Wisconsin Update - Another GOPer caught on tape trying to subvert little ' d' democracy.

I've said for awhile that the GOP has absolutely no interest in little ' d' democracy. It's not who they are. They are about VOTER SUPPRESSION.

So, here's the latest from Wisconsin.

Top Republican justifies running fake Democrats in recall races
By Daniel Bice of the Journal Sentinel


The head of the state Republican Party today acknowledged that it is encouraging fake Democrats to run in recall elections this summer.

Stephan Thompson, executive director of the state party, issued a statement justifying the practice because Republican senators have been too busy in Madison to prepare for the recall elections.

"The Republican Party of Wisconsin has advocated that protest candidates run in Democratic primaries to ensure that Republican legislators have ample time to communicate with voters throughout their districts after the state budget is approved," Thompson said in his statement.

The Journal Sentinel disclosed that the party is hoping to run "protest candidates" as Democrats in the recall elections for Republican Sens. Randy Hopper of Fond du Lac and Luther Olsen of Ripon. Hopper has said he had no knowledge of the matter.

If a primary is held for either party, that would push back the general election by a month, thereby giving the incumbent lawmakers more time to campaign.

UPDATE: Interestingly, it wasn't so long ago when top Republicans were offended by this tactic.

Last year, Thompson's predecessor, Mark Jefferson, complained that Democrats and the unions ran a fake Republican in the re-election contest for state Rep. Bob Ziegelbauer, an Independent from Manitowoc. Jefferson called it a "nasty, cynical ploy."

But in his lengthy statement, Thompson defends and justifies running spoiler candidates:

"The upcoming recall elections are unprecedented not only in Wisconsin, but in our nation's history. Unlike the Democratic Senators who deserted their constituents for a trip to Illinois, six Republican state Senators face recall not for misconduct, but for doing the job they were elected to do: taking a stance on a tough issue that came before the legislature.

"Now, these Republican senators are again busy doing their jobs crafting a fiscally responsible state budget that promotes economic growth, which puts them at a distinct disadvantage with many of their challengers who have had sufficient time to campaign. Because of this disadvantage, and the outrageous nature of elected officials facing recall for standing up for a balanced budget, the Republican Party of Wisconsin has advocated that protest candidates run in Democratic primaries to ensure that Republican legislators have ample time to communicate with voters throughout their districts after the state budget is approved.

"The public deserves time to learn about the differences between the candidates and about the Republican plan to control government spending and boost economic growth vs. the Democrat alternative of job-killing tax hikes."

So, why are the Republicans panicking about the recalls?

From The Plum Line

Posted at 03:24 PM ET, 05/31/2011
Wisconsin Dems 6. Wisconsin Republicans 0.
By Greg Sargent

Conservatives and some political observers are making a big deal out of the fact that the Dem candidate in the closely watched state Supreme Court race in Wisconsin finally conceded defeat today, as had long been expected.

But surely it’s also a big deal that we now know for certain that six Wisconsin Republican state senators will officially face recall elections, while a grand total of zero Democrats may face the same?

Today the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board announced that they have now approved the signatures required for recall elections against the following six GOP senators: Rob Cowles, Alberta Darling, Sheila Harsdorf, Randy Hopper, Dan Kapanke, and Luther Olsen. That means these six elections are definitely moving forward.

Meanwhile, the board has also announced that they are not prepared to approve the signatures gathered by Republicans for the recall of their three Democratic targets. Dems have alleged that the signature gathering by Republicans is fraudulent, and now the board has explicitly claimed that their reason for not approving the recall elections against Dems is that the signatures “have raised numerous factual and legal issues which need to be investigated and analyzed.”

Translation: The fraud allegations just may have something to them.

What this means: While Dems only need to net three recall elections to take back the state senate, it is now within the realm of possibility that even as twice that number of Republicans face recall elections, no Dems will. That’s a pretty sizable advantage for Dems.

Rachel Maddow does a piece on the happenings in Wisconsin:

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The GOP is NOT interested in DEMOCRACY. They are interested it -AT ALL. They are about VOTER MANIPULATION AND VOTER SUPPRESSION. It's all they know what to do. LYING AND CHEATING is the name of the game for them.

The Oil Slick that is Charlie Crist

There is a reason why, this entire election season I have used the same refrain when it came to Charlie Crist.

I said that you'd pry this Senate Seat..

" from his COLD.DEAD.HANDS."

I meant it too, and I believe all of it...

from his refusal to drop out and become an ' independent', to his courting of the so-called moderates...to this latest con game of ' Bill Clinton said that Kendrick Meek agreed to drop out. '

FROM HIS COLD.DEAD.HANDS.

So, what do I read today?
TPM.com

Crist Adviser: He Would Caucus With The Dems In The Senate
Everyone knows that Republican Marco Rubio is ahead in the polls for the Florida Senate race, helped in part by a split in the anti-GOP vote between independent (and ex-GOPer) Charlie Crist and Democratic nominee Kendrick Meek. Crist has often refused to say for certain which party he would caucus with if he were elected. But as the Wall Street Journal an adviser to Crist says that he would caucus with the Dems if he were to win the election:

That's a big "if." Mr. Crist is trailing Republican candidate Marco Rubio in most polls. But the declaration by Florida trial lawyer John Morgan sheds light on one of the many mysteries in the Bill Clinton-Charlie Crist-Kendrick Meek imbroglio.

"Crist is going to caucus with the Democrats," Mr. Morgan said. "I don't think there's any ifs, ands or buts about it. It would be, in a very tight year, almost like a Democratic pickup in a solid Republican state."

This followed the recent story that former President Bill Clinton, who had supported Meek, attempted to get the Dem to drop out of the race and endorse Crist, who would reportedly then caucus as a Democrat.

Morgan told the Journal that the likelihood of Crist organizing as a Dem was unrelated to any potential deal, and Crist's campaign has denied that Crist ever agreed to caucus as a Dem as part of the Clinton-Meek maneuver.

Of course, this is probably all hypothetical. The TPM Poll Average currently gives Rubio 44.6%, Crist 30.2%, and Meek 19.6%.

I call absolute and utter bullshyt on this.

Read more »

The New GOP SCAM in the Senate

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The Tinfoil Hat Strikes Again - work with me...

Found this diary at DailyKos

Which led me to this Site:

Community Organizer
By: emptywheel Thursday September 4, 2008 10:03 am

Sarah Palin, self-described "pit bull in lipstick," took two swipes at community organizers last night. First, when she claimed that community organizers have no responsibilities:

I guess a small-town mayor if sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.

And again when she suggested community organizers were only seeking personal discovery.

My fellow citizens, the American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of personal discovery. (Laughter, cheers, applause.) This world of threats and dangers, it's not just a community and it doesn't just need an organizer. (Laughter.)

I agree with billmon--this is a Republican dogwhistle at its very best.

Used the way the GOP speakers used the words tonight (i.e. with a sneer), community = ghetto and organizer = activist.

It essentially was a coded way of pointing out Obama's work in, with and for the black community (see? even I'm doing it) on the South Side of Chicago. Also the fact that his work involved helping low-income people stand up for their legal rights, as opposed to a GOP-sanctioned "real" job like business owner or career military officer (or moose hunter.) They were trying to put Obama back on the same level as Jesse Jackson -- i.e., the black protest candidate -- and mocking him for it.

To cut right to the nasty, they were using "community organizer" as a euphemism for "poverty pimp."

[snip]

I gotta admit, I'm impressed in spite of myself. When it comes to playing the dog whistle, these guys are Mozarts.

Though I'll go billmon one better. I think they're setting up a very specific attack on Obama's push to register people to vote that will play right into their expected attempts to use voter ID laws to do vote caging on a massive scale.

You'll recall that in 2006, the GOP made a concerted effort to go after ACORN, which does a lot of community organizing as well as voter registration of lower-income people. In Missouri, after ACORN self-reported some problems with some of its (former) organizers, Brad Schlozman made a federal case out of it just in time for the elections. But there were hints all over the country of investigations targeting ACORN organizers. In fact, this obviously coordinated national attack on ACORN is, I suspect, at the root of Brad Schlozman's own legal problems.

So the Republicans have already laid the ground work for a nationalized attack of the work ACORN does to register and mobilize low-income voters.

Well, what is one of Obama's big pushes this year? Registering voters--particularly African Americans--and turning them out to vote in November.

Redstate's Erick Erickson was just insinuating a connection between Obama and ACORN last week. I suspect we'll see more, similar moves to equate Obama's voter registration efforts with ACORN's efforts to give people a voice.

I plan to return to this attack. But as for interpreting dog whistles, I think this laid the groundwork for attempts to deny those the Obama campaign registers in the next few weeks their right to vote in November.

Now, you know me. I naturally wear the tinfoil hat, so I'm just trying to get folks to think. Might be true...might not...IMO, there's nothing too low for this bunch. They have NEVER been about democracy. And they've ALWAYS been about fighting VOTING RIGHTS, so this is right up their alley. It's already come out how their yelping about voter fraud turned out to be nothing but complete and utter bullshit, but was ALL ABOUT VOTER SUPPRESSION.

Just keep it in the back of your mind, as you watch THEM in the upcoming weeks.

Blog Alert: Michelle Obama Watch

Gina M of What About Our Daughters is at it again - thank goodness.

When discussing the infamous Michelle tape at WAOD, Gina had the following observation:

Volunteer Michelle Media Monitors

This whole infamous tape stuff is just a sliver of what Michelle Obama is going to face in the media. So because I predict getting a flurry of emails from now until November, I am going to be proactive and start a separate Michelle Obama blog to track every article, blog post, youtube clip that pops up and provide you an opportunity to respond. Because if the past is any indicator, the campaign has no problem with her being turned into a verbal punching bag, I DO! IF you want to volunteer and want to post updates on the blog, send an email to the gmail account in the right sidebar. Its going to be a LONG hot SUMMER!

Whether you support her husband or not. Let's be clear, any and every Black woman that walks in her footsteps can expect the same treatment so we might as well pull a Gandolf, draw a line in the stand and yell "THOU SHALL NOT PASS!" This ain't about Barack, its about every professional Black woman that has had to smile on the days she didn't want to for fear of being labeled ANGRY.

Gina kept her word, and has now created Michelle Obama Watch.


I know there are many here at Mirror On America who form that protective circle around Michelle, so I thought I would spread the word.

Bill Clinton Attacks Vanity Fair..this time...the battlefield has fewer soldiers

In case you don't know, there is a new article in the upcoming issue of Vanity Fair about Bill Clinton.

Bubba Trouble: The Comeback Id

It was written by Dee Dee Myers' husband. Yes. That Dee Dee Myers.

Here is Bill Clinton's Response to the article.

One of the biggest FRAUDS ever perpetrated by Camp Hillpatine was that she was FULLY VETTED.

Hell no, she wasn't fully vetted.

She ran two non-contests for United States Senate. She hasn't been vetted for her POST -White House Years.

And that, Brothers and Sisters of Mirror On America, was the ticking time bomb just waiting for explosion once she got the nomination.

And, the Democrats would have been STUCK

STUCK, I TELL YA.

The moment the GOP began to unload, it would have been deja vu all over again. Us stuck defending these jokers against the ' vast right-wing conspiracy' over crap THAT WAS TRUE.


5 Things. Don't even count Bill's below-the-belt-extracurriculars.

1. Full revealing of ALL her earmarks.
2. What's in the 18 million LEFT OUT of the tax returns?
3. What's in the Ron Burkle Partnership? What did he have to do to get it?
4. Donor list for the Clinton Library
5. Donor list for the Clinton Foundation

Those 5- and the GOP wouldn't even have to tell us whose been flying with Bill on those private planes.

Wouldn't even have to go into his below-the-belt-extracurriculars.

I have no proof (BECAUSE THEY WON'T REVEAL ANY OF THIS), but I'll forever believe the answers to the five above questions would have given GOP 527's endless commercials.

Now, I've had a mini-debate at another blog that this is bad news for Obama, articles like this.

I happen to disagree.

These stories are about to come out full force, and I have absolutely no problem with that.

Because, it will show how Obama’s campaign was even MORE ABOVE BOARD.

You think this stuff in Vanity Fair, and what’s going to come out later has just been suddenly discovered?

Of course not.

The Obama people CHOSE not to go down this road.

But, I want every bit of these stories to come out. Because, everyone that does ensures to me that she’ll NEVER get that VP slot. Period.


The person debating me says that Obama could be 'blamed' for it by Hillpatine's more irrational supporters.

The Vanity Fair article is the first, but it won't be the last. These are stories that the MSM has sat on, believing they would get to use them on Hillpatine during the General Election.

Now that that won’t happen, they have to use them :
1. They’ve already done them, why let them go to waste
2. The GOP has them, and they will NEVER pass up the chance to kick the Clintons while the getting is good.

Obama will not be able to control this. He simply won’t. The Clintons have made too many enemies, and they want to feast on their carcass.
And, there are a whole lot of Democrats, the ones who had Bill Clinton's Back during the worst of times and took up space on the Clinton field of battle (oh, say Black folk and MoveOn.org), who this time, will just sit this one out.