The Democratic Governor of Wisconsin is under pressure after a tape was release of a prank phone call in which he admitted that he considered planting some troublemakers in a group of Tea Party members protesting his budget proposal.
The full quote is as follows:
Fake Democratic fundraiser: We’ll back you any way we can. What we were thinking about the crowd was, uh, was planting some troublemakers.
Democratic Governor: You know, well, the only problem with that —because we thought about that. The problem—the, my only gut reaction to that is right now the lawmakers I’ve talked to have just completely had it with them, the public is not really fond of this…
I'll keep monitoring this breaking news as more information comes out.
Update: This is now the main headline on Drudge: "Dem Governor Had Plans to Infiltrate and Violently Disrupt Conservative Protesters"
Update II: Fox News is already all over this. Sean Hannity just said that Wisconsin voters are demanding the Governor resign over this. Hannity went on to say that he does not expect the Governor can survive this politically and thinks he should step down now for the good of Wisconsin.
Update III: All the major news programs are covering this now, with mounting pressure on the Governor to resign immediately. The Governor released a statement to the press as follows:
"The Governor takes many calls everyday. Throughout this call the Governor maintained his appreciation for and commitment to civil discourse..."
Now John King on CNN is saying the press release was an embarassment and that the Governor should be ashamed of himself. David Brooks just appeared on Hardball with Chris Mathews saying that the Governors actions represent exactly what is wrong with politics today and that he should be ashamed of himself.
Update IV: Under mounting pressure, the Governor has just announced he will resign.
I'm sure the same thing would have happened if he were a Republican...