Any signs of abandoned residences, CD? I figured there might be a caravan of refuges heading for the Illinois border early this morning.

That's probably not far from the truth. There are a lot of rental properties in Shorewood--I'm thinking that there are going to be a lot of 'for rent' signs going up soon...

@CowDung & Bob McBride...To all my conservative adversaries, congratulations on your convincing win. As I predicted; now was not the time to recall the governor. Many things should be learned from this failed exercise; when the Democratic leadership is compared to their Republican counterparts, the Democrats' continually display an amateurishness that must be addressed. Also, the Democrats can't continually recycle the same old candidates and expect a different outcome. As one looks into the future, who have the Democrats groomed for the future; I see no one.

I will continue to remain a member of the loyal opposition and move to bring a balance of power back to the state. Again, congratulations!

Thank you Lyle.

I agree completely with your assessment of the recall effort. Tate and Zielinski likely did more harm than good for the cause.

Perhaps you should submit your resume to take their place. They honestly can use a guy like you...

@Lyle... The 'balance' of power did change, the Senate flipped to Democratic control.

No reason for congratulations, Lyle. Pondering the immense waste of time and resources - not to mention the emotional damage - wrought by this senseless, divisive and pointless recall effort doesn't produce much in the way to celebrate.

There also will be no "healing" anytime in the near future - that's readily apparent. Those who insisted this election be held are now crying foul because, once again, they didn't get their way. And unfortunately there's too much gloating going on from the other side as well.

The only positive is a short respite from the too-frequent election cycles brought on in large part by our ridiculous recall provision. That needs to change, lest short memories decide to utilize it for purely political purposes once again.

@CowDung...Thanks for the compliment, but I'm not a Democrat and I wouldn't want to get involved in such a huge mess. I would just as soon remain independent and criticize both parties.

Thank you, Lyle. I'm just sorry we all had to go thru this 3x for the left to realize its not their time ( to put it kindly). Maybe now the public unions and esp the teachers union will realize if they don't modernize, their trend of losing members will further accelerate and thet will become even more irrelevant than they are now (if poss.)

I truely believe the antics of the far left just plain pissed off the silent majority in the state. You can't expect the "Hippie Circus" that is Madison to play well to the rest of the state outside Dane and Milwaukee.... And it didn't. Too many of us equated the Madison antics with the Occupy fools and voted a resounding " Hell No !". Only the true nuts will keep whining " WeWasRobbed" ( talking about you Mist, Randy and Herr Schmitz, etc.). Follow Lyle's lead and be mature. At least Shorewood now has Screamin' Gwen Moore to lead it in song, so there is a "silver lining"

I kinda figured that you have too much integrity for a career in politics, Lyle...

@Jay Sykes...I'm not counting the 21st Senate District as a win. It will be recounted and it's possible that the incumbent could become the winner. Even if the Democrats win the seat, it will be only until the results of the elections of November are known, and it could all change again. The only thing for certain is that the Democrats need to get used to being a minority party for awhile.

I didn't mean to seem ungrateful for the words, Lyle. Very big of you - as usual. Much appreciated.

@Lyle Ruble... Here Again, when someone(CD in this case) refers to you as as a Democrat, you respond with you're a 'Social Democrat'. While you have blogged about being a 'Social Democrat', when it comes to actually voting,within our two party system, what exactly does that mean?

Frankly, based on your writing, I'd assume you vote with the Democrats more than 70% of the time. I'm not sure why you eschew the label; especially here in Wisconsin, as we don't require one to register political affiliations.

Notably on the other hand, I don't know why Nick, whom only touts the virtue of Democrats, wears the Republican label emblazoned across his chest.

@Jay Sykes...You are correct that recently most of my votes have been for Democratic candidates. However, nationally I have supported socialist candidates and independents.

Democrats share many of my views, but often come up short on the issues that are the most important to me. Single payer healthcare is one of my big issues. I know many Democrats want to keep it as a private service provider, and I do not. It is too important to the viability of the overall nation to leave it to the forces that are taking us toward bankruptcy.

"Stupid is what Stupid does"

Lyle:

While I don't support the ad hominem attacks, I do think that Keith does bring a lot of that upon himself. His posts tend more toward vitriol rather than reason, it's pretty understandable that he's going to get some of that vitriol directed back at him...

Lyle, if the shoe was on the other foot and we were looking at a Barrett victory, you know as well as anyone else does that he'd be here ripping everyone on the other side a new one. He may work hard, but here he's a JA and he pretty much gets what he deserves.

Herr Scmitz a "decent guy"? Yea, and the Easter Bunny is real. This is the guy who continually called republicans "brownshirts". All others deserve break, not our very own "Chrome Dome" (that's one of his favorite insults). And we all know about his shady dealings with Shorewoods $35K.

His performance on Channel 4 last nite only confirms his place as the most ridiculed man on Patch.

While I first thought much of what Keith wrote was an attempt at humor and I tried to read it with the best of intentions. The fact that he continues to write in that style, after it has been pointed out numerous times, would indicate to me that he is intentionally mean spirited. I wish I had seen the CH4 news cut to get a feel for the way he presents himself, as a contrast to the way he writes.

Lyle dispenses a lot of common sense above....and then he breaks the string by defending KS. To say that he "takes the brunt of ad hominem attacks" is to get the picture turned upside down.

Agree...but you need to stop defending this guy. He's not worth the effort. He's burned WAY to many bridges. Does anyone really think he's not going to come out firing all his inane, nasty, filthy insults any moment now. If you want to maintain your credibility, Lyle , disassociate yourself from Schmitz.

Lyle I must agree with you. I am guilty as well for taking shots at Kieth. If you remember, we had an issue between us at one time too. I will play nice with Keith after he settles up with Hoffa. You were right about the timing of the election :-)

@Adam McCoy... Maybe Schmitz has been warned about his comments and the Patch regulars have not noticed his improvement? Jason Patzfahl has cleaned up his profanity laced didactic tantrums?

You need to read all his comments on his profile page

@shirley horowitz.... Keith may very well be a great guy;I've seen some some very good interaction with Keith here on the Patch and some,,well,, not so good. I think Keith has lots to offer. Many of his comments,,unfortunately,, are not congruent with your portrait.

As Bewildered said, please read his comments.

This will be my last post on this matter.