In a heated exchange at an August Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Editorial Board meeting, reporter Dan Bice told U.S. Senatorial candidate Tommy Thompson that he had devolved from a "pragmatist" to an "ideologue" and asked when he made the change:
Dan Bice: I've known you for 20 years. You and I go back a long way. When I first met you, everybody considered you a pragmatist. When there was a problem, you used government to come up with a solution: Badger Care.... I mean, you mentioned that there are three entitlement programs-- that's a fourth; You would work with the unions... you worked on collective bargaining deals with Marty Beal... I remember the two of you standing side by side saying we cut a deal... something you'll never see with Scott Walker; I can remember when you thought the roads needed to be fixed and you tried to push through a gas tax increase; and you worked with Democrats to do W2... worked with Walter Kiniki. You were a pragmatist. You used government to come up with solutions. In this race, you're an ideologue. Someone that's saying 'I won't raise taxes, I repeal this, I'll repeal that' when exactly did you make this change from being the pragmatist, who liked to use government to solve things and now to someone who's...
Amazingly, Thompson then interupts Bice, but his point of contention with Bice isn't that he is an ideologue, but that he was never a pragmatist, saying "I had to work with the Democrats": (Note: Thompson confuses, Bice with Lee Berquist another reporter at the paper.)
Tommy Thompson: Lee, you're mistating history. You're mistating history. I have never given up being a conservative. If you remember correctly, I was always an individual that was mischaracterized. When I ran for governor, you and this paper said I was too conservative to get elected. My moniker was Dr. No. Also, you compared me to Scott Walker: Big difference. Scott Walker had big majorities of his own political party in both houses of the legislature. I never had a majority until I went out and was able to campaign on picking up 2/3 of the cost of education so we could give the people property tax relief. So I had to... in order to govern, I had to work with the Democrats. I didn't give up my principles.
This is all, of course, in stark contrast to the recent spin by Thompson that Baldwin is the ideologue and that he, on the other hand, would "forge bipartisan relations" in the U.S. Senate in order to "get things done."
Here's the video: