The tactics employed by Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald in Green Bay today to get weasel out of a negative publicity situation didn't work on a crowd of Dave Hansen supporters who got advance word of the "o.k, we're gone now" crowd-dispersal ploy used previously in Green Bay by supporters of the Walker administration. Complacent local television media, dutifully present at the "recall Hansen" event Fitz had hoped to inspire, left before the real news unfolded.
The unscripted portion of Fitzgerald's appearance occurred after a van assumed to be carrying the controversial Senate leader drove through an impressive gathering of Fab-14 member Hansen supporters and left the scene of the asymmetrically balanced rally/counter-rally. However, Fitz wasn't onboard to willingly face the gauntlet. Not yet.
Our intrepid reporter on the scene gained access to a business nearby the Hansen recall gathering, then got word from a Fitz staffer that the Majority Leader remained behind in the building with a few of his supporters while the entourage's van drove away, drawing with it the pro-Hansen crowd's attention. The reporter was aware that this writer had followed the "Stand With Walker" bus tour from Green Bay to Wausau, and documented that the bus comprising that tour spent a quarter-hour parked at a nearby depot after initially leaving the scene of their Green Bay stop, only to return to the now protester-free Holiday Inn to safely pick up their main attraction, Joe the plumber, a.k.a. the non-licensed pipe handler Samuel Wurzelbacher.
Today saw Fitzgerald employ the same tactic, but with quite a different outcome. The bulk of the crowd Fitz was dreading to face, alerted that he remained behind, stayed in place this time. Our reporter caught Fitzgerald just as he was sneaking to his car near the back of the lot and pointed him out to the crowd, shouting, "Here's the weasel!", then told Fitzgerald point-blank that he was "owned by the Koch brothers" and that he was "ruining Wisconsin". As he got into his red car he asked with a matching reddened face, "Are you serious?"
Fitz got an earful of "shame" as his car worked it's way through the crowd of some hundreds of pro-Hansen, anti-Fitzwalkerstan demonstrators who now closed in. While Green Bay police cleared the way up front, a Kloppenburg sign somehow found it's way onto the rear window of the escape vehicle for awhile, until one member of the vastly outnumbered pro-Fitz entourage risked exposure to the swarming crowd to remove the powerful talisman.
Police present at this second-stage of the departure of an obviously frustrated Senate leader were seen to crack a smile or two. The last Fitz staffer to bail out of the rally flipped a one-finger salute to our reporting staff, attributed to "poor manners" by an amused cop. Police had little else to manage, as only words were thrown at Fitz's embarrassing retreat. They might really sting your ego, Fitz, but you'll get used to it soon.
We really wish the other media, so-called mainstream, would have covered more than just the "scheduled" event, which drew about 30 Hansen recall petitioners to meet with the Senate Majority (for now) Leader. But there's no doubt that Fitz got the message that his welcome, even in conservative Green Bay, is now only marginal at best.
And yes, Fitz, we are serious.
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Thanks for rec'ing, and thanks to my great Green Bay friend/reporter for digging into this story, and under Fitz's skin. My eyelids are rec'ing some sleep for now, but soon will be a new dawn of progressivism rising over Wisconsin. Keep the faith.