I'm not saying that the Karma Truck has finally made a delivery to Wisconsins Republican Governor, but after a 2 week, non-stop, national news worthy, nearly 28,000 document dump featuring bigotry, use of his county staff for his campaign, and evidence of Walkers own reliance on the secret, private email system, things haven't gotten any better.
Now countering the Republican Governors Association $1.2 million dollar buy to air a lying attack ad against his opponent, Mary Burke, Walker is waking up to her first ad buy featuring Walkers own record:
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The RGAs anti-Burke attack features the use of "facts" taken at the height of the 2008 financial crash that devastated the economy everywhere. The fact that Wisconsin didn't take that big of a hit as other parts of the country wasn't even considered.
Burkes ad looks at where Wisconsin is now, the continual layoffs, and Wisconsins #45 rating in terms of job prospects. It doesn't feature Walkers only campaign promise, which he repeated throughout the state in every speech and every ad: the creation of 250,000 new jobs in his first term.
He's close to 200,000 jobs short. There are months to go and I'd bet my next pension check that his unkept promise (not even considering jobs measures, but instead focusing on union busting, anti-women legislation, corporate tax breaks and subsidies, shedding environmental laws, and slashing education and what remains of a tattered social safety net) will be in future ads.
NATIONAL FOCUS ON WALKERS CONTEMPT OF THE POOR
A revealing article in Salon
Among the racist jokes and emails found in recently released documents connected to the criminal probe of Gov. Scott Walker’s 2010 campaign, one stood out: A “joke” about a woman trying to sign up her dogs for welfare, because “my Dogs are mixed in color, unemployed, lazy, can’t speak English and have no frigging clue who the r Daddys are. They expect me to feed them, provide them with housing and medical care, and feel guilty.” The punch line: “My Dogs get their first checks Friday.”
Walker’s deputy chief of staff Kelly Rindfleisch replied: “That is hilarious. And so true.”
The joke is bad enough on its own, but it’s also worth noting: Back when Walker was Milwaukee county executive, and Rindfleisch was a top aide, he managed the county’s welfare programs so abysmally that after lawsuits by local clients, the state was forced to take them over. “They didn’t just call people dogs, they treated them like dogs,” one Milwaukee elected official recalled angrily.
“Milwaukee County has demonstrated a sustained inability to successfully provide services to its (poor) customers,” state health services director Karen Timberlake wrote in a February 2009 letter to Walker announcing the state takeover. Milwaukee became only one of 72 Wisconsin counties to wind up with its programs for poor people under state control.
Yes, the state had to take direct control of Milwaukee Countys Department of Social Services. Walker, already a big fan of not filling vacant positions in order to save money, filled only 7 of 25 call center positions, leaving most calls unanswered. The rejection rate for applications for assistance was also very high with a majority of those denied help getting that help only after filing an appeal. This meant people waited for months for assistance they qualified for when the law required no longer than 7 days.
This led to a nice summary being presented on MSNBCs All In by host Chris Hayes:
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COUNTY SUPERVISOR CALLING FOR RELEASE OF ALL JOHN DOE DOCUMENTS
It's been hard enough for Walker and his staff to be recognized misusing taxpayer facilities and time for his Gubernatorial campaign rather than County business, have their racism and utter contempt for poor people so blatantly revealed, and to have Walkers own involvement in the secret, private email system so publicly known, but those were only in documents from Kelly Rindfleisch, his former Deputy Chief of Staff.
Walkers portrayal of this as "old news", "case closed", and reassurance of his own innocence because he was never charged (perhaps he should change the name of his book from Unintimidated to Unindicted) are falling on deaf ears because this is new information to Wisconsinites. None of this was reported on during his campaign (poodle, lapdog media here have nice things to say about Scotty while under-reporting bad news or relegating it to online blogs). His attempt to evade the media also failed. Even his pals at Fox News put the squeeze on him for information.
And now a Milwaukee County Supervisor wants ALL OF IT made public.
Milwaukee County would collect and make public tens of thousands of pages of documents obtained for a John Doe investigation into Gov. Scott Walker's county administration, under a proposal by Supervisor John Weishan Jr.
His resolution would order County Executive Chris Abele to "obtain physical custody of any public records...related to governmental business activity of Milwaukee." It is aimed at email records made by Walker's staff on county business during his last year as county executive in 2010, Weishan said Wednesday.
That would include messages on a wide range of county issues exchanged through a private email system set up in Walker's county executive office suite and used by several top Walker aides.
Weishan's resolution was sent by County Board Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic to the county corporation counsel's office for review, said board spokesman Bill Zaferos. Weishan said he wants it scheduled for a hearing by a board committee next month.
What could possibly be in the rest of the documents? I'd just love to know. Wouldn't you?
Stay tuned.
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IN FURTHER NEWS:
State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald is ramming through a billthat will allow lobbyists to hand out campaign checks during a legislative session. That's right, legislators will now get prompt payment for votes and not have to wait until sessions are over to collect.
As the legislative session winds down, the state Senate's leader is putting on the fast track a bill to rewrite campaign finance law to allow lobbyists to hand off clients' campaign checks to lawmakers and other elected officials during the legislative session.
If that's not enough, he includes a measure that will help groups running third party ads (like Wisconsin Club for Growth) to avoid disclosing their spending. Sounds like a sweet deal for the Koch Brothers.
The move to change campaign finance rules comes with less than a month left in the legislative session and as lawmakers prepare to mount their re-election campaigns.
"We need these changes like we need two more months of winter," said Mike McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
His group lobbies for more public disclosure of political spending and public funding of campaigns.
Fitzgerald said the bills resolved gray areas in the law and brushed off McCabe's claims that allowing lobbyists to handle campaign contributions would too closely link political fundraising and policymaking.
Just in time for campaign season, too, as if their fierce Republican gerrymander of the districts won't enable them to win elections easily.
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FOR SOME ADDED SCOTTENFREUDEN:
H/T Caddis Fly for this link to a Right Wisconsin article. Right Wisconsin, part of Journal Communications, is run by RW radio shill Charlie Sykes, fierce cheerleader and mouthpiece for Scott Walker.
Apparently Daily Kos is also giving Walker some butt hurt as noted by a mention in the article.
Hahahahahaha!
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EXTRA ADDED BONUS:
I'll be hosting Top Comments tonight. Join the fun around 10 PM Eastern.
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4:11 PM PT: Sorry I was away for about an hour. I was preparing Top Comments for tonight.