In its editorial endorsing Republican Ron Johnson over self-described maverick Sen. Russ Feingold (D), The Beloit Daily News takes a sledgehammer to Feingold’s favorite talking point:

There may be no greater indicator from the Atlantic to the Pacific this year of the full measure of dissatisfaction Americans are feeling toward their national government — Russ Feingold is in trouble.
It seems like just the other day liberal Democrats were talking up a possible Feingold run for the presidency, touting both his progressive history and his occasional willingness to go sideways against his party. Feingold always has brought forth those maverick occasions at election time, as evidence that he’s not a lockstep my-party-right-or-wrong kind of guy.
And, frankly, we have admired those sideways votes.
Still, the truth is that while those votes served Feingold well in election years, they came when the die already was cast and the outcome was not in doubt. Here’s a better measure of Feingold’s service in Congress: The liberal Americans for Democratic Action organization’s ratings show Feingold voted for their position 95 percent of the time in 2009.