties.

Returning to the Wisconsin senatorial campaign: Russ Feingold aired several folksy ads of himself campaigning around the state, ending with him showing the back of his left hand to the camera as if it were a map of Wisconsin and pointing out wherever it was he planned to visit next. In one of these ads, he visited The Joke Shop in reliably Republican Waukesha County just west of Milwaukee. The ad included a brief exchange with store owner Jeffrey Campbell, who signed a release allowing the Feingold campaign to use him in the commercial, but later complained that the ad gave the false impression that Campbell, a Republican, supported Feingold.

The Kasten campaign responded with its own ad with the tag line, "If we can't trust Russ Feingold's ads, can we trust Russ Feingold on crime, welfare reform or taxes?"

Q Toon: Surely You Joust

This week's cartoon may have been inspired by Game of Thrones, but I didn't want to cast Peter Dinklage in the starring role. Instead, I cast Wisconsin Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen as the lawyer, even though I'm not currently running in any publications in my home state.

I happened to watch Mike Gousha's interview with Van Hollen in which Van Hollen said that he was pushing ahead with his defense of Wisconsin's Mixed Marriage Supremacy amendment. (Gousha's program comes on about the time I am usually almost done inking my cartoon on Sunday night.) In the interview, Van Hollen admitted that Wisconsin's amendment was virtually certain to be found unconstitutional, just like similar provisions in Oklahoma, Oregon and Pennsylvania days before.

Gousha: "In a lot of courts around the country, these laws banning same-sex marriage are being struck down. Why do you feel Wisconsin will be different?"
Van Hollen: "Well, I don't necessarily feel it will be different. But it's still my obligation. ... Those laws have lost across the country. I certainly won't be at all surprised if we lose in our court here as well."

In the end, Van Hollen hopes that the U.S. Supreme Court will come to the rescue of states who want to deny marriage to same-sex couples.

Meanwhile, Van Hollen has refused to defend Wisconsin's domestic partner registry, passed in the 2009 budget and signed by then-Governor Jim Doyle. Van Hollen believes that the domestic partner registry is unconstitutional. The circuit court ruling that the registry is legal was upheld unanimously in District 4 Court of Appeals in December, 2012.

This Week's Racine Post Cartoon

Paul Berge RacinePost.com Aug 18, 2009 EditorialCartoonists.com

Governor Jim Doyle announces he will not run for a third term in 2010, setting up the first gubernatorial election without an incumbent since the Earl-Kohler race of 1982. In his announcement, he makes subtle jabs at 3.5-term governor Tommy Thompson --

"This is the norm in this country. The President and most governors are limited to two terms by law. Most others have followed tradition. It has largely been Wisconsin’s practice over its history. I am already the longest serving Democratic governor and by the end of my term will be the second-longest serving governor in Wisconsin history. And I think this national norm serves good purpose. It keeps the political world from becoming stagnant. It allows new leaders to develop. It gives the voters more choices. It allows us to draw new insights and inspiration from the wellsprings of renewal in each generation."

...and at a certain quarterback...

"I personally would like to have put this decision off for another three or four months to see if I feel differently then. I know I will regret the decision many times over the coming year. But I am not going to go Brett Favre on you. I am announcing my decision now to allow other candidates to step forward and get going."

Doyle's successor will have to deal with the loss during the current recession of several of the state's major employers and the resulting hole in the state budget.