What the hell is wrong with Herb Kohl?!?

[kb9vrg]

First, he voted for the bankruptcy bill...
...Then he wouldn't filibuster Alito...

And all the while, the only time he's ever responded to any letter I've sent him is when I stood up at our county meeting and told his campaign manager I was concerned about voting for him because he never replied.

Now, Wisconsin's senior senator votes to give Telecom companies retroactive immunity.

Seems all you care about, Mr. Kohl, is your MILC program and supporting big corporare interests like credit card and telecommunications companies.

I don't know who's Senator you are, Mr. Kohl, but you sure as heck aren't mine.

[goddess40]

1. He votes his pocketbook and he's always voted that way

He's a huge friend to big business and if any one can explain why to me I'd sure like to know.

[Connonym]

2. because he's a wealthy SOB and probably owns a ton of telecom stock

[kb9vrg]

3. #1 senator in terms of wealth...

Well, he is the wealthiest Senator.

According to his 2005 financial profile, I don't see any stocks that would be telecom stocks held directly, but there's probably quite a bit of old line stuff (AT&T?) in his blind trusts.

He should just stick to basketball.

[undeterred]

10. I think he should give his money to Senator Feingold so he can run for president.

Then all the progressives would LOVE him. :loveya:

[undeterred]

4. He was thinking about me the whole time he was voting the wrong way.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=186x23156

[ginnyinWI]

5. I'd love to see him replaced by a progressive. n/t

[MessiahRp]

6. I agree that he's been wrong on way too many important issues

He's pretty much lost me as a Democratic Voter. In 2006 I skipped the Senate section altogether on my ballot.

I definitely agree that it would be great for a Progressive to run as an alternative but to run against Kohl we'd need a very wealthy progressive and those are not easy to find. Hopefully Kohl just decides to retire in 2012 and we can start now by building a strong replacement candidate up.

If it's not someone in the House or State Assembly who has to run every two years we can and should start looking for someone that we can convince to run now and all do our best to expand their name recognition/democratic support for a 2012 run either way. Also we can start building fundraising circles for that person.

The only way to beat someone with the resources of Kohl is to spend a considerable amount of time in having a head start that makes it hard with Kohl to deal with the momentum. And who knows if the effort is drawing positive success Kohl may just think it better to retire rather than create a fight inside his party.

Rp

[dragonlady]

7. In 2012 his age will be 77

I'm guessing he won't want to run again anyway.

[MessiahRp]

8. We can hope so but for some reason many elected officials choose to stay until they die...

Let's hope that's not the case here. Either way though it wouldn't hurt to start building up our own Progressive Candidate so that when 2012 comes around we're not at the mercy of the very centrist DPW to force another Kohl milquetoast Democrat onto us as our candidate.

Rp

[undeterred]

9. Kohl is retiring in 2012

That is a sure thing. I think a lot of people have their eye on his seat. I would love to see one of our progressive state senators run- and we have a lot of good ones. But there may be congresspeople who have their eye on the seat as well.

My top choice is my own State Senator Mark Miller but I don't even know if he is interested: http://www.legis.state.wi.us/senate/sen16/news/

Senator Erpenbach would be terrific too.
http://www.legis.state.wi.us/senate/sen27/news/

[kb9vrg]

11. 2012... Hmmm...

What the heck, maybe I should throw my hat in the ring.

Having no political experience whatsoever wouldn't be the worst thing...

[AllyCat]

13. Know anything about Gary Hebl? He seems to be pro-choice, pro-woman

I get a lot of letters from him stating that he supports women's reproductive freedom, but I'm new to his district and don't know much else about him.

[Connonym]

14. Maybe we could just clone Russ and have him twice?

oh dear, just thinking about that makes me need a cold shower

[AllyCat]

12. I didn't vote for him either in 2006. I left it blank.

Why is it that the decent senator always has to run against someone and Kohl gets no challenge (Lorge does NOT count)? Oh yeah, I know why. $$$$$$

Unbelievable. He's just horrid.

[undeterred]

15. The Green Party candidate, Rae Vogeler, was a good candidate

but not well known outside of Madison. She got 40,000 votes. If she would have run against Kohl in the Democratic primary who knows what could have happened.

[kb9vrg]

16. She got my vote

First heard about her at Bobfest 2005. Heard her on WPR and followed her campaign. She had a lot of good positions on the issues.

[AllyCat]

17. Everyone says he's nobody's Senator, but he certainly seems to be

someone's. Just not the Senator of the people who, umm, elect him.

[kb9vrg]

18. Senator of....

Hmmm. Let's see.

Senator of...

Halliburton
Verizon
BellSouth
AT&T
Citibank
Bank of America
CapitalOne
MasterCard
Visa
American Express
Discover
MBNA

[HelenWheels]

19. Called him

I got to talk with someone in his office who tried to baffle me with BS. I asked if he was voting to give the telecoms immunity for the spying they have done in the past and couldn't get a straight answer. I ended the call by saying if he didn't vote like Russ Feingold he had to be wrong.