A dispatch to Larry and Vicki on the front lines in Wisconsin

[Mister Ed]

My friends Larry and Vicki are a married couple living in an upscale suburb of Milwaukee. Larry grew up poor in the Great Lakes rustbelt. He's a West Point graduate, a proud Gulf War veteran, and a Progressive to the marrow. Vicki is a quiet, reserved intellectual with the grit and determination of a pit bull. She's not usually what you would call strident or partisan, but when the Iron Curtain fell over Wisconsin, she took to the streets of Madison, and then began working feverishly for her local recall effort.

This morning at 5:30, Larry cc'd me on an e-mail he'd sent to Vicki as she slept. He wrote to thank her, and to congratulate her on all she had done, despite what looked at the time to be a narrow defeat for Kloppenburg. He asked me to weigh in as well. My reply could just as well be my letter of thanks to all of you who have been on the front lines in the Battle of Wisconsin. You know who you are.

Larry,

All day, I've been eager to get home to write to Vicki and congratulate her. Now we find that the fruits of her labor are greater than we thought, as the vote count shows Kloppenburg the winner by 204 votes out of approximately 1.4 million.

If that margin holds through the inevitable recount, it may mean that the legal challenges to the extremist bills pushed through the Wisconsin Legislature will get a fair hearing from the state Supreme Court, where we would have otherwise seen the court's 4-3 conservative majority quickly give the bills their rubber stamp of approval.

Even if the margin is reversed in a recount, the victory will still be ours. In a state where the unseating of an incumbent Supreme Court justice is unheard of, a little-known challenger has surged thirty points in six weeks to overtake her opponent. This, despite the fact that her supporters were outspent by the incumbent's billionaire backers almost two-to-one.

Rest assured that this has not gone unnoticed. The bullies who have been tyrannizing statehouses across the nation are just that: bullies. They quickly lose their swagger when they are faced down. Right now they are inwardly wondering whether they dare ask for whom the proverbial bell is tolling.

Perhaps most ominous for them is the vote count in the Wisconsin districts where many Republican senators are likely to face recall elections, thanks to the work of Vicki and her little gang of "union thugs". In Wisconsin District 32, the home of Republican Senator Dan Kapanke, the vote was 60-40 in favor of Kloppenburg. Kapanake now faces a recall for certain; the papers were filed a few days ago. Other districts are soon to follow.

And all this before we even get to the main event! After all, Vicki's work on the streets of Madison and in the backrooms of the recall effort's headquarters was not even aimed at electing Kloppenburg. That victory, stunning though it may be, is only a sideshow, a prelude.

I think it's no exaggeration to say that the nation owes a debt of gratitude to Vicki and her hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin "comrades". I believe they may have begun to turn back a truly wicked and toxic tide.

Thank you,

Ed

[pacalo]

1. I'll never forget how determined & steadfast the Wisconsinites stood up to

Fitzwalkerstan, regardless of how difficult the thugs made it for them. The protesters conducted themselves with the utmost class.

Consider yourselves admired & respected. Thank you so much.