I say ‘would-be’ because Rep. Clark (who is running against incumbent Wisconsin Senator Luther Olsen in the upcoming recall election) doesn’t have the nerve to say things like the below to a constituent’s face:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9llMq4QRkoU[/youtube]

FC: “Ok.  I feel like calling her back and smacking her around.”

Nope!  Clark’s much more comfortable with waiting until he thinks that she’s off the phone, and only then playing tough-guy.  Which is how people like this operate, of course.  I don’t know where the character quote (which I probably mangled, anyway) came from, originally, but it’s true: the best way to find out how a person really acts is to somehow observe him or her when there’s nobody else around.  Good thing that Wisconsin voters got an earful, huh?

More here: and remember, Fred Clark is supposedly a hardworking and progressive legislator.  At least, by Wisconsin Democratic standards.  Which apparently are sufficiently low that reacting this badly to the intolerable affront of being hung up on doesn’t exclude people like Clark from consideration for higher office.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Luther Olsen for WI-SEN, and the rest of the Republican recall candidates.