Call for Recount is Clearly Coordinated Hypocrisy

You could see this coming a mile away.  Outgoing Republican State Senator Van Wanggaard at the 11th hour is requesting a recount.  The Republican front groups have been clearly setting the table for this with their anonymous allegations of alleged "voter fraud".  So it was no surprise that Wanggaard and his Republican Party handlers are using this carefully crafted pretext as their excuse for a frivolous recount.  Willfully smearing the vote and the voters in the one race that they lost on June 5th was the only option without looking like sore losers (FAIL).

Let's run through how this has played out shall we?

1. The same right wingers that complained about "out-of-state" influences now brag about the out-of-state people and organizations that they brought in to try and suppress the vote in Democratic leaning areas of this district.  Apparently that suppression effort included a municipal clerk from Illinois. 
2. Although many Walker worshipers were ungracious winners on election night, they also proved to be sore losers in Wanggaard's lost recall election.  They quickly started the typical allegations about imaginary "voter fraud".  
3. After the official numbers showed that Wanggaard actually lost by more votes than initially reported, he stalled about whether he would call for a frivolous recount.  
4. Anonymous reports conveniently show up the day before Wanggaard's deadline to request a recount. They are amplified by the typical Republican front groups and their loyal media outlets. 
5. Magically Wanggaard announces at the 11th hour that he is requesting a frivolous recount and he and his party handlers use the pretext of anonymously reported and still unverified "voter fraud" as the reason. 

Another aspect that is so completely telling is the stark hypocrisy of it all.

1. Republicans complained endlessly about the recall process (even though they have encouraged it in years past) but now they are essentially declaring their desire to continue that process because they lost a senate seat. 
2. Republicans complained endlessly about "wasting taxpayer dollars" with recall elections but then proceeded to run fake Democrats and now they are willing to waste more taxpayer time and resources with a frivolous recount simply because they lost a senate seat.
3. Does anyone remember the Republican complaints about the recount in the historically close state supreme court race last year? 

Here are a few selected items on the prospect of a Kloppenburg recount when the margin of victory was 0.5% or less and qualified for a paid recount (btw, Wanggaard's is not close enough to qualify):

• Prosser's Republican consultant Brian Schimming: "It's just not close enough to merit it" 
• Republican attorney of choice Jim Troupis: "The idea that this is anything but frivolous ... is unsustainable,"
• Republican Party of Milwaukee County asked "How much is Kloppenburg's recount costing taxpayers?" 
• Mark Jefferson then Executive Director of the Republican Party of Wisconsin said that requesting a recount was choosing the "low road" and that it was a "wasteful exercise". He went on to say that it "benefits no one" and that it was a "pointless stunt". 

I could go on all day with this Republican recount hypocrisy but you get the point.

In the end we are witnessing a clearly coordinated effort to manufacture a crisis and to drag out the same recall battle that Republicans claimed to hate (before they lost the state senate).  Shameless.