Liar!
Caught with his political pants down (again!), Scott Walker is once again trying to lie himself out of his own mess.
Right! That mess. The mess he created when he promised Diane Hendricks, one of Walkers billionaire donors that he'd turn Wisconsin into a red state with Right to Work (for less) laws. Shot in February, 2011, it came to light late this week and caused a political storm in Wisconsin.
With the recall election in less than a month, Scott Walker is now singing a different tune.
Gov. Scott Walker said Friday he would do everything he could to prevent right-to-work legislation from coming to his desk, but he once again refused to say whether he would sign or veto it if it got there.
"I have no interest in pursuing right-to-work legislation in this state," he told reporters at the state Republican Party's annual convention.
Walker has been saying that for weeks, but has not answered whether he would sign or veto such legislation, which would prohibit compelling private-sector employees from paying union dues.
(emphasis mine)
Hendricks came through for Walker like a billionaire Sugar Mama should - she donated $500,000 to Walker for his recall fight. I'll bet Walker wink winked at all his monied interest masters telling them once again that statements made in public aren't his real agenda - just like the 2010 elections where his promise of being completly focused on jobs got him elected so he could roll out his real agenda of union busting, misogyny, destruction of social services, removal of environmental protections (just polute the hell out of the place now), concealed carry (which the gun nuts really love), education cuts, and devastation of a once fine state so he could funnel the savings to his rich donors. Investing in Scott Walker sure had a nice return for them.
What Walker hopes is that voters will believe him. Despite a video where he promises Right to Work to his billionaire donor and rolls out his "divide and conquer" strategy of stripping public employees of their unions as his "first step" in the process. Like Groucho Marx he asks us to believe him rather than our own lying eyes.
"Divide and conquer" didn't work anyway. Private sector union members flooded the State Capitol along with non-unionized workers, students, members of the community and farmers (yeah, Walker even lost the farmers). And his attempt to divide the public workers by exempting firefighters, police, and State Troopers (groups that endorsed Walker) also failed as those groups joined in solidarity. The public in Wisconsin gasped as they saw friendly, smiling, jobs-promising Scott Walker morph into the extremist political animal he always was.
His baloney spewing continued:
Asked Friday what he meant by that comment, he said he was trying to show he was on the side of taxpayers, and not public-sector unions that he called special interests.
"It’s about standing up and saying I’m drawing the line in the sand and saying, 'I’m putting the government firmly on the side of the taxpayer again,'" he said. "Before that, the government was overwhelmingly run by and dictated to by a handful of special interests. I don’t think that was good for the taxpayers of the state, whether they were Republican or Democrat or anyone in between.
"The special interests I saw involved firsthand as a county executive for eight years were overwhelmingly the big government unions. Time and time again they stood in the way of reasonable changes that could be made to allow local governments … as well as the state government from making reasonable adjustments to balance budgets and still protect core services."
As a member of one of those unions, I can tell you Walker is a big, fat liar. The unions never stood in the way of reasonable changes, but what Walker refers to as "reasonable" were repeated attempts to privatize all of Milwaukee Countys services despite the fact that the costs of privatization were above and beyond what the County was already paying. To overcome the cost issue, he made such severe cuts in staff and materials that it was nearly impossible to do a decent job of delivering services (make the public mad so they'll demand action and he'll be able to privatize regardless of the cost appeared to be his strategy).
He nearly always got his way by bullying tactics - threatening massive layoffs (as he did when he announced his "budget repair") - a tactic so sleazy it's a Prohibited Practice in the National Labor Relations Act, laws that protect private sector union members from the most abusive management excesses, but the NLRA doesn't cover public sector employees so Walker was free to do whatever he wanted. He cut salaries and benefits to the point where I made $5-7 less per hour as a Registered Nurse than I would have in the private sector. You can imagine how many qualified people wouldn't even apply for positions like that, so he was killing the programs by ensuring that the least qualified and hirable were virtually the only applicants.
Despite all of that, Walker skipped town in 2010 to the Governors Mansion leaving taxpayers in Milwaukee County holding the bag for an enormous deficit he managed to hide by delaying a budget report for several months (until after the 2010 elections). His interest has never, ever been the taxpayers (I don't care how many times he lies about it) - it's been about his own political ambition and serving the monied interests who will fund his continued rise in power.
Scott Walker got elected because of tens of millions (the most ever spend in Wisconsin) spent by outside monied interests hiding behind newly created, friendly sounding astroturf groups while running a friendly campaign himself with friendly ads wearing the typical rolled up shirtsleeves Republican Costume promising jobs. Our lazy, RW leaning, corporate media lobbed softball questions at him while hammering at his opponent, Tom Barrett and RW hate radio which saturates every inch of the state did the rest.
It's a do-over now with all the players, including the billionaire donors, RW hate radio, and lazy media replaying their rolls for the second time. The difference this time is that we've seen who Walker serves and the agenda he follows. Will people be fooled again or will people realize that Scott Walker is not to be believed or trusted? Ever.
Update: More Edition: I've got "more" already. The Wisconsin GOP is having it's convention today. Here's the latest hokemfrom RW asshat Rep. Paul Ryan on the recall election:
"June 5, that’s the day we save Wisconsin," he said. "Nov 6, that’s the day Wisconsin saves America.
"Courage is on the ballot on June 5 and the American idea is on the ballot on Nov. 6."
Quick. Hand me a barf bag. "Courage". No. Scott Walker is a snivelling coward backed by billionaires and surrounded by a massive taxpayer funded security detail (yes, even massive before the protests).
On June 5, Wisconsin will save itself and on November 6 we'll save America from radical extremism.
Update 2: The Hyperbole Never Ends with These Guys Edition: They're still at it at the State GOP Convention in Green Bay. Now it's Jeff Fitzgerald, Republican Assembly Majority Leader, feeble and dumb brother to Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (facing recall) to have a turn at the microphone:
“June 5 is the most important day in political history,” he said of the upcoming recall election.
Really? We've surpassed the Emancipation Proclamation, Civil Rights Act, passage of Social Security, women's sufferage, election of the first African-American President? Exaggerate much?
He rambles on:
doors and call voters.
“
This is going to be won on the streets of Wisconsin,” said Scott Fitzgerald. “This recall will be won in the trenches. We have a ton of work to do in the next 25 days.”
“We stood up to runaway government and we did what most leaders would do,” he said of last year’ legislative session. “We didn’t protest. For us it’s not about power.
“We need to move beyond June 5, for the state, for its citizens, and for us in this room who are hardcore committed Republicans.
“Who do we want in charge of Wisconsin? Reformers or protesters? … We are at the crossroads of Wisconsin political history.”
Dude, you're stealing my lines! Yes, average citizens of this state will work against your ilk with your mega millions to win back our state in the trenches, by doing a ton of work, standing up against extremist runaway government with a majority of its members worrying more about keeping power and serving their monied interest masters than making our state great. We'll move beyond June 5, too, because we want reasonable and responsible people in charge of Wisconsin.
Update 3: Holy Cow Edition: Brad Lichtenstein, producer of the documentary where the "divide and conquer" video segment was taken, just tweeted this diary. I'm honored and humbled. Sorry to seem self-obscessed on this one, but I'm happy to know he reads Daily Kos.
Update 4: Hang Onto Your Lunch Edition: Scott Walker has massively added to the bag of BS he wants to sell you.
Gov. Scott Walker recommitted Saturday to his pledge to create 250,000 private-sector jobs by 2015, a promise all the more difficult to achieve since he first made it because of anemic job growth during his tenure.
Speaking to the GOP faithful at the state Republican Party’s annual convention in Green Bay, Walker said he believed job growth has been better than government statistics have shown and that he could still meet the 250,000 job vow if he serves a full term.
“It’s a commitment I made in 2010 and it’s a commitment I make today,” Walker said.
Don't blame me for the spew on your screen. You were warned.
Yes, indeedie, folks. He's still out there promising 250,000 shiny new jobs if he serves a full term. New jobs numbers will be out on Thursday for April and Wisconsin was Number One in the nation in job losses in 2011 with more jobs lost in March, 2012.
He keeps on rolling out the BS:
“Unfortunately, the mayor of Milwaukee wants to go back to the old days,” Walker said.
Yeah, those old days when Wisconsin did better than most of the nation after the economic crash, when public employees weren't derided for being, well, public employees, and when we had an education system we could be proud of. Those "old days" would be a welcome relief from repealing Equal Pay Laws, trying to legalize strip mining, stripping union rights, $1.8 billion in education cuts, concealed carry laws, unnecessary and repeated visits to a doctor before a medical abortive could be prescribed, derailing our environmental protection, and severe cuts to health and social programs for our poor and vulnerable citizens.
He used the convention to pivot away from the video of his conversation with Diane Hendricks, the co-founder of ABC Supply, a Beloit roofing wholesaler and siding distributor. Two weeks after the exchange, she gave Walker $10,000, the maximum she could give at the time. Last month, Hendricks gave Walker $500,000, making her Walker’s biggest donor and the largest known donor to any candidate in state history.
No, Snotty, we haven't forgotten that you only tell the truth to billionaires (and even before you tell your own Cabinet members, too).
Mike Tate, chairman of the state Democratic Party, said in a statement Walker was using “weasel words” on right-to-work legislation.
“Scott Walker’s refusal to veto right-to-work-for-less legislation shows that he was telling the truth to his billionaire donor. Saying he would do ‘everything in his power’ is absolutely meaningless,” Tate’s statement said.
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