"The Last of Wisconsin's Recall Elections" (with video)

Anna Lekas Miller (The Nation) with video (04:44)from MSNBC-ED Show:

After a summer of outside money and fake candidates, Wisconsin's historic recall elections are finally over. Despite the media's coverage of the "failed recall elections," the actual numbers show that Democrats won five seats while Republicans won four...an overall victory for Democrats. Not only is the state Senate only one seat away from having a Democratic majority, but one of the moderate Republicans currently in the senate was against Scott Walker's union busting agenda. In other words, Wisconsin has a pro-union state Senate.

The Nation's John Nichols joins The Ed Show to discuss what the victory means for Scott Walker's anti-union political agenda.

Greg Sargent on the Wisconsin recall vote results

Greg Sargent:

Labor and Dems lost. They should be proud of what they accomplished.---The history of the American labor movement is crowded with losing battles and crushing disappointments. The men and women who have fought for workers’ rights, often against tremendously long odds, have all too often suffered defeat and humiliation, only finding consolation in the idea that their efforts perhaps succeed in awakening a bit of public sympathy for their plight, inching their larger cause forward in unseen ways. MORE...

Greg Sargent on the recall vote today in Wisconsin

Greg Sargent:

Whatever ends up happening, Wisconsin Dems and labor have already succeeded in one sense: They reminded us that it’s possible to build a grass roots movement by effectively utilizing the sort of unabashed and bare-knuckled class-based populism that makes many of today’s national Dems queasy. Their effort — whether or not they take back the state senate — could provide a model for a more aggressive, populist approach for national Dems in 2012. MORE (from Sargent's always worthwhile 'The Morning Plum)...