Either Dana Milbank has decided that there’s more of a future outside the Media Village bubble than in, or else Scott ‘Busted for Koch-Sucking” Walker has rushed his narrow pink arse a little too far out in front of the conventional wisdom. Milbank saved his piece on “Scott Walker’s unprincipled rigidity” for the big Sunday edition of the Washington Post:
“He’s not one of us.”
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That phrase, uttered in the fourth minute of what Scott Walker believed to be a private phone conversation, tells you everything you need to know about the rookie governor of Wisconsin…
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In the recorded call, Walker praised a centrist state senator, Tim Cullen, as “about the only reasonable one” among the 14 Democratic legislators who fled the state to deny Walker the quorum he needs to destroy Wisconsin’s public-sector unions. But when the fake Koch offered to call Cullen, Walker discouraged him:
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“He’s pretty reasonable, but he’s not one of us. . . . He’s not there for political reasons. He’s just trying to get something done. . . . He’s not a conservative. He’s just a pragmatist.”
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“Just a pragmatist” – as if it were an epithet. “Just trying to get something done” – as if this were evidence of a character defect…
As is not uncommon, the article was posted online well in advance, and it’s already attracted 844 comments and counting. Of course, with the increasing sophistication of online astroturfing through multiple sockpuppets, it’s possible that’s only a handful of wetware units talking at or past each other. Not that it takes much sophistication to mount a sockpuppet, if the vulgar Wonkette suspicions about Sarah-Louise-Palin-promoting Facebook persona “Lou Sarah” are to be believed…
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cathyx
Walker doesn’t seem to understand the altruistic sense of public service.
different church-lady
From that astroturfing article:
Wait a minute: when did constructive debate start taking place on the interenet?
Superluminar
Sadly the #dickwhisperer couldn’t resist using the Village’s favourite phrase in the middle of an otherwise decent article.
Kristine
At the risk of sounding suck-uppy, this is about the only place where I read the comments. Every place else, blogs and newspapers, I either marvel at the inanity (First!) or despair over the meanness/stupidity.
joe from Lowell
Here’s a theory – the very astroturfing the right is so devoted to as a political tactic is the reason they are too far out in front of the public.
Scott Walker actually said in that phone call with “David Koch” that the public was with him, and fed up with the labor protesters. Now why would he think that?
ChrisB
You know who is “one of us?” Everyone on TV this morning.
Scott Walker, John McCain, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels and HUckabee on Fox, even Wolfowitz on Fareed Zakaria’s show.
ppcli
Oh, oh. When you’ve lost Milbank, you’ve lost the Village. How long before Fox News starts putting a (D) after Walker’s name?
@cathyx:
Good one. I take it you’re a fan of Breaker Morant?
(Lord Kitchener: Needless to say, the Germans couldn’t give a damn about the Boers. The diamonds and gold of South Africa they’re after.
Major Bolton: They lack our altruism, sir.
Lord Kitchener: [slightly suspicious/disbelieving look] Quite.)
piratedan
not one of us = privileged white male of a stalwart conservative ethos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wKEzHXVPE4
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@different church-lady: Back in the 1960s, when the scientists who created it were the only ones on. It’s gone downhill ever since.
cat48
McCain & Leiberman want to arm the Revolutionists in Libya. Also, a no fly zone……This all ought to work out well.
Anya
It looks like Mr. Cullen is as ill informed, about the great health care debate, as the general public. Did he forget about all the concessions the Dems made in committees to attract Republican votes? Was he not aware of all the wooing that the President did of Olympia Snow? Contrary to what Mr. Cullen believes the Democrats were willing to negotiate but they were dealing with a bunch of Scott Walkers.
Baud
@Kristine: I agree. The quality of the inanity here is much higher than on other blogs.
joe from Lowell
@Anya: Perhaps that’s why Barack Obama is the most popular national politician in America, and has a net positive approval rating among independents.
debbie
I’m really beginning to think the Republicans are in the process of destroying themselves.
Watching the protests just in Ohio show how many more of “The People” than Tea Partiers do not support what the Republicans are doing. This isn’t how we envisioned a laser-like focus on jobs.
I think the Republicans have awakened the kind of people they had hoped would sleep through the next election. I’m even thinking that 2012 may be the end of big money. I don’t care how many Koch-sponsored ads the Republicans run, the people who are pissed off today are going to know viscerally that they’re lying. It won’t be dollars that matter; it’ll be the truth.
Phyllis
The blonde chick from CBS evening news was interviewing one of the WI Dems last night & said “Public sentiment says you should come back and do the work you were elected to do.”
Really? What a total misread of the ‘public’ that’s been showing up at the WI statehouse every day. Dumb cluck. But it fits the narrative they have chosen to push.
cat48
@joe from Lowell:
Obama’s poll numbers are just stunning to me……Everyone Left leaning online appears to hate him, u/e is at 9% after a high of 10% for a year, no jobs, the press in general has turned on him b/c he didn’t put entitlements in the budget, etc, etc, etc. I looked at Gallup yesterday & he was at 50%. It just seems unreal! He has a true “silent majority” out there, (which I’m part of!)
piratedan
@debbie: I hope so Dennie, but I’m not sure how many pols have gotten busted underestimating the amount of stupid in the American public. Also, just because their nads are in the fire now, there’s still a good year and a half left for the Republicans to find a new “shiny” to distract the average voter and we’re talking about the average voter who just put these asshats back into power all across the nation. Sure young people stayed home, and minorities and the Democratic base et al…
Mark-NC
I could be wrong, but I think a big part of this is the “onward Christian soldiers” thing.
I have a Nephew who wrote recently about presents I sent for him and family for Christmas. He said, “Many thanks – you have always been so good to us. BUT, I can’t allow you to be part of our life because you are not Christian”. Lovely. Is that what Jesus stood for?
Last November I had a medical procedure done in Miami. Someone on the team mentioned politics, and I said I supported Obama’s position. The next question was, “Are you a Christian?”. I said no and they all agreed that’s why I not on the Republican side. Merit was not part of their thought process. Just Republican/Christian.
Long live the Theocracy!! Unless I can help stop it.
different church-lady
@Kristine: That. x1000. Serious newspapers ought to either just get rid of the comments or force people to use their real names.
I mean, even people you run through the pie-filter here on BJ usually have more to offer than your average newspaper commenter, most of who seem to think they’re David Spade but don’t have a tenth of the talent.
different church-lady
@Mark-NC: Why the fuck was someone on the team mentioning politics? During your medical procedure?
different church-lady
@cat48: wait, you’re saying people on the internet are loudmouths?
(Today’s bug is that I can’t edit comments, so sorry for the thread-hogging.)
Svensker
@Mark-NC:
Good grief. Twice.
I’m very sorry about the nephew. Perhaps you could send him a copy of Jesus’s teachings with some bits underlined – he seems to have forgotten stuff.
cat48
Baud
@cat48: I am too.
Mark-NC
The way I look at polls is this: It is impossible for a Republican to get below 25-30%. That is the base that would support mass murder if a Republican did it. It is much smaller on the Dem side – maybe 20%. That leaves about 50% that have an actual opinion.
On the subject of “do you like ***”, it is impossible for a Democrat to get above 60%. That’s because there will ALWAYS be at least 40% that will support the Republican position regardless of merit.
Is this scientific? NO – just my observation.
So, on the popularity of Obama, he has nearly every Dem and about 2/3 of the Independents. The problem is that if Republicans can manage to split the Independents, they win every time. Right now, the Independents can still remember a whole 2 years back and realize that Obama inherited an economic disaster, I have no bets for two years from now.
Josie
@Kristine: I was going to say the same thing. I only read comments here and sometimes at Booman’s site. I gave up on others long ago.
uila
In all fairness to “Lou Sarah”, I’m reasonably sure that the other Sarah Palin account is the true sockpuppet. Damn, Wonkette, why can’t a girl holler at her facebook ghost writer??
Mark-NC
I’m in healthcare and we were talking about “Obamacare”.
Poopyman
@Mark-NC: And he kept the presents. Amirite?
Phyllis
@Mark-NC: If it were anyone but your nephew, I’d be tempted to tell you to write back and say “Thanks so much, your God-bothering has been tiresome as all getout anyway and won’t be missed.”
And no, that’s sort of the opposite of what the Gospel is all about.
Poopyman
@debbie: I’ve assumed for a long time that the effect of money in politics is going to diminish over time, post–Citizens United. The question then is “What’s the next step for the Right?” I’m guessing that it’s an increased control on the flow of information. Sunday morning talk shows have always been right–leaning. Look for the Rethugs to double down on “net neutrality”.
Baud
@Mark-NC: You’re nonscientific observation sounds about right to me. I would throw in about 5-10% for misc. such as the Paulistas, Naderites, who will also reflexively oppose Democrats.
But, boy, you wouldn’t know that from either the mainstream media or the blogs.
Baud
@Poopyman:
This was just up on ThinkProgress:
jaleh
OK! you sent me over to the comment section of the article, they are all rightwingers, so I posted this and I won’t go back to see what they say.
“Only five states do not allow collective bargaining for educators. Those states and their ranking on ACT/SAT scores: South Carolina, 50th; North Carolina, 49th; Georgia, 48th; Texas, 47th; Virginia, 44th. Wisconsin, with its collective bargaining for teachers, is 2nd.”
JCT
@jaleh:
Hmmm, let me take a crack at the responses:
Who needs edumacation anyway?
Look at Obama, he went to all those fancy schools and he was just a COMMUNITY ORGANIZER until the leftists used ACORN to steal the election for him. And after all that learning he still uses a TELEPROMPTER.
Mark-NC
And, they will keep them next year as well.
gnomedad
@jaleh:
Pretty telling. Do you have a reference for that?
ppcli
@Mark-NC:
You keep sending gifts even when they say they want to cut you out of their lives? How unchristian of you.
John PM
One of us, one of us…
Not creepy at all.
Joel
Politifact rates that as “false” although I don’t think they have it exactly right either. This is an ambiguous playing with facts, because midwestern states like Wisconsin don’t really participate in the SAT. That said, Politifact goes on to say that once you adjust for poverty level, etc. etc the scores normalize. I think that’s a bridge too far on their part. The best thing I would say about this is that there’s a strong correlation between collective bargaining for teachers and test quality, but that it’s confounded by other factors: income disparity, languages spoken, etc.
ExcuseMeExcuseMe
@Mark-NC:
You are brave, Mark. I would caution anyone nowadays from letting politics or religion enter any conversation with a medical professional; keep in mind one is placing ones life in those hands.
We’ve had discussions with more than one doctor about medical options – treatments and surgeries – that ended with the suggestion that we pray over the options and then choose what course to take. They leave the room for us to pray, and we look at each other to decide if we should run out of the office screaming.
Don’t even get me started on the little “altars”, complete with religious figurines and candles, set up in Dpctors’ offices. And the fact that every office that has a TV in the waiting room has it tuned to FOX.
I’ve learned to keep my politics, religion, and sexuality to myself when dealing with sensitive situations.
Cat Lady
Dana Milbank will most likely follow this column with a wankerific column next week tongue bathing Chris Christie’s Joisey tough guy act or Mitch Daniel’s mad budget skillz. Anyone who fell so hard for McCain will never be one of us.
joe from Lowell
@ExcuseMeExcuseMe: When the hell do you live?
Tell your husband to choose a Southeast Asian doctor.
No Christian altars, and even better…small fingers.
joe from Lowell
For some reason, I just assumed ExcuseMeExcuseMe was a woman.
Sorry about that.
JCT
@ExcuseMeExcuseMe: I’m a health professional and I have learned over the years to never, ever discuss politics with my colleagues. Especially the surgeons as I work very closely with them and I have to have full faith in their skills and medical decision-making.
Perhaps unfair, but if I uncovered a latent tea partier during a discussion it might cloud my referral process.
I think that I am lucky that I am in the Northeast at present and almost never run into the religion issue, as a non-Christian, the South might be a tough environment on that front.
ItinerantPedant
@Mark-NC:
Try using this, or forwarding it to your nephew:
http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/003530.html
Suck It Up!
If someone doesn’t make an ad out of that……..
Shadow's Mom
My, David Gregory actually pushed Walker on why collective bargaining must go if the issue is the budget. He also brought up why police and fire workers are excluded, and Trumpka’s on the panel.
Alison
@Mark-NC: You mean the Thomas Kinkade paintings coated with itching powder you’d surely be sending them if you were an asshole like me?
debbie
@ piratedan:
I think it’s different this time. I’d bet more than a few of the current protesters were also at the Tea Party gatherings last year. It’s one thing to support a movement that casts nonspecific and nebulous entities as nefarious and threatening, but when it turns out that this very same movement now has you in its sights, you change your allegiance very quickly. And when you’ve been betrayed as some of these guys have been, you never forget.
Ash Can
@ExcuseMeExcuseMe: I’d run out screaming, all right. Rightly or wrongly, it would make me seriously question that doctor’s skills — specifically, at what point might a doctor like that decide to blow off science and rely on miraculous intervention to resolve some medical issue? And I say this as a believer myself.
Here’s hoping you manage to find a decent and competent physician with whom you’re comfortable. It doesn’t sound like you’ve had much luck so far.
jaleh
@Joel:
I tried to find something on this but could not. However, wasn’t politifact the one Rachel just proved wrong on another issue?
There may be no correlation between collective bargaining and ACT/AST scores but Wisconsin is ranked #2, so why break it when it’s working?
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/states/USCHARTsat.html
Mark-NC
Since this seems to be of concern to readers here, please understand that I cut my Nephew LOTS of slack here.
For perspective, his Father-in-law is a preacher. And this “preacher” had to decided if my brother was “Christian enough” that his son could join the family by marrying his daughter.
My brother was a missionary overseas for 10 years and, was teaching at a Bible College at the time.
ppcli
@Mark-NC: Yeah, sorry about that. You’re being very noble (no snark) to keep reaching out; You love your family, and we’re kind of being jackasses about them.
I know the routine myself – I was close to marrying the daughter of a preacher at an independent “New Testament Christian” church, and I was lectured many times by prospective in-laws about the biblical passages forbidding the faithful to be “unequally yoked”.
ExcuseMeExcuseMe
@joe from Lowell:
We live in Northeast Florida; sometimes referred to as South Georgia.
As for the husband thing…I could be married, but we’re not, so you weren’t that far off, joe. Though even if we were I doubt I’d refer to him as my husband. (I’m not comfortable with any of the “partner-type” descriptors. Still, after 18 years I have to come up with something a little more endearing then “him”.)
We have managed to find a doctor or two that “doesn’t have a problem” with us, as they like to say. We are duly grateful when they tell us that.
Since moving here, sometimes it feels like an involuntary trip back into the closet. But it’s not all about sexuality; we’re also the token liberals, the token Democrats, and the token big-city folk and whatever that implies.
To be fair, we have managed to convert some people. To being Democrats, that is.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
The Sarah Palin sock puppet. Lord, have mercy. What a clown.
piratedan
@Mark-NC: sounds like you need to give these folks an eye-opening dose of Bill Hicks and Sam Kinnison, the former the son of a preacher and the latter a former provider of faith based inspiration.
I really want to temper some of the anti-Christian rants because there are a boatload of religious constituencies out there that don’t believe that these hard care theologians speak for them. I can remember there used to be a large sanctuary movement here in Arizona that used to provide for illegal immigrants that were fleeing the tinpot dictatorships that dotted Latin America (before the GOP got the government after them). I know that there are others that do volunteer work for those that are poor and unfortunate. They tend to not be very self promoting, instead going about their tasks humbly and quietly.
These folks that wear their religious affiliation are our own radicals who are just one step removed from blowing up abortion clinics and stoning women for the natural use of their bodies and the very reason that we need to have a separation of church and state.
Another Commenter at Balloon Juice (fka Bella Q)
@Baud: Balloon Juice: Best quality inanity on the interwebz. How about that for a rotating tag (beginning at italics)?
Another Commenter at Balloon Juice (fka Bella Q)
@ExcuseMeExcuseMe: I’ll somment more fully when I can retrieve my jaw from my lap. Religious figurines on office altars? Holy rollerskating fuck.
Joel
@jaleh: Well, FWIW, Wisconsin is #13 on ACT scores, which is the test that “everyone takes”. SAT scores are taken by those looking to go into schools that will only accept them (i.e. elite students). That’s why all the top SAT-scoring states are midwestern. Of states with broad participation, New Hampshire and Massachusetts are #1 and 2.
Platonicspoof
That Lou Sarah post has had over 130,000 views.
I haven’t been over there much in the past year, but that’s ten times higher than what I can remember ever seeing for one of their posts.
Just me?