Republican Dirty Tricks With Fake Primary Challengers in Wisconsin

You see, Republicans can't win on their ideas. They got voted into office promising jobs, but instead went full throttle into far right wing ideology. Once voters caught on and realized they were bamboozled they fought back in the only way they could, recalls. First stop, Wisconsin.

Republicans in Wisconsin got caught planning to recruit fake Democrats to run primary races against the Democrats in the upcoming recall elections. In order to delay recall elections, the GOP has planned to run fake Democratic primary candidates against the GOP challengers, which would push the elections back another month. That would give Republicans an extra month’s worth of distance from the collective-bargaining debacle that got them in this situation, and would allow more time to campaign. It certainly appears like an admission that Republicans are struggling. And while it can be argued that the recall elections in themselves are merely dirty tricks, enough of a double standard exists that this ploy could backfire. They don't even care who knows that they're willing to win an election by any means necessary. As Rachel points out, even the National Review is saying this could backfire on them.

The key here is that recalls are now tentatively scheduled for July 12, under the state election officials' proposed timelines, targeting six Republicans. If there were only one Democrat against each one Republican, then the July 12 date would immediately be held as the general election. But if there were additional Democrats, the July 12 date would then become the primary, giving the incumbents more time to campaign for a general election in August. Also, thanks to Wisconsin's open primary system in which anybody can vote in a party primary, it would force the Democrats to spend time, money and resources campaigning for their own nominations. The strategy is being officially coordinated by state Republican leaders, and has been endorsed by state Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald. Evidently the extra expense to taxpayers doesn't concern these "fiscal conservatives."

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy