If you think Wisconsin politics is crazy now, just wait a couple months...

Formal recall campaigns have now been launched against 16 state senators - eight Republicans and eight Democrats. That's everyone in the 33-member Wisconsin Senate who is legally eligible to be recalled this year.

Even though state law is designed to make recalls difficult and rare, some political insiders expect the petition drives now under way to succeed in forcing multiple lawmakers to face recall elections this summer.

Wisconsin recall backers must collect signatures equal to 25 percent the district turnout in the previous gubernatorial election... a pretty damn high threshold. By comparison, citywide initiatives in Seattle require valid signatures equal to 10 percent of the vote in the prior mayoral election, while Washington statewide initiatives require only 8 percent of the previous gubernatorial election.

But as any petition drive veteran will tell you, the only real obstacle to qualifying for the ballot is money. If you have enough money to hire enough signature gatherers, you can buy your way onto the ballot. And there will be plenty of money dumped into these Wisconsin recall campaigns from supporters on both sides of the aisle.

Which will make for a lot of political fun in Wisconsin this summer.