The WisDems' 'Unity Breakfast' Is a Gift to Tom Tiffany

A "unity breakfast" is a funny thing to throw right after your party spent months pretending there was a real ideological fight happening in that primary. David Crowley squeaks past Francesca Hong and suddenly everybody's at the same table with orange juice, acting like the "moderate versus socialist" storyline was just a rough draft that got cleaned up once the votes came in. It wasn't a battle for the soul of the party. It was theater, and the breakfast is the tell.

Tom Tiffany doesn't need to say much about this one. He just needs to point at the photo. Wisconsin Democrats can spend all the primary season they want dressing Hong up as the insurgent and Crowley up as the safe pair of hands, but the second the cameras leave, they're back to being one operation with one set of donors and one set of talking points. Voters who were told this was a meaningful choice between two visions for the state are watching the "opposing" candidates break bread together like nothing happened, because nothing did.

That's the part that should bother people more than it does. If the primary was real, you don't need a unity breakfast the next morning. You need one when everybody already knew where this was headed and just needed the base to feel like it had a say. Crowley gets to keep the moderate label for the general, Hong gets to keep her progressive credibility for next time, and the party gets both audiences without ever actually resolving the argument between them.

Republicans running in Wisconsin should use this exactly the way it's being handed to them. Every time a Democrat claims their party has a moderate wing that keeps the socialists in check, point to the breakfast table. It's hard to run as the moderate alternative when you're photographed toasting the person you supposedly just beat back..