Scott Walker Is Desperate on Jobs

Scott Walker is in trouble, and it showed this weekend at the debate, fumbling the central issue of the race: Jobs.

"I don't know how many of you watched the debate last night, but Governor Walker said in the debate that he didn't think Wisconsin had a jobs problem. Right?" Mary Burke said. "Well, I want to be a governor who acknowledges the challenges that we have and is going to focus on the ideas that are going to move us ahead and will make sure that Wisconsin has a vibrant, growing, thriving economy so that when you graduate from college, there are going to be job opportunities for you to be able to stay in this state." (Bice, Glauber and Barrett, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

The extraordinary lengths to which Scott Walker, Wisconsin's corrupt attorney general J.B. Van Hollen and Republican Party have gone to exclude registered Wisconsin voters from voting reveal how desperate Walker is.

To the extent Environment, Education, Health Care, Women's Rights are an issue, Walker loses.

Jobs, and Scott Walker loses.

Walker and the Repulsives are cornered.

Walker also refused to say whether his own administration is correct in stating $7.25 is a living wage.

If Walker were comfortable, his campaign would be non-stop positive impressions, not even acknowledging he had an opponent.

But Wisconsin leads the nation in negative TV spots in campaigns for governor in the nation. (Gilbert, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

Watch for desperate moves from Walker surrogates, the kitchen sink, anything.

Jonathan Alter reported and wrote in his seminal book, The Center Holds, Obama and His Enemies(Simon and Schuster, 2013), the Obama campaign utilizing its high-tech veritable wizards compiled voter support scores on the 180 million American voters (p. 107), and successfully demolished Mitt Willard Romney.

Burke has the same capacity and watching the debate closely, a quiet confidence from Mary Burke is taking hold, and a desperation from Scott Walker is becoming equally apparent.

Scott Walker Refuses to Commit to Full Term; Backs off on Jobs Pledge

Scott Walker makes no jobs promises to the Wisconsin people anymore, refuses to pledge to commit to another full term, and has held ZERO Question and Answer sessions with Wisconsin voters.

It takes contempt, utter disrespect, Scott Walker has for Wisconsin voters to refuse to answer a simple question about any of these matters.

Disrespect is all Scott Walker has, besides a lot of money from special interests.

Walker was asked if he would serve a full term last April; Walker refused to answer with a yes or no, saying he was so focused on serving another term that he couldn't commit to serving a full term. (Marley, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) That's WalkerSpeak.

Writers are asking Walker to commit to a full term. So should Mary Burke.

Voters should demand that Walker respond to his central and repeated 2010 campaign promise that Wisconsin would add 250,000 private sector jobs during his first term as a floor.

Walker will break that campaign promise, period.

"I want my Cabinet secretaries to have branded across their heads, '250,000 jobs,' I want them to know their job is on the line because my job is on the line to create 250,000 jobs in the private sector," said Walker said at a December 2010 meeting of the Dairy Business Association [DBA]. (Bauer, AP)

It's appropriate Scott Walker made his broken promise at the DBA, a larger collection of bull-shitters than you will ever find in Wisconsin, excepting the Walker's Office of the Koch Brothers.

Judge Issues Injunction on Wisconsin Gay Marriage Ban, Stays Ruling and Defers to Appellate Courts

In another win for marriage equity advocates, U.S. District Judge Barbara B. Crabb barred enforcement of Wisconsin gay marriage bans declaring the bans an unconstitutional infringement of citizens' rights under the Fourteenth Amendment.

Judge Crabb stayed the order until the federal appellate courts make a final decision or until the expiration of the deadline for filing an appeal.

"The injunction and the declaration shall take effect after the conclusion of any appeals or after the expiration of the deadline for filing an appeal, whichever is later. The clerk of court is directed to enter judgment in favor of plaintiffs and close this case."

Judge Crabb's 14-page ruling in Wolf v. Walker can be found here. (Wisconsin State Journal)

Crabb expressed sympathy for Wisconsin couples who have to wait for their rights to be adjudicated in the appellate courts before being realized.

Writes Crabb: "After seeing the expressions of joy on the faces of so many newly wedded couples featured in media reports, I find it difficult to impose a stay on the event that is responsible for eliciting that emotion, even if the stay is only temporary. Same-sex couples have waited many years to receive equal treatment under the law, so it is understandable that they do not want to wait any longer. However, a federal district court is required to follow the guidance provided by the Supreme Court."

Wolf v. Walker and other federal cases are expected to move comparatively quickly through the federal appellate court system and a landmark ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court could come as early at the next term beginning in October.

As expected the anti-gay Wisconsin attorney general, J.B. Van Hollen, takes a hostile stand against gay marriage, and spins Judge Crabb's decision, refusing to acknowledge that the stay is temporary and procedural, and the merits of the challenge to Wisconsin's ban on gay marriage have been deliberated, declared to be unconstitutional and enjoined, pending a final decision in the appellate courts.

Wisconsin Attorney General Turns State DoJ into Clown Car

Update IV: Judge Crabb's written opinion on stay and injunction expected Friday afternoon. (Stein, Marley and Ferguson, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

Update III: Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen walks back his foolish warning to Wisconsin county clerks in the face of widespread ridicule, expanding his denial today: "I did not suggest or recommend criminal charging of County Clerks. I never indicated an intention by this office to investigate or charge any county officer. During a half-hour interview in which the Journal Sentinel asked if clerks could be charged I acknowledged they could, citing §765.30(2)(b), and further stated it would be very fact specific and up to individual District Attorneys. The opposite answer would have been untruthful. I would certainly not encourage any prosecutor to do so and even suggested at the conclusion of the interview that the reporter should not print on that subject as it would be fear mongering," said Van Hollen in a statement.

Van Hollen's retreat is disingenuous. Here's what Van Hollen said: "You do have many people in Wisconsin basically taking the law into their own hands and there can be legal repercussions for that. So, depending on who believes they're married under the law and who doesn't believe they're married under the law may cause them to get themselves in some legal problems that I think are going to take years for them and the courts to work out." (Marley and Ferguson, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

Sounds like fear mongering to me. So why did Van Hollen say it? Even Van Hollen admits he was a clown.

Update II: Judge Crabb's written opinion on stay and injunction expected Friday afternoon. (Stein, Marley and Ferguson, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

Update: Madison attorney Lester Pines to J.B. Van Hollen: Drop threat against county clerks issuing same-sex marriage licenses (Schneider, The Capital Times)
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- If J.B. Van Hollen is serious, he should direct the Wisconsin Dept. of Justice to prosecute every county judge, every clergy, and every county official who have married couples in almost every Wisconsin county, in violation of Wisconsin statute, he won't because Van Hollen is a clown -

As Wisconsin marriage equality advocates await U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb's decision after a 1:00 p.m. hearing today on staying her declaration that Wisconsin same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional, we note that Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen has turned the Wisconsin Department of Justice into another Republican clown car.

Van Hollen still claims Judge Crabb's decision did not strike down Wisconsin's various bans on same-sex marriage.

And Van Hollen claims "county clerks should be prosecuted for doing their jobs after a federal judge threw out the state's ​constitutional ​ban on same-sex marriage," as noted in today's Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel editorial.

Van Hollen points to Wisconsin statutes for marriage contracts (765.3 Penalties) and the various penalties for violating the state marriage statute.

All of the four district attorneys who are candidates for Wisconsin attorney general dismiss Van Hollen's position as ridiculous.

But let's pretend Van Hollen is more than a clown (and a corrupt hack).

The Wisconsin state statute that Van Hollen cites also provides that every judge, member of the clergy and county official who "....not being duly authorized by the laws of this state, who intentionally undertakes to solemnize a marriage in this state; or any person who intentionally participates in or in any way aids or abets any false or fictitious marriage" is in violation of the law and faces criminal sanctions, if found guilty.

It is within Van Hollen's discretion to direct the Wisconsin Dept. of Justice to prosecute every county judge, every clergy, and every county official who have married couples in almost every Wisconsin county.

And every Wisconsin same-sex couple who has been married in Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois, for example, is also in violation of Wisconsin statute.

Van Hollen, if he is not just clowning around, should direct the Wisconsin Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute all of those in criminal violation of Wisconsin marriage state statutes.

But Van Hollen is not serious. He's a clown.

Wisconsin Republicans Pretending Now, Legal Action Just a Taunt

Update III: See also Scott Walker Continues to Dodge Questions about Marriage Equality: "Gov. Scott Walker has a history of forcefully opposing same-sex marriage in Wisconsin, but in the wake of the state's ban on gay marriages being found unconstitutional the Republican leader said Thursday that his own views about the issue do not matter. ... Walker's reluctance to stick to his hard-line position may be explained by recent polls showing growing public support for same-sex marriages."

Update II: "Who is Van Hollen kidding? Does he really think that county clerks should be prosecuted for doing their jobs after a federal judge threw out the state's ​constitutional ​ban on same-sex marriage? It sounds like the last desperate gasp of a losing argument." (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel editorial, June 13, 2014)

Update: Head bigot in charge, GOP frontman J.B. Van Hollen, is threatening County Clerks issuing marriage licences (Sixty-three of Wisconsin's 72 counties). County clerks "can be jailed for up to nine months and fined up to $10,000 for issuing marriage licenses that aren't allowed under state law," a situation Van Hollen asserts contradicting the clear declaration in Judge Crabb's opinion. (Marley and Ferguson, MJS) See Van Hollen ready to arrest County Clerks over Gay and Lesbian Marriage Licenses. Police state not far behind and Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen: a genuine, grade-A jackass.

This is Van Hollen blowing smoke, more taunts from a frustrated and corrupt attorney general.

I say to GOP district attorneys and the Wisconsin Dept of Justice: I dare you.
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"To the extent that defendants [Scott Walker and J.B. Van Hollen] mean to argue a special rule should apply to the issue of same-sex marriage, they cite no authority for that view. There is no asterisk next to the Fourteenth Amendment that excludes gay persons from its protections," reads the declaration, opinion and order of U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb in Wolf v. Walker.

Republicans are still pretending Judge Crabb doesn't mean what she writes. (Eckholm, New York Times)

Scott Walker and Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen hate the idea that individuals have rights exceeding what Walker and Van Hollen wish in their view of the world where some people are more equal than others, but they can read the writing on the wall.

The Fourteenth Amendment, the equal protection clause and substantive due process, yikes.

GOP lead hack and proud bigot, Rick Esenberg, still feigns he can't get over the Fourteenth Amendment, writing "To draw analogies to race is sloppy. First, it is clear that [if] the Fourteenth Amendment was about anything, it was about race."

Esenberg's new pretend findings on the Fourteenth Amendment—it's really just a taunt against gays aping Justice Marshall's words in Stanley v. Georgia (1969)—would come as a shock to Justice Kennedy who writes in Lawrence v. Texas (2003) that:

We conclude the case should be resolved by determining whether the petitioners were free as adults to engage in the private conduct in the exercise of their liberty under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. For this inquiry we deem it necessary to reconsider the Court’s holding in Bowers.

There are broad statements of the substantive reach of liberty under the Due Process Clause in earlier cases, including Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510 (1925), and Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923); but the most pertinent beginning point is our decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965).

Esenberg and bigoted wing of the Republican Party, pretty much the whole Party, prefer the statist, reactionary jurisprudence of Bork and Scalia over those liberals so concerned about individual rights, liberty, and equality under the law.

But Esenberg and the Republicans will soon go the way of the reasoning of the Bowers Court (and the dissenting justices in Griswold): "Proscriptions against that conduct have ancient roots."

Gays need to understand what God has wanted for 1,000s of years, Republicans say.

Most Americans say: Screw that.

Marriage Equity Order Is Historic Win for Wisconsin and Civil Rights

Judge Mark Frankel performs a marriage for a family on the
steps of the Dane County Courthouse. @thenation @CapTimes

It is DECLARED that art. XIII, § 13 of the Wisconsin Constitution violates plaintiffs' fundamental right to marry and their right to equal protection of laws under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Any Wisconsin statutory provisions, including those in Wisconsin Statutes chapter 765, that limit marriages to a "husband" and a "wife," are unconstitutional as applied to same-sex couples.
- Entered this 6th day of June, 2014.
BY THE COURT:
/s/
BARBARA B. CRABB
District Judge
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Dane County civil rights champions through generations
administer festive and historic weekend. From left are:
Scott McDonell, Dick Wagner, Mark Pocan and Joe Parisi 

Updated - Bigots on the run, as
Jubilation in Wisconsin Over Same-Sex Marriage Breaks Out

"[Judge Crabb] has made a finding, a declaration, that the law is unconstitutional. That means the law is void," said Wisconsin civil rights attorney, Lester Pines. (Wisconsin State Journal)
---
U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb ruled that forbidding marriage equity and depriving citizens of the fundamental right to marry in Wisconsin is in violation of the U.S. Constitution, specifically the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Republican Attorney General immediately filed for an emergency injunction to stay Judge Crabb's order.

County Clerks in Dane and Milwaukee Counties announced they will begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples immediately after reading the order and opinion issued Friday, June 6. Pictured above-right is a marriage ceremony that took place Friday afternoon in front of Madison City Hall (photo by John Nichols).

By Saturday afternoon, it is estimated that 100s of Wisconsin couples would have married.

Judge Crabb ordered that the motion by Scott Walker and Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen to dismiss the case—Wolf, Schumacher et al v. Walker, Van Hollen et al—is dismissed. (2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 77125)

Scott Walker's presumptive Democratic Party nominee for governor, Mary Burke, issued a statement in support of Judge Crabb's ruling and marriage equity: "Today is a great day for Wisconsin and committed couples who love each other across the state. Every loving couple should have the freedom to marry whomever they choose, and the fact that this freedom is now available in Wisconsin is something we all can and should be proud of."

Reaction to the ruling from Democratic officeholders and candidates is universally positive.

"In our country's history, the courts have often been the place oppressed citizens go for justice. Usually, the system works, because, as a wise civil rights leader once said, 'the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.’ Today, we see justice," said Ron Zerban, Democratic candidate for Congress in the first congressional district.

Scott Walker issued a procedural statement on Judge Crabb's ruling GOP efforts to stay the order and opinion, shying away from a statement on the merits of the decision.

"It is correct for the attorney general, on this or any other issue, to defend the constitution of the state of Wisconsin, especially in a case where the people voted to amend it," said Walker, ignoring the question about the Constitutionality of the Wisconsin double ban (in law and the state Constitution) on same-sex marriage.

Under Wisconsin law and under the Wisconsin Constitution, marriage was legally codified as solely between a man and woman.

Despite what Attorney General Van Hollen has said, marriage equity is now the law of the land in Wisconsin, though Walker and Van Hollen filed an emergency motion to stay Judge Crabb's order as marriage ceremonies commenced in Milwaukee and Dane counties.

Van Hollen said, "current law remains in force."

"We have reviewed the judge's ruling," Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell said to media before the first couple received their marriage license. "It overturned the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. It did not instruct my office or any other office to not issue marriage licenses, so we plan on staying open until 9 tonight and from 9 to 5 tomorrow.

Van Hollen is half wrong, and half irrelevant.

Crabb ordered:

"Plaintiffs may have until June 16, 2014, to submit a proposed injunction that complies with the requirement in Fed. R. Civ. P. 65(d)(1)(C) to 'describe in reasonable detail  [*125] . . . the act or acts restrained or required.' In particular, plaintiffs should identify what they want each named defendant to do or be enjoined from doing. Defendants may have one week from the date plaintiffs file their proposed injunction to file an opposition. If defendants file an opposition, plaintiffs may have one week from that date to file a reply in support of their proposed injunction."

The writing is on the wall and in judicial precedent.

"I conclude that the Wisconsin laws prohibiting marriage between same-sex couples interfere with plaintiffs’ right to marry, in violation of the due process clause, and discriminate against plaintiffs on the basis of sexual orientation, in violation of the equal protection clause," Judge Crabb writes.

Crabb said she will hear motions to stay her order as the Wolf case is adjudicated in the federal appellate courts. Crabb gave the parties until June 16 to submit documentation in support of motions to stay or let her ruling stand.

Crabb also addressed the irrational bigotry underlying the prohibitions against marriage equity, bigotry that advanced no legitimate state interest.

Writes Crabb:

In any event, a review of the various classifications that receive heightened scrutiny (race, sex, alienage, legitimacy) reveals a common factor among them, which is that the classification is seldom "relevant to the achievement of any legitimate state interest." Cleburne, 473 U.S. at 440. Under these circumstances, the classification is more likely "to reflect prejudice and antipathy," so courts should be more suspicious of the discrimination. Id. See also Pedersen, 881 F. Supp. 2d at 319 ("The ability to contribute to society has played a critical and decisive role in Supreme Court precedent both denying and extending recognition of suspect class to other groups."). Neither defendants nor amici offer an argument that sexual orientation would not meet that standard.

Accordingly, I conclude that sexual orientation discrimination is subject to heightened scrutiny. The Supreme Court has not explained how to distinguish a "suspect" classification from a "quasi-suspect" classification, but sexual orientation is most  [*84] similar to sex among the different classifications that receive heightened protection, Doe, 119 F.3d at 593 n. 27.

Because sex discrimination receives intermediate scrutiny and the difference between intermediate scrutiny and strict scrutiny is not dispositive in this case, I will assume that intermediate scrutiny applies, which means that defendants must show that Wisconsin's laws banning marriage between same-sex couples must be "substantially related" to the achievement of an "important governmental objective," Virginia, 518 U.S. at 524, to survive scrutiny under the equal protection clause. ...

Concludes Crabb:

It is well-established that "the Constitution protects persons, not groups," Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena, 515 U.S. 200, 227 (1995), so regardless of possible future events affecting the larger community, my task under federal law is to decide the claims presented by the plaintiffs in this case now, applying the provisions in the Fourteenth Amendment as interpreted by the Supreme Court in cases such as Loving, Romer, Lawrence and Windsor. Because my review of that law convinces me that plaintiffs are entitled  [*124] to the same treatment as any heterosexual couple, I conclude that the Wisconsin laws banning marriage between same-sex couples are unconstitutional.

Madison, Wisconsin Cops Congratulate Newlyweds after
Marriage Equality Order. Photo: Gail Chodron

Campaigning in Wisconsin with No Questions or Reaching Out

Update III: As Predicted, Huge Dairy Manure Spill Hits Wisconsin Waters. The same awaits the Saratoga area near Wisconsin Rapids.

Update II: Scott Walker: "We’d love to help you put four, five, six and more out here, because we know thanks to god and the glaciers we got the best frac sand in the world, and it’s right here in the state of Wisconsin," said Scott Walker, paying visit to the Texas- based company Hi-Crush Proppants. Walker is extending an open invitation to rape the sandstone formations in Golden Sands country in central and western Wisconsin, without regard to the health and environmental consequences.

Update: See Scott Walker's Dark Money Troubles and Mining and Water Don't Mix: Acid Mine Drainage Threatens Lake Superior and Boundary Waters for an illustration of rapacious corruption inflicting toxin and death onto our environment.
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The coming John Doe emails will reveal the same virulent racism, anti-Semitism, and general contempt for the Wisconsin people held by Scott Walker and the people whom he has surrounded himself during his lifelong political career—a public career in which Walker has drawn a continuous salary paid by the Wisconsin people, whom he quickly abandoned in favor of service to billionaires such as the Koch brothers.

The release of these coming tens of thousands of emails will be worse than the February release.

But the news sent via the Gannett Co newspapers and broadcast "news" media will not penetrate the casual voter in central and northern Wisconsin where Walker beat his heavily outspent opponent in the June 2012 Recall election.

Presumptive Democratic Party nominee for governor, Mary Burke, has to be careful how to engage the issue of Scott Walker corruption, lest she minimize the issue as a partisan spat.

Adept communications in the free media are not in the skill set of the Burke campaign which has shown itself the perfect political heir of the inept Democratic Party of Wisconsin, listless and clumsy.

One would think the Wisconsin political culture retains sufficient muscle memory of retail and grassroots campaigning that Burke would be living in central and northern Wisconsin pushing issues of local concern.

Take four Wisconsin counties in central Wisconsin—Wood, Adams, Juneau and Portage counties—this is where is Golden Sands Dairy LLC wants to build a mammoth concentrated agricultural feeding operation (CAFO) centered among the four above counties in the town of Saratoga, Wisconsin.

The Golden Sands operation (ironic title) would pump out 50 million gallons of liquid waste per year, and suck up ground water to the detriment of area residents, businesses and the environment. Ironic because this region will not be the Golden Sands for long.

Legal and political battles continue between Wysocki Co (Golden Sands) and the town of Saratoga (Wood County) whose residents are fighting Golden Sands.

Looked at politically, this is a perfect grassroots movement to get behind, help these people in central Wisconsin.

But Mary Burke is as absent here as the dominance of the paper mill industry in this area from days gone-by.

Here for consideration are the June 2012 general election Recall results for Governor of the four counties that would be hit immediately by Golden Sands' proposed concentrated agricultural feeding operation (CAFO):

                                     Scott Walker       Tom Barrett

Adams County            4,497                      3,658
Juneau County            5,429                      4,225          
Portage County           14,846                   15,672
Wood County             18,535                    13,171

The June 2012 Recall election was an epic victory by Scott Walker and dark money, with Walker winning three of the four counties, achieving near-presidential-level numbers.

By comparison, consider the Presidential general election results of 2012, in which President Obama won three of the four counties:

                                    Mitt Romney            Barack Obama  

Adams County            4,644                          5,542
Juneau County            5,411                          6,242   
Portage County           16,615                        22,075
Wood County             19,704                        18,581                  

The take-away is Scott Walker is not going to see his 2012 winning Recall numbers against Burke in November 2014, but Mary Burke has to get out in the field and campaign.

Money alone, even combined with Scott Walker corruption and scandal, are not going to win this election for the Democratic Party nominee.

Campaigning will.

Mary Burke—Sign of the Times for Wisconsin

Mary Burke campaigns
from an undisclosed
location

Update II: Graeme Jonathan Zielinski, the most inept political operative since ... Mike Tate, argues that Wisconsin political headquarters are inviolate and off-limits to passersby (Facebook). Since when? Zielinske goes on to say only field offices are accessible to the public, though Zielinske fails to notice there are no field offices listed in Burke's campaign website.

Update: A reader comments, "If this is Mary Burke's idea of transparency and openness, why the hell should we even consider electing her as governor?"
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"There were, into the month of May (2014), no signs in the front windows of Mary Burke’s campaign office across the street from the state Capitol in Madison, nothing to broadcast her name to the many people passing by," reports Bill Lueders in Wisconsin Watch.

Lueders underplays his lede.

Ms. Burke's campaign is in worse shape.

I phoned Burke's campaign office this morning located somewhere on the Capitol square, and the phone was answered by a woman named Lizzie, who identified herself as the office manager.

I wanted to confirm Lueders' fact about no signs being in Burke's Madison campaign offices.

Sure enough, Lueders is correct.

I asked Lizzie for the street address of Burke for Governor on the square.

"Is this a particular reason you would like to come to our office," replied Lizzie.

"Due respect, that's my business," I replied.

Lizzie explained that the Mary Burke headquarters' Madison address is "confidential" information.

"Why," I replied.

Lizzie explained that Burke staffers are fearful of "disruptive" visitors, and "we're trying to limit that."

What if passersby on the Capitol square just want to drop by. Lizzie explained that they cannot, and the location remains undisclosed, hence no signs in the windows.

Bill Lueders continues in his piece:

"That’s an odd missed opportunity (no signs) for a candidate struggling to make herself known. A Marquette Law School poll in March found that an astonishing 59 percent of respondents did not have either a favorable or unfavorable impression of Burke," Lueders concludes.

Yes, secret headquarters and no signs are odd for a political candidate.

This is also emblematic for the Burke campaign running for statewide office against an incumbent who has been running for the governor's office since 2002, often illegally from a public office. Emblematic of incompetence by Burke.

Missed opportunities, yes.

But it is Mary Burke's failure to engage the Wisconsin public in almost a mirror image of Scott Walker's campaign that will underscore the bad news for Wisconsin in November when Walker is reelected.

It is Burke's contempt for retail campaigning and the Wisconsin people that demonstrates that though she would not be Scott Walker, well that's all Burke shows.

I visited Scott Walker's website looking for a phone number to see if Walker keeps his reelection headquarters a secret. No luck there, no contact info.

In 2012, Scott Walker kept his campaign headquarters location a secret, using roughly the same justification that the Burke campaign espouses.

Alleigh Marré, press secretary of the Walker campaign, contacted by phone says the campaign keeps its headquarters secret as well, though Ms. Marré allows the headquarters is in Madison.

She said "field offices" opening soon across the state will be the locations where voters can get literature and bumper stickers for example, in person, or just drop by.

Now, Wisconsin is no longer Iowa with retail campaigning still of paramount importance.

But I thought we were better than this.

The days of dropping by the offices of candidates for political office; browsing the campaign literature; maybe picking up a bumper sticker, or catching the candidate in person and exchanging pleasantries and expressing concerns appear to waning in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Dems Hope for Massive Republican Implosion—Their Only Shot in 2014

Intercepted communication from
the Wisconsin Democratic Party,
or possibly from Mary Burke.
Difficult to see the source or message.

Matthew DeFour's analysis in this morning's Wisconsin State Journal on the prospects of Wisconsin Democrats retaking the legislature is telling.

DeFour does not mention the words, "gerrymander," instead referring to "(p)artisan redistricting."

Republican voting obstruction is described as changes to "voting rules."

The rest of the piece is tripe with quotes from Democratic and Republican Party bureaucrats, though the conclusion the Democratic Party can retake the state senate is sound.

That's what we can expect from the traditional media in Wisconsin.

The problem for the Democrats is the campaign communications of their candidate at the top of the November ticket, Mary Burke, assuming no one else jumps in.

Does Burke rail incessantly against the most corrupt, destructive governor in Wisconsin history a la Bob La Follette or Gaylord Nelson who virtually reinvented political movements?

Not a chance, and Burke's communications director, Joe Zepecki, has to be the most useless political operative since, well take your pick among the current cast of Wisconsin Democratic do-nothings.

Has anyone ever seen such a broad array of killer issues the Republicans have supplied non-Republicans?

The traditional media of dailies and broadcast media are as uninformative as the performance of the Wisconsin Democratic Party functionaries who appear more interested in drawing paychecks than winning elections, much less creating something resembling a political infrastructure.

And Wisconsin progressives should not waste time with George Lakoff as some political savior for progressive communications, in the absence of an effective Democratic Party.

Useless.

Lakoff's main contention is obvious, the assertion that compelling communications supporting an appealing message are more politically effective than non-compelling communications (or no political communications) in support of a not-so-appealing message.

Think impressions—the projection of one image onto one human brain (a voter).

This is what is called public relations, and it's been around about a century.

"If Lakoff is right, his theory can do everything from overturning millennia of misguided thinking in the Western intellectual tradition to putting a Democrat in the White House," writes Steven Pinker is a scathing review of Lakoff's work. "Though it contains messianic claims about everything from epistemology to political tactics, [Lakoff's 2006 Whose Freedom ...] has no footnotes or references (just a generic reading list), and cites no studies from political science or economics, and barely mentions linguistics. Its use of cognitive neuroscience goes way beyond any consensus within that field, and its analysis of political ideologies is skewed by the author's own politics and limited by his disregard of centuries of prior thinking on the subject."

Forget Lakoff, use Scott Walker.

Scott Walker is the most target-rich politician in Wisconsin since Joe McCarthy and Burke and the Democrats keep missing the mark.

"'If your goal is to hold down wages and turn Wisconsin into a subsidiary of Koch Industries, then Governor Walker’s your guy,' [Maryland Gov. Martin] O’Malley (D) said, referring to the giant conglomerate headed by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, who are prolific political donors." (Wagner. Washington Post)

That's the message.

Throw in Walker's jobs failure and the host of other issues on which Wisconsin state Democrats [national Democrats are much more effective] are mostly silent and November 2014 might be an exciting month for Wisconsin.

Wisconsin activists and writers aren't giving up.

But the Democratic Party of Wisconsin should rightfully drown itself in the waters of Lake Winnebago, and campaign from the bottom with the zebra mussels.

The way the party campaign is proceeding, it will take a John Doe revelation (Walker and the GOP are trying to stall the criminal probe), with an effective Democratic Party response, for Scott Walker and the Republicans to fall.

Otherwise Georgia is going to elect a Democratic governor before Wisconsin.

Mary Burke's Campaign Will Not Ignite, Someone Get In Fast

Blame it on the Desolate One because
Wisconsin Dems Are Professionals

Scott Walker is vulnerable in his re-election bid for governor.

Walker can retail-campaign with the best of them (he reminds me of the late Hubert Humphrey in this one aspect). And tens of millions of dollars will be spent on Walker's behalf in the air war.

That's a lot of bucks for a medium-sized state in eight months, and this money will be invested on behalf of those Charles P. Pierce calls the "the goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to manage their Midwest subsidiary," in his coverage, Watching Scotty Blow.

Even so, Walker is vulnerable.

But Mary Burke is not the candidate to defeat Walker, and Wisconsin Democrats are too hopelessly stuck in the yawning pit of groupthink to face or voice this fact.

Everyone needs to get on board, say the Democratic Party mavens who brought us this accelerating transformation of Wisconsin into Mississippi.

Burke campaign communications director, Joe Zepecki, employed the innovative strategy that silence is golden, unusual for a challenger with little name recognition, bound to be heavily outspent by the incumbent governor who has been running for the office for nine years.

Still time for someone, someone to get in: Barca, Vinehout, Erbenbach, Lori Compas, anybody but Burke and the campaign that can't shoot straight.

Candidates cannot circulate gubernatorial nomination papers until April 15.

Many moons ago a first-rate national political operative working as a colleague in a campaign asked me an odd question.

What are you reading, watching on TV?

"Noam Chomsky, Bertrand Russell, 1,000s of pages of stuff, I guess," I said in a tone suggesting I thought the guy might be foolish for asking.

Put away Noam and Russell. Watch three hours of prime-time TV every week. You need to get in touch with the average voter.

Getting and staying in touch. Almost daily we hear from Scott Walker throwing out a press release, signing a law, ostensibly staying in touch with Wisconsin, though anyone sentient knows he's hiding.

In the gubernatorial race between Scott Walker and Candidate X, being in touch with voters is paramount.

As the Republicans have been pumping out the most repugnant legislation against voters, veterans, and families suffering from cancer, Mary Burke had no response. Dead air. Deadly silence. [Burke did have one statement out today on the Republicans' incredibly blocking of cancer treatment.]

Not all the money in Manhattan is going make Burke an effective candidate as she is running an historically inept campaign against this most vile of opponents.

Burke is out-of-touch with the key issues animating her would-be constituents, or she may as well be as she abstains from campaigning.

Following her first TV spot on Walker and jobs, an issue no one could screw-up, Burke's team screwed up.

Scott Walker is malicious and deceitful. But Walker is lucking out again facing the do-nothing satisfice infecting the Wisconsin Democratic Party enabling the Tea Party to inflict mayhem onto the people of our state.

This race is over unless one of Walker's many scandals explodes, another candidate gets in on a long-shot bid; or Walker goes for an early-April jog on Lake Mendota without any security.

Again, there is still time for candidates to get into the race.

As for Burke she should forget electoral politics and take up bowling or watch reruns of Under the Dome.

Scott Walker v. Mary Burke—Forfeited by Ms. Burke and the Loser Is Wisconsin

Horse Latitudes - Wisconsin,
you're the horses

Update: Really hate to write I told you so, Scott Walker: 52.26%; Mary Burke 46.59%. (Wisconsin GAB) Difficult to win when the campaign communications team is inept, the state party is run by jokers with no message or clue, and as late as May 2014, fully half the Wisconsin electorate said "they either haven’t heard enough about [Burke] or don’t know if they have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of her." - (Marquette Law School Poll) Great communications, team!

 ---
Mary Burke has the same chance of being elected governor of Wisconsin as Scott Walker does of becoming the next president of the United States.

I wish to thank Ms. Burke for sticking Wisconsin with Scott Walker for another four years; appreciate this, extraordinary work from the campaign that can't shoot straight.

As anti-citizen bill after anti-citizen bill wafts from the GOP-dominated Wisconsin legislature, Mary Burke decided the prudent communications strategy to employ is that used by Sen. Michael Ellis (R-Neenah), Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) and Scott Walker: Go dark, be silent and hope no one notices.

Brilliant. I had never even considered doing nothing as a winning game plan.

Yet, the reasoning behind the Burke campaign's lack of action appears unsound.

Of course, there is an opposing view on campaign communications.

For example, when Republicans and only Republicans attack voting (Senate Bill 324) a candidate could actually point this out, repeatedly.

[Note to Sen. Kathleen Vinehout (D-Alma), there is still time to get on the ballot for governor, if only to light the equivalent of a white phosphorus grenade under the Burke campaign's collective ass. (This is a metaphor—met·a·phor [ méttə fàwr ]—for the benefit of the Burke communications team.]

Another example of Republican chicanery of the most foul, that surely penetrated the brains in the Burke campaign are Senate Bill 300 and Senate Bill 13.

SB 300 helps cancer victims and their families get affordable chemo treatments and is being blocked in the Senate by Republicans after being unanimously passed by the Senate Committee on Insurance and Housing in late January.

Silence emanates from the Burke campaign on SB 300 though likely not because Scott Walker and Republicans get loads of money from the health insurance, finance and real estate industry.

Nationally, this anti-democratic sector gave $129,843,765 to federal candidates since 1990, and is trending Republican fast. Walker's take from the insurance industry and finance sector is well into the $ millions.

Burke's reasoning here is unclear.

Then there's Senate Bill 13 (Senate Substitute Amendment SA1-AB19) that blocks veterans, veterans!, and other cancer victims suffering from Mesothelioma.

Senate Bill 13 passed without comment from Burke.

The thing with cancer survivors and the people who die from it is that cancer—Mesothelioma, Leukemia and too many to list—this condition, this trauma, is what high-priced political consultants and political scientists refer to as: Really bad.

Comforting and pitching in to help a family member or friend dying from cancer is the type of experience that resonates with people, as would the unbelievably callous actions of Republicans and the health insurance industry, if so noted.

Check with your political consultants on this one, Ms. Burke; nevermind, I guess that time has passed.

Report: Republican Governors Association to Run Six-Figure Ad Buy Next Week

AP writer Scott Bauer has a piece today running the story first reported in the Washington Post that the "Republican Governors Association will go to bat for one of its all-stars with an early advertisement aimed at bolstering Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign."

This week, Walker, after benefiting from some $15 million in past support from the Republican Governors Association (RGA) of which Christie is now Chair, praised Chris Christie:

"He told me the same thing in private that he did to the press in New Jersey, and I have every reason to believe that the information he said is consistent with the truth, and so I still support him in his role as governor and his role in the RGA," Walker said of Christie at an economic conference. (Politico)

Walker's loyalty to Christie is being amply reciprocated by the coming statewide attack ad that implausibly attributes the national Bush-Cheney recession of 2007-08 to Wisconsin governor Jim Doyle, while claiming credit for the Obama recovery through the efforts of Scott Walker.

Walker's 250,000 new jobs campaign promise continues to be regarded as a cruel joke, and Wisconsin has underperformed the rest of the country and the Midwest in recovering from the Bush-Cheney recession.

Few outside of Scott Walker's circle see Chris Christie as anything but corrupt and a likely future criminal defendant whose fall has been a spectacular political story for months.

Why Walker's presumptive Democratic opponent, Mary Burke, passed on hitting Walker's praising the butt of late night jokes and the paradigm of corruption has left many Wisconsin progressives shaking their heads in silence.

The RGA statewide ad buy will run as 1,000s of e-mails are released from Scott Walker's secret campaign e-mail system that Walker ran from his office of Milwaukee County Executive, a scandal investigated by a John Doe probe that resulted in Walker's top aides and appointees being convicted of criminal felonies.

Walker's former aide, Kelly M. Rindfleisch, tried unsuccessfully to keep the e-mails secret so their release next week is expected to shed more light on Walker's scandal that has been largely buried by Wisconsin's Gannett newspapers and local broadcast media.

Thirteen Scott Walker associates and staffers took immunity deals to keep from being criminally charged in the John Doe probe as provided by Wisconsin's John Doe statute, a move now trumpeted by Walker aides that they say proves Walker ran a clean office.

No mention of the six Walker aides, appointees and associates convicted of crimes typically follows this line from Walker's office.

In fact, it is a distinct possibility that the e-mails will show Scott Walker hip-deep in the illegal campaign run out of his office during his tenure as Milwaukee County Executive.

Burke spokesman Joe Zepecki said the ad buy was no surprise in light of the $ millions spent by special interests on Walker as Wisconsin's middle class shrinks under Walker's tenure.

Burke's campaign is not being run as a grassroots operation, she a Democratic Party placeholder candidate whose primary political qualification is that she is not Scott Walker.

But Scott Walker is so dependent on ad buys by huge out-of-state interests, with massive corruption charges looming heavily that anti-Walker forces hope Walker's political house of cards could tumble in time for the November general election.

National politicos wondering 'what's the matter with Wisconsin,' need only look at the shell of the Democratic Party that has withered under Chair Mike Tate who evidently harbors an aversion to political infrastructure and a communications team.

Grassroots citizen organizations are about the only thing that has kept the radical and corrupt Republican Party at bay, such as it is, replete with $10s of millions from special interests such as the Republican Governors Association.

Does Mary Burke Really Want to Be Wisconsin Governor

Mary Burke's bid to unseat Scott Walker: White noise
with a hint of obscure, formless past activity

There's nothing about Mary

Check out Mary Burke for Governor in Google and the first result is a fake Burke site, put out by the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

Cybersquatting sucks, but the fake site seems apropos because Mary Burke appears intent on keeping her run against Walker a closely held secret.

Walker has been running for governor for some seven years; and here we are nine months out from the general election and Burke is as dynamic as an early morning stroll down your drive-way in the cold to pick up the paper.

Walker is pursuing a radical social engineering project, and Burke is approaching the campaign with little apparent sense of urgency.

Say what you will about Walker but he campaigns hard and the air war for which Walker is well-armed has not even begun yet.

Emblematic of Burke's lassitude is the white noise emitting from the Burke campaign on the hottest political story in the U.S. right now: the titanic fall of Chris Christie.

Scott Walker, after benefitting from $15 million in support from the Republican Governors Association of which Christie is now Chair, as pointed out by One Wisconsin Now, hails Chris Christie, the most clearly corrupt governor with Walker at number two.

“He told me the same thing in private that he did to the press in New Jersey, and I have every reason to believe that the information he said is consistent with the truth, and so I still support him in his role as governor and his role in the RGA,” Walker said of Christie at an economic conference. (Politico)

So what does Burke do in response? Nothing. Not a press release, not a statement to media outlets, not a beeper, not even a tweet.

 

As Salon puts it: Chris Christie update: Scott Walker to the rescue!
 

I bet Scott Walker is just shivering with fear right about now. Maybe someone should contact political prognosticators, Larry J. Sabato and Kyle Kondik and tell them to change Wisconsin from Likely Republican to Safe Republican.

Wisconsin's Next Governor Could Be State Sen. Kathleen Vinehout

Scott Walker is I assert not going to run for president.

Walker's Democratic opponent for Wisconsin governor remains to be seen.

Mary Burke and State Senator Kathleen Vinehout (Alma, Wisconsin) are currently leading the Democratic field.

The following in one sentence tells why Vinehout will be the Democratic nominee in 2014: