Tommy's ego trip was a wild ride for the GOP

So Tommy is out of the governor's race, at least until the weekend, when he starts to experience his next set of media attention withdrawal pangs.

He picked a strange way to pull the plug. He issued a statement and got out of Dodge (or Dodgeville) with no further comment. "He's fleeing the interview!" as Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand) said in "Fargo."

After all of the hubbub Thompson created with his agonizing about whether to run, he could have gotten more mileage out of it and given Mark Green a bigger boost.

Having teased everyone this long, Tommy could have played it out until the GOP convention. Will he or won't he? Every camera in the state would have been there to find out. And when Tommy announced he wasn't running and hugged his bosom buddy Mark Green, it would have been plastered on every front page and led the 10 o'clock news on every TV station in the state.

Twenty years ago, when Ed Garvey was running for the US Senate, former Gov. Martin Schreiber issued a news advisory saying he would do a fly-around of the state on Monday to make an announcement about the Senate race. That prompted some weekend stories speculating about Schreiber entering the race, and the media turned out in force to see what he had to say.

When the small plane taxied up and stopped, Schreiber and Garvey both emerged and Schreiber endorsed Garvey. It was a media bonanza for Garvey's campaign.

The Tommy-Green appearance at the state convention Saturday would have eclipsed that 50 times over. But it won't work now.

[All this presumes, of course, that Tommy gives a damn about Mark Green or anyone else besides himself, and there is scant evidence of that. Being honorary chairman of a campaign for a candidate you've said you "hope" can win isn't much.]

What remains to be seen is whether Tommy's little ego trip did any permanent damage to Green's candidacy. It certainly didn't help him.

What Tommy's feint did do was to touch off a round of criticism and debate among the GOP base about both Thompson and Green. To hear some neocons tell it, neither of them is a real conservative. Green was called boring, unlikable, and a few other uncomplimentary things on GOP blogs -- but now he's their candidate again.

It will be fun to watch Mark Belling and some of the other anti-Green wingnuts rationalizing their way as they slither back into the Green for governor camp.

All in all, Tommy's little joyride was pretty good for Jim Doyle and the Democrats.

Of course, he doesn't have to file to get on the ballot until July ...

EARLIER POST: Rumble on the right over Tommy.

Carrie Lynch: Tommy yard signs will have to come down.