You're right, brazen's not a verb, but this is a blog, not a dissertation.
Wisconsin Republicans, caught with their pants down again, say that's perfectly natural. They pulled them down to cool off, and there's nothing wrong with that, nothing at all. In fact, everyone should pull down their pants.
First there was a tape of a LaCrosse County GOP meeting where Repubs discussed running someone in the Dem primary against State Rep. Jennifer Shillilng, who's challenging State Sen. Dan Kapanke in a recall. When that one leaked out the GOP acted like they had something to hide, even threatening to sue the taper/leaker.
Now two letters have surfaced from Republican officials encouraging local Rs to field candidates in Dem primaries in two other districts as well.
So now the paid head of the state GOP (as distinguished from the elected head, the chair), says yes, the party's doing it, and it's perfectly OK because the Rs haven't had time to campaign like the Dems have. Seems they've been too busy doing their jobs in the legislature and working on the budget. Interesting, since three of the Dems running are members of the Assembly, and they've also been doing their jobs and voting on the budget.
There's clearly another motive; this is not about leveling the playing field. The GOP is hell-bent to pass as much of its pro-corporate, anti-people agenda as possible before the recalls, which speaks volumes about what they expect the outcomes to be. They expect to lose the State Senate majority, which will bring things to a screeching halt. So the longer they can delay things the better; they've also filed a bogus lawsuit to try to stop the recalls.
"Brandon Lorenz suggests there may be one more reason the Rs want to buy more time -- to pass dedistricting while they still control both houses.
Taking control of the Senate won't undo any of the damage Walker & Co. do in the meantime, but at least it can block further assaults until we take back the rest of the government, which could come as early as 2012 at the rate things are going,