Wineke and Priebus are all winks and jabs
Mike Gousha moderated a good-natured smackdown yesterday at Marquette University between Wisconsin’s political party chairmen, Republican Reince Priebus and Democrat Joe Wineke.
The two partisan opponents were all smiles and slaps on the back as they reached into their bags of bon mots to attack each other’s candidates.
Gousha once again proved to be superb in this role. At first, it seemed odd that Gousha positioned himself at the end, rather than in the middle, of the two, but it proved effective. Wineke and Priebus seemed genuinely friendly but when either one scored a point or threw a low blow you could almost feel the other wince.
Both resorted to the usual talking points while analyzing the polls and the challenges Barack Obama and John McCain face winning Wisconsin.
Probably the most substantive discussion focused on Attorney General J. D. Van Hollen’s attempt to force the state Government Accountability Board to check all voter registrations going back to January, 2006.
But the zingers really started to fly when Gousha brought up Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Priebus called her a “rock star” that has energized the Republican base.
Wineke pointed out that the “rock star” reference sounded like Priebus was calling Palin a celebrity, a term the McCain campaign has used to denigrate Obama.
When Wineke poked fun at Palin’s assertion that her ability to see Russia from Alaska amounted to foreign policy experience, Priebus insisted that questions about Palin amounted to sexism.
Perhaps the most controversial remarks of the forum came when someone in the audience questioned how Wineke could suggest that the Fox Valley was up for grabs when it is so predominately Catholic.
Wineke insisted that the Catholic vote has never been “monolithic” and that Democrats felt very comfortable contesting the region.
Priebus questioned how Catholics would feel about Obama’s support for “partial birth abortions” and Wineke responded that neither party was consistent with Catholic Church teachings on abortion and the death penalty.
Very little was said about the economy which perhaps was for the best since neither Wineke or Priebus are qualified as economists. But it was telling that while Wineke challenged McCain’s assertion that he would strengthen regulations since his record is as a deregulator, Priebus insisted that the threat of world terrorism was the real crisis that would lead voters to support McCain.
There are still six weeks to go but Republicans may be in trouble if they need to run away from the issue of the economy.
