Uppity Wisconsin

Fresh from their fierce defense of US Attorney Steven Biskupic against claims that politics affected his prosecutions, Wisconsin wingnuts are complaining that their new Republican attorney general isn't putting politics ahead of the law.

J.B. Van Hollen, who took office in January, has come under fire for failing to prosecute -- or at least dirty up --the Democratic governor, Jim Doyle. The wingnuts are also unhappy about opinions he's issued on abortion and affirmative action issues.

Van Hollen was praised by the conservative Madison newspaper, the Wisconsin State Journal, for his even-handedness. In an editorial, it said:

He also has shown he's not the far-right ideologue or partisan opportunist that some had feared.

And that's his problem with the right. Jessica McBride, an Ann Coulter wannabe whose husband lost the GOP primary for AG to Van Hollen, wrote:

Wisconsin State Journal praises Van Hollen for not being a "right-wing ideologue"

With all due respect, the only problem with that analysis is that he PROMISED to be a right-wing ideologue.

I think it's a gubernatorial strategy.

Van Hollen was grilled Wednesday on Charlie Sykes' conservative talk show on WTMJ-AM in Milwaukee. Sykes likes hunting RINOs (Republicans In Name Only), and seems to have Van Hollen in his sights.

WisPolitics, an online political news site, reported to its subscribers:

Van Hollen said that his conservative political philosophy can direct his policy. But he doesn't let it dictate his decisions regardless of the law, because he said that's what the left does.

Sykes also questioned [him] about "letting Doyle off the hook" regarding the sale of the Kewaunee nuclear power plant, to which Van Hollen replied, "That's the thing, Charlie, there is no hook." Van Hollen said that the Department of Justice investigated Doyle thoroughly and found no wrongdoing.

During the fall campaign, Republicans had tried to link contributions to Doyle by utility executives with state approval of the sale of a nuclear power plant. Van Hollen said there was no substance to those charges, much to the chagrin of the rabid right.

Back to WisPolitics:

Van Hollen also defended his opinion that Wisconsin's partial-birth abortion law isn't enforceable because of differences in that statute and a federal ban that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

"I would love to come out and say that abortion is illegal and you can't practice that any more. ... But the reality is that it is legal," Van Hollen said.

Van Hollen stressed that he's striving to make his administration an example that the Republican Party is the party of integrity...

Following the interview, Sykes said that "for a lot of conservatives, Van Hollen is still on the bubble," and he hopes that the attorney general has not been "seduced by the white wine crowd in Madison."

When Democrat Peg Lautenschlager held the office the last four years, Republicans complained loudly and regularly that she was an "activist" attorney general who let her own political beliefs take her beyond the law.

That is exactly what the same lynch mob is now complaining that Van Hollen is not doing.

UPDATE: Repubs keep piling on.