The Winter Of Walker's Disconnect

What a difference a year can make in politics, eh?

A lifetime on regular calendars.

A year ago, Scott Walker and The Brothers Fitzgerald were riding high, wielding power imperiously, passing laws and adopting rules and undoing unions and their contracts and dropping in to interviews and appearances everywhere, at will.

It was their moment, Walker told the fake David Koch.

Everyone off to Cali and into the surf!

A year later, Walker is bobbing and weaving around questions about whether he's a John Doe target, and his "voluntary" cooperation, so far, hasn't included a sit down with the judge and the DA.

He and Scott Fitzgerald are both facing recalls - - along with three other GOP Senators - - possibly costing the GOP their majority there already narrowed from three votes to a mere one by last year's two recall election losses.

And also costing Walker and Fitz the mining bill last week, as the weakened GOP leadership miscalculated its power and lost the vote when GOP Senator Dale Schultz decided to vote with more environmentally-and-democratically attuned Democrats, and promises purportedly made to swing one or more opponents to a bad bill went limp.

And the lesser Fitzgerald, State Rep. and Assembly leader Jeff, decided to pull the plug on that gig and make a suicidal, I;m-outta-here-US Senate run in a better-financed field.

Within less than a year, Jeff, Scott F. and Scott W. could be retired from state office.

Meaning it wasn't their time for very long.

You can even her it Walker's tone-deaf remarks Monday night at Charlie Sykes' Insight 2012 live broadcast from Waukesha, then replayed on the air Tuesday morning:

And if we fail to win, it will take us down the path we see, failing, people like the people in Illinois, down in Springfield, and I for one don't want that. Not because this job is that important to me, 'cuz frankly my wife in some ways would love it if I'd go back to the private sector and make some real money.

I'm not saying the Dems are shoo-ins to win any of these recall elections, given the GOP's money and the difficulty of beating incumbents - - let alone those who feel cornered.

But Walker and Scott F. enter their recall elections weakened by a year of state job losses, the shadow of the John Doe criminal investigation and blow back over creepy government secrecy - - from Walker's once-hidden email system while County Executive in Milwaukee, to the industry-influenced mining bill produced without sponsors, to the confidentiality agreements both Fitzs had their members sign to be permitted to do public work on the redistricting bill.

A rough winter for the GOP here.

For the rest of us, hope springs eternal.