The opening shot in the effort to recall legislators on both sides of Scott Walker's manufactured budget crisis has been fired from the right. News organizations are quickly spreading a report by the Associated Press that a Utah group has filed formal papers with the State of Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB) in an attempt to recall eight of the 14 state Senate Democratic legislators who relocated to Illinois to halt a vote on Gov. Scott Walker's budget despair -- uh, that is, repair -- bill.
But it's not really a "group." It's a right-wing, Internet-based talk show host who's heavy into fighting any kind of amnesty for undocumented immigrants, and who -- get this -- recently filed a recall petition in Arizona against Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik. The sheriff is another Democrat who -- after Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and others were shot last month in Dupnik's jurisidiction -- had harsh words for talk show hosts and others engaging in hateful and violent speech. Yes, free speech for Democrats is grounds for removal from office, if you've the blunt ideology of a typical right-wing bloviator.
The registrations were filed electronically between February 18 and 21. The self-identified American Recall Coalition now is obliged to file paper copies of the registration statements. The electronically submitted "draft" registrations do not suffice to begin a recall, the GAB said. Once the group files the appropriate signed paper copies, they will be listed in the GAB's Campaign Finance Information System.
According to the electronic registrations, which are available for public viewing online, the Utah committee filed under the name of Dan Baltes, treasurer, who gave a post office box in Salt Lake City for his address, plus a Utah phone number and an email address.
http://rootswire.org/web/total-recall-no-one-can-recall-seeing-right-wing-organization-except-its-right-wing-utah-talk-sh