Wisconsin Mayor Apologizes for Calling Rep. Sean Duffy a Moron, Should Have Said 'Charlatan' Instead

By Madeleine Davies  |  December 8, 2016 | 9:45pm
Politics

After a Fox News appearance during which former Real World cast member and current Wisconsin congressman Sean Duffy called state capitol Madison a “progressive, liberal, communist community,” Duffy and Madison Mayor Paul Soglin—taking a break from displacing the city’s homeless population—have gotten into a deliciously petty war of words. You can take the boy out of reality TV, but you can’t take the reality TV out of the boy…

Speaking with frat boy gone to seed Tucker Carlson on Fox News last week, Duffy derided the Wisconsin election recount, saying, “We only have one county that’s hand-counting the votes, that’s Dane County which is the home of Madison, it’s the progressive, liberal, communist community of Madison. They’re taking as long as they can.”

Later, Wisconsin Second District Representative Mark Pocan decried Duffy’s remarks:

“It’s not the way we’ve operated in Wisconsin,” Pocan said on his YouTube page. “We’ve tried to work together well across party lines, and if he’s going to try to ‘Trump-ize’ Wisconsin I think that’s going to be a really bad day for how federal relations work and how we can benefit the state.”

Then, because this is how political discourse goes these days, Duffy took to Twitter, arguing that Pocan and U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin should publicly denounce the recount:

He also doubled down on his disparagement of Madison:

Now, I’m no fan of Sean Duffy, but I will say—as someone born and bred in Madison, WI—that this is a sick and accurate burn.

But the story doesn’t end there! Enter Mayor Paul Soglin:

“For years I’ve been listening to morons like Representative Duffy, who are resentful of the fact that Madison is Wisconsin’s economic engine,” the mayor—a messy bitch who loves drama—stated in response to Duffy. Oh, shit.

Asked if he’d apologize to Duffy for (accurately) calling him a moron, Soglin released the following statement—on official Office of the Mayor letterhead—earlier this morning:

I apologize to Congressman Duffy for referring to him as a moron. I should have said he is a liar and a charlatan.

Welp. Politics are terrible, but at least this feud is very funny.

 
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