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Curse those wascally Wepublicans in Wisconsin, you'll never believe what they're up to now. Bad enough for the Badger State GOP to abet Gov. Scott Walker in his nefarious scheme to prevent public-sector unions from bankrupting the state. Worse, they are hatching even more diabolical plots while Dem state senators continue their courageous evasion of the law to avoid voting on Walker's proposal. Here are the sordid details, as ferreted out by ace ferret-outer Rachel Maddow on her MSNBC show Monday night ( video after page break ) — Just in case it wasn't clear enough, when the Republicans in Wisconsin announced today what they're going to do while the Democrats are gone, while the Democrats are out of state denying the Senate the quorum it needs to vote on this union-busting thing, guess what the Republicans are going to do while the Democrats are away? Guess what they're going to do next? It is a bill to make it harder to register to vote in Wisconsin. You know, weirdly, we used this last week as an example of the kinds of issues that Republicans do this on, as an example of the way Republicans use public policy for partisan ends, to benefit their own party and hurt Democrats. Registering new voters has long been a great source of Democratic electoral strength. Why is that? Because young voters and people who haven't voted before do tend to vote Democratic. So, if Republicans can make it really hard to register to vote, they can take away one of the ways that Democrats win in elections. If you make it harder to register to vote, you make it harder for Democrats to win elections. Contrary to what Maddow claims, Wisconsin Republicans did not wait until state senate Democrats were conveniently out of state before they “announced” their plans for the voter ID bill. The proposed legislation has been in the works for weeks, as evident from this news about it on Jan. 13. The legislation would also require Wisconsin residents to produce a photo ID when they vote, not when they register to vote as Maddow asserted. In fact, Wisconsin residents are already required to prove their identity when they register, as indicated at the website of Wisconsin's Government Accountability Board. In its page on voter registration, the board states — As of January 1, 2006, all municipalities in Wisconsin require voter registration prior to a person being allowed to vote. The federal “Help American (sic) Vote Act of 2002″ requires any person registering to vote to supply his or her Wisconsin Department of Transportation-issued driver's license number. Electors who have not been issued a Wisconsin driver's license must provide the last four digits of their Social Security Number OR their Wisconsin state ID card number. How comforting that as of 2006, Wisconsin lawmakers decided that residents had to be registered to vote prior to “being allowed to vote.” Wisconsin as hotbed of liberal initiatives, indeed. Gives you some idea of what Gov. Walker is dealing with. The “Help America Vote Act of 2002″ was passed by overwhelmingly by both chambers of Congress in 2002 and signed by President Bush in an attempt to avoid another Florida recount debacle. In