Days of Reckoning for the State GOP

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is fronting a story today about the turmoil surrounding the proposed amendment to restrict public revenue in Wisconsin.

In addition to the Harsdorf/Brown proposal, there appear to be a number of other competing ideas floating around the GOP legislative circles. What's notable is that they're all significantly less extreme than the amendment proposed by Glenn Grothman and Jeff Wood--and the two co-authors are plenty mad about it.

In a press release on the Harsdorf/Brown proposal, Wood denounced a statutory cap as "absolutely meaningless," while Grothman said fellow state senators Harsdorf and Brown "are in favor of nothing" because they don't support the more extreme avenue of writing fiscal policy into the state constitution.

But Grothman and Wood surely aren't the only ones who are upset about these competing proposals.

I seem to remember a fiery post by prominent fiscal conservative blogger Owen at "Boots and Sabers" a couple months back that considered just such a scenario. In it, Owen concludes (emphasis mine):

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The best thing for the GOP leadership to do is put a strong version of the TPA up for a vote. If it fails, then so be it. We, the base, can focus our anger on those Republicans who voted against it. If the leadership tries to play us for a bunch of morons by passing a watered down TPA that isn’t worth a politician’s promise, then there will be hell to pay.

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It seems to me the state GOP is heading into some days of reckoning. Not only will we find out in the next few weeks which proposal comes out ahead--in the fallout we'll also likely discover exactly who the GOP base is in this state.

And it may not be the ones with the megaphones.