Bad news for Walker: Tosa Ranger

No, it's not that there's a new tax on karate high-kicks; it's that 18 months away from the election, his campaign for governor is flagging:

Walker will have been at the reins as Milwaukee County executive for four years by the time the 2006 gubernatorial campaign is in full swing. It is a job that he ran for aggressively, so continuing to blame the failed Ament administration for his problems, or failing to find innovative solutions, won't be good enough.

Voters will want to know what has he done to fix these problems, and the answer right now is, "well, not much." That's not a plan either for a successful run for governor or service as the county's top official. [. . .]

Politicians can get tripped up by their own reflexive opportunism. A higher office opens up (for Walker, county exec was bigger than being a state legislator) so they run for it and hope it leads to yet another promotion later.

Walker made no secret of wanting to use the county executive's office as a platform to seek the governorship, but that may have looked more achievable in 2002 as a long-range plan than it does in the short-run today. [. . .]

A better plan is the strategic, early end to his campaign. [. . .] Walker's stepping aside would spare Republican voters the need to choose among two almost identical right-wing opponents, open the way to a simplified partisan and ideological choice between Doyle and Green, and give Milwaukee County taxpayers what they really need and are paying for:

The full-time attention of a full-time county executive.

This is not to suggest that Mark "Jolly" Green (how does that nickname work?) is faring any better. Republicans should be thanking their lucky stars (or jeebus figurines, or highways, or whatever they worship) that there will probably be an anti-gay bigotty-bigot amendment on the ballot to drive up turnout for whichever of the two limp rags gets the nomination.

(Hat tip to Scott.)