Stay classy, Oshkosh.

“You are a (expletive) loser,” Hintz wrote in a May 28 private message to Carver Siewert, a conservative business owner and onetime friend from Oshkosh. Hintz finished by calling Siewert an “(expletive).”

Siewert responded by dropping his own f-bombs and ordering Hintz to call his cell phone. Siewert wrote that he had already been in touch with an attorney about the incident.

[…]

Unfortunately, the Facebook thread that sparked the exchange has apparently been deleted by Hintz, who has declined to discuss the matter.

According to Siewert, the whole thing started when Hintz posted an item about the impact of not expanding Medicaid funding in the state. Siewert, a frequent Hintz critic, blasted the post, prompting someone else to call Siewert “sleazy.”

Siewert then pointed the finger at Hintz, saying he was the sleazy one for being ticketed for sexual misconduct at Heavenly Touch Massage Parlor in Appleton in 2011. Siewert also called out Hintz for shouting at a fellow legislator, “You’re (expletive) dead,” during the Act 10 controversy years ago.

That appeared to set off Hintz, who attacked Siewert, owner of Siewert Painting & Specialty Finishes, on Facebook and in private.

“He was just trying to smear my name,” Siewert said.

And there’s plenty of material there. Siewert has a spotty police record, including a misdemeanor bail-jumping and three drunken-driving convictions. He said he and Hintz used to be friends but now are simply acquaintances. The two went to high school together.

Wow. What a statement about the character and direction of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.

Hintz, a member of the Legislature’s budget-writing committee who also had been considering a run for governor, urged his colleagues on Tuesday to stop focusing on divisions within the party and present a united front against Republican-backed policies and Gov. Scott Walker.

[…]

Hintz, 43, has been in the state Assembly since 2006 and is a vocal critic of Walker and the Republican Legislature’s approach to road funding, K-12 education and tax policy. He entered the Assembly the same year he appeared in the documentary “Air Guitar Nation,” which documented the first time the U.S. competed in the Air Guitar World Championships.

Heh. Seems appropriate.

The 43-year-old sits on the Joint Finance Committee and has been a key Assembly Dem voice on the budget and other issues. But he also faced a difficult re-election in 2014 as Republicans targeted him over a 2011 citation at a massage parlor that was later shut down for prostitution.

Hitnz’s announcement comes the day after Barca, D-Kenosha, announced he would resign at month’s end.

The state GOP immediately hit Hintz over the 2011 citation as well as yelling, “You’re (expletive) dead!” at then-GOP Rep. Michelle Litjens during the floor debate on Act 10.