Ron Johnson Versus The Legos
Credit: BlueGal aka Fran
May 29, 2015

Ron Johnson once again shows why we Wisconsinites refer to him as "Our Dumb Senator."

RoJo gave a rambling interview to Kay Nolan at WisPolitics.com. In said interview, RoJo went on to say this:

Johnson described the need to streamline the process for large construction projects to obtain permits and overcome environmental hurdles part of an overall fight against laws that hamper economic growth.

He lamented what he called a "cultural attitude" that "government is good and business is bad," giving as an example the animated "LEGO" movie, in which the villain is called "Lord Business."

"That's done for a reason," Johnson said. "They're starting that propaganda, and it's insidious."

It's nice to see RoJo is not afraid to take on people or things bigger than him or smarter than him.

This comment was picked up by Ryan Grim at HuffPo who added the keen insight that RoJo might be taking things a bit personally:

For Johnson, a self-described "rich guy," the offense is also personal. When he jumped into the race in 2010 against incumbent Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold, he said in interviews that his wealth had been called to service by Fox News pundit Dick Morris.

“I was sitting home, watching Fox News, and Dick Morris came on and said… ‘If you’re a rich guy from Wisconsin, step up to the plate,’" Johnson said. "And I kinda looked at [my wife] Jane and go, ‘Is he like talking to me?’”

Johnson has several reasons to be concerned about how people view the rich. While he is often described as a "self-made millionaire," Johnson's wealth actually comes by virtue of marriage. He made his fortune as an executive at a plastics company owned by his father-in-law. Then the company, in a roundabout way, paid for what was referred to in the press as a self-financed campaign in 2010. Johnson spent around $9 million on his campaign; after winning election, the company made a lump sum payment of around $10 million to Johnson.

Indeed, besides the examples cited by Grim, RoJo has a history of championing Big Business over the little people.

When running for office in 2010, RoJo praised the business environment in China as being better than in the U.S. It was later revealed that RoJo had a small fortune invested in companies that were shipping jobs overseas.

RoJo also bemoaned the settlement BP made to help clean up their oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico,saying it was bad for the American economy. What he meant was that it was bad for his portfolio and the hundreds of thousands of dollars he had invested in the oil giant.

But wait! There's more. There's always more.

RoJo decided to respond to Grim's piece - using his official government webpage to do so:

But even if it weren’t for that essay, the point that “The Lego Movie” was an especially grievous slam on business was made by others. For instance, The Weekly Standard, the Economist, the Boston Globe – even the liberal Atlantic and the far-left New Statesman.

The strange thing isn’t that a kids’ movie was anti-business, it is that someone claiming to be a journalist never encountered the idea before.

Speaking for myself, I can't wait until RoJo tears into George Bailey and Clarence Odbody of "It's A Wonderful Life." Then again, we could always hold out hope for RoJo. Even Ebeneezer Scrooge came to see the light.

Either way, we can add this to the list on why RoJo is the most vulnerable senator in 2016.

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