Victory in Wisconsin

Don't believe everything you read, especially from much of the mainstream media which fawns over the GOP for some reason (note: some reason is that they are being influenced/owned/financed by right wing factions). So when Scott Walker, the Brothers Fitzgerald and state senators like Alberta "Thank You Kathy Nickolaus" Darling spout off that they have won the overall battle of this summer's recall elections, they couldn't be more wrong.

Last night, Democratic incumbents Bob Wirch and Jim Holperin staved off recalls by Walker and company as the GOP feverishly tried to win back at least one of the two seats they lost last week. Last month, Green Bay's Dave Hansen also staved off a Republican challenger, but the GOP failed to go tit-for-tat when they could not garner signatures for three more recalls. Then, in the recall elections of last Tuesday, Democratic challengers Jessica King and Jennifer Shilling won their two elections over Randy Hopper and Dan Kapanke, respectively. So the final tally on the recalls is Democrats 5, Republicans 4, and since a two-seat advantage was gained, that means Walker's GOP holds a one-seat advantage in the state senate.
(We won't even mention winning the three primaries in which Walker ran fake Dems--our tax dollars hard at work).

Of course, he's not happy about that, because as The Nation's John Nichols pointed out, moderate Republican Dale Schultz voted against Walker's union-busting bill in March. And this is why Walker suddenly talked about wanting to reach across the aisle to work with both parties a bit more. Remember when the Wisconsin 14 kept trying to negotiate with Walker, and his response to them was to send state troopers to their houses, and to ram his budget repair bill through anyway? Oh, but before that he found time to talk to billionaire corporate campaign donor David Koch for 20 minutes....wait a minute, that wasn't David Koch, was it? It was a blogger posing as Koch, a call that will go down in the history of one of the great moments for liberals.

Walker won't "work with" the other side any more now than he did then, because, well, he's a scumbag. And like other GOP power-grubbers (a pre-requisite these days to hold any Republican public service position), Walker has one goal--to funnel money from the bottom and middle to the top, and to keep some of that money flowing into his own campaigns and right wing initiatives--not to "create jobs with tax breaks" as they keep claiming. So like we progressives did last week by making statement to the GOP in Wisconsin, we're turning our attention now to Scott Walker, who we can begin collecting signatures on later this year or early next. We're coming for you, Walker, and that door is gonna hit you so hard on the way out, that no Koch brother who rubs your ass will ever be able to get the bruise out.