Ron Kind silent about party’s future

Ron Kind is being a bit coy. The La Crosse Congressman would prefer to keep certain things confidential. Like how he voted in the election of House Minority Leader. Kind refuses to say how he voted in the contest between Nancy Pelosi and her challenger, Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan. Pelosi won that secret-ballot vote, and the right to remain Minority Leader. But it was hardly a shoe-in. Ryan captured 63 votes to Pelosi’s 134. Those who voted for change reminded fellow democrats that their party got creamed in the last election, from the top of the ticket on down. But Kind won’t say how he voted. A spokeswoman says that’s because “this is exactly the type of inside-Washington politics that Wisconsinites are sick of hearing about.” Really? Why the secrecy? Explaining who he wants to lead his party in Washington is somehow inside Washington? People deserve to know how Kind voted. Does he want to see the party move more to the center or stay far left? Kind won’t say. He is not bound to, given that this election was on a secret ballot. But keeping things secret seems much more like the kind of Washington politics that Wisconsinites are really sick of than simply telling us who he thinks should hold his party’s most powerful position.