People seem to be focusing on the “I’ll fly out to Cali” part of the Koch-Walker prank call and ignoring this piece of brilliance from Walker:
It was kind of the last hurrah before we dropped the bomb and I stood up and I pulled out a picture of Ronald Reagan and I said “You know, this may seem a bit melodramatic but 30 years ago, Ronald Reagan… had one of the most defining moments of his political career, not just his Presidency, when he fired the Air Traffic Controllers.” And I said “To me, that moment was more important, not just for labor relations or the federal budget, that was the first crack in the Berlin Wall and the fall of Communism because from that point forward the Soviets and the Communists knew that Ronald Reagan wasn’t a pushover.
How frightening is it that people in Wisconsin elected this man governor?
tweez
Hell, I voted for Blagojevich a few years back. We here in Illinois at least got nothing to crow about
Scott
As I read on No More Mister Nice Blog, regarding the same passage — Walker is a True Believer. Dumb as a brick, sure, and so ethically decayed that he doesn’t even realize how rotten a person he is… but he’s not a grifter, scamming people for fast cash. He really does think he can kill off the unions, and the ghost of Ronaldus Maximus will rise and crown him King of the Teabags.
Mark S.
Jesus, Scott, show us where on the doll George Meany touched you.
Legalize
But this is just how the good governor always talks – in private and in public. So, any attempt to make anything of this is just another moonbat lie. Seriously, the commenters at Riehl World View told me.
Sly
Pshaw. An impromtu “pulling out” a picture of Ronald Reagan is never melodramatic, especially when you use it to frame your actions as part of an eternal struggle against the forces of darkness.
Interesting question, though I have a better one: How frightening is it that people in Wisconsin chose Scott Walker over this guy?
freelancer
Following up on Kay’s post distilling the question that needs to be asked of Walker and his cohorts, I think this one would also have Notable value:
“When you were prank called by a man you thought to be David Koch, you said, and I have the audio here on my phone if you need a refresher, ‘Well the biggest thing would be—and your guy on the ground is probably seeing this…’
Who’s Koch guy on da ground? How’d he get dere? If he’s here, you can’t explain dat? How’d he get dere? Koch’s gotta guy, and he’s here on da ground. No miscommunication. How’d he get dere? Your phone rings, and already Koch’s got a guy on da ground, you can’t explain dat. Who’s da guy? How’d he get dere?”
Maude
It’s just as scary that people in NJ elected Christie.
He had to have cheated on the bar exam.
Calouste
Yes, the Firing of the Air Traffic Controllers was so much more of a harder stance in the Cold War than the US reactions in the Cuban Missile Crisis or the Berlin Airlift /sarcasm.
The Great Book of Republican Myths is going to end up having less of a relation to actual events in history than the Lord of the Rings.
Ash Can
Guess the poor folks in Wisconsin got themselves a hard-knocks crash course in the meaning of the term “Manchurian Candidate.”
Poopyman
@Mark S.: I think it was the awesome eyebrows of John L. Lewis, actually.
Davis X. Machina
Any political party predicated on appealing to the worst in people begins every campaign half a lap ahead. Don’t bet against the fundamental depravity of mankind — it doesn’t always win, but it always covers the spread.
bemused
I still can’t wrap my mind around a state governor casually talking about sending agitators to the protest and the only reason not to was political. No concern about possible harm that could come to the protesters which include senior citizens, children and babies in strollers. Goon tactics are fine with him. A WI senator said she was ashamed and that he must not have listened to his father, a minister.
OT: I heard an ad on sat radio that Debbie Schussel person is going to be on a radio show, some guy named Brett, giving her side on her nasty Lara Logan blog. I think it was pre-taped. No shame.
Bob L
“when he fired the Air Traffic Controllers,…because from that point forward the Soviets and the Communists knew that Ronald Reagan wasn’t a pushover.”
So the Commies who now know Amerika’ won’t pushed around Mr Walker thanks to your brave stand against public employees are,…?
I think comparing the Republican view of American history to the Lord of the Rings doesn’t take it far enough. I think the Right has moved onto the LARP phase and acting out their fantasy role plays in public. “I am a 5th level social conservative with a +3 pen of Shared Sacrifice“
mk3872
Doug – You mean you did NOT realize that the fall of communism in Berlin was because Reagan fired the striking air traffic controllers in the U.S.?
Geez, you must get your history books from PUBLIC schools, dummy!
RosiesDad
I think it speaks volumes about the 52% of the voting Wisconsin electorate who pulled the lever for him. That said, they elected him and they get to live with him.
As I said in an earlier comment, ignorance (or stupidity) is not a valid legal defense.
Martin
Clearly all of these middle east uprisings can be credited to Walker standing up defiantly against 2nd grade teachers.
Amanda in the South Bay
In one of those perverse ironies of history (at least according to Wikipedia) is that the ATC union at the time endorsed Reagan in 1980. Talk about bad moves.
Jesse Ewiak
@Maude: Eh, Christie’s a horrible human being, but he seems to have a base level of human intelligence. Walker seems to be just a puppet.
kdaug
Shades of Greg Stillson, anyone?
RosiesDad
@Davis X. Machina: You have to figure that at some point the people are going to wake up and realize they’ve been duped. But the people are not that bright, are not that thoughtful and do not generally spend much time contemplating the consequences of their electoral choices. So I’m not holding my breath. And I’m not that optimistic about the world my children will inhabit. (Although I am doing what I can to teach them how to make informed decisions.)
Maude
@Jesse Ewiak:
Christie is truly dumb. He is ignorant and incompetent. Look at the amount of money he has lost for NJ.
piratedan
@kdaug:
yeah I think he wouldn’t have any problem going there if it would allow him to continue to FAP his own lil ego in the name of all he finds significant. Anyone else getting tited of these not so petty tyrants playing king of the sandbox? “Can’t you stand for being the center of attention” – Nick Lowe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5qNk7H9gF8
PIGL
We are asked:
I would say the thing to be frightened about is this. The recent historical record shows that men like him can be elected as governor of any American State or Premier of any Canadian Province. We have seen how one be elected President of the United States of America, and how they can hold majorities (effective or real) in both of your houses of Congress.
The thing to be afraid of is Universal Suffrage. The Enlightenment got it wrong.
kindness
Don’t blame me, I voted for Jerry Brown and got him. Thank the FSM.
dollared
@freelancer: Excellent, Excellent point. who is Walker’s Handler? But neither the Journal Sentinel nor the Capitol Journal are going to ask hard questions of their Galtian Hero.
And BTW, newspaper reporters in Wisconsin do not speak Job Site Creole or Machine Shopspeak. They speak Badger College Smart Boy, which is more closely related to Educated Fargotian than it is to South Milwaukee Corner Bar.
Gus
@PIGL: I don’t know about that. The founders were scared shitless of the mob. That’s why originally only property holders were allowed the vote.
gnomedad
“Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little
countryunion and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business.”Jennifer
Thanks for this. I made the same observation both at my blog and in comments elsewhere. The whole “dropped the bomb” thing is an admission on Walker’s part that the union-busting was part of a stealth agenda, never revealed during the campaign. I mean, when you do something you’ve been telling people you’re going to do, it’s not “dropping a bomb.” So much for all the rightwinger and Walker claims that he’s “just doing what the majority ELECTED him to do.” And here he is, admitting that no, no he’s not.
Jennifer
BTW, “Whipping out the Reagan” should become a new euphemism for some kind of perverse sexual act. Suggestions?
kdaug
@gnomedad: “Suck. On. This.”
Comrade Luke
@Maude:
The New York Times is doing a major fluff piece on him this weekend. Link.
I fear this guy much more than a Palin-type. He’s from the NY/NJ area, the financial guys love him and the media’s giving him the royal treatment. I’d be shocked if he didn’t run in either ’12 or ’16, more likely ’12.
Svensker
@Davis X. Machina:
It had a lot to do with the absolute cynicism of Jon Corzine. I mean, the guy was Mr. Goldman Sachs. A lot of Dems I know didn’t bother turning out to vote at all.
PIGL
@Gus: That restriction would not work, because Property Owners in the 18th century sense have at least as a high a frequency of anti-social traits as the general population.
We need better filters to keep psychopaths and lunatics out of government. Free and open elections are supposed to do that, but they can’t…as long as anyone can vote, the elections will be corrupted, as we are seeing.
It’s not a question of being smart or stupid, well-eductated or ignorant, wealthy or poor, woman or man. The only question that matters is do you suffer from one of several personality disorders? (authoritarian follower, asshole, the list is short).
How to filter them so that they do not form 30-55% of the electorate at any one time?
Step 1: mandatory voting by franchisees
Step 2: I’ll just say that after laughing at the idea for 35years, I now think RAH was onto something.
El Cid
Looks like some people in Montana are realizing the absolute freak hazards they elected as TeaTard politicians.
From the AP:
What does he mean, “look like”?
Bill in Chicago
The folks in Wisconsin need to work the stupid to their advantage. Someone ought to call this guy on the phone, identify themselves as “Jesus”, and tell him it’s time to resign.
Delia
@PIGL:
Enlightenment types as a whole took a very dim view of universal suffrage. Even universal male suffrage. Virtually all of them, except maybe Rousseau, wanted property requirements for voting, if they even believed in voting. The original version of the US Constitution has a property requirement. That’s not the direction we need to go in this climate. You can predict the requirement would be jacked up so high only our Galtian overlords could qualify.
PIGL
@Delia: @Delia: yes, I guess you are right, which was central to my point.
But seriously, and more accurately, I was alluding to critiques of universalist notions of justice and freedom and open communicative praxis and stuff like that. I think none of those things are possible in any of our present political systems. These systems are now all based on formal universal suffrage, which some philophers I read a long time ago presented as the result of a slow generalisation of Enlightenment ideas. But see my comment 33, above.
kdaug
@Bill in Chicago: Been done.
Another Commenter at Balloon Juice (fka Bella Q)
At least the nice folks in WI can recall their pig eyed idiot next January. Here in Ohio we have Gov. Napoleon Heartland, elected with a whopping 49% of the vote to Strickland’s 47%, by a landslide of 97,102 votes. And we have no recall. A tyrant about which we can do nothing beyond protest.
Rick
When I was a paperboy, he was a paperboy right near me,but at the time I was a Milwaukee Sentinel guy and he was a Milwaukee Journal guy (both owned by the same company, now the same as the Milwaukee JournalSentinel; and I ‘agreed’ with the Journal)…
He got kicked out of college, and never returned, as I was in a different college (Marquette got rid of him).
He’s ALWAYS been around, he’s ALWAYS been a dork, he’s ALWAYS been wrong. and fantastically so.
I supported Tom Barrett.