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On CNN's Your Money, host Ali Velshi brought in the Wall Street Journal's resident hack, Stephen Moore so he could pollute not just one, but two segments in a row on his show, because heaven forbid the viewers could be allowed to hear what either of the other two guest had to say without someone like Moore talking over them, lying, obfuscating and muddying up the waters or filibustering when he had the chance so the other guest doesn't get a chance to talk.

CNN always seems to do this to liberals or anyone that even leans to the center-left and makes sure they've got a right-winger like Moore on there for "balance," especially if that person is going to talk about something they don't want to allow a clear message on. In this case, it was the AFL-CIO's Richard Trumka talking about income disparity and the fact that we shouldn't be going after workers' pensions and benefits when those at the top are making hundreds of times more than their employees.

Trumka also did a good job talking about the record income disparity we've got in the United States and the fact that as union membership has declined, that disparity has gone up and for his part, he refused to allow Moore to dominate the conversation or for Velshi to get him off point by interrupting him when he wasn't done talking yet.

And then we had Norm Ornstein, who has a new book out talking about the fact that Republicans are the problem with the gridlock we're seeing in our government right now, which doesn't fit into CNN's game of "both sides" are equally terrible and to blame for not cooperating with each other. So heaven forbid he can't be allowed to speak without Moore hogging up the better portion of the entire interview.

Moore sadly is a regular guest on this show week after week and brings nothing but intellectual dishonesty week after week as he did here. His presence on this show is just another example of CNN doing their best to be Fox-lite. Stephen Moore, we let him lie, you decide.

Ornstein's segment below the fold.

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Never mind the John Doe investigation and the possibility that Scott Walker could get indicted in the coming months for the scandal that Ken recently wrote about here, Piers Morgan decided to press the latest darling of the right-wing, now that he won his recall election on whether he'd be interested in accepting an offer by Mitt Romney to run as his vice president.

Apparently Morgan believes his all of his viewers are completely oblivious to the investigation of Walker and did his part to make sure that those who are remained that way with this nonsense. Even Walker had a look of pain on his face while trying to explain why he'd turn Mitt Romney down if he was foolish enough to offer him a spot on the ticket.

Walker maintained that Mitt Romney should pick another of his fellow Wisconsinites instead, Rep. Paul Ryan. I'd be more than happy to see Romney take Walker's advice. If they think putting the poster-boy for dismantling our social safety nets on the ticket would be helpful and highlighting his positions as part of the presidential campaign, by all means, be my guest.

Walker shoots down VP talk:

Following his survival of a Wisconsin recall effort, Republican Gov. Scott Walker on Thursday pushed back against the idea of being tapped as a potential running mate for Mitt Romney.

Political observers point out that not only is Walker a rising star in the GOP, but having his name on the ticket could further push the blue state of Wisconsin into the Republican column this November.

Walker, however, had a different name in mind.

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After Stephen Colbert showed a round of video clips with the Fox talking heads among others discussing how terrible the losses in the Wisconsin recall elections were for the union movement and Colbert doing a bit of celebrating of his own, his staff, who are union members themselves, reminded him of that fact, letting their displeasure with his celebration be known.

I'd pay money to see someone on Hannity's staff do this to him for real instead of in a parody as we had here.

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After the disappointing and frankly frightening results in this Tuesday's Wisconsin recall elections for someone like myself who has been a decades long union member and what it might mean for the future of the union movement if this emboldens Republicans to try to get rid of every union on the country, and the real possibility of seeing them push for putting a national right to work law on the books, I was glad to see at least one person leading a discussion on what's happened where we've got the working class voting against their own economic interests, and that was Ed Schultz.

If we had a few more discussions like this in our national media, rather than the constant union bashing we see instead, maybe more voters would be aware of the fact that pitting one group of workers against another just harms all of us. Sadly as Thomas Frank pointed out, this is something that's been going on for decades. And as E.J. Dionne noted, the severe decline in union membership on the United States has made it much easier for Republicans to play this game of divide and conquer with the working class.

This segment hit home for me particularly hard because it mirrored a conversation I had with a co-worker earlier the same day, who was asking me what I thought about what happened in Wisconsin and all the money poured in there and wondering how we've got so many within our own ranks who are union members and who are happy to have the security of that union membership when it comes to everything from decent wages, to health and retirement benefits, and some recourse with safety issues on the job to not worrying about being fired if they dare to speak up about problems in the work place, and yet consider themselves part of this ridiculous AstroTurf "tea party" movement.

Sadly I didn't have any good answers for him other than to make some of the same points made by Frank and Dionne here about the propaganda those members have been exposed to and the huge uphill battle we're facing to try to overcome that and the way unions are portrayed in the media.

Here's part of the conversation from Schultz's show where he was more or less following up on a discussion he'd had on MSNBC earlier that day on Alex Wagner's show and the need for union leadership to be doing more to educate their members. I agree with the points he made. The question is how do unions use the limited resources they have to potentially follow up on them when their ranks are under assault, which means their finances are as well.

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It seems Gov. Scott Walker is suddenly very concerned about how this recall election is going to adversely affect some of the vulnerable people in his state. Won't someone think of the children and seniors please?

Walker: The Recall Costs Money — Think Of The Children And Seniors:

Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) appeared Monday on Morning Joe, discussing the upcoming recall election against him by the state Democrats and organized labor. And among other things, he said, the recall is only hurting children and seniors — by costing money.

MSNBC’s Willie Geist asked Walker: “You find yourself in the middle of this, mired in a recall election. The latest Marquette poll has you 47 approve, 47 percent disapproves, split right down the middle in the state of Wisconsin. This could be a long fight for you — a special election scheduled to take place in June, a primary in May. How distracted are you from doing the business of Wisconsin by trying to essentially win re-election in the middle of your term?” (Note: The May and June dates are not yet officially declared by state election officials, but are the likely outcome of the administrative process.)

“Well, we’re focused,” Walker responded, “but it’s a huge distraction, not just for me, for the legislature. I mean, it’s $9 million of taxpayers’ money just to run this. Think about the number of kids we could help, think of the number of seniors we could help in our state with $9 million that we didn’t have to waste on this — this frivolous recall election.

Maybe he should have thought of that first before he went on the attack of the working class and union members in his state for the benefit of his big business campaign contributors. And as TPM noted, he was also crying about the out of state money coming in from "special interests" outside of his state.

The Rev. Al Sharpton had a response to that later in the day on MSNBC, where he noted that 61 percent of the money supporting Walker is coming from outside of the state, $1 million of which is from just four donors, among them of course, the Koch brothers.

Video below the fold.

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A Wisconsin state representative who supported the state's voter ID law is now be accused of voter fraud himself.

A YouTube video titled "Proof Of Voter Fraud In The Wisconsin State Assembly" shows Republican state Rep. Joel Kleefisch getting out of his chair to electronically cast a vote for a member who was away from the Assembly floor.

Wisconsin state Assembly rule 76 clearly says that "[o]nly the members present in the assembly chamber may vote."

On Wednesday, WTMJ's Rob Koebel asked Kleefisch if he broke that rule.

"It depends on how you interpret the rule," Kleefisch replied. "The rule says you have to be present in the chamber. The bathroom counts as the chamber. And the parlor counts as a chamber if you are going to eat."

It wasn't immediately clear which member Kleefisch had been voting for or if that member had been in the bathroom or parlor at the time.

Democratic state Rep. Jason Fields told Koebel that the practice is common among both Republicans and Democrats.

"Yeah, it's done when you have a conversation with your seat mate to know where they are at," Fields explained.

For his part, Kleefisch dismissed the video as an attempt at character assassination of him and his wife, Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch (R), who is facing a recall election.

"We are targets. My wife is under recall. We are targets," the Oconomowoc Republican said. "He shoots specific video of me when he could have shot 24 to 50 people at that time."

Recall elections for Republican Gov. Scott Walker, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and four state senators appear likely to go forward after a judge recently denied Walker's petition for more time to review recall petitions. Earlier this month, the Government Accountability Board posted online more than 850,000 signed petitions calling for the lieutenant governor's recall.

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Ed Schultz and The Nation's John Nichols discuss the latest on Wisconsin's Gov. Scott Walker as the recall efforts there continue.

Scott Walker Slams Out-Of-State Money In Wisconsin Recall While In Washington For Fundraiser:

As Wisconsin Democrats continued their push to force his recall, Gov. Scott Walker (R) came to Washington on Thursday to raise funds for the election that is all but certain to occur. But while Walker has slammed the influence of out-of-state money in the recall effort, he defended his own fundraising from non-Wisconsinites as fundamentally different from what he called the "excessive amounts" raised by unions and liberal groups.

"The people from around the country who are helping us at the grassroots level are trying to match the amazing levels of money coming in from unions from Washington and throughout the country," said Walker at a question-and-answer event at the American Enterprise Institute on Thursday morning. Walker spoke at AEI before meeting with Republican donors at the Capitol Hill Club later in the day.

According to his latest campaign finance report, Walker has raised $5.1 million since the start of the recall effort on November 15th. Nearly half of that amount, $2.4 million, has come from outside of Wisconsin. Read on...

Meanwhile as Ed and John discussed, this additional news doesn't bode well for the odds of him being recalled either -- Milwaukee D.A. Announces Charges Against Ex-Walker Aide, Two Others In ‘John Doe’ Probe:

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Ed Schultz spoke to Wisconsin Democratic Party State Chairman Mike Tate about their success in collecting over 300,000 signatures already in the effort to recall Governor Scott Walker.

Scott Walker Opponents Collect More Than 300,000 Signatures In 12 Days For Recall Election:

Activists pushing to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) announced on Monday evening that they have collected more than 300,000 signatures for the effort in just 12 days.

To trigger a recall election, Walker's opponents -- coordinated by the group United Wisconsin -- need to collect 540,208 valid signatures by Jan. 17, which is 60 days after the campaign launched. Organizers said they are aiming for 600,000 to 700,000 signatures.

"Scott Walker has taken to the airwaves, supported by millions in corporate cash, to defend his record of job loss and full-scale assault on Wisconsin's institutions and values," United Wisconsin Executive Director Meagan Mahaffey said in a statement. "But all over Wisconsin, the people are seeing through Walker's deceptions and are moving to take our state back."

In the first 96 hours of the recall effort, United Wisconsin and its supporters collected more than 105,000 signatures from all 72 counties in the state.

An election could occur as early as March 27, although it will likely be later if Republicans challenge the petition signatures or file lawsuits.

The Walker recall is the next step in a campaign to oust state Republicans who pushed forward controversial budget legislation stripping collective bargaining rights from state employees. In August, Democrats recalled two Republican state senators from office, but they fell short of the three needed to take control of the chamber.

There have been only two successful recall elections in history, one against California Gov. Gray Davis in 2003 and one against North Dakota Gov. Lynn Frazier in 1921.

No Democrat has stepped forward yet to announce a challenge to Walker in a potential recall race. Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate said the party won't put a candidate forward until early 2012 in order to keep the fight focused as a referendum on Walker.

Here's more from Brad Friedman from last week with what some of those working to get Walker recalled have been putting up with -- Supporters of WI's 'Recall Walker' Effort Reportedly Receiving Death Threats.

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While discussing his opinions on the Wisconsin recall elections and the Republicans hanging onto their one seat majority in the Senate, RNC Chair Reince Priebus said the elections presented a lesson for the whole nation. One as TPM noted was pretty well a "pocket-sized John Galt speech" -- Priebus Toasts Wis. Recalls: ‘We Need To Have A Country Of Makers, And Not A Country Of Takers’ (VIDEO):

MSNBC host Contessa Brewer asked Priebus what message could be 'extrapolated' from the recalls, which were launched by the Democrats and organized labor in a backlash against Gov. Scott Walker's new law eliminating most collective bargaining rights that public employee unions had previously enjoyed. Democrats picked up two seats, just short of the three that they needed in order to flip control of the chamber.

"Well, Contessa, I mean, I view it as a 100 percent, absolute victory for not only the people in Wisconsin, but for all Americans that want to make sure that their government is listening, and that they can start living within its means," said Priebus. "And so after $30 million of big-government union money coming in, and a manufactured outrage that they've tried to put together in Wisconsin, we remain red. We won the Prosser [state Supreme Court] race in Wisconsin, we won again yesterday, we may win one or two next week.

"I think for the country, it's the start of having a debate, and winning the debate, that we need to have a country of makers, and not a country of takers. And I think that's important in saving not only Wisconsin, but a lot of other states that are watching. And I think it's a good signal, and a good sign, and a good tell, for the rest of America as to where the electorate is moving, and they're moving to winning a battle of individual freedom for America."

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The final results of the Wisconsin recall elections came in after Rachel Maddow made this report. The AP declared the race in Wisconsin Senate District 8 for incumbent Alberta Darling. After taking the viewers through a wrap up of the other final results of the elections during some of MSNBC's extended coverage Tuesday night, Maddow discussed what this is going to mean for the balance of power in the Wisconsin Senate and how all eyes might now be turning to state Sen. Dale Schultz in that regard since he has shown a willingness to work with some of his Democratic colleagues and push back against Gov. Scott Walkers radical anti-union agenda.

Markos did a wrap up on the elections and shared some of his thoughts on why all of us should not be completely pessimistic about the outcome of these races.

Wisconsin wrap up, a real victory, and we fight on:

I've got to say, I expected to be torn up if we didn't get to three seats. I expected to suffer through yet another bout of electoral depression, bummed at coming up short yet again. And we did come up short!

Short of what? Short of taking the Wisconsin Senate? Sure. That would've been nice.

But let me just say, if tonight was a loss, I hope we have many more such "losses" in 2012.

We took the fight into red territory, and took two seats. What was a safe 19-14 GOP advantage is now a narrow 17-16. If we had those numbers going into 2011, the anti-labor bill would never have passed—one GOPer voted with the Democrats (and hey, Sen. Dale Schultz, the water is mighty fine on our side of the aisle!).

The execrable Randy Hopper is gone. He can cry in his 20-something-year-old mistress's arms tonight. And Kapanke too. It sucks being unemployed in Wisconsin these days. Maybe they can get a non-union job at McDonald's.

Beyond Wisconsin, if we can enjoy a similar "loss rate" in Republican-held districts (picking up 33 percent of them), Speaker Nancy Pelosi will have a huge majority in 2013. We had a message that resonated with large numbers of working people in overwhelmingly white working-class districts that shifted hard against Democrats in 2010. GOP overreach is winning them back for us. Just think, before today, only 13 state legislators had been recalled in the entire history of this nation.

So yeah, I feel strangely energized and elated.

And as he noted, this is going to be a long war fighting against all the Koch money and from similar groups like Karl Rove's and others that was poured into these recall elections and we're going to have to fight for every inch of territory. And as he noted, they're going to try to cheat and steal or buy any election everywhere they can when they feel they can't win an election fairly. Which brings things back to full circle where we should all be demanding that AG Eric Holder look into the activities out of Waukesha County county clerk Kathy Nickolaus' office.

If anyone would like to contact his office to inquire on that matter, the information to do so is here.