Blue in a Blue State

Tom Ridge is leaving. John Ashcroft, too. The only cartoon mullah left in the Bush White House is Wisconsin's own Tommy Thompson. Four years ago, I was glad to see Tommy leave for his post in the Department of Health and Human Services. Then came September 11, anthrax and most recently, the bungled flu vaccine crisis. In the year 2000, most of us in Wisconsin knew he'd be in WAY over his head at DHHS. We had no idea how deep the water would get in the four years since his move to Washington. The Bush administration is smartly cleaning house. Tommy will certainly be following Ridge and Ashcroft out the door. Then what? Will he once again eye the governor's office here at home? I've got to say that, happy as I was to see him leave, the new, younger Republicans rumored to be considering the governor's seat in 2006 are a far scarier lot than Tommy ever was. John Gard and Scott Walker are positively reptilian. They make the dull-witted and philandering Tommy look like a harmless folksy grandpa in comparison. Sadly, there is much resistance work ahead.