My belief that politicians inhabit a different plane of reality than the rest of us is constantly reaffirmed by not only federal politicians but also Fitz-Walker Republicans in my state of Wisconsin.
Because state Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald are "simply" concerned about "clean, fair" elections and the enforcement/interpretation of (Republican-passed) election laws in a "non-partisan" way, the Fitz bros called for the Republican-controlled Joint Committee on Administrative Rules to "review" recent Government Accountability Board decisions. Wisconsin's GAB has ruled that university issued stickers affixed to college identification cards meet the requirements of the new voter ID law and that recall petitions can be downloaded from the Internet. Both rulings remove some restraint from college students exercising their right to vote and Wisconsin citizen's exercising their constitutionally guaranteed Right-to-Recall...definitely NOT something Fitz-Walker Republicans support!
According to Scott Fitzgerald, "Wisconsin used to have a reputation for clean government, balanced budgets and real reform, but the recalls, the rhetoric, and the permanent campaign cycle have changed that." Honestly, I spewed my coffee when reading that comment! The Fitz bros are two-parts of a Republican-leadership triangle that have done more to demolish "clean government, balanced budgets and real reform" than any three men Wisconsin history.
This comes from the same Scott Fitzgerald who admitted on Fox News the "real" political motives of Walker’s anti-union legislation: "If we win this battle, and the money is not there under the auspices of the unions, certainly what you’re going to find is President Obama is going to have a much difficult, much more difficult time getting elected and winning the state of Wisconsin."
Yet, this man charges that the exercise of the Right-to-Recall, added to the Wisconsin Constitution by voters in 1926, has changed “clean government”! A complete accounting of all the Fitz-Walker Republican affronts to clean Wisconsin government and reform, not Republican-sponsored regression, would require a much longer posting.
Certainly, these staunch defenders of “non-partisanship” would never attempt to "intimidate" the GAB as it contemplates future rulings concerning when Scott Walker's recall petitions can begin to circulate, whether Wisconsin's Lieutenant Governor is automatically part of Walker's recall, and whether the GAB can ignore the constitutionally mandated timetable for holding Scott Walker's potential recall election.
