Wednesday, October 8, 2014

As I said, the Walker-GOP coup will get the GAB, too

[Updated, 5:20 p.m.] A few days I said that Wrong-Way Walker and his legislative lieutenants would wipe out the Government Accountability Board, because the power-hungry GOP wants permanent election control, not bipartisan watchdog election regulation:   
I see that GOP legislators on the Joint Finance Committee are balking at an appropriation request to fund a public education campaign about voter ID.
Having won the right to implement voter ID on the eve of the November election, sowing maximum confusion about ID requirements and availability,  the GOP and Walker are in no hurry to dilute their voting suppression 
There is also news that Attorney General J. B. Van Hollen will not defend the GAB against the latest lawsuit brought by the leading right-wing financier probed by law enforcement and regulators over possible campaign law violations in the GAB purview. 
The message?  The hell with the GAB. 
Not being able to hold one-party elections - - yet - - Walker's GOP will go to plan B in 2015: a trimmed, right-leaning or abolished GAB.
Well, right on schedule to flesh out a larger plan to take over Wisconsin that began in 2007, with its origins ignored by statewide media - - you have the rightist corporate tool Robin Vos - - also the Assembly Speaker - - admitting a fresh plot is already underway to dump the GAB - - a national model - -  and fire its independent Executive Director, the career election and ethics monitor Kevin Kennedy: 
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Tuesday that the state Government Accountability Board will not exist in its current form in another two years... 
“I promise you that two years from now . . . the GAB will not be in the current format” Vos said. “It is dysfunctional, it is unresponsive, and it is totally undemocratic." 
AUDIO: Speaker Robin Vos (1:12)... 
“Kevin Kennedy has to go. He needs to be gone. He is an embarrassment, and I can’t say it any more emphatically than I am right now,” Vos said. He offered few specifics on what sorts of changes he envisions for the GAB, which is charged with oversight of Wisconsin’s campaign finance, elections, ethics, and lobbying laws.
So gerrymandering the Legislature through secret district map drafting wasn't enough fresh power for Walker and Vos?
Ramming through suppressionist voter ID, sending people to DMV offices only open part-time to get them and then cutting early voting hours isn't a big enough power play? 
Having a State Supreme Court majority at the GOP's beck-and-call that got elected with big-dollar assistance from the same outside donors who helped Walker and GOP legislators win their elections, too, isn't enough one-sided enough? 
Now they're after partisan control of elections, lobbying law and official ethics, too.
Making no secret of the plan.

How much one-party rule will other elected officials and editorial board watchdogs in this state tolerate as Wisconsin is permanently consigned to the backwaters?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It might just be time to take over the Capitol again. These clowns[ sheep] led by Vos and Fitzgerald have screwed over the voters to the max. Now to cover their behind and to insure that they have total control of the reigns of power they want either no GAB or a GAB that will rubber stamp whatever election process they want. It was one thing to divide and conquer one group and crap all over them, public employees. Now they are crapping on every voter in the state and those who support Walker better wake up quick because soon they will have no rights at all!

Jonathan Swift said...

I was in the Philippines in the 70's and early 80's under the Marcos Regime.
He controlled both houses of the legislature, the judiciary, the election commission and the press. Crony politics, pay-to-play, and general corruption was rampant.

DEja Vu all over again!

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

it's all or nothing. Same strategy as Brownback in Kansas.

And the intended result is that ALL of the wealth goes tot he rich and the corporations, and NOTHING is left for anyone that hasn't purchased a legislator...

Anonymous said...

"(Marcos) controlled both houses of the legislature, the judiciary, the election commission and the press." (Jonathan 10/8 8:02)

If the press controls the message, how will the general public know the truth? Is it my imagination, or is the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel bending over backwards to paint Scott Walker in a positive light? Building up Walker's cumulative PolitiFact rating with easy to pass fact checks or extremely weak conclusions, a photo of Walker (scientist) peering through a microscope, Walker as a friendly (awk schucks) persona, implying that both Walker and Burke are at risk for not finishing their four year term if elected (beyond ridiculous, since Burke is the only candidate to answer definitively that she would finish her term - Walker of course hedges, since finishing his term would be his absolute last priority), and on and on, ad nauseum.

Is the fix in with MJS too?

Anonymous said...

Speaking of the GAB, this was released today:

nr_gab_announces_voter_id_public_information_campa_21572.pdf

I think it's good to devote money to voter id education, in case the Supreme Court doesn't help Wisconsin. But I am a little dubious about the letter in the pdf above. The cynical side of me wonders if the GAB is playing into the Republicans' hands. The Republicans can now say to the Supreme Court, "See, a voter id education campaign is in place." They won't mention that the amount of money allocated is minuscule. And they also won't mention that they didn't release the money to the GAB officially. I have to wonder if they truly will reimburse the GAB "after the election," as the letter states.