For Walker And GOP, Divide-And-Conquer Is Default Behavior

Divide-and-conquer has been the favorite Walker/GOP partisan power playbook tactic from the opening day of his administration:

* Accuse teachers and other public employees of greed, punish them with Act 10 (portions of which have been declared unconstitutional) and pit other citizens against them.

* Exempt public safety public employees from Act 10's penalties, so pit public employees against each other.

* Actually use the phrase "divide and conquer" to let a billionaire backer in on more Walker anti-union plans.

*  On major policy policy changes and processes, such as drafting a mining bill, give corporate insiders exclusive access and power, but exclude others from participation.

*  Gather partisan advantage by requiring all Republican legislators to sign confidentiality agreements that hid voting map drafts for a mandated redistricting bill from the public.

* When the chickens come home to roost in a recall effort, go to a Waukesha town about as demographically dissimilar to Milwaukee as you could find, dig deep into the muck and play Wisconsin's most divisive card:

People do not want to see Wisconsin "become another Milwaukee," Walker said.