MADISON – Wisconsin state Democrats, still stinging from recent shellackings at the ballot box, say they won’t sit idly by anymore.

"We may be the minority right now, but that doesn’t mean we can’t fight back," said State Rep. Marvin Knubler (D-Ashland) Wednesday morning from the podium at the State Democratic Headquarters at the Schlotsky's in Monona.

By "fighting back," Knubler is referring to a plan passed unanimously by his caucus that includes screen printing orange T-shirts, posting a few tweets making making fun of the Koch Brothers, and penning a "strongly worded" letter to Gov. Scott Walker that politely asks if he wouldn’t mind maybe returning some power to Wisconsin’s unions "if he has the time to."

"We’re mad as hell, and we’re not totally sure that we want to take it a whole heck of a lot longer," Knubler said, lightly pounding his fist on the makeshift podium he built out of cardboard at his pottery studio on Madeline Island.

"Ow," he added sheepishly, sipping a green tea.

Wednesday’s historic agreement was applauded by the state’s largest Democratic donors, who averaged $37.52 in campaign contributions. Wisconsin’s largest liberal donor, Dr. Phil Stein, an orthodontist from Shorewood, announced that he will increase his bi-annual contribution to $100 to help the Democrats achieve their ambiguous goals of retaking something at some point, somewhere.

"This $100 should buy enough orange T-shirt to really make a statement," said Stein. "Scott Walker’s tyranny, supported by big, out-of-state money, might finally come to end, if only we can rally around our party’s stars of tomorrow, like Ephraim’s own comptroller Sven Svenson and Spring Green's arborist Mary Lipschitz."

Knubler said that he hopes the Democrats’ concerted effort to redefine its platform – currently defined as the three W’s of "weed, women’s rights and Wiccans" – will energize its base both locally and nationally. He said he’s enlisting the help of progressive legends like Dennis Kucinich, Gary Hart and Tom Harkin to combat the right-wing agenda.

Democrats unveil their secret weapon: Dick Gephardt.

"They may have the Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adelson and Karl Rove, but we have Dick Gephardt, Phil Donahue and Kitty Dukakis," he said. "And soon, we'll have matching T-shirts, too."

That group will undertake a "massive" advertising campaign, specifically in print (The Northwoods River News) and online (via MySpace.com) with a "four digit" budget, said Knubler. "We will spend the extra money to print the ads in orange, the color of the unions, I assume."

Frank Zeidler could not be reached for comment.