Ponder Scott Walker as he explains his “divide and conquer” gaffe.* It is, he claims, unpossible that he was telling the truth to his donor about pursuing a union-busting “right to work” policy for Wisconsin. That would have meant he had been lying to private sector unions — and that couldn’t be. But wouldn’t that imply he’d been lying to his billionaire donor?
Well — let’s go to the source:
“Most politicians say things and don’t follow up on them,” Walker said.
There you have it, folks!
To be fair (ish) Walker did go on to say:
“What I’ve said, the commitment I’ve made and what I’ve said repeatedly in the last 13, 14 months, is that private-sector unions are my partners in economic development. I’ve said repeatedly now, since that time, that I don’t have an interest in pursuing right-to-work.
Aren’t you reassured? Honest Scott Walker will keep his promises — except the ones he won’t. If you had to lay cash money down on which commitments he’ll “honor” (the word itself shudders at the implication that it and Scotty might have an acquaintance), which would it be? The billionaire or the working stiff.
As the French would say (but they would, wouldn’t they?), the question answers itself.
*Recall that the canonical definition of a gaffe is when a politician inadvertently admits a truth.
Image: Paul Gaugin, Eve — Don’t Listen to the Liar, 1889
burnspbesq
Well, Walker’s a Republican, and Republicans only lie when their lips are moving on days that end in “y.”
burnspbesq
It’s the same famous conundrum from the Harry Mudd and the androids episode of “Star Trek.” This is why smoke comes out of your ears and your brain ceases to function whenever you listen to a Republican.
Villago Delenda Est
Rethuglican Scott Walker is mendacious scum, AND an honorless cur.
Surprise, surprise, surprise!
Suffern ACE
@burnspbesq: Trust me. I was lying.
Villago Delenda Est
@burnspbesq:
Norman, coordinate!
Punchy
What I dont get is Wisky votes relatively consistently blue. So, OK, they got hoodwinked in 2010 with Walker. But now, 18 months later and fully aware of the hoodwinkery, why is this clown ahead in the polls instead of down 20+, like Id expect? What am I missing? Did Wisky go purple and I missed it?
Suffern ACE
@Punchy: It was never that blue. Also you get people who don’t think the recall is necessary the same way we don’t just impeach presidents when houses change. I know. Californians impeached Davis for no other reason than the fact that they could. The Dems have the weaker voter demographics and middle class people who aren’t in unions don’t like unions. Save the unions doesn’t resonate with people who aren’t in them.
Ash Can
The guy is such a moron he can’t even spin and cover his tracks competently.
@Punchy: This. It’s very disturbing. Questions to the cheeseheads here: why is this happening? Why is Walker polling so well? Will Barrett getting his campaign up and running at full speed make an appreciable difference?
Villago Delenda Est
Recall that Wisconsin has something of a history of bizarre fluctuations amongst its Republicans. Bob LaFollette, Joe McCarthy.
It’s a mixed bag.
Linnaeus
The fable of the scorpion and the frog comes to mind here.
Spaghetti Lee
If I was Barrett, I’d take the completely true fact that Wisconsin is last in the country in private sector job growth since Walker took over, and hammer it home until Wisconsinites heard it in their sleep at night. Even if you don’t support unions, that fact alone should be enough to judge Walker a fuck-up. Unless the ‘pro-business’ types who bankroll and back Walker don’t care about job growth per se so much as grinding unions into dust.
As for how he got elected and continues to be fairly popular, my rough sense is that the labor-friendly areas in the west and north of the state are losing population, and so is the city of Milwaukee itself. The suburbs are growing-places like Waukesha, land of the oops-forgot-some-extra-votes school of democracy. I also think back to that famous Obama quote about bitterness. As the Midwest, where I’m from, loses population and national importance, a sort of ‘fuck it all’ attitude takes hold. And Republicans are very good at capitalizing on ‘fuck it all.’
To be fair to Wiscy, they’ve voted Dem in the Presidential race every year since 1992. And Barrett hasn’t exactly started campaigning yet.
Linnaeus
@Spaghetti Lee:
I think this is an astute observation. A lot of voters in states like Wisconsin, Ohio, and Michigan have been shock-doctrined, more or less. And that plays in the favor of Republicans.
ETA:
Bingo. It’s about power. The “pro-business” types figure they’re already got theirs. Now it’s about crushing anyone else in their way. Neofeudalism, folks.
asiangrrlMN
@Punchy: Wisconsin seems to be much like MN. We always vote Dem for pres, but local elections are a mixed bag. Urban v. rural, etc.
Villago Delenda Est
@Spaghetti Lee:
They hate labor. They’d rather make money without any labor. That’s why the financial sector is so fucking popular. It produces nothing of any intrinsic value. To do that, you need actual workers making actual stuff. All that logistics gets in the way of being a Galtian Overlord.
Their values are totally fucked up. Adam Smith would excoriate them.
burnspbesq
@Villago Delenda Est:
Norman doesn’t have enough computing power to coordinate Scott Walker. I’d say it’s doubtful that the combined computing power of every computer ever manufactured is sufficient to coordinate Scott Walker.
Hill Dweller
@Spaghetti Lee:
I’d also hammer home the fact Wisconsin had actually handled the financial crisis/recession better than most states before he was elected. Walker is a complete fuck up.
In a just world, the American people would have a serious case of buyers remorse after the ’10 election. The nihilists that took power have hampered any robust recovery, and tried to destroy the only things left for working people. Sadly, they’ll likely still get a lot of votes.
Linnaeus
@Villago Delenda Est:
Yes. This is why I don’t particularly like the rhetoric of “job providers”, like they’re doing us all some huge favor. Labor is incidental to their main aim, which is profit. The ideal number of employees for these folks is exactly one.
Yutsano
@Linnaeus: This is why automation and robotics are so popular with the Galtian overlords. Remove that damn pesky labour from the money drain and profit for decades! Of course who then has money to buy what they make or do is irrelevant because, PROFIT!!
Anne Laurie
@asiangrrlMN:
Same here in the People’s Republic of Taxachusetts. For all its rep as “the bluest state in the union”, my fellow Massholes tend to elect Dem legislators (because those guys, even the corrupt ones, actually get stuff done) and Repub governors/ senators. (Teddy was sui generis, and Kerry keeps his seat by getting stuff done and making sure every humble voter his office helps get Granny her Medicaid assistance or your uncle a work permit is reminded about it when it’s time to vote.) The lazy CW explation is that the Repubs are supposed to “be a check” on the wild’n’crazy Dems, but that just means that slackers like Bill Weld and sociopaths like Willard Romney make/permit horrible messes & leave them for the Dems to clean up when they saunter off.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Anne Laurie: California was like that up until relatively recently, but the GOP really screwed the pooch here. Now it’s pretty much impossible for a Republican to win a state-wide election. The beginning of the end was Proposition 187.
JoyfulA
I read somewhere that Walker has 12 times the money that the recall people have on hand. Since I don’t remember where I read it, I can’t vouch for it, but it would explain the polls.
lol chikinburd
It would be nice if Barrett could hammer anything at all home to anyone, given that his opposition has bought all the air time. It would be nicer still if it would even make a difference if he could. There’s maybe four percent of the state electorate who are even persuadable anymore, and it’s a total crapshoot how they’ll react to anything.
The horrible reality is that the 48% who have continued to support Walker cannot be swayed by any evidence, and that makes revelations like this latest one causes for dread instead of hope. Walker’s base voters have so much of their identities invested in identifying with him that, when faced with Walker’s depravity, they’ll embrace and celebrate that very depravity, especially if it’s of a type that helps him (and them) preserve power. Linking him with more sins risks increasing those sins’ popularity, and moral suasion threatens to become not only useless but counterproductive. It’s horrifying.
If you think that to be recklessly uncharitable a thing to say about them, then you probably didn’t grow up in the southeastern part of the state where you could see their like up close (hi). The whole region seems to excel at mass-producing genuinely awful people.
Jeff Spender
I wouldn’t be surprised if Walker gets this election pretty easily.
In fact, I’ve already accepted that he will be re-elected.
Sometimes I wonder what it will take for people to wake up and stop voting against their interests (and actually understand how things they are against are connected to the things they support).
I don’t have much hope, but I could be pleasantly surprised. I’m not counting on that, though.
asiangrrlMN
@Anne Laurie: Yeah, I heard that on MPR after the 2010 election. “It’s good to have a balance of Repeublicans and Democrats because they balance-”
Fuck that noise. The only reason MN isn’t West Wisconsin is because we have Gov. Dayton (D). The Republicans have focused on abortions and teh gayz and standing your ground in MN but can’t even take care of their own financial house (literally. The MN Republican party is in some serious financial hurt), let alone the state’s.
Postscript
As a Wisconsin native, I can tell you that we are somewhat similar to Illinois (where I’ve also lived) in demographics. The major urban areas (Milwaukee and Madison in particular) in the South of the State tilt heavily blue, but the rural areas in the North (and the suburbs of Milwaukee such as Wauwatosa, where Walker was spawned) go VERY red. As long as the blue areas show up to vote, the state goes Democrat, but if there is less enthusiasm in the cities then you get Republicans.
One of the dynamics that is not as apparent about the 2010 governor’s race (and the recall, since it involves the same candidates) is the fact that there tends to be a bit of a stigma to Milwaukee or Madison politicians in the rest of the state. Ironically, given the fact that Barrett and Walker are both “Milwaukee” politicians was one of the things that I felt gave Barrett a better chance in 2010 – I figured it would eliminate one of the talking points of the Right about the Democratic candidate. It’s also why I voted for Barrett in the recall primary. The only thing more toxic than a Milwaukee politician is a “People’s Republic of Madison” politician – never mind that the two cities are the economic engines of the state.
GxB
Walker is carpet bombing ads on TV. Literally every break during local/national news has at least one ad. I’m just praying the John Doe probe starts explicitly spilling the beans as apparently having a half dozen close advisers up on charges isn’t enough for the thickwits in this state. Like lol chikinburd posts above, the Stand with Walker set is all in. And like all good little christian footsoldiers and it’ll take a major dope-slap to break the spell.
Currently I’m seeing him hold on by the skin of his koch. Then former emperor Tommy Thompson is looking pretty solid for Kohl’s seat come November. That would put him in a tag team with teabagging moRon Johnson… Come on Sconny, wake the fuck up!
David Koch
This sucks.
Sacha Baron Cohen endorsed Mittens.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=qWGETb9w4z8#t=158s
J R
@David Koch:
Well, Sacha is a clown, isn’t he? So what’d you expect?
The prophet Nostradumbass
@David Koch: He’s not an American, who gives a shit?
Origuy
Sasha Baron Cohen didn’t endorse Romney, his “Dictator” character did. The movie comes out next week; it’s part of the promotion.
Marc
All of the polling that I’ve seen is close to even – I don’t get the preemptive defeatism. His numbers never tanked as badly as those of other reactionary governors like Kasich.
Ken
“Most politicians say things and don’t follow up on them,” Walker said.
So it’s malfeasance, not misfeasance. Good to know.
lol chikinburd
@Marc: The first problem is that “close to even” translates to “stealable”, a prospect that will easily survive Kathy Nickolas’s tenure.
The second problem is that “close to even” doesn’t translate into much of a popular mandate either way (though Walker will certainly claim one even if he wins by a single vote). A lot of claims were made by pro-recall leaders about the will of “the people of Wisconsin” that were rooted in, frankly, a doe-eyed-idealistic conception of the state’s political history and the propensity of native Sconnies to partake in same. Really, only a twelve-plus-point blowout would have done.
To return to my earlier point, the good guys here — even though they’ve built a strong and legitimate model for a new, popular left movement — seem to have yet to come to terms with the fact that Walkerreich isn’t entirely this imposition from without, but is in large part an organic expression of the evil that has germinated in the Milwaukee suburbs and surrounding counties for at least two generations.
Triassic Sands
Let me guess — Walker’s has no current interest in “right to work,” because he’s already facing recall and even someone as stupid as Walker realizes that publicly pursuing more union-busting would only increase the likelihood that the recall will succeed.