"Republicans unveiled a plan Friday to redraw the state's 132 legislative seats just before a wave of recall elections this summer...."

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports:

A quick vote would allow GOP lawmakers to approve the maps and lock down advantages for themselves at the ballot box for the next 10 years by drawing district lines in their favor. Republicans' schedule would allow them to sign off on maps to their liking even if they lose control of the Senate in the coming weeks....

Scott Fitzgerald spokesman Andrew Welhouse said Republicans would seek to pass separate legislation allowing the legislative and congressional maps to be redrawn before local municipalities finish drawing ward lines. Currently, state law requires the ward lines to be drawn first, which would mean that lawmakers would have to wait until long after the recall elections to pass a redistricting plan.

And wouldn't some of those municipalities drag out the process in order to give the Democrats more time to try to affect the line-drawing? The Democrats have shown their willingness to use whatever they can to have their way, so I can't see the argument against the Republicans changing that law about the sequencing to get what they want.

Democrats said two Democrats challenging Republican senators in recall elections - Rep. Fred Clark of Baraboo and former Brown County Executive Nancy Nusbaum - were drawn out of the districts they are seeking. That would mean if they won this summer's recall elections, they could serve briefly but would then have to move or run in a different district in November 2012.

Sounds like hardball politics, though the Republicans aren't admitting that. Assuming it is, I'm not bothered, because I think the Democrats would do the same if they were in that position. They use the techniques that are available to them (such as, here, litigating). Efforts to cry "shame" over this ring hollow to me.