With some serious doubt as to whether they will hang on to their Majority in the Wisconsin State Senate, Republicans and Gov. Scott Walker are pushing their union stripping measure again in and “Extraordinary Session”.

So here’s a new wrinkle for the recall saga in Wisconsin. Three of the elections against state Senate Republicans have already been certified. There is a hearing scheduled this week to deal with challenges to the other six – three against Republicans, three against Democrats. But the Government Accountability Board has delayed the decision on the Democratic recalls, because of allegations of faulty signature-gathering.

The Wisconsin State Assembly passed a voter suppression bill last night by a count of 60-35. The bill will force all residents to show ID at the polls, starting with next spring’s primary elections. Two Democrats and one independent joined 57 Republicans in voting for the bill.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin is stepping up their efforts to disqualify three recall petitions against Democratic state Senators. They submitted a formal challenge to the petitions today, arguing that while their recall efforts have been volunteer-led and above-board, the Republican campaigns featured fraud perpetrated by out-of-state sources.

We’re starting to get an outline of how Wisconsin Republicans will proceed on their anti-union bill stripping most collective bargaining rights for public employees. The version they passed back in March is tied up in court, due to procedural missteps. Republicans have so far pronounced themselves innocent of the charges – but they could end that court action by simply passing the bill in the proper manner. And now, they’re setting the parameters to do that.

Plenty of people were quick to denounce Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald for announcing that Senate Democrats would not be allowed to participate in recorded committee votes. But if you read the letter he sent, he was saying more specifically that the contempt order, which the Republicans passed in the dark days of the impasse over the anti-union bill, had not yet been revoked. This contempt order could only be lifted on the Senate floor by a vote, and the Senate isn’t due back in session in Wisconsin until April 5.

Over 100,000 people again protested in Madison on Saturday and welcomed the Fab 14 Democratic Senators back. Protests in smaller parts of Wisconsin grew in size as well – one in Washburn, timed with an appearance by Gov. Walker, doubled the total size of the town. Legal challenges to the bill and the process by which it was passed have only begun; the next hearing in Dane County Court is on Wednesday.

And then we have the upcoming elections and recalls. . . .

Wisconsin’s anti-public employee bill is signed, but the Secretary of State will take the maximum 10 days to publish the legislation, which means it won’t officially become law until March 25 at the earliest, and probably not until the following Monday, March 28. So there are a couple weeks of legal efforts to go here before we see if the bill will become law immediately.

Keep in mind that in a press conference today, Scott Walker basically said that yes, stripping collective bargaining has a fiscal impact, but no, it doesn’t conflict with quorum laws, so go pound sand. The lawyers are going to have a field day with this bill, I predict.

Walker and Fitzgerald couldn’t take the pressure, I guess. They must have figured the action was already too obvious, and that the recall petitions would succeed anyway. So they might a well get something out of their short-lived majority.