Feb 16, 2015

Scott Walker—Evasive and Dishonest

Scott Walker's evasive style and refusal
to answer questions is SOP
Update: Conniving may be a better word to describe Scott Walker.

"As much as Walker jauntily yearns to go big, his proposed budget is filled with provisions that are small and conniving.

"Walker’s central organizing principle is to permanently cripple Wisconsin government at every level and to undermine public education by manufacturing a budget crisis despite an improving economy. Simultaneously, he is burdening future leaders with unknowable financial crises once Walker is done exploiting the state to bolster his tea party credibility." (Fanland, The Capital Times)
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Scott Walker is trying to project an image of a big and bold leader making decisive calls in his fundraising campaign disguised as a presidential run.

Serious minds in the Republican Party know better than presenting Scott Walker as the Republican Party nominee for president of the United States, so Jeb Bush will get the nomination.

It comes as no surprise to most people in Wisconsin that Scott Walker's top aides, friends and appointees were convicted of an array of felonies and misdemeanors in the public integrity investigation known here as WalkerGate I (or John Doe I). (Bice, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

The scandal saw Walker's aides plead guilty to an array of crimes including misconduct in public office, embezzling from military veterans and their families, and revealed a secret email-router system Walker and aides used to campaign on the premises of public office.

Walker refused to answer the question if Walker personally used the system after being asked on GOP-friendly Fox News by Chris Wallace last year, though released emails show Walker did use the illegal system.

As Chris Wallace put it to Scott Walker:
In one email that was released this week, your then chief of staff Thomas Nardelli, let’s put this up on the screen, writes campaign and county workers that you wanted to hold daily conference calls, 'to review events of the day or of a previous or future day so we can better coordinate sound timely responses,' and in another e-mail county administrative director Cynthia Archer suggests that colleagues should use a private e-mail account. 'I use this private account quite a bit to communicate with SKW,' that’s you, 'and Nardelli, the former chief of staff.

Question: if county workers were doing nothing wrong, why should they be using a private e-mail account?
Walker ran away from the question, prompting the following exchange:
WALLACE: Did you have your own private e-mail account?

Scott Walker: It’s one of those where I point out district attorney has reviewed every single one of these issues.

WALLACE: But sir, you’re not answering my question.

Scott Walker: No, because I’m not going to get into 27,000 different pieces of information. (Isreal, ThinkProgress)

Actually, Wallace's question is: Did Scott Walker have his private [and illegal] email account.

The answer is 'yes,' and Walker should have been prosecuted.

The evasive, shifty Scott Walker is typical.

Walker used his taxpayer-financed position as Milwaukee County Executive to secretly run for governor, first gearing up for his run in 2006, aborting it, and then running successfully running in 2010.

Now, Walker is attempting to abort WalkerGate II (or John Doe II), another public integrity investigation, looking into Scott Walker's Recall, a criminal scheme and campaign funded by dark money and illegal campaign coordination, (Marley, Bice and Glauber, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel), as WalkerGate II cases have reached the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Walker proposes that four GOP-friendly judges on the Wisconsin Supreme Court get to decide their own ethics (eliminating of the Judicial Council, already stacked with Walker-vetted ideological appointees) as prosecutors and constitutional law enforcement officers ask that justices recuse themselves now that consolidated John Doe II cases are before the Court. (Fischer, PRWatch)

We need honest jurists committed to the rule-of-law to hold accountable corruption and criminality in our public officials.

Don't look for candid or even responsive answers from Scott Walker when asked about his public conduct.

1 comment:

  1. And look at those appointments today! Seitz goes from Gogebic Lobbyist to state utilities regulator. Huebsch sent to PSC to complete that stacking of the board. And plenty, plenty more.

    I'm sure all of these decisions were made with a paper trail on state systems, and done for competence reasons, Riiight?

    ReplyDelete