After the whole Scott Walker affair in Wisconsin, we’re far from done with the spirit of that political conquest. In fact, it’s only getting dirtier.

Under the transparently false pretense of budget concerns, the Republicans (while doling out huge tax breaks for the wealthy) unilaterally obliterated the collective bargaining rights of educators in the state, in a blatantly political attack against the opposition party’s constituent base.

Well, they’re not stopping there. With the taste of victory still fresh, they are stepping over another line: launching inquisitions against people who criticize them.

William Cronon, Professor of History, Geography, and Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin, wrote a blog post on the Republican campaign against educators, studying the motives and history behind the legislation.

Two days later, the Republican Party of Wisconsin demanded access to view all of Cronon’s emails issued from his university account.

Only peripheral to the issue is whether it is legal for the Republican party to do that.

Much more central is the surprisingly open threat. After all, only a fool would believe they are making this request for any purpose other than to try to find dirt on Cronon and then do anything from smearing him publicly to getting him fired. The message is frighteningly clear: if you criticize what we do, we will crawl up your back end with a microscope and do everything we can to destroy you.

One can only hope that the flagrantly shameless attempt at character assassination for political purposes is given the response it deserves: refusal at minimum, censure at best.

Keep in mind who these people are, what they claim to stand for, who they claim are the intrusive government fascists, and what liberties and freedoms they so falsely espouse but at the same time ruthlessly destroy.

Cronon, in the meantime, subsequently wrote an op-ed in the New York Times against the actions of Walker and the Republicans. One can only imagine that they’re trying to get access to his tax records after that.

UPDATE: In true Republican form, their response to criticisms about this shameless political attack strategy are a mixture of hypocrisy, outrageous hyperbole, and playing the victim:

“I have never seen such a concerted effort to intimidate someone from lawfully seeking information about their government,” [GOP executive director Mark] Jefferson writes. “Further, it is chilling to see that so many members of the media would take up the cause of a professor who seeks to quash a lawful open records request. Taxpayers have a right to accountable government and a right to know if public officials are conducting themselves in an ethical manner.”

Had the FOI request come from parents of students in his classes after viable accusations of misconduct, that would be a legitimate claim. But coming from a political party after someone simply criticized them in an open forum, their response is as disingenuous as the original action was viciously unethical. Shamelessness upon shamelessness. These people are thugs in the worst sense: that they are not only brazenly ruthless, but are endlessly slick and slimy in their PR portrayals of themselves as heroes who are victimized unfairly by the very people they attempt to crush.