Wisconsin: GOP Puppetmasters earn A+ Grade

[Scuba]

http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/madison_360/article_0893fc6a-bb87-11e0-8a4b-001cc4c03286.html

Excellent article summing up the Republicans strategies to date.

..snip..


One way or another, this month's recall elections will give us metrics on the unwavering hard right politics of Gov. Scott Walker and fellow Republicans in the Legislature. But for another group, the unseen puppet masters who authored this year's grand governing strategy, the mark already must be an A+. That's because even if Democrats retake the state Senate in recall elections, the damage done will take years to unwind.

Rep. Peter Barca of Kenosha, minority leader of Assembly Democrats, recalls a conversation last fall amid a series of campaign appearances before Realtor groups. Rep. Robin Vos, the Rochester Republican who now co-chairs the Joint Finance Committee, foreshadowed 2011. "I can remember after one of those sessions, he said to me, 'Peter, it's looking good for us and bad for you. If we get the control, we're going for broke,' " he recalls Vos saying. 'We are going to push the envelope.'" Barca adds: "I remember going to my car and thinking, what does that mean exactly?"

Now he knows: "Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine they were talking about this far on every single issue," he tells me in a conversation in my office.

Or consider Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, the Democrat who lost to Walker, saying it was a full month after his defeat, at a press club luncheon, when Walker first talked about decertifying public employee unions. "Wow, that didn't get mentioned" during the race, Barrett told me he was thinking.

..end..

[liberalla]

1. I never would've imagined an agenda so rabidly right wing and drastic, either.

"We will see this month if Democrats are able to make the case that Republicans' real goal is not reinventing Wisconsin's collapsing manufacturing economy, but instead to further concentrate wealth and power in the hands of the few, to make Wisconsin a sort of Mississippi of the north, unfettered by organized labor influences that, while imperfect, lift wages, benefits and working conditions for all.

"I don't think, overall, we have won that argument," says Barca.

The GOP cabal's over-arching strategy is greedy, cynical and — to date at least — seems to be working."
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I can't believe how blatantly crooked they've been. They're not hiding anymore. It's right in your face. I'm sure the Repugs have got more dirty tricks up their sleeves... like the AFP WI ballots and the We Are Wisconsin fire. (I know it hasn't been officially attributed to the pukes, but what do you wanna bet?)

[helderheid]

2. K&r