WASHINGTON -- Facing a tight re-election battle, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) on Thursday got an "endorsement" from Lord Business -- the villain from "The Lego Movie," which Johnson once characterized as "propaganda" against business owners.
The endorsement -- shared exclusively with The Huffington Post -- was a setup from the campaign of Johnson's Democratic opponent, former Sen. Russ Feingold, to highlight an issue of contention between the two candidates: the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
On Thursday, a staffer dressed as Lord Business went to Johnson's Milwaukee office to offer his endorsement -- on the condition that he come out in favor of President Barack Obama's trade agreement. Feingold opposes TPP, while Johnson has yet to declare a position, claiming he wants to read the full text of the deal before making a decision.
However, Johnson voted last year to give Obama "fast-track authority" to authorize trade negotiations with limited congressional oversight -- a vote that Feingold has been quick to point out.
Trade is a major issue in the Wisconsin Senate race, where voters are concerned that TPP could jeopardize the state's manufacturing jobs. The progressive Feingold, whom Johnson ousted from the Senate during the tea party wave in the 2010 elections, came out against the deal last May, calling it "a raw deal for Wisconsin families."
"We want to encourage exporting Wisconsin products — not Wisconsin jobs," he said in February.
Feingold has touted his long-standing opposition to trade deals, including his vote against NAFTA in the 1990s, and has made the negative effects of free trade the subject of prior campaign ads.
Johnson, a businessman, has supported previous U.S. trade deals, arguing that free trade "lifts all boats" and would create jobs. His campaign criticized Feingold's position against TPP, calling it an attempt to score "cheap political points by condemning this deal before he'd even read it."
As for why Lord Business and "The Lego Movie" are relevant to the race, Johnson last year claimed the film is "insidious" anti-capitalist propaganda against business owners because it depicts Lord Business as an evil executive destroying the world for profit.
“I actually called a gentleman, it was a couple months ago, he was so upset, he took his children to an animated movie ... guess who the villain was? Evil Mr. Businessperson. It’s insidious. That propaganda starts very early,” Johnson said.
When The Huffington Post's Ryan Grim wrote about the incident, Johnson responded on his blog, musing that “some liberal writer at The Huffington Post ... can’t seem to figure out why I or anyone else would say this about ‘The Lego Movie,’ and he insinuates some kind of conspiracy.”
Last August, the blog post became the subject of an ethics complaint from a Democratic watchdog group because it was featured on Johnson's Senate website and then mysteriously deleted, along with a few other posts targeting Feingold. The Senate Ethics Manual states that senators and staff members cannot use Senate Internet “for personal, promotional, commercial, or partisan political purposes.”
On Friday, Feingold's campaign will feature the "endorsement" in an email to supporters, fashioned as a letter addressed to Johnson "from the desk of Lord Business."
"We haven’t officially met, but I know you’re familiar with my work in 'The Lego Movie,'" the letter reads. "Truth be told, I see a lot of myself in you, which is why it meant so much to me when you stuck up for me after the Lego Movie. I agree, 'The Lego Movie' really was part of an 'insidious' campaign of 'propaganda' against business owners. People like you and me have to stick together!"
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