A taste of this week's Vos/Gableman idiocy

A growing week of absurdity, illustrated in the Twitterverse.

It's here in this very good article by @SJohnsonWPR which also highlights that, according to Judge Frank Remington's written order last week, Michael Gableman has been working without a legally enforceable contract since October 31, 2021. https://t.co/l0kd8DD7r8

— Jules (@synathroesmus) March 9, 2022

How low can this guy sink? taxpayers charged for his grocerieshttps://t.co/nH9qh3uLIa

— Bruce Murphy (@BruceMurphyMKE) March 9, 2022

The judge says the records are underwhelming, showing little sign of a robust investigation of the election.

— Patrick Marley (@patrickdmarley) March 8, 2022

The Wisconsin State Journal could find no evidence to support the claim that turnout in nursing homes was anywhere close to what Gableman claims.

— Matthew DeFour (@WSJMattD4) March 11, 2022

And in typical GOP style, they deal with this exposure by escalating the stupidity, cover-ups and BS.

A Wisconsin judge today ordered Republican Assembly @SpeakerVos to produce deleted emails in response to an open records request filed by the liberal watchdog group @weareoversight seeking documents related to an investigation into the 2020 election.https://t.co/RswKIBNziv

— Scott Bauer (@sbauerAP) March 10, 2022

🧵Michael Gableman appeared on Steve Bannon's podcast today. He didn't really say anything new.

7+ interesting parts I found were:

1. The "Never never never surrender" poster
2. He complained about media coverage before really talking about anything on the election itself pic.twitter.com/5jDxXvlez5

— Adam Rogan (@could_be_rogan) March 11, 2022

Lindell says he's also planning to file... something... in the coming days in Wisconsin that will allege the use of ALL electronics in running elections is unconstitutional.

— Adam Rogan (@could_be_rogan) March 11, 2022

A social media post tied to the group "Utah Patriots" says Mike Gableman will be a featured guest at an "exposing elections" event 2 weeks from today.

It also says Colorado clerk Tina Peters will be there. Peters was recently indicted on charges of breaching election data. pic.twitter.com/A2YbkDKAgY

— A.J. Bayatpour (@AJBayatpour) March 11, 2022

Grifting isn't easy, but Gableman and Vos sure are making it pay off at the expense of the rest of us.

But this garbage isn't really about finding the truth, it's about using the Big Lie to rig elections further for the Republicans. Milwaukee's Dan Shafer explains it well in a guest article for Belt Magazine.

A full account of the anti-democracy measures and baseless “investigations” in Wisconsin since November 3, 2020, would fill a book. But the tell all along– beyond the lack of credible factual evidence – has been that Republicans have only questioned the results of Biden’s victory, never those of the 115 state legislators or eight members of Congress elected on those very same ballots; apparently, only the tops of the ballots were illegitimate.

Republicans’ dangerous attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election are a window into the unraveling of Wisconsin’s democracy. Our state legislature has an entrenched Republican majority after 2011 redistricting gave them essentially insurmountable margins. A Harvard study ranked the state’s legislative maps the nation’s worst, putting Wisconsin’s quality of elections on par with non-democracies like Jordan and Bahrain. This entrenched power is how Republicans can get away with something like the Gableman “investigation,” or have a representative as extreme as [Tim] Ramthun, or put a conspiracy theorist in charge of the elections committee. It’s how they can become the nation’s least active full-time legislature and only grant a public hearing to less than one percent of the bills introduced by Democrats. It’s how, even after Democrats and Democratic-aligned candidates won eleven of the last twelve statewide elections, the GOP still wields more power in state government.

Wisconsin Republicans have been after power consolidation at all costs. Now, even when they lose, they can’t lose. Fringe actors use this to grab a foothold in the party’s mainstream. Leaders like Vos have invited them to do so every step of the way. It’s clear that party leadership has been playing with fire, and that they have no interest in stopping the blaze.

Wisconsin is a warning. The low hum is now an alarm. Once you decide, as members of the Wisconsin GOP have, that certain votes don’t count, you’ve begun a descent into democratic peril. We have been the testing ground for Republican political experiments for years now. If the right finds success in their latest trials– this time, on the issue of foundational democratic principles – the nation is next.

ALL Republicans chose to have Vos be their Speaker, and outside of the Big Lie nutjobs, none have called for Vos to be tossed. They ALL MUST GO, because none are innocent.