Recall Fever: Catch It
Today is the day, folks . . . it’s recall time, part 2, in Wisconsin as six Republican state Senators are facing the political fight of their lives. At the end of tonight’s vote, we will know if they’ve been booted out, or if they’ve been retained . . . who will be the victors?
I don’t live in a recall district, so all I’ve been able to do is watch what’s going on. But I know people are furious in Wisconsin; I know, for example, that in Kenosha County there’s a bunch of Republicans that are very strongly for Democratic state Senator Bob Wirch (who’s own recall election is next Tuesday). And I know that people of all parties, races, colors and creeds signed those recall petitions against the R Senators, that many independents are outraged by the Wisconsin Legislature and Governor’s shift to the hard-right, and that this is our first chance to show our Governor, Scott Walker, that we will not be pushed around in Wisconsin.
Look. I wrote a post back in November after the ’10 mid-term elections where I said that what happened then was not a mandate, but instead a repudiation of what was going on.
As I wrote back on November 3, 2010:
. . . the Republicans — including those in Wisconsin, where they won control of both the Assembly (the lower house) and the Senate (upper house) — are wrong when they think they have received a “mandate” to do anything. What they received was the gift of many Democrats who are angry at how Obama was selected in the first place, along with many who were flat-out frustrated at the policies of Harry Reid (who, inexplicably, held his seat in Nevada) and Nancy Pelosi (easily re-elected, but almost assuredly to retire as former Speakers rarely stay in the House after they lose their Speakership).
So if the Republicans think this is a mandate, they are wrong.
What this was, instead, was a repudiation of the tactics of the DNC on 5/31/08, along with a repudiation of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and the entirety of the Obama Administration in particular.
If the Republicans take the wrong message from this, and start cutting unemployment benefits, start cutting health care benefits that are already extant, and mess with Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Food Stamps, or any of the “social safety net” programs that are so vitally needed with the country as a whole having over 9% reportable unemployment (and more like 17% functional unemployment throughout the USA, with some areas having far more), they will be voted out in turn. (Emphasis added.)
I called it then, and I was right. (Well, right about everything except Pelosi retiring. She’s been an effective House Minority Leader.) Because just as the 2008 Ds overestimated their “mandate,” so did the 2010 Rs. And now, the Rs have reaped the whirlwind.
For those of you who do live in recall districts, get out there and vote — this is your chance to make your voice be heard. Do not sit this election out. Catch the recall fever instead.
Barb Caffrey's Blog 
I’m going to be helping with Bob Wirch in Kenosha.
Anyway, I’m hoping that this November, when the recall gets set up for our sweet-tart governor, that they will add Senator Wanggaard to that list as well. They disgust me so, I could spit.
Funny thing… the Governor’s fund raising office called me the other day, wondering if I could donate money. They started off with like $200, $150, or even $75 or something… I tell them that I really don’t have the funds to donate right now. They insist, asking if $25 would be easier. I say sure, but…. they cut me off and send me to one of those “verifiers” who ask me how I want to pay. I explain I don’t have money right now, and they want to insist on getting a credit card… I tell them they’re breaking up, so I hang up.
Tuesday I get in the mail, a bill for $25 from their office. It has this crappy rhetoric about how the budget needs to be balanced so we don’t put the burden on our children, and how the liberals are the fault of blah blah blah blah blah….. It’s kind of fuzzy what it actually said. I should have made a copy… So, in a nice blank spot on the notice, I write something along the line of ‘You are already passing the burden onto our children by cutting education. It disgusts me how the finger pointing blame game is being played. It’s not the liberals who ruined anything, it’s the fact that the extreme ends can’t play nice together in the sandbox, and you forget who you represent. You should be ashamed of yourselves for not being able to play in the sand box with those on the opposite party. Learn how to play – when you do, then come talk to me.’
Then, I sent in the postage paid envelope that they so kindly gave me to send back. Oh, oops. I forgot to stuff $25.00 – My bad bad, so bad, oh sad… Well, I’m giving it to the Woman to Woman Breast Cancer fund. I think that’s a better cause. Recall Walker, save your boobies.
Anyway, hoping that Van Wanggaard will be recalled at the same time as Walker. I’m hoping for a good riddance to both.
likamarie
August 10, 2011 at 3:56 am
Lika, the plan among those I know in Racine County is that Walker and Wanggaard will be recalled at the same time. I’m not sure how the funds will be raised to recall Wanggaard yet, but I know the folks in Racine County I’ve talked to online and elsewhere all have said it’s no problem at all to take the forms out for both men at the same time, since they’re both eligible to be recalled at the same time.
I like your story there about the postage paid envelope — well done! 🙂
I haven’t a clue how you got on their list to be sent candidate’s “begging letters,” mind you, but you gave ’em what for and I’m proud of you.
Now I’d better try to sleep as I’ve had none. Then we’ll see if I have any energy to go up to Milwaukee and watch the canvass (the recount, though it’s not a hand-recount — just putting the ballots through the machine again) this afternoon. Can’t believe Darling won by six points — the spread in the Olsen-Clark race was smaller than that, and I do hope someone’s up there observing in Ripon for _that_ canvass, too, as that’s within the margin of error (that’s only a few hundred votes separating ’em up there, not several thousand between Darling and Pasch).
Barb Caffrey
August 10, 2011 at 6:05 am