Guess what??

Mitch's Money Only Asset Neumann Has

In race for U.S. Senate, we're letting Mitch decide 
From the Journal Sentinel
October 31, 1998

Here in Wisconsin, whose fertile political soil once raised the likes of
both "Fighting Bob" La Follette and "Tailgunner Joe" McCarthy, whose
hard-working citizens have always prided themselves on staying involved and
making a difference, we're trying something new this year: We're letting
Mitch decide. 

Mitch doesn't live here. Nobody here even knows he exists. Doesn't matter.

This isn't Hurricane Mitch, mind you. This is Politician Mitch -- a Kentucky
politician. Unknown or not, Politician Mitch is having a major impact in
Wisconsin this election season. You could chalk it up to simple neighborly
interest, except for two things: the facts, and several hundred miles of
Illinois in between.

Politician Mitch isn't particularly interested in Wisconsin for Wisconsin's
sake. Not at all -- Mitch has bigger things in mind.

Maybe you've heard: There's a white-hot race for the U.S. Senate going on in
Wisconsin -- incumbent Russ Feingold against challenger Mark Neumann. Once
upon a time, it looked like a cakewalk for Feingold, the Democrat. Then
Mitch got involved. 

Mitch is Mitch McConnell, you see, a U.S. senator from Kentucky and -- more
to the point -- chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. In
that latter capacity, Mitch has money to burn, and he's been using lots of
it to burn Russ Feingold.

When the committee's attack ads started dirtying up Wisconsin's air this
past summer, Feingold had a double-digit lead. A million outside dollars
later (or even more -- nobody's telling), Feingold and Neumann are in a
statistical dead heat. Who says going negative doesn't work?

If Feingold believed half of what they've been saying about him, he probably
wouldn't vote for Feingold, either. Fortunately for him, he knows better.
Unfortunately for him, his isn't the only vote that counts, and Mitch's
dollars are carrying plenty of weight elsewhere in the Badger State.

Feingold, of course, is exactly one-half of "McCain-Feingold," the year's
leading, and ultimately doomed, effort to clean up the non-stop
money-grubbing and creative loophole-leaping that passes for political
campaigning these days.

In fact, Feingold is so convinced he's on the side of the angels on this one
that, even though his bill didn't pass, he's trying to stick close to its
provisions anyway. He's asked outside groups that support him not to buy ads
in his behalf, and he's even told the Democratic Senatorial Campaign
Committee to quit running soft-money ads attacking Neumann as "too extreme
for Wisconsin." 

The result of all this admirable self-restraint? About what you'd expect.
Feingold has been massively outspent, thoroughly outgunned. No problem, he
insists; he'll survive without that kind of outside help, or it's not worth
surviving.

Highly principled? Or highly delusional? Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, care to guess who's the single most ardent opponent of campaign
finance reform, the most unapologetic defender of the current system, in the
entire U.S. Senate? Why, what a coincidence -- it's Politician Mitch!

Some suspicious types think that the scads of money Mitch has been sending
into Wisconsin have absolutely nothing to do with what a swell fellow
Neumann is, and absolutely everything to do with making sure Feingold isn't
around next year to carry on this pesky little quest of his.

A vendetta? Would Mitch McConnell play the game that way? Hey, the word from
out West is that he's even been shortchanging one of his own, that he sat on
crucial campaign money for Linda Smith, a fellow Republican and Senate
candidate from Washington state, because Smith had been outspoken about
cleaning up the campaign-finance system, too. Mitch was not amused.

He seems to be smiling about Feingold, though. There was his colorful little
prediction recently, recounted to The New York Times by another Republican
senator: "Don't worry about campaign reform. Feingold's going to be dead
meat by Christmas." Dead heat, dead meat. Politician Mitch could be
absolutely right, you know -- unless, of course, we finally decide that
we're perfectly capable of making our own decisions around here.

Two senators per state sounds about right. Any reason to hand Kentucky an
extra one?

Rick Horowitz is a Milwaukee-based syndicated columnist.

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