Someone Take Away Terry Moulton's Car Keys

In what’s supposed to be a good year for Republican candidates, it seems the best advice you can give to a few them is to just stay home.  Ride the political wave… from your easy chair.  Avoid travel. Let Vox Popoli speak for you.  Or if you absolutely must go someplace, for the love of God, keep your mouth shut lest you put your foot in it. 
 
The more Terry Moulton speaks, the more his party bosses must wince in Madison.
 
His “Reel in Spending” tour was supposed to be a pre-election victory lap.  But in Marshfield, he told the newspaper he saw “nothing wrong” with across the board cuts to Medicaid.  It didn’t take Democrats long to seize on Moulton now having a way to pay for restoring corporate tax loopholes and tax breaks for Ron Johnson and everyone else making a quarter million dollars a year: just cut Gramma’s health care, or anyone who just got laid off and needs to see a doctor.  Wince.
 
In Stratford he talked all about a company called Omega Thermo and how it was going to create jobs in Texas because Wisconsin was such an evil place to do business.  This is when the wheels fell off the “Reel in Spending” tour bus.  Instead of the wet sloppy kiss he’d been expecting from all the local newspapers, the one in Stratford featured a company executive from Omega saying they were doing just fine, thank you, and the Stratford jobs weren’t going anywhere.
 
Lesson still not learned, Moulton traveled to a candidate forum in Loyal where he was asked if he favored increasing the sales tax to help increase funding for schools.  His opponent, Sen. Pat Kreitlow, said no, not without accompanying property tax relief.  Moulton said yes, he could see himself supporting a sales tax increase… but he’d rather see more cuts to education first!  It was the classic lose-lose answer: I could increase your taxes, especially on struggling families through the regressive sales tax on stuff you need to get by, but I’d rather cut your kids’ schools further first.  Again, did I mention I want to restore tax breaks to corporations and the wealthy?  At some point, wincing is replaced by gnashing teeth.
 
Somehow, Moulton was allowed to attend a transportation forum in Eau Claire where he was asked if he could support toll roads.  Mr. Reel in Spending said… yes.  He quickly remembered his anti-government DNA required a disclaimer that the tolls have to be collected by private industry, no government workers in those toll booths.  But sure, Joe Middleclass, you can pay extra to use the roads to get to work… if you have a job.  And we’ll hike the sales tax on your next shopping trip to feed and clothe your family.  And we’ll cut your elderly mother’s health care benefits.  But it’s the Democrats who are the taxers?  The Democrats who kept the sales tax the same, kept the gas tax the same and left the income tax alone for everyone making less than a quarter-million a year, those are who the voters should fear?
 
The fear for Republicans is that Terry might leave the house again.  If the GOP bosses are smart, they’ll barricade his driveway, drop off a DVR and tell him to catch up on back episodes of “Glee” for the next two weeks