Republican Gov. Scott Walker has been steadily making himself less popular in Wisconsin, so much so that he is now potentially vulnerable to a recall campaign, which could theoretically be launched six months from now.

I’ve been reviewing the docket on Thomas Drake’s case to see whether it touches on the privacy concerns Drake had about NSA’s post-9/11 activities.

It appears it doesn’t. . . .

Russ Feingold may be well-positioned to return to the US Senate if he chooses, now that Herb Kohl has retired. A normal politician in that position would not make waves with any party leaders, or take up principled causes where both parties have failed. Feingold is not that normal politician. The Hill reports that he publicly shamed several Democrats in an email to supporters of his new organization, Progressives United. But they don’t make clear what the fuss is about.

Paul Ryan will not take his Randian vision to the US Senate, staying in his leadership position as Chair of the House Budget Committee rather than run for the seat vacated by Sen. Herb Kohl. Ryan’s association with the deeply unpopular Medicare privatization plan would have been a very difficult hurdle for him in a statewide race and may even haunt him in his district, although he may get bailed out by the redistricting process. That is, as long as Republicans finish redistricting before Democrats take over the state Senate post-recalls, which isn’t all that likely. So it’s possible for Ryan to have a real House race on his hands next year, too.

As for the Senate seat, it looks like Tommy Thompson will take a run at it.

Two new Democratic groups, Priorities USA and Priorities USA Action, will spend up to $100 million in the Presidential election cycle to defend President Obama, and in so doing will accept undisclosed donations.

Progressives United is a very new formulation for former Senator Russ Feingold. With all the tumult in his backyard over Scott Walker and the unions, it was natural that would be an early focus. But I think it’s interesting that he went here for his first campaign outside that.

The New York Times liberated the specific answer to a question that Russ Feingold asked in March 2009, but which the Department of Justice didn’t respond to until November 2010, when Feingold was a lame duck Senator. At issue were new investigative guidelines Attorney General Michael Mukasey issued in late 2008, on his way out the door, which allowed the FBI to investigate Americans for First Amendment reasons so long as that First Amendment reason was not the only reason they were being investigated.

As I have noted before, there are a number of paragraphs in the May 6, 2004 Goldsmith memo authorizing warrantless wiretapping that appear to be badly overclassified. Not only were many of the same paragraphs printed, almost verbatim, in unclassified fashion, in the White Paper released in January 2006. But many of those paragraphs contain nothing more than discussions of published statute.

Former Senator Russ Feingold, now the head of Progressives United, a new organization dedicated to fighting the corporate takeover of government, will make his first appearance at a Netroots Nation conference, delivering the opening keynote on Thursday, June 16 in Minneapolis.

If the election between Walker and Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett were held today, Barrett would win 52-45, mainly because Walker is losing Republican union voters