Walker walks away

Scott Walker shocked the weekend news with his announcement that he was dropping out of the race for governor. The only thing that I was shocked by was how early one of them got out of the race. Republicans are very good team players (much better than Democrats) and eventually one of them was going to get out of the way so they could beat up Governor Doyle instead of each other. Time will tell if they picked the right one.

Rep. Mark Green has always been the stronger candidate in the Republican primary race, but not necessarily the better of the two for the Republicans come November. At one time, Rep. Mark Green would have been the hands down favorite to win the governor's race this year. He was well liked by both sides of the aisle when he served in the Wisconsin State Assembly, is a good speaker and was not part of the extremists of his party.

Then he went to Washington D.C. and drank the Kool-Aid.

Rep. Mark Green is not the same person he was before he went to Congress. In Wisconsin he was a leader of his party and probably fought to inject moderate policies into the agenda for the state. When faced with the larger challenge of being a U.S. Congressman, he took the easy route of going with whatever his party leaders told him to do. He is still not an extremist in his party but he has helped the extremists implement their agenda while bankrupting the federal treasury by doing nothing to stop it and voting however they have asked him to vote.

How else to explain his recent vote to cut funds used to make deadbeat parents pay child support, increase the interest rates for student loans, force Medicaid recipients to pay higher co-pays and deductibles, and make it harder to qualify for Medicaid-supported nursing homes? Thirteen of his Republican colleagues voted against these cuts. Why didn't Rep. Mark Green choose to stick up for Wisconsin residents instead of voting the way his party leaders told him to vote? A leader in the Wisconsin tradition would have voted against punishing students, the elderly and children and found a better way to deal with the budget mess Republicans have created.

How else to explain Rep. Green going along with a war without question that everyone in the country but federally elected Republicans and diehard party loyalists is now questioning?

How else to explain changing the rules of the House of Representatives to protect Rep. Tom DeLay and his team even after indictments were handed down?

The problem for Rep. Green is that Wisconsin voters would have preferred the political version of him before he went to D.C. because they like politicians that are a little different. They don't care much for those that go with the crowd all the time. Green hasn't led in Congress so why should voters think he will do so here as governor?

Walker has his faults too and heavens knows I don't agree with him politically, but as a Republican that found a way to win in Milwaukee County despite some pretty harsh budgets he may have been the better candidate for the Republicans in the race for governor.