With Gov. Scott Walker facing a serious recall effort, Wisconsin Republicans are acting scared. I say that because they're pushing new legislation which would require that petition gatherers, who already have to certify each petition they collect, have their own certifications notarized. Check out this load of BS that state Sen. Mary Lazich is circulating to the entire legislature to promote this bill (which you can view here):

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All of Lazich's claims about fraud are, of course, nonsense. If the GOP believed that signatures gathered for this summer's recalls were so questionable, then why didn't they challenge them before the Government Accountability Board or a court of law? The fact that they didn't shows they don't have a leg to stand on, not even a stump.

Of course the real "result" of this bill will be to make it harder for Democrats to gather recall petitions against Walker. It may also run afoul of the state constitution (PDF), which says:



Without conducting a review of any existing jurisprudence on the score, this law certainly sounds like it would "hamper, restrict or impair the right of recall" to me. Even if it is enacted and found to be constitutional, though, it would also undermine Republican efforts to push further recalls of Democratic state senators. Of course, the GOP would probably accept that price for helping to protect Walker. Their shamelessness in pursuit of naked partisan ends knows no bounds.

When you think of gerrymandering, shady back-door dealings, and brazen acts of dirty politics, state capitals like Albany, Austin, and Sacramento come to mind. But the Republican-controlled legislature in Madison, Wisc., is giving the most brazen of them a run for their money with a pair of rushed bills aimed at blunting recall efforts targeting GOP Gov. Scott Walker and Republican state senators.

The first bill Wisconsin Republicans are trying to ram throughwould force (PDF) individuals collecting signatures for a recall petition to have their own signatures notarized. Currently in Wisconsin, people who circulate petitions are required, on each petition, to sign, date, list their residence, and attest that all the signatures they gathered are real, accurate, and belong to people in the correct jurisdiction or district. Fudging signatures is no laughing matter: Filing a phony petition is a felony offense.

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Then there's Wisconsin Republicans' redistricting scheme. Some background: Earlier this summer, GOPers in the legislature fast-tracked legislation redrawing the state's congressional and state legislative districts to favor Republicans. This is better known as gerrymandering, a tactic both parties use to make sure their members run in the most favorable districts possible. Walker signed the two redistricting bills in August.

State law says those new boundaries go into effect November 2012. But if Wisconsin Republicans get their way, that won't happen. A bill introduced by Sen. Mary Lazich (R) would implement the redistricting legislation—but only for state senators—a year early, in early November 2011. Why? Lazich told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that rampant "disenfranchisement" needed to be stopped right away. Another, more plausible theory is that Republicans want to redraw the playing field before another round of recalls targeting GOP state senators gets underway. (Democrat state senators might also face recall efforts.)

Wisconsin Republicans don't have the 17 votes necessary to pass a hurried bill that would make it more difficult to recall incumbent lawmakers from office, after a GOP senator said Monday he doesn't support the measure.

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State party chairman Mike Tate sent a fundraising plea on Friday, saying Republicans were trying to steal the elections by creating another hurdle for petition circulators.

Tate accused Republicans of backing the notary bill to change the rules at the last minute in an attempt to stop the pending effort to recall Gov. Scott Walker. Tate said Democrats got hundreds of notaries to volunteer over the weekend to assist should the bill pass.

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The gop is going all out to take voting and women's reproductive rights and relegate them to history.

They also appear to believe that Americans are too dumb to understand exactly what they are trying to do