WALKER RESPONDS
Speaking to reporters in Madison Wednesday morning before the release of the emails, Walker said he was confident that there wouldn't be anything damaging in them beyond what had already led to criminal charges. He downplayed his relationship with his former deputy chief of staff and said he would stay focused on cutting taxes and creating jobs.
"This is going to be communications from a county employee from several years ago that went through a legal process that concluded early last year. I'm confident that through that process they were able to review each of those communications — the authorities were — and they concluded that process last March," Walker said.
The governor said he hadn't seen the files being released and hadn't looked at any of the emails contained in them "for years." He made a distinction between a taxpayer-funded public employee doing work on a campaign and another public employee getting emails from a campaign.
"Unlike the caucus issue where the problem was official staff being directed to (do) campaign activity...There's nothing wrong with the other way around, as long as you're not using taxpayer resources to do campaign-related activity. Outside of this example, we talk to people all the time, stakeholders from around the state," Walker said, referring to the caucus scandal that rocked the Capitol a decade ago.
Walker blasted Democrats for hyping the release of the emails and for holding a conference call on them with Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
"It shows the cynicism we see in politics today," Walker said. "These are people who are naysayers who want something bad to happen in Wisconsin."
Uh huh... He barely knew these people, it's "old news", he's not involved, it's "not as bad" as the caucus scandal (that removed several State Legislators from office), and, of course, "it's just politics" and the Democrats are terrible people to even bring this up and wanting bad things to happen to Wisconsin.
Dude, have you been coaching Chris Christie?
And, in terms of wanting bad things to happen to Wisconsin, allow me to break the news that YOU and your band of Not So Merry Men are the folks who are bringing bad things to Wisconsin.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I'm sifting through a whole pile of information and will be adding to this diary. I wanted to post something now, but stay tuned for more.
Here's a link to a Washington Post article prior to the document release that provides a nice summary of the investigation and notes that Walker was copied on several of the emails released.
If Walker can be proven to have known about the secret router and use of private email accounts to circumvent public disclosure laws, it would not only be damaging to him politically, but involve him in the misconduct that occurred.
IMPORTANT LINKS:
Twitter feed for updates on #walkerdocs is here.
The Progressives live blog on the document dump is here.
Important information is coming out in real time on both sites as over 28,000 pages of documents are being reviewed.
This post on one of my favorite Wisconsin Blogs, Uppity Wisconsin, is uploading links to massive pdf files containing the documents. They are also posting on Twitter using the #walkerdocs hastag as developments occur.
An article on what to watch for in the Capitol Times.
MORE Updates:
Think Progress has posted an article indicating that the emails suggest Walker knew or was involved in the campaign/office coordination.
Newly released emails and records from a former deputy Chief of Staff to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) suggest that the governor may have been involved in — or at least aware of — illegal coordination between his 2010 gubernatorial campaign and his Milwaukee County Executive office. The release comes as a second probe continues, examining Wisconsin’s 2012 recall elections.
If, as the chief investigator believed, Walker knew about the secret wireless network, it could mean trouble for Walker, who has previously denied any knowledge of his aides’ wrongdoing. Walker will face Wisconsin voters again this November, as he seeks a second term as governor, and has been held up as a possible 2016 presidential candidate.
And, of course, their bottom line (mine, too):
This all comes at a rough time for prominent Republican governors who were once considered rising stars and possible White House contenders. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s administration is currently under investigation for the Bridgegate scandal and former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife were indicted on 14 felony counts last month relating to their gifts scandal.
EVEN MORE UPDATES:
Ruth Coniff chimes in at The Progressive with another great article. She believes Snotty is in hot water starting today. The article is well worth a read, but let me give you a teaser:
The underlying theme of dark money which has poured into Wisconsin at an unprecedented rate during the Walker era -- and the shadowy players who back Walker's anti-union, anti-regulatory, anti-tax, and anti-public-education agenda -- is the backdrop to the current John Doe.
Despite aggressive efforts to stop the John Doe, including a federal lawsuit filed on February 10 by Wisconsin Club For Growth against the prosecutors and the John Doe judge, no one in the state Republican Party or allied rightwing groups seems to have been able to stop the Rindfleisch emails from coming out.
THIS STORY IS GOING NATIONAL
The Progressive just announced that Ruth Coniff will be on Chris Hayes All In on MSNBC tonight.
There's also a nice article by Steve Benen on Rachel Maddows show blog so I'd expect her to have a segment, too.
On top of that, I expect that Ed Schultz will have a segment, as well, considering how much he has been involved and interested in Wisconsin news.
And now there's a nice article on Slate asking if this is Walkers Bridgegate. Let's hope so. Our media has been pro-Walker for far too long. A national outing is in order.
And another in Talking Points Memo where another racist email was exposed:
• Walker aide Nardelli forwarded a bizarre and racist email that read, "Say it isn't so!!! I can handle being a black, disabled, one armed, drug-addicted, Jewish homosexual on a pacemaker who is HIV positive, bald, orphaned, unemployed, lives in a slum, and has a Mexican boyfriend, but please, Oh dear God, please don't tell me I'm a Democrat."
Just yuck.
.
3:39 PM PT: The Progressive liveblog is done for today, but they promise more to come.
4:14 PM PT: Having been at this for hours now, I'm in need of a break and some dinner.
Bottom line seems to indicate that Walker knew about the router and email accounts being used to circumvent the law.
The other stunning revelations include the amount of frank racism in several of the emails.
I'll be back later tonight and likely posting again on the same topic tomorrow as 2800 PAGES of documents were dumped.
.
4:16 PM PT: The other news is Walkers attempt to crowd other things into the news to move attention from the emails. He's pondering firing someone who was a thong model years ago and Republicans are rolling out a tax cut plan.
They're hoping that THESE are the stories people see and if the media is, as they have been, pandering Walker poodles, these are the stories we'll be seeing tonight instead of the bad news in the emails.
.
Comments are closed on this story.