Wisconsin Senators in Shutdown Debate

I just emailed the following Letter to the Editor to The Wisconsin State Journal:

A nonpartisan lament:  as I was watching Senators conferring in the hour that led up to the government shutdown, it struck me that neither of Wisconsin’s Senators appeared to be a meaningful player in the debate.  Sen. Baldwin – if, given the grainy images of the Senate’s cameras, it was indeed her wearing a red top and dark slacks – simply meandered around groups of Senators engaged in animated discussions; I didn’t see Sen. Johnson participate even that much, until the Republicans put him in the presiding officer’s chair to declare the impasse.  If the impressions I gathered from watching the Senate scene are accurate, it was a disappointing (lack of) contribution by both, given Wisconsin’s illustrious history of sending Senators to Washington that were difference makers.