Wisconsin's largest daily newspaper has now characterized the single most important thing we've learned about Gov. Scott Walker since 27,000 secret emails involving his previous staff and his campaign team were revealed last month. It's summed up in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's page one headline today:
Emails show Scott Walker blurred campaign, county government lines
Little separation between government, campaign
If anything, the headline is understatement to a story that in documented transcripts shows over and over how Walker took a hands-on approach to the smallest details of his administration and his campaign, often phone-texting instructions to both camps at the same time. The foremost example highlighted in the news story happened in 2010, when Walker was Milwaukee County executive and facing a political crisis over troubles at the county's mental health complex:
... Walker, his campaign aides and taxpayer-funded county staff were burning up private email, trying to counter the [county] supervisors' expected attack. To knock down complaints, aides decided they needed a statement from a political ally, and focused on state Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills).
At 10:25 a.m., Walker — writing from his campaign email account — weighed in.
He would not only write Darling's response, he would order that the communication be done in a way so that it would remain secret from the public.
Walker wrote to county and campaign staff, "I think her statement should be short and to the point (something like this): ... ."
Minutes later, Darling's legislative office issued a statement that parroted Walker's draft.
The Journal Sentinel sought comment from Darling for its story. Like Walker's sidelong replies to repeated reporter questions about whether he knew of his office's secret, illegal email system, Darling replied that the incident in 2010 "was so long ago" and thus not worth "rehashing." Never mind that Darling and Walker still regularly rehash Democratic Party actions from 2010 and earlier. Further, based on the reported incident, you have now got to wonder if Walker suggested Darling's very Walker-like response to the Journal Sentinel story, as well.
If national pundits and campaign strategists persist in arguing that this sensational email dump from just one of Walker's staffers [who was convicted on felony counts related to her blending of campaign and official government work] is a big pile of nothing, that all lawmakers do it and that Walker is still in solid shape to be a credible presidential candidate for the Republican Party, they ought to read today's story, including this passage:
Emails show Walker and his county government aides using private email accounts rather than government ones to communicate almost daily with campaign staff. His county staff often used a secret wireless router in the county executive's office, but Walker has repeatedly refused to say whether he used that hardware or even knew of its existence.
And in many cases, the county staff was more concerned about getting him elected governor than taking care of business for county taxpayers.
Only a complete cynic would now dismiss all this as routine, complaining Walker is getting a raw deal because he's just a face in a large, blurry crowd.
You can read the paper's entire account here.