January 10, 2018

"Madison Mayor Paul Soglin jostled his way Wednesday into the crowded Democratic primary for governor..."

"... prompting immediate debate with Republican Scott Walker about the liberal legacy of Wisconsin's capital and its longtime leader," the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
A Vietnam War protester who sometimes governed as mayor barefoot, Soglin traveled to meet Fidel Castro in Cuba and has dominated the capital city's politics for a generation....

With his gruff style and bushy mustache, the 72-year-old Soglin will be attempting to attract the kinds of supporters who gravitated to another lefty septuagenarian, former presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders. But unlike Sanders, who went head-to-head with establishment candidate Hillary Clinton, Soglin faces a crowded field in which he is not the only liberal — or even the only liberal from Madison....
Meanwhile, the GOP has its candidate, the incumbent Scott Walker, who recently tweeted:

57 comments:

traditionalguy said...

It makes sense if Soglin is running for Brutal Communist Dictator of Wisconsin. Otherwise it sounds like a bad decision.

Rob said...

Did Soglin ask El Presidente to pull his finger?

sparrow said...

Is Walker's tweeting an attempt to be more Trump-like?

Josephbleau said...

Great picture, no fatigues for el heffe. Looks like he has a nice crease on his pants.

rehajm said...

'Bad optics', said every political consultant everywhere. Even for Madison.

jv said...

Soglin is the absolute worst candidate the democrats can run in the "Politics of Resentment" era.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The left think Castro's brutality is peachy keen.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The left agree that the deplorables should die in prison so that the Castros and everyone at the top of the STATE food-chain can live large. Castro lives in cushy splendor while the people of Cuba are trapped in poverty. This is awesome according to the progressive left.

+ free healthcare!

Bay Area Guy said...

The Left hearts Castro. Always have, always will.

In the past, whenever I felt the need to debate a Leftist on Castro, I would start with a simple immigration policy:

In the US and most civilized countries, if you don't like how things are run, it's very easy to get a passport and fly to a different country. Not saying "love it or leave," just saying it's nice to have the option to visit, to travel, to explore or to leave, if you feel it.

How good can Cuba really be, if it doesn't allow its citizens to emigrate?

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

Disgusting. What is it about dictatorships that attract leftist (Soviet Union, China, North Vietnam, Cuba, and Venezuela) . Why aren't they shamed and shunned.

Wilbur said...

Wasn't Pol Pot available?

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The left excuse it all away. The intentions of Castro are so admirable! Too bad the outcome is misery.

WisRich said...

sparrow said...
Is Walker's tweeting an attempt to be more Trump-like?

1/10/18, 3:29 PM
-----------


Why yes, I think he is. Pointed, but not over the top. Well done Gov.

rehajm said...

What is it about dictatorships that attract leftist

Every one of them self identifies as part of the elite. The hardship is for those other losers.

walter said...

Bet he has one or two of those hip Che shirts.

rehajm said...

Like when fruitcakes believe they are the reincarnated soul of admirable historic figures. Nobody wants to believe they were the woman that cleaned toilets.

rehajm said...

I want to see him debate Meade...again.

tim in vermont said...

You can tell the way Castro is looking at them that he is wondering what his brains would look like splattered all over Che’s garden wall.

tcrosse said...

Let's get a picture of Soglin with Justin Trudeau.

Known Unknown said...

72 and dominated politics for a generation?

Go away.

tim in vermont said...

You know, I think that the stories about Justin Trudeau’s mother, her little notes to Castro, like the time she went to his hotel room alone to offer a “personal” greeting from Canada, the pictures of Trudeau with Castro, I mean Castro breeds as true as a Morgan horse. I personally believe it. Compare Trudeau with his putative father, then compare him to Castro.

I suppose he could as easily be the child of any one of the Rolling Stones, given Margaret Starfucker Trudeau’s known history, but he sure looks like Castro.

tim in vermont said...

It was especially touching to hear Trudeau’s voice break as he mourned the death of the old murderer. Hey! Family is family!

tim in vermont said...

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2280272/bizarre-theory-fidel-castro-is-canadian-pm-justin-trudeaus-father-emerges-online-after-internet-sleuths-discover-some-mysterious-coincidences-and-similarities/

buwaya said...

"I mean Castro breeds as true as a Morgan horse."

Justin Trudeau is not Fidel Castro.
Castro was, in every way, a formidable fellow. Bold and brave and cruel and an overwhelming personality.

A conquistador in the wrong century.

Justin Trudeau piggybacked on his dads loyalists and name recognition, and personally does not impress.

tcrosse said...

There's a prescient Australian movie called Children of the Revolution (1996). It concerns an Australian housewife who writes chatty letters to Stalin, then wins a trip to Moscow. She spends Uncle Joe's last night with him. She returns to Australia and gives birth to Stalin's Love Child, who gets into one scrape after another. I recommend it.

veni vidi vici said...

His name sounds like "sorghum", the grain that hippies used to grow on their upstate NY communes.

Not sure whether that carries much truck with anyone nowadays, though. Perhaps it has qualities lending to regularity of stools, and that'll give him an edge with the geriatric voters.

steve uhr said...

Good for Walker. I wonder why soglin waited so long to run for governor? Can't run from your past.

tim in vermont said...

Castro was, in every way, a formidable fellow. Bold and brave and cruel and an overwhelming personality.

Well, side by side they look like father and son. PE Trudeau was like 5’5” and Justin and Castro are both about 6’3” I hear that Bill Shakespeare’s kid never made it big in the theater, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t blood.

Ann Althouse said...

I'm pretty sure Walker will win, no matter who gets the Democratic Party nomination, so why not Soglin?

Soglin's been around a long time, and the Castro stuff was from when he was very young. He's been a reasonably sensible mayor, by Madison standards. I voted for him.

Bay Area Guy said...

@tcrosse,

There's a prescient Australian movie called Children of the Revolution (1996). It concerns an Australian housewife who writes chatty letters to Stalin, then wins a trip to Moscow. She spends Uncle Joe's last night with him. She returns to Australia and gives birth to Stalin's Love Child, who gets into one scrape after another. I recommend it.

Sounds like a less sinister "micro" version of "The Boys From Brazil"

Ann Althouse said...

"Soglin's been around a long time, and the Castro stuff was from when he was very young. He's been a reasonably sensible mayor, by Madison standards. I voted for him."

Meade and I voted for Soglin over the other guy, the incumbent, "Mayor Dave," entirely because Mayor Dave wanted some damned trolley for Madison.

tcrosse said...

Soglin's been around a long time

I voted for him in 1972, but I was very young.

Rob said...

"Some damned trolley for Madison" -- the 21st century version of "A Streetcar Named Desire." Sample dialogue: "I have always trusted in the kindness of socialists."

cubanbob said...

Soglin's been around a long time, and the Castro stuff was from when he was very young. He's been a reasonably sensible mayor, by Madison standards. I voted for him."

Damnation with faint praise.

walter said...

Blogger veni vidi vici said...His name sounds like "sorghum"
--
Paul Sore-gums

Drago said...

Castro was infamous for ordering lobotomies for homosexuals.

Applying the Lefty Bill Clinton Rule and adding an additional 20 years for being a murderous totalitarian lefty, we are only about 10 years away from Inga and her lefty pals to actually be bothered by that!

Not to worry. Those were Peoples Lobotomies, so its all good.

Btw, what type of p****-hat is appropriate for protests against lefty thug leaders?

Trick question! The Left never protests them.

Meade said...

"I voted for him in 1972, but I was very young."

I voted for McGovern in 1972 but I blame Nixon for that because he gave 18 year-olds the right to vote. 4 years later, at 22, I came to my senses and voted against Carter.

tcrosse said...

When Nixon resigned in 1974, there was dancing in State Street. I was there. Soglin got up on a pickup bed at State and Gilman and tried to give a speech, but nobody was interested.

walter said...

“I’m just convinced right now that Wisconsin is looking for someone with the experience ... who knows how to build an economy,” Soglin said. “I’ve done that.”

Wisco's Bernie

Rick.T. said...

Meade said...

"I voted for McGovern in 1972 but I blame Nixon for that because he gave 18 year-olds the right to vote. 4 years later, at 22, I came to my senses and voted against Carter."

Exactly the same. Have not voted for a Democrat at a national level since.

gg6 said...

Ah, yes, Paul Soglin, the long-lived hippie hero of 1967 Madison, WI.
A leading member of SNCC at the time and a UW-Madison student and draft avoider, he was made a celebrity by the successful David Maraniss 'non-fiction tale' of the VN war, 'They Marched Into Sunlight". At the time, I was in the other half of the Maraniss book in the First Infantry Div. in VN.
So glad we helped Soglin have an entire life living on the public tax dole as Mayor etc. etc ...and now maybe even more?

David said...

"With his gruff style and bushy mustache, the 72-year-old Soglin . . . "

Gruff style = Asshole.

"But if I really say it,
the radio won't play it
unless I lay it between the lines."

--Peter, Paul & Mary

ga6 said...

Ann, you now have your pension locked. the economy growing so you will get a good price for the house/condo. Why is heavens name are you staying in Madison and giving your tax dollars to such low lifes?

Original Mike said...

I don't think he'll win the primary. He's not lefty enough for "progressives".

StephenFearby said...

Reminds me of two famous reporters for the NYT, AKA "useful idiots".


(1) "...Herbert Matthews’ articles in The New York Times played a significant role in U.S. foreign policy at the time, as in 1958, the articles, which consistently demonstrated the idea that Castro would hold free elections and restore the Cuban constitution, helped persuade Washington to cease the shipment of arms to Batista.[8]"

"...The State Department believed Matthews in his claims that Castro was not a Communist leader, and the constant presence of Castro in the news increased the awareness of the revolution in the United States.[10] Within the United States, as journalist and historian Anthony DePalma states, “Castro’s dark past was largely replaced in the United States by instant legitimacy”.[11] Matthews had turned Castro into a likable rebel.[11]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Matthews


(2) Walter Duranty...served as the Moscow Bureau Chief of The New York Times for fourteen years (1922–1936) following the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War (1918–1921).

In 1932 Duranty received a Pulitzer Prize for a series of reports about the Soviet Union, 11 of them published in June 1931. He was criticized for his subsequent denial of widespread famine (1932–33) in the USSR,[1] most particularly the mass starvation in Ukraine. Years later, there were calls to revoke his Pulitzer; The New York Times, which submitted his works for the prize in 1932, wrote that his later articles denying the famine constituted "some of the worst reporting to appear in this newspaper."

"...Duranty's articles from Moscow did not draw wide attention. It was after the advent of the first five-year plan (1928–1933), which aimed to transform Soviet industry and agriculture, that Duranty made his mark.

In 1929, he was granted an exclusive interview with Joseph Stalin that greatly enhanced his reputation as a journalist."

I get the drift that more of this ilk are currently employed at the NYT.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

'Bad optics', said every political consultant everywhere. Even for Madison.

That's why he's only been elected mayor thrice.

Curious George said...

"“I’m just convinced right now that Wisconsin is looking for someone with the experience ... who knows how to build an economy,” Soglin said. “I’ve done that.”

That's the weed talkin'...

MadisonMan said...

Vanity Candidate. That's Soglin.

At least he's a dozen years younger than Dianne Feinstein. What a breath of fresh young air for the Democratic Party!!

rehajm said...

That's why he's only been elected mayor thrice

He's not running for mayor.

Francisco D said...

Some of us learn from experience, some of us don't.

I voted for McGovern and Carter (1976). In those days I might have voted for Paul Soglin. I voted for Reagan in 1984.

Sadly, I expect that Soglin would get more votes than Walker in Dane County. Some people never learn.

MadisonMan said...

In 1973 Soglin beat Bill Dyke, the old guy, for Mayor when Dyke was about 30 years younger than Soglin is now.

Old Democrats: Is there nothing they can't do? Yes! The cannot retire!!

Original Mike said...

"That's why he's only been elected mayor thrice"

I think he's been elected mayor eight times.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

I stand corrected. I wasn't counting re-elections when he was already incumbent.

steve uhr said...

When he was working to cripple uber with needless regulations to benefit his friends running the taxi companies - "I have no room for Ayn Rand free enterprise nonsense in this discussion"

tim in vermont said...

“I’m just convinced right now that Wisconsin is looking for someone with the experience ... who knows how to build an economy,” Soglin said. “I’ve done that.”

I wonder what an actual “good economy” looks like in his fever dreams.

tim in vermont said...

Oh, he didn’t say “good” economy. He is going to build an "economy”

I guess Castro did that too. Even Chavez managed that.

Rusty said...

He isn't a liberal. He's a leftist.

"I wonder what an actual “good economy” looks like in his fever dreams."


Think of Venezuela, but somehow with more money. It's his goofy dream. Ask him.