Scott Walker's False Claims He Has Held "Listening Sessions" Across Wisconsin

Scott Walker appears on ABC News This Week
and offers his third position on amending
the Fourteenth Amendment in seven days.

Updated - "The impression is fast setting in that Scott Walker, former King of Iowa, is a nonsense person and a ridiculous presidential candidate. (Newell, Salon)"
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To understand Scott Walker is to see an undeveloped psyche, a man with no essence who will say anything with facts posing no barrier.

This morning the Wall Street Journal reports Walker saying, "We’re doing the hard work of the town-hall meetings, the small-group sessions. I think that pays off because, while the national media is focused a lot on another candidate, in the end, voters in these early states clearly take this stuff seriously." (O'Conner, Wall Street Journal)

Last week, Walker said his flip-flop on Common Core education standards is the result of holding listening session across Wisconsin: "We'd hold sessions around the state, we'd listen to people, we'd talk to people," said Gov. Walker. (Neumann, WKOW-TV)

Actually, Scott Walker has held zero townhall-style, unscripted listening sessions in Wisconsin.

Walker's recent false claims to the contrary are asserted out of concern that Walker doesn't know much about public policy, displaying not-even a pedestrian grasp of major public policy issues, ala Sarah Palin with whom Walker does not wish to branded this early in the campaign.

This is a guy whose press office demanded that all questions be pre-screened on a press phone call on Walker's healthcare plan 'to phase out ObamaCare on Day One' last week. (Politico)

This is considered open and accessible for Scott Walker who regularly bans reporters in an attempt to keep his lack of policy knowledge a secret.

This is not a well-kept secret, it's just not many in the campaign press write about it. Writes Dylan Byers in the right-leaning Politico:

In March, Walker made public appearances in Texas and South Carolina but closed the events to press and refused to take questions from the media. In April, while visiting Europe, he held no public events and took no questions from reporters. In May, while visiting Israel, he did the same. An aide told the Journal that Walker was going to 'focus on educating himself about Israeli issues and won’t hold public events or take questions from reporters.'

Walker's refusal to hold listening sessions, from the Midwest to the Middle East, should be news, as should his lying about it.

It is understandable from Walker's point of view why Walker avoids unscripted question-and-answer sessions.

Take this the latest headline on CNN: Scott Walker on birthright citizenship: 3 positions, 7 days. Writes CNN's Eric Bradner:

The Wisconsin governor and Republican presidential candidate was asked on ABC's 'This Week' whether he backs Trump's push to end the 14th Amendment's mandate that all children born in the United States are automatically granted citizenship. 

'Well, I said the law is there. And we need to enforce the laws, including those that are in the Constitution,' Walker said

United States Constitution

What "laws" are in the United States Constitution?

For Scott Walker's edification, here is a link to the Leonere Annenberg Institute for Civics explaining the United States Constitution. There are no laws in the Constitution.

Walker would do well to begin with Article 1, Section 1:

Section 1 - The Text
All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

Section 1 - The Meaning
The framers of the Constitution separated the powers of government into three branches, granting legislative power (the power to pass laws) to Congress, executive power (the power to administer the laws) to the president, and judicial power (the power to interpret and enforce the laws) to the courts. The unique and limited powers of Congress are contained in Article I.

Fourteenth Amendment Citizenship Clause

With respect to Scott Walker's on-again, off-again commitment to amend the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution, Jenna Johnson in today's Washington Post has a timeline of Walker and his campaign's statements over the last week. It's pretty funny and at Walker's expense. Last Monday evening Walker blamed his change-the-Fourteenth Amendment-citizenship-clause position on a confusing "three-hour roving [press] gaggle."

Last Friday, Walker explained he was for changing the Fourteenth Amendment citizenship clause because he was "tired." (Blue Cheddar) (ThinkProgress) (CognitiveDissidence) (Mal Contends)

Johnson's piece ends with a quote from AshLee Strong, Walker's campaign spokeswoman, saying in part: "His position is very firm."

Firm, and strong and bold. Unfortunately for the nation, Walker's idea of a bold unscripted question-and-answer session is to yell at an audience, "Unintimidated! I am not intimidated by you, sir, or by anyone else out there."​

Career Politician Scott Walker Hits "Career Politicians"

Brianne Pfannenstiel reports Scott Walker said the American people have "had it with Washington" and career politicians in the Maid-Rite diner in Webster City, Iowa last night (Des Moines Register).

Pfannenstiel did not mention that Scott Walker (47-years-old) is a career politician who first ran for office at age 22, months after leaving Marquette University in 1990, lost; then moved into a white Wisconsin Assembly district ringing Milwaukee in 1992 to run for an open seat, won, and has been in elected office since.

Walker's record in office, winning or not, has been marred by scandal and corruption, a perverse inclination to demonize large swaths of the population while avoiding listening sessions with the Wisconsin people and refusing to campaign on what he does as a policymaker.

Caught behind closed doors, Walker has been videotaped assuring a billionaire, Diane Hendricks, that he will "divide and conquer" the Wisconsin people when asked if Walker could turn Wisconsin into a "red state."

Walker refuses to repeat the "divide and conquer" phrase, while still demonzing non-Walker supporting citizens.

Notes Charlie Pierce:

"[A]lone among the crowd of candidates, Walker most clearly is running on his record of being a complete prick to the right people – which include teachers and nurses and the people who clean up after Alzheimer's patients in group homes. Running against the right people is a staple of all campaigns, right and left, but it's rarely as clear the raison d'etre of one as it is the raison d'etre of the Walker campaign. It is a toxic combination of belligerence and aggressive victimhood. You have to go all the way back to the George Wallace campaigns of 1968 and 1972 to find one that is so clearly defined by the people whose political power it wants to crush.​"

Sanity on Scott Walker's Yelling "I'm Not Intimidated"

"Unintimidated! I am not intimidated by you, sir, or by anyone else out there."​

Thus shouted Scott Walker to an American citizen in Iowa yesterday.

Is anyone falling for Walker's schtick?

The right-leaning Wisconsin State Journal is commenting and reporting uncritically on Walker's affront to representative democracy, and the story for them is not whether Walker is inauthentic and a pathological liar.

Reading this newspaper every morning is becoming a controversy in our household as we discuss whether we should cancel our longtime subscription in light of the downward trajectory of the news and editorial columns on the Scott Walker run for the presidency.

At what point are we supporting a propaganda sheet increasingly devoid of facts and analysis?

Haven't decided though the Wisconsin State Journal—to survive as a hardcopy newspaper—refused to endorse Scott Walker last year citing in part his divisive approach to governing and campaigning.

For some sanity on Scott Walker's imbecilic approach to political dialogue, check out Jake's Economic TA Funhouse, Charlie Pierce from Esquire and Jeff Simpson at CognitiveDissidence.

Notes Pierce: "The fearsome gentleman of whom Walker was unafraid was a skinny guy in the middle of the scrum, holding up a sign suggesting that, perhaps, Walker should not be allowed to do to the country what he's done to Wisconsin. Standing on stage, with Iowa State troopers on either side, Scott Walker, American He-man, boldly faced down this sign-waving Bakuninite. The rest of the crowd went wild. Later, Kelly O'Donnell [NBC News] pronounced herself charmed by the confrontation.​"

Scott Walker Is a Child, Not Mature Enough to Discuss Public Policy

Scott Walker - Still running from questions

The most divisive and toxic governor in the U.S. could not skip today's Des Moines Register Soapbox speech where candidates are forced to field comments from the crowd in an unscripted setting.

Confronted by audience members after sneaking onto the stage from the back (unlike other candidates), Walker was every bit the high-on-rhetoric, don't-answer-questions, undeveloped adult to which Wisconsin has become accustomed. (PoliticusUSA)

Reports Jennifer Jacobs, Walker bellowed:

"I am not intimidated by you, sir,” pointing at Matthew Desmond, a 29-year-old Chicago activist with the left-wing political website Addicting Info, or anyone else out there.

I will fight for the American people over and over and over and over and over again. You want someone who’s tested? I’m right here. You can see it! This is what happened in Wisconsin. We will not back down. We will do what is necessary to defend the American people going forward."

How about this for a response from Walker: Let's talk, here's my thoughts. Here's why I did what I did. Here's why I dropped a "bomb," instead of campaigning on my plans.

No way.

Scott Walker—Authoritarian and Vindictive Is Now an American Problem

On the eve of Scott Walker's announcement for the presidency from the white citizens' stronghold of Waukesha, Wisconsin (DeFour, Wisconsin State Journal), it's apt that the New York Times runs a preview of a film on Philip Zimbardo's social psychological Stanford Prison Experiment (Murphy, New York Times).

The capacity of 'normal' human beings to inflict sadistic actions and suffering onto fellow human beings had astonished and repulsed thinking human beings, emphatically after the Holocaust and the United States invasion of Vietnam, and social psychologists have studied this phenomena of systematized savagery.

But for Scott Walker (and political allies, such as former governor Tommy Thompson [1987-2001]), demonizing and inflicting suffering onto disfavored citizens have been the vehicle by which these two Wisconsin governors have launched political careers and presidential campaigns.

Assaults on the working-class citizens of Wisconsin abound in Scott Walker's administration: the right to collective bargain; massive cuts for the University of Wisconsin; bans on abortions after 20 weeks, regardless of rape or incest; drug testing for aid recipients; repeated targeting of the city of Milwaukee, maintaining it as the most segregated urban area in the United States; attacking the open records laws; and avoiding and evading the populations' right to ask him questions about any of these policies (Walker has held no listening sessions for any of this legislation, even though none of it was mentioned in his election, recall, or re-election bids).

Super-max prisons, Thompson's vow to make inmates' lives a "living hell," and former State Rep. Walker's (1993-2002) peripatetic legislative push to create harsh prison sentences, expand the criminal code, create the authority to send nonviolent 'offenders' to out-of-state private prisons went on with little opposition from the Wisconsin citizenry or the Democratic Party.

"Walker pushed dozens of proposals in the state house to lengthen criminal penalties, for everything from perjury to privacy invasion to intoxicated boating. In just the 1997–98 legislative session, Walker authored or co-sponsored twenty-seven different bills that either expanded the definition of crimes, increased mandatory minimums for offenders, or curbed the possibility of parole," notes Scott Keyes in The Nation.

Walker openly bragged about his bill, the infamous Truth-in-Sentencing law, which limited early parole, as having come from the corporate bill mill, the American Legislative Exchange Committee.

Scott Walker is the classic "double high authoritarian" who takes pleasure in deceiving and hurting perceived incarnations of the wrong [black] type of people, while also marked by the inclination and "willingness to submit to established authority, (and) their aggressiveness on behalf of that authority" (Dean, part one, CounterPunch and Dean, part two CounterPunch).

To understand Scott Walker is to comprehend the history of Scott Walker's inclination to lie and evade.

As a profile in racism, Scott Walker presents to social psychologists an experiment in how a superstitious, cruel and callow politician with little understanding of public policy can rise to the level of serious discussion of becoming the nominee for a major party for the presidency of the United States.

Now that Walker is in the national arena, the heartless and senseless changes he has wrought in Wisconsin will be exposed to a wider audience and shown to be consonant with twentieth-century fascism and the "double high authoritarianism" discussed by Dean.

Walker, Clinton Atop Iowa Poll, Sanders Rockets to Sixteen Percent

June 2015 Bloomberg Politics Des Moines Register Iowa Poll

Bleeding Heartland has the numbers and analysis of the latest Bloomberg Politics/Des Monies Resister poll.

Iowa is custom-tailored for Scott Walker as rightwing fundamentalism and nativism remain strong.

Walker has run a divide-and-conquer strategy that plays well in white rural America.

Writes Margaret Talev in Bloomberg:

Clinton is the first choice for 57 percent of likely Democratic caucus-goers in a new Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll conducted May 25-29, up a percentage point from the previous poll in January. Controversies dating from her tenure as secretary of state, from her handling of the Benghazi attacks and her use of private e-mail to the Clinton Foundation's acceptance of contributions from foreign governments, have not weakened her campaign in Iowa, though many Democrats remain concerned they could hurt her in a general election.

Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont running for president as a Democrat, has surged to become the top pick of 16 percent of likely Democratic caucus-goers, more than triple the 5 percent he drew in January. Part of that is likely due to Sanders's recent formal entry into the race, while Warren, the Massachusetts senator whom many progressives urged to run as a liberal alternative to Clinton, has repeatedly said she won't run and wasn't listed as a likely candidate in this poll. 

The political strategies of Walker and Sanders/Hillary are diametrically opposed.

Walker needs to avoid answering any unscripted questions with responsive statements, and Hillary and Sanders need to get to do the opposite and reach as many people as possible.

Scott Walker Wrecked Wisconsin's Economy—On Purpose

The Milwaukee Shepherd-Express notes in late April that Scott Walker has degraded the Wisconsin economy.

What is not emphasized is Walker did this on purpose.

Walker targeted Dane and Milwaukee counties (the old I-94 Coalition), University towns, workers' wages, public schools, minorities, consumers' rights, the University System, voting rights, local control, clean water, the environment and anything Walker can get his hands on that doesn't vote Republican.

Dane County is too smart for Walker and without Dane County and its educated population and innovative industries, Wisconsin would be in worse shape.

But Walker still is targeting the people of a state as enemies to be conquered. This is sociopathic.

This is who Scott Walker is: A religious fanatic who hates macroeconomics, hates the people of Wisconsin, the vast majority who did not vote for Walker.

The American press has mostly missed the story that Walker cannot win a statewide election in a presidential year, and Walker refused to campaign on any major policy gift he gave to the Koch brothers and gloats about at Republican, out-of-state events.

Scott Walker's War on Young Brains, Our Future

Scott Walker's perverse ideological hostility to a world-class University System is already taking its toll.

This insane crusade by Scott Walker ought to be highlighted repeatedly.

See Simmons at the Wisconsin State Journal and Capper at Crooks and Liars.

There must be some curse word depicting the abandonment of our youth. I've yet to find it.

The plain fact is Scott Walker favors campaign money more than the welfare of the Wisconsin people, so the young are fleeing our state.

Scott Walker's Attack on Disabled Is Unconscionable

Does Scott Walker really have some need of bringing down the wrath of god onto citizens who are not GOP contributors, and are disabled and old?

Consider Walker's budget proposal to repeal the statute and cut off aid to 11,000 elderly and disabled Wisconsinites who are part of the IRIS (Include, Respect, I Self-Direct) program.

Walker wants to go after these people?

Noted here before, without politcal hyperbole, this is something wrong with Scott Walker.

A petition is making the rounds to protect IRIS:

by Melissa Prentice

I am disabled and only 33-years-old. I am a single mother of two beautiful children.

Thanks to the IRIS Program, I am in my home with my children, though I am disabled from the middle of my back to my toes. The reason for this is because IRIS allowed me to choose a caregiver (or they would have found me one), figured out a monthly amount I am allotted through the program, and is paying my caregiver to take care of me and my household.

Without this program, I would have to be in some type of nursing or rehabilitation facility for the rest of my life. I would no longer have my children. I would no longer have my life.

And that is not all IRIS does! If I were to need a new bed, or a repair on my house such as a ramp going up to my door, I would simply submit it to my IRIS case worker, who is available for me during all business hours by phone. She would submit the request, and they would allot me the extra money, as long as it is something I need due to my disability.

Since Gov. Walker took office, all he has talked about is creating jobs and supporting the people of this state. Now he is attacking the weakest and most vulnerable people, and by ending this wonderful program, he will be taking away the many, many jobs of the people who actually work for IRIS and the many wonderful caregivers who spend their time taking care of people like me.

Please help the weak and vulnerable in the state of Wisconsin and stand up to save the IRIS program:

Scott Walker: Civil Rights Activists 'Looking for ways to be upset' RE Indiana

Talking Points Memo has the story and audio via Buzzfeed.

Scott Walker of course was all for his rights, especially as paid for, into his criminal defense fund by Fat Cats. (Bice, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

A hypocrite and a pathological liar, Elect me, says Scott Walker.

Jeb Bush Tops New Post-ABC Poll

Scott Walker lacks
gravitas and public
policy stuff, but has big
and bold ideas;
just ask him.

"[Jeb] Bush — by far the best known among those running for the GOP nomination — is viewed favorably by just 33 percent of the public, while 53 percent say they view him unfavorably." (Balz and Clement, Washington Post)

Congratulations, Gov. Bush, you are at the head of the GOP class, at 20 percent.

Scott Walker comes in third at 12 percent, tied with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 13 percent.

The national vetting has barely begun on Walker and already the direction of conventional political wisdom (among conservatives) is: Scott Walker is a lightweight.

Jeb Bush need hardly look in his rear view mirror when a glance reveals Scott Walker and Ted Cruz.

Ask around.

Hillary has double-digit leads against all Republicans.

So, frack off, Martin O'Malley.

Scott Walker on Striking the Right Balence

If Scott Walker decides to run for the GOP nomination for the presidency (and he has prayed on this), those outside Wisconsin can take delight in the next Walker non sequitur when asked simple questions in public.

Wisconsin is one of only 18 states that have not either introduced legislation or have on the books some manner of the so-called religious freedom laws. (Steinhauer, New York Times)

Indiana does have a "Religious Freedom" law.

Indiana Republicans saw an opportunity to enact the right to discriminate (Media Matters) on behalf of private, for-profit people-entities in the wake of the Supreme Court's rewriting of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby (2014). (People for the American Way) (A more insidious effort by Arkansas Republicans was vetoed by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) yesterday, good for WalMart.)

Walker and Balance

Putative GOP presidential candidates and governors weighed in on Indiana's absurd law with Scott Walker leading the way with Indiana Gov. Mike Pence in confused and uninformed evasion.

"Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker took a different approach, saying he doesn't intend to get involved with it or anticipate a similar bill coming to his desk. 'In our state there's a balance between wanting to make sure that there's not discrimination [and] at the same time respecting religious freedoms. ... We do that in different ways than what they've done in Indiana. Certainly that's going to be part of the debate here and across the country,' he said at a press conference." (Kelly, NPR)

What "balance" is that?

What laws is Walker talking about?

Prior to Indiana becoming the national laughingstock, Walker had never spoken publicly on the Public Accommodations clause of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as somehow in tension with First Amendment religious freedom.

Walker invoked his "healthy balance" nonsense before, in November 2013 when Walker said because Wisconsin state statute and the state Constitution banned marriage equity,  "We’ve had no problems… I should say, limited problems with that." (Kim, MSNBC)

What about the people who were banned from being married?

Walker says "balance" when Walker has no idea what his talking about, a frequent occurrence.

Scott Walker

Marriage equality became the law of the land in Wisconsin last year when Judge Richard Posner's opinion striking down Walker's "healthy balance" as "mindless tradition," "bigotry" and a violation of the "Equal Protection Clause" went into effect in Wisconsin and Indiana. (Mal Contends)

There is intelligent commentary on who is the lightest of the lightweights: The bewildered and confused Gov. Mike Pence (R-Indiana), or the big and bold, but no-questions-from-the-public Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wisconsin).

This leads one to suggest: Pence-Walker in 2016, God-sent.

Scott Walker Getting National Ridicule

"[E]very now and then, a presidential hopeful comes up with a novel claim in this area [becoming the next commander in chief] – like Governor Scott Walker, who was asked by a conservative radio host how he felt about the prospect of having to send American troops into combat in the (extremely unlikely) event that he should become president."

Mr. Walker didn’t hesitate. He was an Eagle Scout."

Continues Andrew Rosenthal in the New York Times:

'And to me, much like my thought process of being an Eagle Scout is, no, being an exceptional country means we have a higher responsibility … not just to care for ourselves and our own interests, but to lead in the world, to ensure that all freedom-loving people have the capacity, who yearn for that freedom, to have that freedom,' [Mr. Walker said.]

Got that?

It would be unfair to say Mr. Walker’s response hinged solely on his knot-tying skills. He did offer a grand vision for military strategy. He said the United States should use military force when appropriate, with 'a plan and a charge that ultimately leads to victory.'

After wrecking Wisconsin's economic recovery from the 2007-08 national recession, driving down wages, destroying institutions that took Wisconsin generations to build such as the University of Wisconsin System and public schools, Walker's undoing may not be that he is a failure as a governor or is a crook who has surrounded himself with fellow crooks.

Walker's undoing is that he is the 2016 Sarah Palin, a lightweight.

Concludes Rosenthal: "As The Cap Times said in reporting Mr. Walker’s comments, these silly remarks were actually an improvement. In February, he said his crushing of Wisconsin’s public-sector labor unions prepared him to combat terrorism. Maybe that was a joke. A very unfunny joke."

Even less funny if you live in Wisconsin. Here in Wisconsin, we can take solace in the fact that 'stupid' is no longer in political fashion.

Scott Walker Is Worried, Worried US Will Follow Wisconsin

After proposing to eviscerate Wisconsin in the state budget following the lacerations Scott Walker inflicted onto Wisconsin, Walker said he is "worried," DesmoinesDem notes at the premier political site on the eight-month run-up to the Iowa presidential caucuses.

Notes DesmoinesDem:

Jon Ward filed this report [yesterday] on a New Hampshire event featuring Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

In a recent speech here, the Wisconsin governor used the word "worry" or "worried" 12 times in the space of 15 minutes.

'As a parent today, I'm worried. I'm worried for our country,' Walker told a few hundred conservative activists in a darkened amphitheater, standing in front of a red stage curtain. 'I'm worried about my sons and your sons and daughters, my nieces and your nieces and nephews and grandsons and granddaughters, and I'm worried that we're headed down that same path that worried me years ago in my own state.' [emphasis added]

Walker's message, just a few months into his nascent (and still unofficial) presidential campaign, has been largely a negative one. There is an undertone of testiness in his stump speech, leavened with chest-swelling machismo fueled by his defeat of a recall effort in 2012 and his re-election in 2014.

Scott Walker's M.O.—scream Worried, Broke and Corrupt and then get in, screw-up and run away fast. Look for more mentions of ISIS/ISIL from Walker as well.

Retired Conservative Editor: Scott Walker Lied, Betrayed Wisconsin

"[Scott] Walker is an opportunist who is stepping on this trivial state, [Wisconsin], as he makes his way to the presidency. ... He’s betrayed you for something bigger and better and clearly planned to do so for some time."

The preceding sentence sums up the frustration and heartfelt betrayal of Pete Kennedy, former editor of the Waukesha Freeman (paid, restricted site), a rightwing paper in suburban Milwaukee.

Text of Kennedy's column is at Techno Blog.

Kennedy lets loose on Scott Walker for turning his back on Walker's stated commitment to create jobs, instead outright harming Wisconsin's economy in favor of a selfish run for president.

Kennedy's blasting of Walker comes as national conservatives are questioning Walker, and the national media reports Walker avoids town hall-style question-and-answer sessions with voters in favor of "rope lines" and "avoiding questions in public from prospective voters." (McCormick, Bloomberg).

Kennedy hits Walker not for falling asleep at the wheel on job creation, rather for making policy decisions that are killing jobs in cold-blood in a string of high-profile Walker moves Kennedy lists.

Walker is working to make his candidacy for the presidency more appealing to segments of the GOP's electorate in the Iowa presidential caucuses, and among voters in national GOP presidential primaries.

The Waukesha Freeman's editorial page is similar to the Wall Street Journal's in its hard-right political commitments. Waukesha County is the heart of Wisconsin Republicans, voting for Walker by a margin of 72 percent to 26 percent in the 2014 general election. (Politico)

As Scott Walker cross-crosses the globe, Walker's repeated stomping on job-creating opportunities has even this most-conservative of writers fed-up.

"[Walker] charges you for those 'trade missions,' too, and they can’t be cheap. How about a trade mission to Kenosha?," asks Kennedy.

American Rightwing Questioning Scott Walker

The rightwing is beginning to see Scott Walker is more craven and less principled than hoped.

Daniel Payne writing in the rightwing The Federalist calls out Scott Walker yesterday, and it has nothing to do about Walker secretly directing dark money contributions.

Payne writes about Walker's deep-sixing communications consultant Liz Mair.

"Mair’s departure, in other words, wasn’t about making 'people’s' lives better, it was more along the lines of making Scott Walker’s life better, and easier," writes Payne. "... [Walker's] response to Mair’s garden-variety opinion is disappointing and troubling, indicating that he’s less of a reformer than we thought, and less willing to take risks that might improve the country as a whole."

Eliana Johnson at the National Review Online writes, "Just a few months into the long 2016 primary campaign, the whispered doubts about whether Walker can successfully scale up are louder than ever."

Scott Walker's PAC Is Right: Iowa GOP Embarrasses

Update: Scott Walker's communications aide bowed to pressure from Iowa Republicans and "resigned late Tuesday after drawing criticism for knocking Iowa’s role in the presidential nomination process.

"Liz Mair, a veteran Republican consultant, told the Associated Press she was leaving the GOP presidential hopeful’s political team just a day after she had been hired by Walker’s Our American Revival PAC to provide advice on social media." (Camia, USA Today)

The Des Moines Register first reported Mair's critical statements regarding Iowa yesterday morning.
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Scott Walker may be getting the message on not surrounding himself with stupid people like convicted criminals and former top aides, Tim Russell (embezzled from veterans) and Kelly M. Rindfleisch (misconduct in public office).

Walker's online communications director for his PAC, Liz Mair, tells it like it is: Iowa Republicans are not the brightest bulbs in the world.

Trip Gabriel has the story in the New York Times:

Liz Mair tweeted, “In other news, I see Iowa is once again embarrassing itself, and the GOP, this morning. Thanks, guys.”

A minute later, she wrote, “The sooner we remove Iowa’s frontrunning status, the better off American politics and policy will be.”

The Iowa GOP wants Mair gone.

Walker would do well to keep her around, maybe smarten Walker up a little.

C'mon Scott Walker, you and even God knows you're not ready. Stick to what you're good at: Hold your hands out so taxpayers and the Koch brothers give you rightwing welfare money. Could do worse.

Scott Walker Silent on Clinton and Walker Emails, Walker PAC Blows Message

Scott Walker and other Republican nominal candidates for president are reacting with awkward silence to news Hillary Clinton has called for the State Department to vet and release her emails transmitted during her tenure as Secretary. (Glueck, Politico) (Schmidt, NYT)

But no Republican candidate (as-yet-undeclared) is in as awkward a position as Scott Walker.

That's because Scott Walker's aides and appointees embezzled from military veterans (CBS News) and their families, and during Walker's Milwaukee County Executive tenure (2002 to 2010) Walker's administration installed a secret email-router system that Walker and aides used to campaign on the premises of a public office, a criminal probe revealed, after Walker first stonewalled the criminal investigation. (Bice, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

"Did you have your own personal email account," Chris Wallace asked Scott Walker last year. (Mal Contends)

Walker backed down, refusing to answer Yes or No.

Chris Wallace's question among many others remain as Scott Walker's shady dealings look to haunt his faux run for the presidency.

The answer to Wallace's question is: Yes, Scott Walker had his own email address and was in receipt of and sent many emails on this illegal system.

The public release of documents has already established these facts, but Walker won't acknowledge these facts publicly, though he claims he did nothing wrong or illegal.

The Democratic National Committee said, "If Walker wants to talk about emails, let’s look at his history first." (Hall and Savidge, Wisconsin State Journal)

History? That something liberal professors teach at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that Walker is working to destroy.

The Hillary/Scott Walker email story took a strange turn a couple of days ago when the Daily Caller (Pappas) reported Walker's PAC was calling for answers about email questions from Hillary, not Walker:

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s political action committee is hitting Hillary Clinton over the recent revelations that she used private email accounts for official business while secretary of state, saying she needs to address questions about the legality of the practice.

“Hillary Clinton’s potential evasion of laws is something she should answer questions about,” Kirsten Kukowski, a spokeswoman for Walker’s new political action committee, Our American Revival, said in an email.

Either Kukowski has an unconventional sense of irony or Kukowski just embarrassed herself out of a job (but that will have to wait).

Writes Dee Hall and Nico Savidge in this morning's Wisconsin State Journal (Madison):

Walker has said that throughout his time as Milwaukee County executive, he had a clear policy that county employees were prohibited from using county resources or county time to be involved in political activities.

But investigative records released in February 2014 indicated Walker was aware his staff was communicating about campaign business using private emails during regular county  work hours.

In one message, Walker aide Cindy Archer wrote to deputy chief of staff Kelly Rindfleisch explaining that she used a private email account to communicate with Walker and his chief of staff, Tom Nardelli.

“Consider yourself now in the ‘inner circle’ :) I use this private account quite a bit to communicate with SKW and Nardelli,” Archer wrote, referring to Walker’s initials. “You should be sure you check it throughout the day.”

In a May 13, 2010, email on which Walker was copied, campaign adviser R.J. Johnson gave the final OK to two county staff members — Rindfleisch and Nardelli — along with campaign officials on what to say about another Walker employee, Darlene Wink, who had been caught posting campaign-related comments online about Walker during work time.

The approved statement: “No one in our office had any knowledge that Darlene was posting any comments during work hours. The county executive and chief of staff expressly forbid staff participation in any campaign-related activity while on county time.”

That is the tip of the spear, as Walker's political allies attempt to shut down and censor deliberations of the Wisconsin Supreme Court's consideration of cases from another criminal probe involving Walker's scheme, John Doe II

Putting aside the questions what shady characters like Tim Russell (embezzled from military veterans) and Kelly Rindfleisch (convicted of misconduct in public office) were doing as top aides to Scott Walker and what this tells us about Walker, note that in 2002 Walker ordered the installation of another secret router to avoid public disclosure and campaign.

"Bob Kiefert said that in 2002, when he was Milwaukee County human resources assistant director, he was called into Walker’s office by then-deputy chief of staff Tim Russell. Kiefert showed Russell how to set up a hard-wired Internet connection using a DSL modem and a telephone line. The network allowed county executive staff to send and receive emails and surf the Web outside the public system set up by the county’s Information Management Services Division in 1998," reported Matthew DeFour last year in the Wisconsin State Journal.

Kiefert broke this Scott Walker corruption story in the Green Bay Progressive.

Writes Kiefert:

During the 1990s, I was responsible for technology in the Department of Human Resources (DHR) and had set up a departmental network with email and a web site with it’s own ISDN line link to the internet. We were one of several county departments who had moved in this direction in the 90s in advance of a countywide system later developed by the central Information Management Services Division (IMSD).

DHR was only one floor below the County Executive’s Office in the Courthouse, and Tim Russell wanted to know how I did it. During our meeting in 2002, I told him.

As I remember, Russell told me that Scott Walker was very appreciative of my help and wanted to thank me personally. Russell took me over to Walker’s office for the meet and greet, but he turned out to be busy and only smiled and waved from his desk as we stood outside his office door.

I have no doubt that Walker knew what he was smiling and waving about. Russell had certainly made it clear that we were doing this at Walker’s bidding.

I have not really talked much about that day over the years and was not contacted about this information during the recent John Doe inquiry. That I assisted other departments within the county on technology issues during this period was certainly no secret at the time.

But I can tell you one thing, if Walker continues to deny knowledge of this email system and its usage, he is giving you a line of baloney.

Baloney is something the rest of America is going to have to get used to as a steady diet if Scott Walker prays more and gets instructions to form a presidential exploratory committee in the coming months.

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.

Tea Partier Scott Walker v. 'Moderate' Jeb Bush

Update: Scott Walker's presidential campaign is off to illegal start, running afoul of federal campaign finance law. (Matthew DeFour, Wisconsin State Journal) See also ADLF Calls for Investigation Into Potential Walker Violation of Federal Law. The ADLF complaint is here.
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The presidential GOP Iowa Caucuses have become the traditional staging area of the GOP clown car, but this election cycle some GOP candidates race to portray themselves as moderate and sane vis a vis their records.

There's Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) joining the I'm-a-moderate caucus though Paul (Peter, NYT) just can't help himself from loudly declaring the Federal Reserve is an evil that needs to be vanquished in defense of "liberty" (Audit the Fed; Jacobs, Des Monies Register), notwithstanding the fact the Fed staved off a depression after the Bush-Cheney global economic crisis. (Donnan, Financial Times)

Des Moines Dem of the Bleeding Heartland in Iowa sees Chris Christie and Jeb Bush competing for the moderate image as well. Writes Des Moines Dem:

Theoretically, if the presidential field remains fractured with half a dozen conservatives or more, a moderate candidate could sneak through to place first or second in the Iowa caucuses. I see Bush as slightly better positioned here than Christie. Although Bush's stands on immigration and Common Core are huge negatives with the hard-core conservatives, they will not bother establishment Republicans. Christie registered the highest unfavorable ratings in the recent Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics poll of Iowa Republicans, and Bush is likely to raise far more money during the first half of this year. Those dynamics may make Iowa moderates ready to coalesce around Jeb by the summer or early fall.

As for Scott Walker, the word is out he is a destructive extremist who has attacked voting rights, the environment, the University of Wisconsin, K-12 education, the search for truth as a mission of higher education, the right to unionize, the largest city in Wisconsin, and rewarded campaign contributors, while dodging criminal probes of corruption and misconduct in public office.

Hence, Scott Walker is polling number one in the white, rural bin of nativism steeped in pig shite that is the Republican Party of Iowa.

Walker v. Jeb seems likely, unless Walker, in London for four days and meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron, tells journalists that he cares too much about our friends across the pond to not advise Cameron that England should scrap its number one-ranked, socialized healthcare system. (The Independent)