Last Friday night in Racine there were some folks near a laundromat out collecting recall signatures. Someone floored their car, speeding towards the group, causing them to scatter or be hit. On Saturday night, a driver tried to back his vehicle into a different group. Both of these tales of reckless endangerment illustrate how crazy things are getting in Wisconsin as the rightwing Koch-amore seems to be fading with the possible result of a few unemployed high-level government workers next spring. But Saturday's "oops, I didn't see you back there!" move is also interesting in two other significant points.
1) There was a retired policeman in the group, and
2) It appears likely that the man who likes to turn his automobile into an assault weapon is a current Racine County Republican Party officer, Republican Treasurer Tom Bode.
Blue Cheddar reports it here.
The retired cop immediately began snapping photos of the advancing car. The Lexus plate reads "BFG LTD," which, when googled, comes up as the Bode Financial Group Limited in Racine. The business page currently contains only this comment:
As Blue Cheddar says, to top it off:
“A school teacher who witnessed the incident said not only did the man squeal his car around the area, yelled abusive and profane things to the volunteers and of course tried to back his car up over a retired police officer – he did it all with young children in the backseat of the car. Klassy.”
A police report, needless to say, has been filed.
Now, indeed, this could all be coincidence. And then I could be Joseph Stalin's recently deceased daughter. Mr. Bode is a close friend of Scott Walker.
Here he is with buddy Scotty from a Cap Times article last February, enjoying a happy moment a few days before Walker was elected governor. They're both laughing. Indeed, those were happier times for this great state before extremist right wing misery reigned, reined and rained.
Mr. Bode doesn't seem to be laughing now. And neither, I can only hope, is Scott Walker.