Ron Johnson has a new ad up, attacking Feingold's 30 year experience as a Wisconsin State Senator and a U.S. Senator.
This is an old Rove technique: Attack your opponent to cover up your own glaring weakness.
The only major accomplishments of Johnson is being a co-founder of a small plastic company and (supposedly) having 10-15 million dollars saved up to spend on a political campaign.
This resume is not only thin, if elected to the Senate, it would be the thinnest in Wisconsin history. In fact, if elected, he would arguably have the thinnest resume of anyone else serving in the U.S. Senate.
What about Herb Kohl? Republican's love to bring up 'ol Herb Kohl when talking about Johnson, but his resume was actually pretty thick when he was elected to the Senate back in '88. In the seventies, Kohl served as Wisconsin Democrat's Party Chair and was active in party politics his whole life. Kohl also was a key figure in bringing and keeping the Bucks in Milwaukee and in bringing pro baseball back to Milwaukee. And, of course, Kohl was also CEO of Kohl's, a well-known Fortune 500 company, while Johnson's company, Pacur, is obscure and a drop in the bucket compared to Kohl's.
To find the next thinnest resume in Wisconsin history, you would have to go all the way back to 1925 when Bob Lafollette Jr., was elected to fill the Senate Seat vacated by the death of his father. Lafollettes Jr.'s only experience was serving as an aide to his father for six years, but this still puts him slightly ahead of Johnson-- at least Lafollette Jr. had a depth of knowledge about the issues involved and knew his way around the U.S. Senate.
Plus, the other funny thing about Johnson attacking Feingold's experience is that nearly everyone in Congress, including the rest of Wisconsin delegation, built-up a political resume before they were elected to Congress.
I'm sure Sensenbrenner and Petri LOVE this line of attack Johson is running. They both have been in Congress for 30 years (SHUDDER) and, like Feingold, both served in the Wisconsin legislature before being elected to Congress.
And let's not forget about Wisconsin's senior Senator Herb Kohl who has been in the Senate four years longer than Feingold.
The reason why members of Congress tend to have had political experience or a thick resume, is that voters value experience as a positive attribute. There are definitely some years that voters want to "throw all the bums," but that doesn't mean they want to just replace the incumbent with just anyone. Like an employer looking to hire an employee, they want to fill the job with someone that has a good resume.
Ron Johnson's resume is about as weak they come and all the Rovian advertising in world can't cover that up.