Marginal Utility

by Tom Bozzo

Just so we know what the Mark Green campaign is all about. Via the Capital Times, a recent Green campaign mailing:

The brochure features a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge superimposed on a field of cows grazing and claims that "some things from San Francisco just don't fit in Wisconsin. Jim Doyle's liberal agenda is one of them."

In defending the flyer, the Green campaign highlighted one good reason to vote for Doyle, and for that matter to Just Say No on the marriage and civil unions ban. Fear of Teh Gay may be how the Rovian party motivates its troops, but as has been pointed out elsewhere, the broader agenda is anti-sex.

Green spokesman Mike Prentiss said that the brochure is consistent with Green's opposition to domestic partnership benefits for both gay and lesbian couples and unmarried heterosexual couples.

Indeed, the text of the civil unions ban even-handedly prohibits civil unions with rights equivalent to marriage for straight and gay couples alike. Evidently, extending second-class citizenship to all unmarried people in some to-be-determined ways is not a bug of the amendment, but a feature. So if you're inclined to vote yes on the amendment because you're not gay and therefore you think it can't affect you, please think again.

He denied, however, that the mailing was implicitly anti-gay in its reference to San Francisco, a city known for being gay-friendly.

A liar and a coward — what a winning combination. It is amusing to note that the present political climate requires the Green campaign to deny gay-baiting even as they're transparently doing so.

Prentiss said the reference is intended to remind voters of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., whose district includes San Francisco. Neither Pelosi's name nor her image appears anywhere in the brochure.

So I don't know whether sticking needles in Nancy Pelosi voodoo dolls is a standard feature of services in conservative evangelical churches. But even in House races, fear of a Nancy Pelosi reign seems to be a weak branch for Republican candidates to grasp. (For one, I'd assume Pelosi's name recognition is relatively low despite the Republican demonization campaign.) After all, here's Pelosi:

As for Dennis Hastert, while official portraits look like this...

...more recent images show the Speaker to have lately Let Himself Go:

Frankly, I know who I'd rather let my children near.