Reynolds' bomb-throwing Fruitcake Brigade

State Sen. Tom Reynolds and his band of merry henchmen continue to spread wild charges about everyone in Wauwatosa in hopes of confusing and obscuring the real issue in Reynolds' reelection campaign.

Reynolds and his brain trust -- to use the term very loosely -- would like it to be a referendum on IslamoFascism in Wauwatosa, or something of the sort. But the questions before the voters in November are simple ones:

Does Tom Reynolds deserve to be reelected? Is he competent to serve? Does he represent your opinions?

There is a lot of evidence to the contrary, some of which is listed by Carrie Lynch at What's Left. She wonders whether he is even competent to vote, let alone hold office.

Gretchen Schuldt wishes he would just go away.

A lot of reasonable conservatives do, too.

Reynolds is an embarrassment to the Republican Party and the conservative movement in Wisconsin. Even Republican radio host Charlie Sykes has publicly taken him to task for his association with anti-Catholic bigots.

The GOP has to be kicking itself for not fielding a primary opponent. But the party is a captive of the far-right, who helped Reynolds defeat Peggy Rosenzweig to win the seat four years ago. She was a RINO, a Republican in Name Only, in their eyes. But they could have found a real conservative who wasn't crazier than a bedbug to take on Reynolds this time, and they failed.

Reynolds' campaign is in the hands of two far-out fruitcakes, Bob Donahl and J.J. Blonien, whose idea of campaigning is to send out flaming e-mails, file complaints against anyone they can think of, and talk tough.

They're hoping to kick up enough dust, with phony charges about Reynolds' opponent, Jim Sullivan, to make the voters forget about Reynolds.

Reynolds ducked a debate with Sullivan on the pretext that there might be a video camera there to capture what he said and make him look foolish. He's quite capable of doing that himself, with or without a camera.

Instead of discussing any issues, the Reynolds campaign continues to launch bogus attacks -- first against Sullivan, recycling double-voting charges that were discredited long ago, now against the Wauwatosa city clerk for doing her job and correcting inaccuracies in the voter file when it came to her attention. Blonien and Dohnal also have filed a phony charge against Sullivan and his lawyer, for warning them they could face legal action if they keep spreading malicious lies.

It's a vicious cycle that probably won't end anytime before the election. They just keep blowing smoke.

They complained to the DA in 2000 when Sullivan was running for Tosa alderman, claiming he had voted twice. The DA's office investigated and found that claim had no merit. They revived the old, discredited charge this year, but when that was exposed as a Blonien-Dohnal dirty trick, they went after the city clerk and Sullivan's lawyer.

The complaint against the clerk was filed with the State Elections Board, who sent it to the DA, where it should have been filed. Odds are that the DA will investigate and dismiss the complaint, and then the Reynolds people will scream that the decision is political.

This whole thing is sheer lunacy.

Dohnal keeps sending me crazy emails saying the race is over, Sullivan is destroyed.

I have enough faith in the voters and the electoral process to believe that even in a district which is pretty heavily Republican, people will do the right thing in November and elect a state senator who does not embarrass them, and who might actually represent them. Party loyalty only goes so far, and I can't believe this isn't past the limit. We'll see.

UPDATE: Christine McLaughlin, blogging at WauwatosaNow,has a good assessment of the situation, including:

Apparently it's not about the truth. It's about tarring and feathering the other guy. I don't know about you, but I certainly don't want to put the death sentence into the hands of folks like this.

FRUITCAKE RESPONDS. Bob Dohnal emails with exactly the kind of message I was describing, apparently having no sense of irony or awareness that he is describing himself. Dohnal says:

I love your website articles, all the spicy language, the intellectual content.Remember Watergate. As this thing unravels day after day and the questionable claims of Ledesma come out it will push Sullivan out of the race. Doyle won't be far behind. People never learn, if you are honest and forthright you don't have to make up stories and then worry about then falling apart and then make the statements inoperative.

Precisely. I know you are, but what am I?