Wisconsin Republicans Lied Over and Over

Wisconsin Republicans are crooks and liars.

Ed Pilkington of the Guardian offers a blockbuster report based on leaked documents from the John Doe probe revealing why Republicans are desperate to stop the publication of Scott Walker-related emails from the John Doe II investigation.

Emails written before and during the 2011-12 Recall-Walker and allied state senators' campaign show the rats' nest of Republican corruption and law-breaking extending throughout Wisconsin elected government seemingly into most every corner Republicans befouled with their illegal campaign schemes.

Writes Pilkington:

By 20 March, two weeks before the election, worry is distilling into panic. Brian Fraley of the Wisconsin-based conservative think-tank the MacIver Institute, shoots an impassioned plea for help to what he calls his 'group' of like-minded lobbying groups and individuals, forwarded to Walker's chief of staff and other top advisers in Madison.

'David Prosser is in trouble,' Fraley begins. 'And if we lose him, the Walker agenda is toast, as could be the Senate GOP majority and any successes creating a new redistricted map. That's not hyperbole.' 

The Guardian report comes as next month the United States Supreme Court will likely vote to hear the federal case that will show corrupt Wisconsin Supreme Court judges improperly heard a Wisconsin John Doe case bearing directly on some judges' personal legal and political futures,  i.e. judges had a personal interest in the outcomes of the John Doe case and should have recused themselves, (No. 15M121. John T. Chisholm, et al., Petitioners v. Two Unnamed Petitioners, et al, (Ferral, The Capital Times).

Notes Pilkington:

John Doe files obtained by the Guardian give clues as to why the prosecutors have raised doubts about impartiality in the state courts. They suggest that two of the conservative judges on Wisconsin's top court who voted to halt the John Doe investigation may have themselves been intimately connected to the same campaigning network of rightwing politicians, lobbyists and major donors that the prosecutors were investigating.

Take David Prosser. He was one of the four conservative judges who approved the July 2015 ruling that terminated the John Doe investigation, sacked Schmitz from his position as special prosecutor and ordered the destruction of all the documents that had been collected (later that order was softened a little to a demand that the prosecutors hand in all the documents to the court which would keep them secret under seal).

At precisely the same time as the six Republican senators were embroiled in their recall election, Prosser was in his own electoral fight for survival. He was up for re-election in April 2011 and facing a tough challenge from JoAnne Kloppenburg, then Wisconsin's assistant attorney general. The Prosser election and the recall election were intertwined in that Kloppenburg was attempting to turn her battle against Prosser into a referendum on Governor Walker's anti-union legislation, Act 10.

The Guardian report reveals corruption and lies from Wisconsin
Republicans, as life as usual proceeds in the sleepy state.

Noted also from the email leak is the coordinated widespread Republican disinformation campaign fabricating the voter fraud canard.

From Rick Hasan's Election Law site:

Recall Elections Blog:

... Rick Hasen at the Election Law Blog notes one specific email, where 'a Republican operative' suggests "messaging ‘widespread reports of election fraud’ so we are positively set up for the recount regardless of the final number."

Longtime readers, if any, of this blog may remember that this early push on election fraud claims definitely happened in a very specific way:

Here is Scott Walker claiming that he needs over 53% of the vote because voter fraud is going to claim 1-2% of the vote.

Here’s RNC Chair Reince Priebus backing up the same voter fraud claim.

Here’s future state House Speaker Robin Vos claiming that the Republican’s loss in a Wisconsin Senate recall race was partly due to fraud.

Cheat, lie, steal and lie. It's the Republican way.