Pale blue shirt here. I'm back.
Hello, there. I'm Scott Walkers pale blue campaigning shirt. You've
met me before. I'm the shirt that's usually accompanied by a dark red tie that Scott Walker uses whenever he's out trying to convince the peons that he's just a regular guy. Just like them.
My long sleeves are rolled up exactly 3 times to ensure that the message that he's a hardworking guy doesn't get missed by his audience. Suit coats and jackets are forbidden because they don't convey the "I'm ready to work" image Walker is projecting. He can't have the peasants knowing or even thinking that he's a lifelong career politician.
We've been hard at work for months. I felt bad at being left at home when Walker went to all those foreign countries. He wanted the "important politician suit and tie look" for those visits. Or, perhaps they don't get fooled by the "just a regular guy look" that works so well here in the US.
I've been travelling through the country visiting the peons in early Republican primary states. I'm really bored with Iowa. Not much to see there, but plenty of people that need to be hustled into supporting and voting for Walker, so we're there a lot.
Washington DC Visit
Today, we were in Washington DC. I was actually worn with a suit and a different dark red tie while he rubbed elbows with fellow Republicans, lobbyists, evangelical leaders, and campaign donors at the National Republican Club of Capitol Hill. You can see my picture associated with the linked article (don't I look nice?).
Speaking briefly to a reporter, Walker said the discussion with House members was wide-ranging. He said he talked about what life might be like with a GOP president to go with a GOP Congress.
"Instead of them playing defense, we could do positive things going forward," said Walker.
The governor said meeting with Republican lawmakers from around the country was helpful to him because of the role so many states — not just the early states — will play in the allocation of delegates.
"A lot of states later on in the primary process have proportionate allocation (of delegates) so if we get in, it would be nice to have that kind of support," he said.
No, he hasn't officially announced he's climbing in the Clown Car with the other Republican wanna-bes, but nobody doubts he will just as soon as his big bag of campaign loot is filled up. After his official announcement, you see, campaign finance rules kick in. He doesn't like rules.
The event was not a fundraiser, but attendees were handed a summary of the perks associated with various levels of giving; the top category, for $1 million givers, comes with twice-a-year retreats, private briefings, weekly email updates, members-only conference calls, a dedicated staff contact person and two private dinners with VIP special guests.
Oh, yeah, Walker is well known to richly reward his campaign "investors". Just look at what he does for them with WEDC (see below).
John Doe Probe/Campaign Finance
He ignores those rules in Wisconsin - that's what the John Doe 2 Probe is all about - but he's about to get away with it anyway as soon as his pals on the Wisconsin State Supreme Court rule on the 2 John Doe cases referred to them.
The US Supremes already said they weren't going to touch the Federal Case that those dark money groups filed.
Those dark money groups filed lawsuits all over the place to kill the investigation into all that campaign money, Walkers solicitation of funds for dark money group Wisconsin Club for Growth (including a $700,000 donation made by a Canadian mining corporation that was later allowed to write legislation that would enable them to mine in Wisconsin without environmental considerations), and coordination between campaigns and dark money groups. Looks like they and Walkers campaign were caught red-handed so killing the case sweeps it all under the rug. Nothing to see here.
Well, 2 of those cases now sit in front of the Wisconsin State Supreme Court. Despite the fact that 4 of the 7 Justices received huge money and campaign assistance from those same dark money groups that are now pushing to kill the John Doe, NONE of those Justices are recuing themselves from hearing the case.
Conflict of interest? You betcha! Recusal? Not gonna happen. In fact, they are so blatant, that they've even decided they won't be hearing the case at all. Nope. No hearings, no questions, no arguments. They're going to decide on the case all by themselves without a hearing.
To accomplish something like that, they need a Chief Justice that's on the right, that is right wing, side. And now they have that thanks to a heavily propagandized Wisconsin Constitutional amendment that changed the way the Chief Justice is determined from the longest serving to a vote among the Justices. Yes, when you have the majority, an elected Chief is just what you want.
By email (and not in person), the 4 RW Justices decided to appoint one of "their own" to be Chief Justice. So things are going to go their way all the time now.
They no longer care about how things look or bother to pretend any semblance of justice or fairness. It will be all RW all the time now.
I expect the John Doe 2 Probe to be murdered by them any day now. After all, Scott Walker doesn't want his campaign finance shenanigans exposed or interfering with his Road to the White House (did I mention he doesn't like rules that he is supposed to follow?). He wants to be President and he'll have the money to buy his way there.
WEDC
As Walkers pale blue shirt, I'm the first to notice when he sweats and he's been doing a lot of that lately. His own semi-private agency, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, is once again in the news for yet another scandalous business giveaway.
This one, as have the others, involves another Walker donor and his business receiving a "loan" from this agency that Walker established to replace the Wisconsin Department of Commerce. Naturally, Walker appointed himself to head it, but every time some scandal breaks out, like loans not being tracked or subsidies given for "job creation" that either don't result in new jobs, result in outsourcing of jobs, or are just ignored after the money gets sent, Walker claims to have absolutely no knowledge of what happened.
The latest scandal, coming after another scathing audit exposing the continuing corruption of WEDC, involves giving $500,000 to a construction business owned by a campaign donor, that was going down the tubes. Today, Walkers lawyer claims Walker knew nothing despite the fact that Walker was copied on the communications.
This whole episode smells so bad that 2 Democrats have asked for a federal investigation.
Walker Being Sued Over Changes to UW Mission
One of the first things uncovered in Walkers 2 year state budget (1800 pages long) was an attempt to change the mission of the state university system. Yes, Walker uses his budget, particularly the length of it, to hide non-budgetary items he wants to install.
He didn't like the mission being about "the search for the truth" or the other goals of the university, so he just placed changes to them in the budget. When caught, Walker claimed he "didn't know" (yes, the Sgt. Schultz routine looks old to me, too), then claimed it was a drafting error. When that didn't work, he tried to blame an intern. Yes, there's a whole Bag of Excuses ready for deployment.
Today the Center for Media and Democracy is suing Scott Walker over those changes and excuses.
This is really making him sweat because they're after the truth:
"Walker's response to CMD's disclosure of his attack on the Wisconsin Idea included a rare series of stumbles and retractions.The governor stumbles again with this denial of our lawful open records request," said Lisa Graves, the group's executive director. "The denial is nothing short of an effort to circumvent Wisconsin's proud tradition of open government."
Maybe his Big Bag of Excuses wasn't at hand when he was asked about it.
Stay tuned, folks. Pale Blue Shirt has more confessions in the future....
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