Senate Republicans unable to look in the mirror

It's generic. It's nothing to do with any of our candidates. It's all about the national tide that swept through Wisconsin that we didn't think was going to.

-- Keith Gilkes, chief operative of the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate, calling Tuesday night "a Republican bloodbath."

I certainly hope Gilkes really believes this. If he and others in charge of electing a Republican Senate here in Wisconsin believe that, my side will have a much easier time in two years maintaining the majority.

Yes, the Dems ran the table and picked up all four competitive races in the state senate. But they were not won with eight-point margins like the governor's race was on Tuesday.

The national feelings did feed into the Dem victories, but the races were a lot closer and that suggests that if Republicans had done a better job running the senate, they could have won their races. Or at least some of them. Instead, then Senate Majority Leader Dale Schultz let then Speaker John Gard run the senate on the God, gays and guns platform that neglected to deal with issues that Wisconsin residents want answers on now.

Nothing to do with your candidates? By all means keep telling yourself that Mr. Gilkes. Please keep recruiting candidates like Senator Dave Zien who's absurd focus on concealed carry left him unwilling or unable to work on the issues people really care about. Please keep looking the other way while senators like Tom Reynolds become the laughing stock of the state. Please keep firing up the right-wing talk show hosts to go after people like Senator Ron Brown for not being the right kind of Republican. And please recruit candidates like William McReynolds that are the definition of a slimy politician.

It makes my life oh so much easier.