It was fairly predictable from the beginning but thanks for stating the obvious: just after one week since Gov. Scott Walker was caught on camera after a video surfaced with the Governor saying to a billionaire donor, “The first step is we’re going to deal with collective bargaining for all public employee unions, because you use divide and conquer” Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald is now joining the ranks of the busted politicians caught on camera. Speaking with a reporter in March together with Walker’s ‘divide and conquer’ video, it looks like taking down unions was premeditated and a primary goal since before Walker took office — to be clear, the besieged Governor denies trying to make Wisconsin a ‘right-to-work’ state, but the videos say otherwise.

Salon reports, “In a new video, the speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly says his caucus wanted to pass a right-to-work bill last year. The video, shot on March 27 of this year by a Democratic Party tracker, who provided the footage to Salon, captures Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald talking at a bar with a reporter from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.”

The reporter asks Fitzgerald whether he was surprised when Walker described his plans to attack public workers’ collective bargaining. “No, it wasn’t a shock to me …” responds Fitzgerald. “My caucus wanted to go further. I had people in my caucus that was, you know, were wondering if we were going to do Right to Work in this state. So to tell you the truth, the collective bargaining, to me, I thought was more of a middle ground if you can believe that.”

Golly, I just love the Internet – videos surface and bad karma strikes. Recall Walker.

H/T: my very good friend @QueerJohnPA with thanks.

Read Salon’s article here.