Joel Kleefisch (R-Oconomowoc)
Wisconsinites wrap up 2012 with top five lists of their choosing. This one reviews the impact of state Republicans, including Tommy Thompson, Paul Ryan and Joel Kleefisch.
5. Watching the once-invincible Tommy Thompson take a hard right turn and careen over the cliff to a U.S. Senate defeat by U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Madison).
4. Putting U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Janesville) on the GOP national ticket to help carry swing-state Wisconsin, only to see Obama-Biden win Wisconsin and romp in Janesville.
3. Sowing the seeds for longtime trouble by willfully shutting Ojibwe bands out of bill-writing aimed to allow open-pit iron mining on the doorstep of treaty-protected land and water.
2. Proposing a hunting season for sandhill cranes that avid hunter and state Rep. Joel Kleefisch (R-Oconomowoc) described as "the rib-eye of the sky."
1. Anticipating a wolf hunt so exciting that Kleefisch imagined the animals already "marinating."
James Rowen blogs at The Political Environment.
