Old dogs, old tricks

by folkbum

Back in 2006, medium-wave squawker Charlie Sykes tried to take credit for a thing that never happened. Noting that then-Gov. Jim Doyle underperformed the rest of the state in Sykes's broadcast region, he asked, "So what makes the Milwaukee market different from the rest of the state? Could it be.....????" The astute reader was supposed to fill in the blank with "talk radio," because Charlies' actually saying it himself would have been somehow déclassé or something.

What's funny, though, is that Doyle's then-opponent, former Congressman Mark Green, lost the Milwaukee market in 2006. But in 2002, Jim Doyle's opponent, incumbent Gov. Scott McCallum, won the Milwaukee market. Which means, if you actually took a moment to fill in Charlie's blank, you might suggest that his and other squawkers' incessant hounding of Doyle was massively counterproductive.

And here it is, four and some-odd years later, and what should be the case? Sykes is taking credit for incumbent Justice Prosser's win earlier this month. But because Sykes is an old dog, you better believe this is an old trick. illy-T says wha?

What is sad, though, is Sykes's mincing triumphalism, because what he doesn't tell you is that if his special theory has validity, then the dissembling shouter managed to impede Justice Prosser's progress in almost every single one of the Wisconsin counties he mentions.

And the numbers back this up: In every Milwaukee-market county (save one) Prosser lost vote share between the Feb. 15 primary and the election three weeks ago (and in the "save one" county, Prosser neither gained nor lost).

Additionally, now that Charlie Sykes has pretty boldly claimed that the race was essentially "Talk Radio vs. the Rest of Wisconsin," I am sure we can all expect Sykes's WPRI compadre Christian Schneider to pen a piece about how awful that is.