Wisconsin

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

How Trump's Presidency Might Lead to the End of Walker's Governorship

He built the first one in 2009. Now there are 75,000 of them.

He ran hard early not against Donald Trump, but Paul Ryan. And he might have peaked too soon.

Minnesota, Wisconsin, Connecticut and Vermont vote.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

The GOP primary in Wisconsin is a contest of personalities, not policies.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court rules for professor John McAdams

An unfortunate hallmark of our hyper-partisan age is the temptation to use the levers of government as a weapon against ideological foes. When one side loses an election, some conclude the next best thing is to cast a specter of misconduct and illegality over the winners or their allies. But the…

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Bryan Steil isn't intimidated by talk of a blue wave. To the contrary, he finds the challenge "invigorating."

Scott Walker said Monday he would be willing to campaign alongside President Trump in the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections. The Wisconsin governor, who is running for a third term this fall, spoke at THE WEEKLY STANDARD’s Midwest Conservative Summit in Milwaukee and told my colleague Charlie…

Below is a transcript of an interview of House Speaker Paul Ryan by Stephen F. Hayes, editor in chief of THE WEEKLY STANDARD at the TWS Midwest Conservative Summit earlier Monday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and concision.

Free markets work through competition. Sellers offer an array of goods and services and buyers tell them what works. So when protectionist legislation favors one group of competitors over another, there’s a problem. That’s what’s happening to E. Glen Porter, who owns a cemetery in New Berlin,…

The outgoing speaker's district will be in play this November.

Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, senior writer Michael Warren discusses the latest with the Mueller investigation, the latest from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and the Wisconsin special elections.

Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, Charlie Sykes talks to deputy online editors Jim Swift and Chris Deaton about the president's Easter message ("NO MORE DACA DEAL!") and advertiser boycotts.

Milwaukee

On Tuesday night, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker seemed rattled. In a special election in the state’s 10th Senate district, Democrat Patty Schachtner beat Republican Adam Jarchow, taking over district that voted for Trump by 17 points in 2016. Walker responded by firing off a series of tweets that…

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker recently announced that he would continue pushing for rules that would require individuals to complete a drug test when applying for food stamps. Instead of free groceries, able-bodied adults with no children who test positive for drugs would be pointed toward rehab,…

On May 23, the Wisconsin Department of Justice (WisDOJ) received a call from the state’s ethics board. An employee rummaging around in the basement of the building had found a filing cabinet full of material from the now-defunct “John Doe” investigations into the state’s Republican governor, Scott…

With the U.S. Supreme Court case, Gill vs. Whitford now concluded, we wished to look at how the Badger State found itself at the center of the judicial fight over partisan gerrymander. The following is Part 2 in a series relaying Wisconsin’s recent history in drawing its legislative district lines.

We Wisconsin political watchers are used to having the Badger State’s redistricting fights end up in court. So used to it, in fact, that some form of court has played a role in the matter since 1931.

Can the former head of the College Democrats win a seat as... a Republican? At POLITICO Magazine, Tim Alberta has a great feature on Wisconsin's Kevin Nicholson. A veteran with a great resume, Nicholson wants to snatch up Sen. Tammy Baldwin's seat. But first, he has to convince GOP voters in…

As presidential candidate, Donald Trump promised he would make really great deals that would bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States. “We will get our people off of welfare and back to work—rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor,” President Trump said in his…

As presidential candidate, Donald Trump promised he would make really great deals that would bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States. “We will get our people off of welfare and back to work—rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor,” President Trump said in his…

When it comes to the widening "post-fact," "post-truth" and "fake news" landscape supposedly foisted on naïve Americans by the alt-right, it would be hard to outdo the progressive narrative of how Wisconsin's voter ID law "suppressed" turnout and handed Donald Trump the state's ten electoral votes.

A U.S. district judge denied a motion to halt a recount of Wisconsin ballots cast in the presidential election Friday, while similar legal action is pending Pennsylvania and Michigan's re-tabulation was stopped this week.

Vote totals in states where former presidential candidate Jill Stein and the Green party have requested recounts hadn't budged much as of Tuesday morning, the Associated Press reports, with the process in Michigan still in its nascent staged amid a flurry of court action.

Have a question for Matt Labash? Ask him at askmattlabash@gmail.com or click here.

The 2016 election tested a number of questions about American electioneering, among which was how much organization matters in the modern political environment. The Trump campaign had very little organization and no get-out-the-vote (GOTV) operation. The Clinton campaign went big on both. The…

The 2016 election tested a number of questions about American electioneering, among which was how much organization matters in the modern political environment. The Trump campaign had very little organization and no get-out-the-vote (GOTV) operation. The Clinton campaign went big on both. The…

Donald Trump owes his victory in the Electoral College to three states he won by the smallest number of votes: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. So it's fair to say that the 2016 presidential election was decided by about 77,000 votes out of than 136 million ballots cast. According to the…

Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson was all but written off for most of his bid to defend his Senate seat. The first-term incumbent pulled out the eraser Tuesday night, and inked himself in for a return to the upper chamber in a shocking comeback victory over former Sen. Russ Feingold.

Donald Trump, whose recent campaign trips to Wisconsin suggested his campaign thought the Badger State might be in play, is losing to Hillary Clinton in a new poll of likely voters there. The Marquette University law school's survey found in a head-to-head match-up, Clinton leads Trump by 4…

The new Marquette law school poll shows shows Hillary Clinton up just 3 percentage points over Donald Trump among likely voters in Wisconsin, where she led Trump by 15 points earlier this month:

House speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin crushed his GOP primary opponent Paul Nehlen Tuesday by nearly 70 points. With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Ryan led Nehlen 84 percent to 16 percent.

Paul Ryan said there could be something Donald Trump would do or say to lose the House speaker's endorsement but that he didn't know what that would be. In an interview Friday with Wisconsin radio host Charlie Sykes, Ryan said no endorsement of a candidate comes with a "blank check" or an…

Cleveland

The boss joined former Vermont governor Howard Dean this morning on MSNBC's Morning Joe to discuss Ted Cruz's win last night in Wisconsin. What impressed him was Wisconsin coalescing behind Cruz, despite the evidence suggesting he wasn't necessarily Wisconsin's first choice.

Ted Cruz's victory in the Wisconsin primary was a turning point in the Republican presidential race in more ways than one.

Milwaukee

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with senior writer Stephen F. Hayes on why Gov. Scott Walker's Cruz endorsement matters.

The latest Washington Free Beacon Wisconsin poll finds Ted Cruz with a slight lead over Donald Trump. Lachlan Markay reports:

Donald Trump says he helped out his Republican rival Jeb Bush at Tuesday night's debate in Milwaukee. In an interview with Morning Joe Wednesday, host Joe Scarborough asked the reality TV star how he could unify the GOP after saying harsh things about Bush and other Republicans.

Shortly before the start of a "Grassroots Organizing Meeting with Hillary Clinton" at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the backdrop of the stage fell down. Watch the video from America Rising PAC here:

In the days before the Fox News debate last week, Donald Trump said he wasn’t looking to attack any of his Republican rivals unless he was attacked. That’s changed, apparently.

On July 16, we saw the definitive end to one of the greatest abuses of power in recent memory. After five years, the Wisconsin ­supreme court finally halted the Milwaukee district attorney’s notorious “John Doe” investigation that targeted Governor Scott Walker and political allies trying to reform…

Waukesha

Milwaukee

Thousands appeared in Madison, Wisconsin Wednesday night for a rally supporting Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont running for the Democratic nomination for president. CNN reporter Dan Merica tweeted a photo of the rally held at Veterans Memorial Coliseum, which seats 10,000…

Fresh off its widely-mocked exclusive on the traffic citations given Marco and Jeannette Rubio – fewer than one per year, combined – the New York Times has an in-depth look at Scott Walker and the wealthy conservatives who backed him throughout his rise to national prominence. It’s a classic of the…

Oklahoma City

A new Quinnipiac poll of likely Iowa Republican presidential caucusgoers finds Wisconsin's Scott Walker in front of the GOP pack with 21 percent support and a 9-point advantage over his closest primary opponents. That's down from 25 percent and a 12-point lead in Quinnipiac's February poll, but…

Every true conservative, or at least every Republican conservative, knows that our freedoms are under continuing threat from the Obama administration, which has already seized control of the health care and energy sectors, and is circling the education sector with the threat of a core curriculum.…

Scott Walker and Hillary Clinton may very well face off against other in the general election for president next year, but the Republican from Wisconsin has claimed to have had Clinton's number for more than a decade. Long before he had become a national figure, Walker said on a Wisconsin radio…

Urbandale, Iowa

Scott Walker may not be a candidate for president yet, but the Wisconsin governor’s growing political action committee staff is already going after a potential rival in the Republican primary. GOP strategist Liz Mair, CNN reports, has just signed on to consult for Walker’s Our American Revival PAC,…

Scott Walker has won every round of his long fight with Big Labor in Wisconsin, but it wasn’t until November 4 that he delivered the knockout punch. In his third gubernatorial election in four years, Walker defeated Democratic challenger Mary Burke by 6 points. It was the same margin of victory he…

Two years after it was supposed to help revitalize Atlantic City, the $2.4 billion Revel casino—all 57 stories of it—is closed. It’s an expensive eyesore that sums up Atlantic City’s decline.

As President Obama spoke this evening in Wisconsin, the crowd began to file out. Here's video that captures some folks leaving, even as Obama's voice can be heard in the background:

West Allis, Wis.

Madison school board member Mary Burke is the Democratic challenger to Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. But Democrats should hope interested voters don't head to MaryBurke.com. Wisconsin Republicans snagged the web address before Burke could and have created a near-mirror image of Burke's real…

Rebecca Kleefisch, the Republican lieutenant governor of Wisconsin, likes to talk about butter. By the time we’re done talking, I know exactly how to buy a month’s worth from a Wisconsin Kwik Trip—and what Kleefisch thinks that has to do with Republican politics.

Fifty-two people in Wisconsin were un-enrolled in Obamacare due to a glitch. They all must now re-enroll in order to be covered by Obamacare. WKOW in Madison reports:

In Wisconsin, as Jason Stein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports:

Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin will propose a new law next week called: "If You Like Your Health Plan, You Can Keep It Act."

A local report from Green Bay, Wisconsin says that health care premiuns could increase up to 125 percent because of Obamacare:

Today is National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day, and who among us cannot celebrate that?  Well, perhaps Mayor Bloomberg could find that the iconic sandwich contains too many calories, especially if it has been supercharged by the addition of some bacon.  For the rest of us, it is interesting to know…

Fox News projects Barack Obama will win Wisconsin, Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan's homestate.

At an Obama rally in Wisconsin today, Bruce Springsteen admitted, "The first debate really freaked me out."

Milwaukee

President Barack Obama invoked the destructiveness of Hurricane Sandy--and the ensuing clean-up--in his campaign stop earlier today in Wisconsin.

A new 30-second ad airing on cable news in Wisconsin and New Hampshire features Americans who voted for Barack Obama in 2008 voicing their disenchantment with the president over the last four years. The spot, which is an advertisement for the Citizens United film The Hope and the Change, will air…

The latest Wisconsin polling from Rasmussen Reports, taken yesterday and released today, shows Mitt Romney and President Obama tied at 49 percent apiece among likely voters.  A week earlier, Obama led by 2 points in Rasmussen’s Wisconsin polling — 50 to 48 percent — so Romney is on the rise in the…

A new ad airing across Wisconsin television stars three local women who voted for Barack Obama in 2008 but who will be switching to Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan (a Wisconsin native) this year. "Paul Ryan embodies the work ethic of Wisconsin," says Connie of Green Bay. Watch the ad below:

The Emergency Committee for Israel targets Wisconsin Senate candidate Tammy Baldwin in its latest ad: 

The selection of Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as the Republican vice presidential nominee continues an odd and indeed unprecedented pattern so far in the 21st century. Seven of the eight major party vice presidential candidates have been the first people from their home states to be major party…

Ephraim, Wisc.

Here's video of a supporter of Mitt Romney being spat on by a protester in Appleton, Wisconsin:

Mitt Romney closed his Sunday rally in Waukesha, Wisconsin, with a stirring account of patriotism from American speed skater Derek Parra at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Watch the whole speech below, but the story begins around 9:00:

The Romney campaign just announced a homecoming tomorrow night for VP candidate Paul Ryan in Wisconsin, with presidential candidate Mitt Romney at his side: 

A great deal has been made—and is being made—of the fact that Wade Michael Page, the man who shot and killed six people at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, was a veteran of the U.S. Army. The press appears to be searching for some pertinent connection between details of Mr. Page's service and…

The AP reports: 

We’re a long way from November 6 (145 days for those who are keeping score at home), but Rasmussen’s latest polling of likely voters in states across the land shows Mitt Romney currently leading President Barack Obama in the quest for electoral votes.  In fact, if the 9 key swing states were each…

Michael Barone writes:

The Fox News Sunday Internet-only after show Panel Plus, with Bill Kristol, Charles Lane, Liz Cheney, and Mara Liasson, on the Wisconsin recall election:

Via Powerline, titled "Hitler Learns that Walker Won the Recall Election."

While the recall election is over, Wisconsites won't get a break from politics and elections. In the U.S. Senate race to replace retiring Democrat Herb Kohl, there's a four-man battle for the Republican nomination and one candidate, businessman Eric Hovde, is on air with a new TV ad campaign. The…

Democratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse told Ed Schultz on MSNBC that the results of the Wisconsin recall election may indicate that Barack Obama has a problem with white working class voters. Watch the video below:

President Obama is off to California for five fundraising events across two days. The events were, doubtless, scheduled before yesterday's recall election in Wisconsin, the results of which the punditry is analyzing in exceedingly close detail. Their preliminary conclusions that provide the most…

Here's an indication of just how impressive and broad-based Scott Walker's 7-point win was last night: If the Democratic strongholds of Dane County and Milwaukee County had 100 percent turnout of registered voters, and every other county remained the same, Walker still would have won the state by…

Mitt Romney's statement last night was more interesting than the normal formulaic election night press releases of the genre. Here it is:

The National Republican Senatorial Committee released this web ad last night, placing Senate candidate Tammy Baldwin on the losing side of the Wisconsin recall effort:

Scott Walker won for a simple reason: He did what he promised to do as a candidate and it worked.

Mitt Romney just issued this statement, congratulating Scott Walker for his victory in tonight's Wisconsin recall election:

NBC News projects Republican governor Scott Walker will hang on to win the Wisconsin recall election. The projection comes with only 21 percent of the vote in. Currently, Walker has 61 percent of the vote, while Democrat Tom Barrett has only 39 percent.

An encouraging email this morning, from Dan G. from Mequon, Wisconsin:

Today is the Wisconsin recall election. If Republican governor Scott Walker prevails, so will conservatives, since his reforms of collective bargaining will survive, and he shall have curbed some of the worst excesses of the American labor movement.

Steve Hayes reported Saturday on President Obama's refusal to get his hands dirty—or even to get Air Force One's wheels dirty—by landing on the soil of the great state of Wisconsin prior to Tuesday's recall election between Scott Walker and Tom Barrett.

The Illinois-based pollster We Ask America reports that Wisconsin governor Scott Walker has a 54-42 lead among likely voters in the recall election, despite a strong debate performance by Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett. This figure is identical to its poll taken in late May. Nevertheless, the pollster…

Over at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s website, Christian Schneider notices something funky about that new PPP poll:

Milwaukee, Wisc.

Public Policy Polling, a Democratic firm that conducts surveys for the SEIU and the left-wing website Daily Kos, reports that its final poll shows Wisconsin governor Scott Walker leading Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett 50 percent to 47 percent. PPP's poll is the only public poll conducted in the past…

Barack Obama seems determined to avoid Wisconsin.

Milwaukee

Maryland governor Martin O’Malley is lending last minute support today to Democratic Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett in Wisconsin, days before the June 5th gubernatorial recall election. O’Malley is chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, so trying to get Barrett elected is (at least part of)…

Milwaukee

Wisconsin Rapids, Wisc.

Steve Hayes, with Juan Williams and Charles Krauthammer, last night on Fox News: 

The other day, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel endorsed Wisconsin governor Scott Walker in the recall gubernatorial election.

Bill Kristol, with Karl Rove, Joe Trippi, and Evan Bayh, earlier this morning on the Fox News Sunday Internet-only after show, Panel Plus: 

The Milwakuee Journal Sentinel, the largest newspaper in Wisconsin, has endorsed Republican governor Scott Walker in the June 5 recall election:

In the Wisconsin gubernatorial recall race, Republicans and Democrats continue to spar over the jobs numbers under Governor Scott Walker's administration. Republicans have been touting the fact that the unemployment rate has declined from 7.7 percent to 6.8 percent since Governor Scott Walker took…

A newly released PPP/Daily Kos poll shows President Obama and Mitt Romney locked in essentially a dead-heat in Wisconsin — where Obama beat John McCain by 14 percentage points in 2008. The poll (which was taken shortly after Obama came out in favor of redefining marriage) shows Obama with 47…

An interesting thing happened in the Wisconsin recall primary yesterday: Governor Scott Walker received more votes than Tom Barrett and Kathleen Falk combined, the two leading Democrats fighting to challeng him on June 5. Walker won the votes of 626,538 Wisconsinites, despite the fact that he had…

Brookfield, Wisc.

Madison, Wisc.

Mitt Romney is projected to win the Wisconsin Republican presidential primary, according Fox News. Currently, 162 of 3,755 precincts are reporting, with Romney getting 42 percent of the votes so far, Rick Santorum with 40 percent, Ron Paul with 11 percent, and Newt Gingrich trailing with 6 percent.

As polls close in Maryland and Washington, D.C., "NBC News projects Romney the winner of both," tweets NBC's Chuck Todd. "Should be a delegate sweep in MD but too early to call that part just yet," says Todd, suggesting that Romney will go over 50 percent of the vote in Maryland.

A final get out the vote call from Mitt Romney's campaign in Wisconsin suggests an unholy alliance of the Santorum campaign, "union bosses," Democrats, and Santorum's "cronies" might be conspiring to extend the GOP contest, and urges Wisconsin voters to stop those efforts by voting for Romney. The…

PPP reports on its latest Wisconsin presidential primary poll, ahead of tomorrow's election there:

NBC News reports on its latest poll of likely voters in Wisconsin's Republican primary contest:

"Doomed."

Mitt Romney is maintaining his advantage in the Wisconsin Republican primary contest, according to a recent poll by Marquette University:

The next major test for Republican presidential candidates is April 3 in Wisconsin, where GOP voters are not accustomed to having much of a voice in the presidential primary process. But even with Wisconsin looking like an important state – in some ways maybe a decisive one – voters there are more…

Louisiana Poll: "Santorum 42, Romney 28, Gingrich 18, Paul 8."

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker asks voters to "help [him] oppose the recall" in his most recent ad of the election cycle. "[Walker] draws a distinction between jobs lost under Gov. Jim Doyle's administration and his efforts to help employers create jobs," the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

A Rasmussen poll of likely voters in the “four key states” of Ohio, Florida, Virginia, and North Carolina, shows Rick Santorum leading President Obama by 5 percentage points among independents, while Obama leads Mitt Romney by 3 percentage points among that crucial group of voters. The Rasmussen…

Throughout the 2012 election cycle Republicans have pined for a bold, conservative reformer—a leader courageous enough to make difficult choices and articulate enough to explain them to a skeptical public. The good news is they have such a candidate. The less good news: Scott Walker isn’t running…

Here are excerpts from Wisconsin governor Scott Walker’s prepared remarks that he’ll deliver tonight at a dinner at CPAC in Washington, D.C. (Walker’s staff insists that the governor frequently deviates from prepared remarks.)

By now the Chrysler Super Bowl advertisement has become well known. And not surprisingly it’s gotten political. “Powerful spot,” said David Axelrod. “Extremely well-done,” said Karl Rove, adding:

A reporter for the Arizona Republic notes that the state's Republican legislature is set to outdo Wisconsin with their attempt to curb public employee unions. According to the report, the bill would:

George Will: "Newt Gingrich commits a capital crime"

CNN: "GOP rejects Dems offer in 'super committee,' negotiations 'deadlocked' over taxes"

The MacIver Insitute in Wisconsin put together this video about a union protest of a school in Wisconsin where Governor Scott Walker recently made an appearence. The building was vandalized, and the head of the exemplary school understandably worries about what example this protest sets for the…

Wall Street Journal: "Two Democrats Survive Recall in Wisconsin"

CBS News: "Clinton: US using 'smart power' for Libya, Syria"

Michael Barone: "How Iowa's Straw Poll Can Lead to the Presidency"

Madison, Wisc.

"Milwaukee gains more than it loses in budget bill," reads the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel headline. And so you understand why unions are in such a rush to hold recall elections before voters see the benefits of Wisconsin's new law:

Baldwin, Wisc.

"Obama campaign to go on the offensive against conservative critics of Israel stance"

Despite the Wisconsin political circus of late, state Republicans have expanded the oldest voucher program in the nation within a much-needed deficit-cutting budget. Gov. Scott Walker (R) signed the bill Sunday. It included a provision axing the cap on Milwaukee's school vouchers program…

"Senate confirms Petraeus as next CIA director with 94-0 vote"

A public records request by Wisconsin Republicans has revealed that Democratic state senate candidate Shelley Moore used public resources to organize her campaign against Republican senator Sheila Harsdorf. The documents show that Moore, a union official and high school English teacher, sent a…

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports: 

"U.S. Is Intensifying a Secret Campaign of Yemen Airstrikes"

The MIlwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports: 

Just a few years ago, Tommy Thompson was a well-regarded former governor of Wisconsin. Now it looks like recent attacks on Thompson for his alleged support of Obamacare, by the Club for Growth and others, are starting to take a toll.

Matt Welch on why Bernard Henri-Levy is "France's National Disgrace." And a bonus reminder from Jonah Goldberg on BHL's amazing self-regard.

There is now talk of Paul Ryan potentially running for Senate in 2012, in the wake of Democratic incumbent Herb Kohl’s announcement that he is retiring. It seems unlikely, however, that this prospect will be very tempting to Ryan.

Chris Cilizza reports that Wisconsin Democrat senator Herb Kohl plans to call it quits after 2012:

More of that vaunted "new tone": "Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) said today that the new Republicans elected to the House of Representatives last November came to Congress 'to kill women.'"

Prosser pulls it out?

The Wisconsin supreme court race between conservative justice David Prosser and liberal assistant attorney general JoAnne Kloppenburg is coming down to the wire. With 99% of precincts reporting, Prosser has a 585-vote lead out of nearly 1.5 million ballots cast. The potentially bad news for Prosser…

The fate of Wisconsin governor Scott Walker's Budget Repair Bill may hang in the balance Tuesday, when the state's voters head to the polls. The April 5 election, which pits conservative supreme court justice David Prosser against liberal assistant attorney general JoAnne Kloppenburg, will…

The headline was bracing: “Emails Catch Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Lying.” It came on a tweet from @ pwire, the Twitter account for something called Political Wire, an online news digest. The publisher, Taegan Goddard, takes the reports of others, adds links to their articles, and sends them out…

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the controversial collective bargaining bill passed by the Wisconsin state legislature and signed by governor Scott Walker was published as law on Friday, despite a county judge's temporary restraining order:

"No Country Leans on Upper-Income Households as Much as U.S."

Scott Walker was finished. 

National Democrats are hoping they can benefit from the wave of discontent with Republicans among their union base in the Badger State by heavily targeting freshman GOP congressman Sean Duffy. As Politico reports, the party's strategy is to characterize Wisconsin's axe-wielding Republican as,…

Of course, the answer to that particular rhetorical question is obvious: Economic reality. Still, the brazen hypocrisy here is, well, delicious. The Newspaper Guild is calling for unpaid Huffington Post writers to strike:

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports: 

Boy, those Tea Baggers sure are violent. Wait, did I say Tea Baggers? I meant to say Wisconsin unions.

Ann Althouse has some big fans in the Wisconsin union movement.

In the past I've been fairly unsparing in my criticism of the Washington Post's Greg Sargent, but before I register my displeasure again, let me say I do think he works harder at reporting than most in the blogosphere. So I hope that the following is taken in constructive manner.

Sometimes the New York Times is hard to believe--on March 12, for instance.

In recent months, in response to a series of austerity measures, we have seen civic unrest in the streets of London, Athens, and other European capitals. Some of the cuts that sparked the chaos are quite moderate. In France, for example, violence broke out over the government’s proposal to raise…

And the top five suggestions for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's new bumper sticker are:

Send your prayers across the Pacific.

While Democrats are now outraged that the state senate voted last night on the budget repair bill without Democrats present, Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett encouraged Republicans to do just that on Monday night.

You know, for all the Soros money shoveled at Media Matters for America, it's really quite a monument to what a bunch of hapless ideologues run the place that they have absolutely nothing to show for it.

Rasmussen is out with a new poll showing that likely Wisconsin voters remain opposed to "weakening collective bargaining rights" by a 57 to 39 percent margin.

Wisconsin Fleebaggers give up

Madison, Wisconsin

Scott Walker, Wisconsin’s new governor, has brought on a showdown with public sector unions and their Democratic allies in his state. He seeks to get most state workers to pay for their pension and health benefits, to narrow collective bargaining to wages, to stop the state from collecting union…

As the faceoff in Wisconsin enters its most critical stage, America finds itself bombarded with an array of polling data designed to provide insight into the thinking of citizens (not always registered voters) on the standoff between Governor Scott Walker (and the state’s Republican legislators) on…

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Wisconsin voters support the Democrats over Republican governor Scott Walker by eight points and the unions over Walker by 15 points, according to a new Rasmussen poll:

The Daily Caller reports:

In September 1787, the Constitution was submitted to the states for ratification. The Pennsylvania Assembly met to pass legislation creating a convention that would decide if the state should sign on to the newly reconceived United States. But something was missing: a quorum. Several…

Via Real Clear Politics, here's video from a recent speech by Rep. Paul Ryan, D-Wis. He makes a pretty powerful point about Democratic legislators fleeing their states and the lack of respepect for the rule of law:

Paul Ryan talks about Democratic senators fleeing his home state of Wisconsin and America "getting its mojo back":

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker told THE WEEKLY STANDARD this evening that it is indeed possible for Senate Republicans to vote on the collective bargaining portion of his budget repair bill with a simple majority of senators present. "You could technically do it,” Walker told me, but he said he's…

How not to use quotation marks.

According to the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, the top lobbying group in Wisconsin for the 2009-2010 session of the legislature was the Wisconsin Education Assocation, which as of August 20, 2010 had spent 10,462 hours and $2,143,588 lobbying state lawmakers.

Obama is sitting out the union fights.

Who’s pulling the strings on Wisconsin governor Scott Walker? Well it’s got to be someone – since obviously no Republican would act out of principle.

Andrew Sullivan caught a give-and-take between me and Juan Williams on Fox News on Monday night and raises a fair objection.

Most of the focus on public employee unions emphasizes the fact that states are going bankrupt and that states can’t continue to give these unions the almost obscene perks they have gotten in the past. But that misses the more fundamental point.

Madison, Wisc.

In today's Wall Street Journal, Steve Hayes writes: 

Oh no: "Christchurch earthquake: 'Dead bodies lying around.'"

Madison, Wisc.

Madison, Wisc.

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker explains his argument to the Heritage Foundation: