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As a rule, members of the news media are professional cynics. Their job is the collection, organization and examination of new facts. In most events, the cynical pose serves them well. Their employers, after all, are usually men and women invested in the status quo. New initiatives are to be welcomed with a skeptical eye, if at all.

“How do we build a more democratic society?”

Vice-presidential candidate Matt Gonzalez is standing before a crowd of nearly 500 and asking that question. And now he’s answering it.

I don’t know what to make of the scene here in Denver. There are too many scenes.

Tens of thousands of riot police deployed throughout the Denver metro area, patrolling the Qdobas, McDonalds and strip malls for miles around, keeping an eye out for crusty punks with anarchist tendencies, seemingly oblivious to the Neo-Nazis leafleting parked cars with flyers promising solutions to the “Negro Problem.”

They say no good deed ever goes unpunished. And so I say to former UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley, though I know he will grit his teeth to hear it, “Thank you.”

Late Thursday night I received a phone message from Matt Nelson, an old comrade from student activism in the 90s: “You won’t believe what Wiley wrote in the upcoming issue of Madison Magazine!”

Matt is right. I don’t believe it.

Driving down to O’Hare early morning, bound for Denver, my wife and I had the radio on, listening for campaign news.

“This is it, this is the moment”

Pause. The suspense builds.

“The announcement is coming.”

Pause. We’re getting excited now.

“And here it is.”

And then, we hear the strains of triumph. Chords building on each other, violinists pounding their bows, french horns heralding the new age.

First, for six years, I was a card-carrying Democrat.

Then, with 1992, in came the Clintons. In came NAFTA, the federal death penalty, invasions of Somalia and Serbia, abortion rights rollbacks, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, DOMA, WTO, and the corporatization of welfare.

Out of the Democratic Party went I.

In 1996, the choice between Clinton and Dole made me Ralph. (Sorry, Mr. Michael Moore, you got that quip from me, and I got the bumpersticker to prove it).

Congratulations, Mark Pocan! Congrats are also in order for Therese Berceau, Joe Parisi, Mark Miller, and Fred Risser. If your luck holds out, you may already have won... reelection.

The state filing deadline for candidates for the November ballot is Tuesday, July 8th. As of Independence Day, with just days to spare, the Madison area delegation to the state legislature is unopposed.

I previously noted Bill O'Reilly's inability to tell a centrist from a leftist, his attempts to link Obama to the radical left, and his personal disaffection for the city of Madison.

There seems to be some confusion about who the "radical left" is. At least, Bill O'Reilly seems confused -- now there's a news flash.

Earlier last week week, the Fox pundit inveighed against the "threat to America" represented by the "radical left" gathered in the Twin Cities last weekend for the National Conference on Media Reform. And just who were these "leftist extremists?"

Bill Moyers...
Dan Rather...
Senator Amy Klobuchar...

Everyone is talking about Biddy Martin, the next UW-Madison chancellor. After seven years of the gray chancellor, David Ward, and another seven of the combative John Wiley, the word on most Badgers’ lips is “change.” The hope is that Biddy Martin will be the agent of that change, and not a moment too soon, since Bucky is in big trouble.