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.