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THREATS: Do only Republicans get them? Seems like.

Uncomfy conservatives and their enablers now even busier dismantling dissent

You've got to admire the chutzpah (pronounced "chuts-paw" by Michele Bachmann) of Republicans and conservatives and their opinion-leader enablers. First they mounted a bald attempt to seize permanent control of government -- and that's hardly an overstatement, since at least one GOP party official a couple years ago said flat out that was their goal. But the effort hasn't been going entirely as planned, so they're doubling down.

How, exactly, do you go about seizing control when the public isn't keen to vote your political cabal into undismissable majorities? Well, there are ways, as we are learning in Wisconsin. For example:

* Trying to eliminate or make much more difficult our state's constitutional provision for recalls of state elected lawmakers. The recalls can be for any reason the voters choose. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as of this morning has now written at least two editorials backing this dumb-down of what we ought to rename Constitutional Recall.  





THREATS: Do only Republicans get them? Seems like.

[img_assist|nid=1278|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=80]The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other state news media again today are headlining reported death threats against a number of state lawmakers -- all of them Republican. The threats were reportedly made on Gov. Walker on down the line to a number of GOP congressmen and state legislators. 

Threats against pubilc figures are always a serious matter, and especially so in light of the Arizona shootings over the weekend. But it's strange that this new round of threats is being reported out of an important context, namely: Elected officials of all political stripes commonly receive death threats. But to read the news accounts today, you'd think the only politicians in Wisconsin who have been threatened are Republicans.