Should I be flattered?

I have never pretended that this blog is anything other than it is--an opportunity for me to blow off steam, share my thoughts, make bad jokes, and try to draw maybe just a little bit of attention to Wisconsin stories and topics that I think are important but not widely discussed. While I sometimes daydream of the day that Ben Merens's prodcuer calls me to be on the show to talk about school choice or capo abuse (I know Ben plays guitar), I don't take myself so seriously as to think that I can write something one day and see action the next. (The sole exception is the editorial at the local paper that I think I may have prompted, but I can't prove that.)

However, this morning, Jessica McBride labeled me "a leading Wisconsin liberal blogger" and feels that, because the media is not paying attention to me (and, admittedly, about a dozen other people), it is evidence of a double standard. Look: The media's ignoring me is just par for the course around here.

(I will be above-board and say that what McBride wrote about me today is much nicer than what I said the last time I wrote about her--though, Jessica, you have to admit that was a hard-to-follow post you wrote there--and certainly nicer than the campaign I waged to beat her in that MKE blog contest.)

McBride only slightly misrepresents what I wrote, saying that, in the primary between Kathleen Falk and Peg Lautenschlager for attorney general, I want Peg to win, when the post she links to preceded Falk's announcement and makes no endorsement. I still have made no endorsement, and may not, since I think either woman would be much better as attorney general than McBride's husband or that other guy with the initials. She does highlight the important sentence from the post, a sentiment I still hold: "Mostly, I just don't like this kind of primary fight, and I don't like to encourage the notion that there is a serious split (even if there is one) within the party."

I think the split in the party may be slightly overstated anyway, since the Madison Dems lining up behind Falk have shown no (public) split with Jim Doyle. I mean, if I really were an opinion leader in the state, my own tepidity about J-Dizzle would be exposing fault lines all over the place.

What I'm worried about is unnecessary and damaging primaries. You may or may not have noticed, but we live in a pretty evenly divided state (you wouldn't notice by looking at the gerrymandered state legislature), and the more amunition we Dems provide to the opposition, the easier it is to lose what little bits of power have left. Jim Doyle is the only thing that stands between us and John Gard's dream theocracy. Peg Lautenschlager consistently put the interests of the people over the interests of the party, and that is not something I necessarily expect from the Republican candidates.

Every Democrat in the state ought to be thinking about protecting what we have, not upsetting our tiny little apple cart.

And that is what I hope my wildly overstated influence buys us.