Obama Political Operatives Working With The Unions And Leftist Groups In Wisconsin

Madison, Wisconsin (March 15, 2011) Working in lockstep with labor unions and well-funded leftist groups involved in street protests in Wisconsin are well-known Obama political operatives who are also driving the action to recall eight Republican state senators in retaliation for their role in trying to curb union rights and benefits.

State Republican Senate Leader Scott Fitzgerald told Fox News that some of the people filing petitions against members of his caucus are Obama political operatives who have direct links to Barack Obama’s political team in Chicago.  Obama is determined to aid labor groups in the state so they can deliver for Democrats in 2012.

Republican state Senator Randy Hopper echoed Fitzgerald’s claims, saying, “there’s absolutely no question this is an issue for 2012.”

“People from Organizing for America have been running the protests in Madison for quite some time now,” he told Fox News. “I think that there’s no question that the president has some involvement in this. I don’t know what.”

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney shot down the claim when asked about it claiming “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

The petition campaign itself does not bear Obama’s name or that of his political unit, Organizing for America.  Senate Democrats have also been targeted by recall efforts in Wisconsin, along with fines imposed by majority Republicans for playing hooky.

Republicans seemed to be basing their charge on claims that organizers had ties to Obama’s vast political network in 2008.

“In my district, the person that’s heading up the recall effort in my district was doing some work on behalf of either the administration or big labor in Colorado,” Hopper said.

“Some of the individuals that filed petitions against our Republican senators have direct links to the Obama team in Chicago and it doesn’t surprise me because Wisconsin is certainly one of the states that’s targeted” in 2012,” Fitzgerald said.

This week, Fitzgerald told a radio program that the individual with ties to Obama – who he did not name – was organizing the recall effort against River Hills Republican Senator Alberta Darling.  Kristopher Rowe, a grassroots organizer for Obama’s 2008 campaign, is running the Darling recall effort on Facebook.  However, Rowe says he is merely a volunteer and is not taking orders from the Obama re-election camp.  Really?

Elsewhere, the most prominent sponsor of the GOP recall effort is the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, which has a Help Recall the Republican 8 banner on its website.

“If we can recall just three senators, we can regain control of the Senate and can end the ugly games Republicans in the legislature have played – unplugging phone lines, bolting windows inside the Capitol shut, and withholding the paychecks of Democratic legislators,” the party said in an online appeal.

“The Democratic Party is busy spinning and obfuscating facts which are all too obvious to those who actually think.  The Republicans unplugged phone lines to avoid threatening phone calls, and bolted windows shut because they were under siege by angry mobs of union thugs.  They are trying to withhold paychecks: from democratic senators who abandoned their legislative posts and abandoned the constitutional duties they swore to uphold.  Democratic rhetoric is only effective on those who refuse to see the truth.”

Scott Schaefer

MoveOn.org and other liberal groups – including socialist groups who list as their goal the collapse of the American economy – are also leading the charge to recall Wisconsin’s Republican senators, soliciting signatures and donations.

Party leaders are exchanging barbs after the Wisconsin Senate worked around absentee Democrats to vote on a pared-down bill stripping state workers of collective-bargaining rights.  Although the law passed and was signed by Governor Walker, an activist judge has temporarily restrained the publication and implementation of the new law.  The matter is now pending before the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Wisconsin law allows virtually any public official who’s been in office for more than a year to be subject to a recall petition, but several hurdles have to be cleared first.

Petition organizers seeking to recall state senators are required to collect signatures equal to 25 percent or more of the number of votes cast for governor in the last election.

In most districts, it would take at least 15,000 signatures to force a recall. Organizers have 60 days to collect the signatures, but even if they get them, the senators would not automatically be forced out of office. Instead, they would be forced to run for re-election before the end of their term.

If Obama political operatives believe that the truth is on their side, they should have a legitimate discussion, rather than hiding behind contrived street protests and the chanting of ‘this is what democracy looks like.’