“We feel like the Rodney Dangerfield of Senate races.”

There’s been a lot of talk about “The Stench” surrounding Mitt Romney’s campaign. Pete Hoekstra’s campaign is in such a bad way, nobody is really even talking about it anymore. A campaign official actually told The Nation, “We feel like the Rodney Dangerfield of Senate races.”

There’s good reason for that: the Hoekstra campaign doesn’t get no respect because it doesn’t deserve no respect.

How little respect is Hoekstra getting? In addition to the big Super PAC money leaving the state, he’s now down by 16 points in recent polling. The Rothenberg Political Report has moved the race from “Democrat Favored” to “Currently Safe” for Democrats.

Hoekstra left the starting gate in February tripping over himself with his hideous, xenophobic “Yellow Girl” Superbowl ad. Since then, his efforts have not really improved. His most recent foray into lametude calls his Democratic opponent “The Worst Senator”. He now has a online ad that has two people in a bar argument about why Stabenow is “the worst senator”. When a ref jumps in to make a field ruling declaring both are correct, the narrator/bartender shrugs and says, “he’s a replacement ref”.

I know. I don’t get it either. Just like I don’t get the GOPocrisy about union refs after Republicans have spent so much time in the past decades trying to destroy unions.

But, Pete’s not admitting defeat. Heck no! He claims that “as people start to focus and as we’re able to get our message out there, we can close that gap and we’re going to win.”

It’s sort of pathetic, really. I supposed he HAS to say that in public. But the truth is, as time goes on and people learn more about Pete Hoekstra and his “message”, the less they like him. It’s not surprising. His message is basically “Don’t vote for Debbie Stabenow. Because.” And every attempt that he makes to get that message out seems more embarrassing and lame than the last.

Pete, you don’t get no respect, sir, because you don’t deserve no respect.

UPDATE: The Livingston County Press & Argus website isn’t giving Hoekstra any love, either. Do a search on their site and they ask you if you mean “huckster”: