Republicans Forget That No One Likes A Cheater

Scott Walker and Republican legislators are seeing their poll numbers drop into the anathema zone.

Read the full University of Wisconsin Badger Poll. 

Surprising?

Not really.

Walker used his power as a new Governor to drop the bomb on state workers - - his choice of words - - to strip them, without warning or negotiations, of their collective bargaining rights and union workplace protections.

Basic fairness, openness - - and then honesty, as Walker repeatedly and falsely claimed he'd campaigned on that strategy - - all missing from the equation, until Walker was under oath before Congress and had to tell the truth.

Hardly the Wisconsin way.

Then the GOP, nervous about months of overreach, and facing Senate recall challenges permitted under the State Constitution, openly ran fake Democrats to create delay and fundraising advantages through primary elections - - at public expense - - and are further protecting those imperiled Senators and other vulnerable Republican incumbents with grossly-partisan, quickly-drafted redistricting maps.

And are rushing the vote prior to the August recall elections they delayed to make sure any successful Democratic recall challengers can't vote to block the redistricting scheme.

I think non-ideological voters and Republican moderates are going to express their contempt for these bullying tactics - - first in the recall elections then in this winter's recall effort against Walker, because he is the one who set this entire uproar in Wisconsin into motion.

Partisan politics is one thing, but repeated twisting of the rules and the legislative process and the essential need for fair play in a just society to cement office-holding by the group that happens to be in office - - and also with Walker being elected by just 52% of the voters who turned out - - should backfire, and is, the polling suggests.

I expect Walker to try and show something of a more moderate face the rest of the year, but the die is cast by the GOP's hand, and his recall is coming.