Scott Fitzgerald admitting his agenda on Fox News, March 2011

While Governor Scott Walker got the lion's share of attention over the assault on public unions in Wisconsin, the truth is that his right hand man in the whole agenda was Senate Leader Scott Fitzgerald, member of the Fitzgerald dynasty in Wisconsin. Wisconsinites knew, though, and Scott Fitzgerald was the subject of a recall as well. Within a fairly short period of time, more than 20,600 of his constituents—roughly 12 percent—signed the petition to recall Fitzgerald.

But given how little respect Wisconsinites have gotten from Scott Fitzgerald, is it any wonder that he expresses disdain for his challenger in the most dismissive and sexist of terms?

In comments to the Wisconsin State Journal, Fitzgerald argued that his opposition wasn't really being driven by his challenger, Lori Compas, but by unions, protest groups and her husband. From the paper's report:

For the record, Fitzgerald said he doesn't buy Compas' Pollyanna image. He knows some people are painting the race as a David-vs.-Goliath contest. But Fitzgerald said he thinks her husband is one of the main forces behind her campaign, as well as unions and protest groups.

"I don't for one minute believe she is the organizing force behind this whole thing," he said.

While Wisconsin Republicans have been arguing for months that unions exert undue influence in the political process in the state, Compas was reportedly "audibly stunned" when told of the state leader's remarks about her husband.

"That is pretty insulting, but it does seem in keeping with his general views on women," she told the paper. "He doesn't seem to have a lot of respect for them. That's OK; he can keep underestimating me."

For the record, Compas' husband is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. However, to belittle Compas as a puppet of her husband ignores her long-standing and very prominent role in the We Are Wisconsin movement and the recall of Scott Fitzgerald.

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Wisconsin progressives are undeterred in their efforts to recall the conservative state Senators who ramrodded through the union-busting bill even as Democrats stayed out of the state. The Senator most instrumental in carrying out ALEC wishes was Scott Fitzgerald, Senate Majority Leader and chief Walker enforcer.

Via Dane101.com:

On March 9 of this year, Fitzgerald was central to a joint committee meeting and vote held in seeming violation of the state’s open records law that allowed the Senate to then vote on the so-called budget “repair” bill without its Democratic members present.

Lori Compas lives in Scott Fitzgerald's highly conservative district and is fed up with him. Undeterred by the heavy lift it will take to secure enough recall signatures for the ballot, she went ahead and filed recall paperwork last week to begin the process.

“I decided last Friday that I would do this,” Compas explains. “I realized that if I didn’t do it, it wasn’t gonna happen.” However, she admits, “I feel like I’m this little ant flinging a crumb at a giant.”

Sometimes all it takes is one person stepping up and deciding something needs to be done to start the ball rolling.

Since then, Compas says, “It’s been beautiful. I can’t believe the response.”

Interest in the petitions has been so immense that an initial run of copies she’d thought would last until Thanksgiving has already run out. People heading out to collect signatures for the Walker and Kleefisch recalls have been overwhelmingly supportive of adding the Fitzgerald petition to the bunch.

And in the relatively conservative District 13 people of all political stripes are showing interest in the campaign.

“Something has really changed in the last year,” Compas says of Fitzgerald’s time in office. She sees the main reason to recall the senator having less to do with ideology and more to do with methodology. “The important thing is not what he’s done, but how he’s done it,” Compas adds, referring to the March 9 incident and much of what’s happened since. She believes that the folks in the district have largely lost faith in Fitzgerald because of those issues.

Yes, as it turns out, people don't like being lied to, misled, and strong-armed into something they don't agree with. Imagine that. Compas has set up a website and welcomes all donations and efforts to get the necessary signatures. She isn't being supported by the Democratic party at this time, so it's truly a one-woman grassroots effort.

Compas isn't the only one pursuing recall efforts. Democrats in Wisconsin have filed the paperwork to recall Governor Scott Walker and Senators Pam Galloway, Terry Moulton and Van Wanggaard.

Wisconsin's message is clear: Subvert democracy to serve corporate masters at your own peril.

Isn't this interesting? Wisconsin's Senate majority leader knew he couldn't legally order state troopers to go after the senate Democrats -- but he did it anyway! You'll notice you hear very little from Republicans about "the rule of law" these days:

Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald was warned by legal representatives of three separate state agencies that ordering state troopers to forcibly return senate Democrats to Madison would place his actions in a zone "outside the law",according to the Wisconsin State Journal.

The Journal has obtained memos and e-mail from Fitzgerald's office and the office of Sergeant-at-Arms Ted Blazel through a public records request.Fitzgerald now admits in an interview with the Journal that his efforts to compel the Democrats back to the State House were "a mess" and that when he tried to give a statewide order for law enforcement to arrest the missing lawmakers, “There was no cop in the state that would enforce it.”

It was Fitzgerald who issued the controversial "call of the House" on February 17th, when Democratic senators fled the state to avoid a vote on Governor Scott Walker's bill curbing the collective bargaining rights of public employees. Three days after the walkout, Fitzgerald ordered state troopers to the residence of Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller, who wasn't at home. This prompted a dialogue between Fitzgerald's office and Wisconsin's Legislative Council and Legislative Reference Bureau concerning the legality of the Fitzgerald's actions.The Majority Leader's office, however, sent troopers to state senators homes again four days later. It was when Fitzgerald attempted to use statewide police warrant verification network to issue an official "Order to Detain" the Democrats that the Wisconsin Department of Justice urged the Majority Leader and the Senate to drop the order rather than force law enforcement personnel to carry out acts that would ultimately prove to be illegal.

The State Journal: “We would strongly recommend that you attempt to get the Senate’s Order to Detain out of the system, i.e. to the extent possible indicate publicly that it has been withdrawn so that law enforcement do not rely upon it and attempt to enforce it, thereby creating unnecessary liability exposure to them and the state,” Kevin Potter, an assistant attorney general, said in a March 4 email.

Fitzgerald refused to back down. It was only when the Senate stripped out certain provisions of the bill allowing the Republicans to pass it with or without Democratic participation that the Majority Leader's office stopped trying to pressure state law enforcement to compel the Democrats back to Madison.

Occasionally Greta Van Susteren earns her keep, at least as it pertains to legal issues. She interviewed Wisconsin GOP Leader Scott Fitzgerald and grilled him on why he's persisting with a court action when he could simply give 24-hour notice and call a vote.

I have long thought the reason for the cramdown of the vote on this wasn't because of Democrats, but because of Republicans. I think their unity was fracturing and with each passing day, public pressure and disapproval was growing to the point where at least three Republican Senators were in danger of defection.

Fitzgerald seems to think so too. After being pressed by Greta, who quite reasonably points out that all he'd have to do is comply with the 24-hour notice requirements to get his law passed and published even as the old one "meanders in the courts", he says this:

Greta, you know that the legislature is always very tentative, and you may have the votes on one day and then you don't on the next.

He goes on, but that right there says it all.

Not that we ever had any doubt, but now perhaps even the corporate media minions will understand that all this "budget crisis" talk is merely a smokescreen for their plan to stop Obama's reelection:

A prank call from a man purporting to be petrochemical billionaire David Koch to Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) a few weeks ago revealed that Walker had crafted his “budget repair” bill in a bid to crush the labor unions. The revelation was at odds with the GOP’s public argument, that removing collective bargaining rights has something to do with the state’s budget deficit.

In an interview with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly moments ago, State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI), one of Walker’s closest allies in the legislature, confirmed the true political motive of Walker’s anti-union push. Fitzgerald explained that “this battle” is about eliminating unions so that “the money is not there” for the labor movement. Specifically, he said that the destruction of unions will make it “much more difficult” for President Obama to win reelection in Wisconsin:

FITZGERALD: Well if they flip the state senate, which is obviously their goal with eight recalls going on right now, they can take control of the labor unions. If we win this battle, and the money is not there under the auspices of the unions, certainly what you’re going to find is President Obama is going to have a much difficult, much more difficult time getting elected and winning the state of Wisconsin.

Fitzgerald’s transparent effort to defund his political opponents by stripping the rights of teachers and nurses is facing a backlash. In a few months, the defunders may be deposed. Following a report by ThinkProgress that several pro-Walker state lawmakers are eligible for recall, progressive activists around Wisconsin began filing the paperwork to remove eight GOP state senators from office.