Wisconsin Republicans are about to seal their electoral fate:
In a surprise move late Wednesday, Senate Republicans voted to move forward with the governor's controversial budget repair bill, sending the measure into a conference committee scheduled for later in the day.
Republican leaders would only say the Senate bill differed from the Assembly bill and indicated it was possible lawmakers could strip fiscal elements from the proposal and pass only the measures dealing with collective bargaining.
Such a move would allow Republicans to pass the governor's bill without the 20 Senate members needed to vote on fiscal matters. Currently 14 Democratic senators remain in Illinois, hiding out in an effort to deny the quorum and stall the vote.
By taking this portion of the bill out of the budget. Republicans are laying bare Scott Walker's lie about how stripping workers of their rights is supposedly a fiscal issue, or Scott Fitzgerald's lie about how the bill supposedly can't be changed. As Fitzgerald admitted earlier today, this is about defunding their political opponents.
There can be only one response to this--immediately recall all eight Republican Senators who are eligible, and then start a recall against Scott Walker the day he becomes eligible (which I believe is November 3rd, 2011).
They may well pass this bill tonight, but it won't be long before we vote them out of office and restore worker's rights as a result. Please, if you have not done so before, contribute $8 to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin now, $1 for each of the eight Senators we are about to recall. It's time to kick the recall into high gear.
Update--bill passes: In one of the most absurd procedural moves of all time, Senate Republicans changed the bill in conference, and then passed in on the floor of the Senate, in less than an hour. The bill passed 18-1, only 14 minutes after it passed committee, with long-wavering Senator Schultz voting no.
Recall is the only response. Contribute to it here.