I mean, if you don’t have a good attack line about Russ Feingold…

The Republican party of Wisconsin said:

Last week, while Russ Feingold was silent on the issue, hundreds of Wisconsin workers dodged a bullet when the federal government reversed a decision that would have forced Bucyrus International to scale back and slash jobs.

But the CEO of Bucyrus, Timothy Sullivan, who is probably in a better position to know said:

It has come to our attention that the Republican Party of Wisconsin has issued a statement saying that Senator Russ Feingold was silent on Bucyrus’ effort to obtain U.S. Export-Import Bank approval of the loan guarantee for the sale of machinery to India. The facts do not support this assertion.

So much for the Republican Party of Wisconsin’s bold statement.

He goes on to say that Senator Russ Feingold was very helpful to Bucyrus’ efforts to keep jobs in Wisconsin (and that others were helpful too). It’s only July and the Republican party is already pulling out some dubious attack lines against Russ Feingold. I wonder what other nonsense they are going to try and come up with?

Russ Feingold’s office also responded:

“Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus is choosing to ignore the facts when it comes to Senator Feingold’s efforts on behalf of Bucyrus and hundreds of Wisconsin workers. On June 1, 2010, Senator Feingold wrote to the Export-Import Bank in support of the proposed loan guarantee that would benefit Bucyrus. After the Export-Import Bank’s initial rejection of the loan guarantee, Senator Feingold wrote Fred Hochberg, President and Chairman of the Export-Import Bank, and called on the bank to reconsider its decision regarding to deny the loan guarantee. In his June 28 letter, Feingold wrote of the bank’s decision that it ‘would be tragic to miss this opportunity for bolstering employment.’