Republicans Employ Ten-Year Chokehold

Legislative Republicans, elevating the chokehold to a ten-year plan, finished their hurried work to redistrict the state, with twin goals:

Finish the taxpayer-paid work using private attorneys before the State Senate might tip back to Democratic control after the August recall elections;

Create representation that will be about 60% Republican for the next ten years, if the courts approve the scheme.

You'd think that Republicans would have learned that power-grabbing turns off the electorate: Scott Walker and his legislative allies forfeited moral, leadership claims and usurped power through the union-busting measure and other bills, only to see the recall elections threaten their control of the Senate, crush their credibility, drive down GOP poll numbers and make Walker's recall election a looming certainty.

But they have forged ahead with fast-tracked redistricting so quickly that local governments, which normally go first after a decennial census, will have to throw out their costly work and start over to abide by the legislative mapping lines.

Here's a telling bit of evidence that even Republican legislators know their redistricting practice and product has been a sham - - the line below is taken from the Madison State Journal's account of how the bills were approved prior to being sent to Walker for his rubber-stamping:

No Republican spoke during debate of the maps prior to the votes to pass them.

Reminds me of my years as a summer camp counselor. When the boys had messed up, and you asked, "who did this?," they'd all stand around silently and look at the ground.