Good morning.
Friday in Whitewater will be sunny & breezy with a high of ten. Sunrise is 7:00 AM and sunset 5:17 PM, for 10h 17m 36s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 11.3% of its visible disk illuminated.
Today is the eight hundred twenty-first day.
On this day in 1958, a Wisconsin representative starts a fight in Congress:
Just before the Civil War, the issue of slavery tore apart the U.S. Congress. On February 8, 1858, Wisconsin Rep. John Potter (considered a backwoods hooligan by Southern aristocrats) leaped into a fight on the House floor. When Potter embarrassed a pro-slavery brawler by pulling off his wig, the gallery shouted that he’d taken a Southern scalp. Potter emerged from the melee covered in blood and marked by slave owners as an enemy. Two years later, on April 5, 1860, he accused Virginia Rep. Roger Pryor of falsifying the Congressional record. Pryor, feeling his character impugned, challenged Potter to a duel. According to Southern custom, a person challenged had the right to choose weapons. Potter replied that he would only fight with “Bowie knives in a closed room,” and his Southern challenger beat a hasty retreat. Republican supporters around the nation sent Potter Bowie knives as a tribute, including this six-foot-long one.
Recommended for reading in full:
Molly Beck reports Scott Walker gets a new gig charging up to $25,000 per speech:
Former Republican Gov. Scott Walker has a new gig charging five figures to give speeches about politics and his time in public office in Wisconsin.
Walker announced Thursday he would be joining Worldwide Speakers Group, which coordinates speaking engagements for former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina.
Walker’s speaking fee ranges between $15,000 and $25,000 per engagement. According to the group’s website, Walker’s speech topics include:
- Leadership Lessons: How big, bold reforms work.
- Insights on the current political (and future) landscape in America
- Crisis Management: How to turn a serious challenge into a major opportunity
- Power to the People: Sending resources and responsibilities to the states.
- The Power of Faith in Times of Crisis
(Oh brother: there just aren’t many organizations willing to pay $25,000 for the excitement of watching paint dry.)
Ron Brownstein observes Trump Is Walling Off the GOP:
The strength of his appeal to the white voters most hostile to economic and social change remains a powerful asset, particularly because the Electoral College and two-senator-per-state rule amplify the influence of interior states where those voters are most prevalent. But the magnitude of the GOP’s defeat in House elections last fall suggests the size of the coalition that Trump is potentially solidifying against his party, particularly as the unprecedentedly diverse Millennial and post-Millennial generations grow as a share of the electorate. As [Peter] Wehner noted, “the real problem” Trump is creating for the GOP is that “the very thing that alienates the Republican Party from most of the public is the very thing that energizes most of the base, which is cultural identity and ethnic nationalism.”