Brian Hagedorn, desperate cheap shot artist

You either failed Candidate School 101 or have a surplus of grubby insensitivity if you'r running for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court being vacated by Shirley Abrahamson, its most iconic and senior incumbent who is also battling cancer, and slam her judicial integrity.

But that's what Brian Hagedorn managed to do by attacking opponent Lisa Neubauer during a debate through character assassination-by-association:

Just minutes after opening statements, Hagedorn turned to Neubauer's past praise of Abrahamson...

When Neubauer said she would be a justice with "no thumb on the scale," Hagedorn noted Neubauer looks up to Abrahamson, who he said "does have her thumb on the scale."

"I could tell you how that justice was going to vote on every single case that I (had)," Hagedorn said about arguing cases before the Supreme Court when he was chief legal counsel for former Gov. Scott Walker. 

Because there are legions of Wisconsinites who also look up to Abrahamson for her record-setting and trail-blazing 43-year high court tenure, and have been disgusted by the way the conservative Republicans went out of their way to demean and diminish her, I predict Hagedorn's tactic will backfire.

Plenty of voters will cast ballots for Neubauer even if they have to walk through a spring blizzard or row a boat through a flood to get to their polling places next week to make sure the right's hand on the scales of justice doesn't get any heavier.