The Ultra-Right Now Controls All Branches Of Wisconsin Government: Senate Recalls, All Or Nothing Now

That's the only conclusion you can draw from the State Supreme Court's vindication Tuesday of the heavy-handed way the Legislature adopted Scott Walker's eradication of collective bargaining under the guise of "budget-repair."

Given the makeup of the Supreme Court - - and this is precisely why the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and other conservative interests shelled out so much money elevating right-wing judges Annette Ziegler and Michael Gableman to the high court - - the outcome of the union-busting bill, on appeal there, was really never in doubt.

The Court took the case before it was given time to go to the Court of Appeals, then was turned around quickly to meet a time table dictated by the Assembly Speaker.

That, combined with rumors that the decision was on its way, enabled the Chief Justice to wonder aloud in her dissent whether the pro-Walker Majority understood that their process and ruling gave off the appearances of pre-judging.

Like Walker, and the Republican legislature, the pro-Walker majority on the Supreme Court doesn't gives a flying fig about appearances, despite the sanctimonious self-service that was tut-tutted Tuesday in a concurrence from David Prosser:

This case is an offshoot of the turbulent political times that presently consume Wisconsin. In turbulent times, courts are expected to act with fairness and objectivity. They should serve as the impartial arbiters of legitimate legal issues. They should not insert themselves into controversies or exacerbate existing tensions.

Spare us.

As I've said often on this blog, sit yourself down for a few minutes and listen to Justice Gableman out on the stump for Prosser a few days before the April election and see if you hear a person committed to "fairness and objectivity," or to the Walker/GOP agenda?

Or whether Prosser's intemperate attacks on the Chief Justice were anything less than his willingness to "insert [himself] into controversies or exacerbat[ing] existing tensions?"

In fact, Prosser's attacks on Abrahamson created the controversy that nearly cost him his seat, in a close election made zanier by the Waukesha County Clerk's counting and reporting errors.

But...the Court's decision is rendered. Walker and the Right have won.

This round.

A round never much in doubt, and the 'winners' have to live with the conclusion of the three losing dissenters, who said of the winners, in part:

They inappropriately use this court's original jurisdiction, make their own findings of fact, mischaracterize the parties' arguments, misinterpret statutes, minimize (if not eliminate) Wisconsin's constitutional guarantees, and misstate case law, appearing to silently overrule case law dating back to at least 1891.

That'd mute a celebration for people with a sense of history.

And though the Republicans have messed around with the recall elections - - despicably extending the campaign period through straw, fake Democratic opponents - -  and their mischief may continue with fuller, punitive and partisan implementation of the Voter (Suppression) ID law and quickie redistricting to further poison the process - - We The People have a chance to bring this hijacking of democracy in Wisconsin to a halt by winning the recalls, defeating the Republican radicals, and ending the GOP's one-party, extremist rule.

Onward.