Monday, August 22, 2011

There's Blood In The Water And The Stench Of Fear In The Air

The Republicans have been saying, over and over and over and over, how they won the first round of recalls, even though they lost two seats in the Senate.  But no one, on any side of this monumental struggle, is acting like the Republicans have won anything.

The Democrats, the unions and the working people of Wisconsin are continuing on like an unstoppable juggernaut.  They came out of the recall battles bloody and bruised, and they might be a bit tired and sore, but they still have that look of grim determination bolstered by the taste of victory.  While on the surface things might appear calm, in the background there is as much if not more things afoot than during the time in February and March, when people first started to wake up to what we Milwaukeeans had known all along.  Walker is bad news, not to be trusted and needs to be taken out of office.

But if the people aren't acting like the losers they allegedly are, the Republicans are acting even less like the winners they claim to be.

US Representative Paul Ryan, who shows more sense than his supporters, made it clear that he's not running for President of the United States.  He was at least smart of enough that he would never survive broad examination of his one trick pony of cutting off grandma and grandpa from their Social Security and cutting off people's Medicaid.  Even his fellow Republicans know that which is probably why he was deemed unworthy of being on Congress' "super committee." (Aren't those last two words enough to strike terror?)  If Wisconsin Republicans were so sure of themselves, Ryan would be riding the crest of their wave to the White House.

The Republican's are also flailing around when it comes to the US Senate seat as well.  Right now their two leading contenders is Tommy "Stick it to 'em" Thompson and Mark "Also Ran" Neumann.  Just looking at any right wing blog and you can see their anguish.

They don't like Tommy because he understands that you can't survive by just making the problems worse by endless tax cuts.  He just doesn't share their same animosity to success that the teahadists do.

But as much as they don't like Tommy, they dislike Neumann even more.  Neumann had the audacity to run against the Scott "It's my turn" Walker.  Even worse, Neumann committed heresy in their eyes by actually pointing out Walker's flaws, lies and other misdeeds. To the devout Wisconsin Republican, that's worse than eating a baby.

Their other long shot possible candidates is Ted "Who?" Kanavas or Jeff "Koch Puppet" Fitzgerald who helped ram through Scott Walker's amoral bills, but couldn't even shine with all the favorable press and just became a sinister shadow man through the process.

And speaking of Walker, it came out this morning that the guy who kept telling us that he knows what's best for us, and has demonstratively proved that to be a lie, doesn't seem to be so sure of himself.  The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting that he as already sent out a tweet begging for support.  Of course, that would also explain his untrustworthy, empty gesture at bipartisanship.It must tick him off something fierce that instead of plotting and scheming on how to trick the American people for his own race for the presidency, he is now forced to deal with reality back home and prepare for the fight of his political career.

What one could very well call one of the greatest signs of the conservatives' nervousness, even the Koch Brothers are starting to get a bit jumpy.  They have been buying up a lot of anti-Koch domain names in an effort to slow down the people opposed to them, but even then did a sloppy job and left many amusing possibilities.  But with all their money and their political scheming, even they are starting to recognize the magnitude of what they've done and the sheer number of people they have angered.

The Republicans talk with a lot of bravado, but their actions - from running candidates even they don't like, not getting the candidates they do like to run, and running scared - belie their posturing and show that even they know they're in big trouble with the powers that really matter: The people of Wisconsin.

3 comments:

  1. You have compiled a good list of evidence that the Republicans may be a bit on edge but I do not think that they view themselves as ethically wrong. That has not occurred to them yet and doubt it ever will.

    They may feel a bit cornered or stifled as evidenced by Olsen (I think it as him) saying they want to keep things quiet and not put forth controversial social bills (one republican legislature wants a bills further restricting abortion in WI)but they are still dangerous.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks capper.

    Hope WI Union could organize a rifled and effective boycott of Koch paper products. Perhaps one early iteration of such an idea would include WI Union buying discounted paper products from non-Koch suppliers in bulk (provided you could make sure they were really not from Koch). Then perhaps people who support WI Union would buy those paper products at a premium, meaning WI union would get some income. If you got traction in that phase, it might position WI Union to "persuade" Wisconsin retailers to stop carrying Koch paper products.

    Milwaukee County workers might be a good place to prototype any such plan.

    I know there were prior attempts, but those included Johnsonville and other producers. It might make more sense to focus on the Koch brothers and try to get results there. I have zero experience with setting up boycotts, so this rambling is worth what you paid for it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh. Sorry. Based on your title I thought this was a blog post about the Wal-Mart bathrooms.

    ReplyDelete