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You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2016 / Scott Walker, Koch Candidate of Negotiable Affections

Scott Walker, Koch Candidate of Negotiable Affections

by Anne Laurie|  April 20, 20159:21 pm| 134 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, Republican Venality

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Walker’s early homestate enablers at the Bradley Foundation’s “tiny empire” and the MacIver Institute must be madly jealous tonight. As happens so often in this fallen world, their long-groomed figurehead candidate has been stolen away by the bigger predators. Nicholas Confessore, reporting for the NYTimes:

Charles G. and David H. Koch, the influential and big-spending conservative donors, have a favorite in the race for the Republican nomination: Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin.

On Monday, at a fund-raising event in Manhattan for the New York State Republican Party, David Koch told donors that he and his brother, who oversee one of the biggest private political organizations in the country, believed that Mr. Walker was the Republican Party’s best hope for recapturing the White House.

“We will support whoever the candidate is,” said Mr. Koch, according to two people who attended the event. “But it should be Scott Walker.” …

In his remarks, made after Mr. Walker had addressed the group, Mr. Koch suggested that the political organizations they oversee — which include Americans for Prosperity, a grass-roots organization, and Freedom Partners, a donor trade group with an affiliated super PAC — would not intervene in the Republican primary process on behalf of a single candidate.

But according to the two attendees, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely describe the remarks, Mr. Koch indicated that the Koch family might personally offer financial support to Mr. Walker…

Speaking his personal opinion as just another individual John Birch Society legacy multibillionaire with a history of buying politicians, principal among them Governor Scott Walker, of course. Man isn’t even trying to keep his political manipulations on the down low any more. But then, he isn’t a young or a healthy man, there have been scares, despite his best efforts he’s not yet been able to buy physical immortality. David Koch probably figures he can’t afford to wait another four to eight years to cement his standing in Hell and the history books as the man who singlehandedly bought his sockpuppet into the Oval Office, the way lessor mortal would buy a famous artwork or a trophy mansion.

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Reader Interactions

134Comments

  1. 1.

    David Koch

    April 20, 2015 at 9:25 pm

    The reality of Scott Walker as a dead-eyed Blank Person has already taken root:

    Swift resignation of Scott Walker aide raises questions of campaign viability

    Scott Walker is an Empty Suit

    even the wingnuts at Brietbart say:

    There is chatter among others who are thinking about getting in the race that Walker can’t handle the spotlight on the national level for long. While he’s been good on union issues as a governor, presidential candidates need to have a well-rounded command of every issue—including ones they haven’t had to deal with yet.

  2. 2.

    Baud

    April 20, 2015 at 9:27 pm

    We will support whoever the candidate is,” said Mr. Koch, according to two people who attended the event.

    I wish that would put an end to the “the Kochs support gay marriage and criminal justice reform” crap, but it won’t.

  3. 3.

    Cacti

    April 20, 2015 at 9:29 pm

    I would actually prefer Scott Wanker is the GOP nominee.

    He’s had a completely pliant Republican legislature to enact his warmed over Reaganomics agenda, with the following results:

    -Wisconsin drops from 31st to 37th in job growth

    -The State budget is bleeding red ink after generous tax cuts for the rich/big business

  4. 4.

    Baud

    April 20, 2015 at 9:31 pm

    @Cacti: What are the chances of the Kansas model not working twice?

  5. 5.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    April 20, 2015 at 9:33 pm

    It’s the late stages of the Roman Republic all over again.

  6. 6.

    Baud

    April 20, 2015 at 9:35 pm

    I’ll admit to being curious to see what the Jeb! team does to try to knock Walker down.

  7. 7.

    Bobby B.

    April 20, 2015 at 9:36 pm

    He love you long time! He so hawny!

  8. 8.

    Elizabelle

    April 20, 2015 at 9:37 pm

    You just cannot step on a Thurston thread with a Scott Walker thread.

    One of these is intelligent, humane, and has a bright future. The other is governor of Wisconsin.

  9. 9.

    David Koch

    April 20, 2015 at 9:37 pm

    Jeb! has been terrible on the campaign trail, just like Romney. But you can count on him running the same play book where he dumps 50 million in withering negative ads smearing the non-Jebs! back to the stone age.

  10. 10.

    David Koch

    April 20, 2015 at 9:39 pm

    @Baud: Here’s a preview of an ad Jeb! will run.

  11. 11.

    Baud

    April 20, 2015 at 9:42 pm

    @David Koch: I hope they all run something like that against each other.

  12. 12.

    JPL

    April 20, 2015 at 9:43 pm

    @Elizabelle: lol and so true. …

  13. 13.

    Baud

    April 20, 2015 at 9:44 pm

    @efgoldman: Our own Mustang Bobby just got back from a theater festival in Kansas.

  14. 14.

    ? Martin

    April 20, 2015 at 9:46 pm

    Hmm. I have a bad feeling that Saudi Arabia and Iran are about to become a thing.

  15. 15.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    April 20, 2015 at 9:49 pm

    @Baud: The Republicans really should go with Brownback for Pres.

  16. 16.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    April 20, 2015 at 9:51 pm

    @? Martin: They’re dating? Who knew.

  17. 17.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    April 20, 2015 at 9:53 pm

    @efgoldman: Don’t laugh, Brownback ran in 2008.

  18. 18.

    NotMax

    April 20, 2015 at 9:59 pm

    Campaign slogans tested and discarded?

    “If you liked Warren Harding, you’ll love Scott Walker!”

    “His last name is the same as Dubya’s middle one!”

    “Ka-chings go better with Koch!”

  19. 19.

    VidaLoca

    April 20, 2015 at 10:00 pm

    @David Koch:

    Scott Walker is an Empty Suit

    Can’t deny that he’s looked like one in the past weeks. I live in Wisconsin and even I’m amazed at some of the things that have come out of his mouth. However — it’s become somewhat of a fashion (and your DK writer is an example of this trend) to make fun of Walker but you do it at your peril. His campaign field support operation is focused, competent, professional. They don’t leave a lot of loose ends lying around; they make sure their voters get to the polls much more effectively than the Democrats do (admittedly a low bar in Wisconsin, but still).

    @Cacti:

    The State budget is bleeding red ink after generous tax cuts for the rich/big business

    And the amazing thing about it is that it didn’t have to be this way — his whole program was not only driven completely by ideology, but it’s put him in the position where his first choice of a way out is to balance the budget by ripping off not just Milwaukee and Madison but the rest of the state as well. Finally people here are getting a little pissed, finally they’re starting to wake up to the fact that they’ve been used.

  20. 20.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    April 20, 2015 at 10:02 pm

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Yes. Unfortunately, they’re both dating to 680 and the whole relationship is a mess.

  21. 21.

    Chris

    April 20, 2015 at 10:03 pm

    @Baud:

    It would be bad enough if they were saying “we will support anyone but we prefer Scott Walker because he’s for gay marriage.” But Scott Walker isn’t even for gay marriage, quite the opposite in fact. They can’t even be arsed to find a candidate who’s pro-gay-marriage – that’s how little of a shit they give.

  22. 22.

    Chris

    April 20, 2015 at 10:05 pm

    @? Martin:
    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    “Iran; relationship status; it’s complicated with Saudi Arabia.”

  23. 23.

    David Koch

    April 20, 2015 at 10:05 pm

    @BillinGlendaleCA: are you sure, I thought it was Bareback who ran.

  24. 24.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 20, 2015 at 10:07 pm

    @Chris: They are pro-gay rights in the Moe Szyzlak way: I’m more of a well wisher in that I don’t wish you any specific harm

  25. 25.

    NotMax

    April 20, 2015 at 10:11 pm

    So how long until the Koch business puts Walker’s face on the body of the lumberjack on every Brawny wrapper?

    (Put this on wrong thread earlier.)

  26. 26.

    Exurban Mom

    April 20, 2015 at 10:13 pm

    Was not he the one who took the prank call from a pretend Koch brother? And he dropped out of college? Really, he’s their choice?

  27. 27.

    Cervantes

    April 20, 2015 at 10:13 pm

    @NotMax:

    “Ka-chings go better with Koch!”

    !

    Billy Davis, who wrote that jingle, once said that he drank Pepsi as a kid because Coke was too expensive.

  28. 28.

    Cervantes

    April 20, 2015 at 10:14 pm

    @Exurban Mom:

    That’s why he’s their choice.

  29. 29.

    ? Martin

    April 20, 2015 at 10:15 pm

    @NotMax: I doubt it. I have it on good authority that guy puts on women’s clothing and hangs around in bars.

  30. 30.

    catclub

    April 20, 2015 at 10:15 pm

    The Koch’s political favorites have generally done poorly in elections, starting with running themselves. I hope that continues.

  31. 31.

    NotMax

    April 20, 2015 at 10:15 pm

    @Exurban Mom

    Buyable and pliable are features, not bugs.

  32. 32.

    OldDave

    April 20, 2015 at 10:18 pm

    … Candidate of Negotiable Affections

    May PTerry Rest in Peace. I love Discworld.

  33. 33.

    Exurban Mom

    April 20, 2015 at 10:19 pm

    @efgoldman: I give you Ohio, 2004.

  34. 34.

    Cervantes

    April 20, 2015 at 10:20 pm

    @efgoldman:

    Worked out pretty well for some people.

  35. 35.

    catclub

    April 20, 2015 at 10:20 pm

    @? Martin: It does not seems to come up much that the Houthis have been the most effective force against AQAP in Yemen. Complicated, indeed. I just read a book on Lawrence in Arabia, which was fascinating. Naturally, it was all optimistic about the Arab spring revolts (a very small comment). It was written in 2011 or 2012. It did express the general fucked uped ness of the region.

  36. 36.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 20, 2015 at 10:21 pm

    @efgoldman: FWIW I think Bush was reasonably intelligent but aggressively incurious. I don’t think Walker is very bright, but he has quite of bit of what used to be called “low cunning.”

  37. 37.

    Exurban Mom

    April 20, 2015 at 10:21 pm

    @NotMax: can we have Buyable and Pliable as a rotating BJ tag? Love it.

  38. 38.

    Mandalay

    April 20, 2015 at 10:21 pm

    @Exurban Mom:

    And he dropped out of college? Really, he’s their choice?

    There are many reasons to avoid choosing Walker, but that isn’t one of them.

  39. 39.

    Sad_Dem

    April 20, 2015 at 10:22 pm

    @efgoldman: The presidential election could turn on gay marriage. Not so much that people will see it as the defining civil rights issue of their time (even if it is) but that by now a slim majority favors gay marriage, and the candidate who opposes it will be seen as belonging to the past.

  40. 40.

    catclub

    April 20, 2015 at 10:22 pm

    @Exurban Mom: yes and yes. and apparently, yes.

  41. 41.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 20, 2015 at 10:23 pm

    @efgoldman: I stood in cold drizzle for over two hours to vote in Ohio that year.

  42. 42.

    Cervantes

    April 20, 2015 at 10:24 pm

    @efgoldman:

    Fair enough!

  43. 43.

    Frankensteinbeck

    April 20, 2015 at 10:24 pm

    @Chris: and @efgoldman:
    No, but I have been hit, here, by people claiming that the Kochs are socially liberal and economically ‘conservative’. This is a giant pile of steaming bullshit. It might make them feel righteous to claim they’re not one of those icky Christianists who go on and on about sex and puritanism, but they created the Tea Party, chose and funded the most nutcase social conservatives over merely plutocratic assholes.

    They’re loonier than Canadian money.

  44. 44.

    Exurban Mom

    April 20, 2015 at 10:25 pm

    @Mandalay: I have nothing against anyone who isn’t a college grad. I’m thinking more about pressure points that could be brought to bear on his national campaign. He has also come down hard on cuts to the UW system, so he can be easily painted as anti education.

  45. 45.

    Peale

    April 20, 2015 at 10:27 pm

    @? Martin: I don’t see what you’re seeing. I looks like Saudi bombs fell close to Irans embassy. The Iranian rattling seems to be in response to that, just like China threatened the US with retaliation over its embassy in Yugoslavia.

  46. 46.

    Redshift

    April 20, 2015 at 10:28 pm

    From the article linked above, David Koch describing his near-death experience in a runway plane crash:

    “I stupidly unfastened my seat belt,” Koch recalls. He was hoping he could run to the exit and be the first in line to get out.

    That’s what he says he was doing. The guy could not be any more selfish and evil if he wore a top hat and opera cape and twirled his moustache!

  47. 47.

    Exurban Mom

    April 20, 2015 at 10:30 pm

    I also waited in the rain to vote that year, at a horribly undersized and understaffed precinct. And the anti gay marriage constitutional amendment threw Ohio into the Red column. More than 10 years later…the atmosphere does feel different.

  48. 48.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 20, 2015 at 10:30 pm

    @Mandalay:

    There are many reasons to avoid choosing Walker, but that isn’t one of them.

    Of course, it is. He walked away from college without a degree after more than three years. It wasn’t because he couldn’t afford it. It wasn’t because he had sick family that needed his help. It wasn’t because he he couldn’t do the work. I suspect that is was either because he got caught doing something unsavory or because he was in a hurry to start being a profession Republican asshole.

  49. 49.

    Peale

    April 20, 2015 at 10:30 pm

    @efgoldman: support for gay marriage is not spread evenly. Could it flip Ohio? Maybe. Depends on how big the blowback is.

  50. 50.

    kideni

    April 20, 2015 at 10:33 pm

    One thing to remember about Walker is that he comes from a fairly modest means, and all he’s ever done in his life is politics – he has nothing else to fall back on, so he will be extraordinarily loyal to anyone who wants to buy him.

  51. 51.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 20, 2015 at 10:36 pm

    @Exurban Mom: I was in German Village in C-bus. Contrariwise, a colleague at work who lived in Powell (wealthy sub/exurb) waltzed in and out in five minutes – fwiw he voted for the good guys.

  52. 52.

    VidaLoca

    April 20, 2015 at 10:37 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: I don’t disagree with “low cunning” but I’ll give him more than that: the man is a consummate, ruthless opportunist. If there is one thing he’s all about, he’s all about the main chance and what will benefit Scott Walker. Look at the current budget fiasco: purely for the sake of polishing his bona fides to better take the next step up the ladder he’s willing to screw up both the public schools and the higher education system in the state too. It will take years to undo the damage he’ll leave behind in furtherance of nothing but his endless ambition.

    @Exurban Mom:

    ..so he can be easily painted as anti education.

    He’ll wear that one as a badge of honor and get a lot of respect in some circles for doing so.

  53. 53.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 20, 2015 at 10:38 pm

    @VidaLoca:

    the man is a consummate, ruthless opportunist.

    So was GWB.

  54. 54.

    gf120581

    April 20, 2015 at 10:41 pm

    Expect the Kochs to be fickle in their affections. Walker is already fading somewhat in polling (in no small part because he’s no longer the Shiny New Thing and has to compete with others who have actually declared their candidacies) and he’s picking up a rep as an empty-suit bumbler (most recent, his attempt to thread the gay marriage needle by saying he wouldn’t attend an actual gay marriage but he’d definitely hit the reception…especially if there’s an open bar no doubt). If he stumbles and falls, the Kochs will cut him loose and turn their attention to another.

    My guess is Rubio. He’s so dreamy to them. In fairness, while Marco is as much a vacuous lightweight as Walker, he does have an advantage in the looks department, as Rubio (a) doesn’t have that constant “derp face” look, (b) doesn’t have a bald spot that looked like someone whacked a nine iron off his noggin and didn’t replace the divet and (c) doesn’t have the dead eyes of a mass murderer.

  55. 55.

    SiubhanDuinne

    April 20, 2015 at 10:43 pm

    @NotMax:

    “His last name is the same as Dubya’s middle one!”

    “And his first name is the same as Skeletor Voldemort’s last one!”

  56. 56.

    Mandalay

    April 20, 2015 at 10:43 pm

    @Exurban Mom:

    He has also come down hard on cuts to the UW system, so he can be easily painted as anti education.

    Sure he can, and with good reason, but dropping out of college when he was 22 has nothing to do with that. There are plenty of Republican politicans who completed college who are also in favor of education cuts.

  57. 57.

    GxB

    April 20, 2015 at 10:44 pm

    @VidaLoca: Property taxes dropped maybe $50 for my folks, but they observed that is just going to go to the alignment shop because the roads around here resemble Verdun in 1917.

    @Exurban Mom: They want a blank slate sock-puppet, and Scoot is that in spades.

  58. 58.

    VidaLoca

    April 20, 2015 at 10:45 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: But whereas GWB was an entitled, dissolute opportunist, Walker is a highly-focused, hard-working, aggressive opportunist. Walker has bootstrapped his way up from actually rather modest means; Bush was, as they say, born on third but convinced he had hit a triple.

  59. 59.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 20, 2015 at 10:48 pm

    @VidaLoca: Absolutely, but my original point was just trying to differentiate between the two. I picked one way and you just hit on another.

  60. 60.

    ? Martin

    April 20, 2015 at 10:48 pm

    @Peale: The Houthis are backed by Iran, and Iran appears to be sending ships to the region possibly with arms. Because Yemen sits on SAs border, and SA is not particularly keen on Iran, they are taking quite strenuous objection to Iran’s proxy moves. Egypt is also getting involved for the same reason. There are similar complications around Syria/Iraq.

    We’re now pulling a carrier out of support for air strikes against ISIS to move it to Yemen to intercept those Iranian ships. My guess is that we’re really there to remind everyone not to get too agitated there on the high seas.

  61. 61.

    VidaLoca

    April 20, 2015 at 10:48 pm

    @GxB: Driving in Milwaukee is like driving on the moon. Now, head west into Waukesha County, there it’s a whole different experience…

  62. 62.

    VidaLoca

    April 20, 2015 at 10:49 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Oh yeah — not arguing with you…

  63. 63.

    gf120581

    April 20, 2015 at 10:50 pm

    @VidaLoca: I’m really looking forward to that dynamic in the GOP nomination fight, because that could make things really ugly between Jeb and Scotty. To put it crudly, Jeb probably thinks of Scotty as the guy who mows his lawn.

  64. 64.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 20, 2015 at 10:53 pm

    @VidaLoca: Nor I with you.

  65. 65.

    VidaLoca

    April 20, 2015 at 10:54 pm

    @gf120581:

    To put it crudly, Jeb probably thinks of Scotty as the guy who mows his lawn.

    He probably does. And Scotty will try to leverage every available ounce of class resentment he can out of that dynamic, and take it to the bank.

  66. 66.

    GxB

    April 20, 2015 at 10:58 pm

    @VidaLoca: Color me shocked, and let me guess on the schools… That guy set us back a century. (I was going to say “a couple generations” but that was actually when this state had its shit together.)

    Oh BTW was it you who was going to write up a guest post for on of the front-pagers? If so is it coming along?

  67. 67.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 20, 2015 at 10:59 pm

    @gf120581:

    To put it crudly, Jeb probably thinks of Scotty as the guy who mows his lawn.

    No, that would be Rubio. Walker is contractor who redid the oyster shell drive.

    @GxB:

    (I was going to say “a couple generations” but that was actually when this state had its shit together.)

    We can get our shit back together.

    @GxB:

    Oh BTW was it you who was going to write up a guest post for on of the front-pagers? If so is it coming along?

    I truly admire VidaLoca’s ability to talk about politics in Wisconsin without overusing variants of “fuck” and then giving up to guzzle 3/4 of a bottle of brandy

  68. 68.

    VidaLoca

    April 20, 2015 at 11:02 pm

    @GxB: It was me, and thanks for asking. Rough draft is mostly done but it’s turning into a 2-part article. At this rate with luck I’ll be able to hand it in some time early next week…

  69. 69.

    GxB

    April 20, 2015 at 11:04 pm

    @VidaLoca: Ah, looking forward to it.

  70. 70.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 20, 2015 at 11:09 pm

    @GxB: As am I.

    ETA: @VidaLoca: No pressure or anything, but our expectations are damned high. Just saying.

  71. 71.

    GxB

    April 20, 2015 at 11:14 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Our shit gathering ability, I hope, hasn’t faltered, but outside the bubbles of sanity (strangely often near university towns) it is really disheartening to hear the the average Joes and Janes speak. So much misdirected hatred and so quick to defend the jackals with the boot to their necks.

    As for your second observation, an excellent point and one of the reasons I mostly keep my mouth shut.

  72. 72.

    SWMBO

    April 20, 2015 at 11:15 pm

    @VidaLoca: So say we all.

  73. 73.

    VidaLoca

    April 20, 2015 at 11:16 pm

    @GxB:
    @Omnes Omnibus: Thanks to both of you. I hope when I finally get the thing done that it doesn’t disappoint.

    Off to bed. Goodnight, all.

  74. 74.

    catclub

    April 20, 2015 at 11:36 pm

    @VidaLoca:

    And Scotty will try to leverage every available ounce of class resentment he can out of that dynamic, and take it to the bank.

    It is interesting that no one was doing that in 2012 to Romney. So I vote it as being less obvious than you suggest.
    Too many GOP voters think of themselves as soon to be multi-millionaires, so they take insults to Romney and his ilk personally.
    weird, but truthy.

  75. 75.

    catclub

    April 20, 2015 at 11:39 pm

    @kideni:

    so he will be extraordinarily loyal to anyone who wants to buy him.

    …until someone with a larger wallet offers to buy him. I don’t think that is actually loyalty.

  76. 76.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 20, 2015 at 11:40 pm

    @catclub: Walker is coming out of Wisconsin where there is a tradition of blaming pointy headed intellectuals and elites for all the problems. Populism has two faces. A lot of folks around here (Balloon Juice) only notice the pleasant one. Populism can get scary.

  77. 77.

    Mike in NC

    April 20, 2015 at 11:45 pm

    In 2012 the Kochs paid for their preferred VP candidate in the form of homunculus Paul Ryan. In 2016 they’re going for homunculus President Scott Walker, another bland WASP.

  78. 78.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 20, 2015 at 11:48 pm

    @Mike in NC: Walker is not a WASP in the classic sense. GWB was.

  79. 79.

    Frankensteinbeck

    April 20, 2015 at 11:53 pm

    @catclub:
    I don’t think it’s because they think they’re about to be rich. It’s an enemy-of-my-enemy thing. Blacks are poor. Liberals help blacks. Liberals want to restrict the ability of rich people to stomp on the poor. GOP voters have a strong streak of being mean shits who like to see someone stomped on anyway. So basically, they will defend rich people to the death from the REAL enemy, blacks and the liberals who enable them.

  80. 80.

    jl

    April 20, 2015 at 11:54 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Walker is kind of hodgepodge of celtic and middle European ethnic, with some English. Kind of ancestry that would incline people like Jefferson and Madison to omit the ‘Mr.’ and refer to simply as ‘Walker’ if they had an excuse to do so.

    So, not a real WASP, for whatever that is worth. Nouveau blanc? Though I think that is some kind of wine…probably too classy to call him that. And he doesn’t drink.

    There I go committing cultural micro-genocide against whites again. Darn it! Sorry.

  81. 81.

    jl

    April 21, 2015 at 12:00 am

    @Frankensteinbeck: Among the teabaggers in my family, and their teabagger associates, there is also an element of hapless failed dreamer, who thinks the next doogus ill-planned stunt, or half-baked plan will pan out. Their ship WILL come in some day, if they just try to cruise through some sketchy private vocational course, sink some money into a unplanned and poorly executed business plan, or trust that nice white Christian man with a deal that is too damn good to turn down.

    So, they always lose their money and have nothing to show for it. But next time! You just watch.

    In their heads, an attack on the rich is the big government getting ready to take away their future fortune. It sounds crazy and is crazy. But they are crazy, so there you go. I think it kind of makes sense from their point of view, though not from reality’s.

  82. 82.

    J R in WV

    April 21, 2015 at 12:01 am

    @VidaLoca:

    Hey, good luck!

    Don’t forget, you CAN use the good Old Anglish word FUCK all you need to!!!

    Sometimes it is the most appropriate descriptor possible… And there are other Old Anglish words you can use, don’t forget that.

  83. 83.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 21, 2015 at 12:04 am

    @jl: Like I said above, Jeb would probably see him as someone like him as someone like the contractor who redid the drive.

    Sadly, my family is on the fringes of proper WASPdom,so I tend to be strict about applying it. Walkers dad was a Baptist minister; that pretty much excludes him from WASPdom.

  84. 84.

    Chris

    April 21, 2015 at 12:07 am

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    No, but I have been hit, here, by people claiming that the Kochs are socially liberal and economically ‘conservative’.

    This is something libertarians as a whole get credit for, and it drives me insane. On the issue of gay rights that the “socially liberal” side has turned into a winning issue over the last decade, libertarians didn’t do a thing – they left all the work to the hated hippies, Democrats and other assorted left-wing activists. They’re “socially liberal” in the sense that like Wall Street, gay marriage isn’t the hill they want to die on, but they won’t lift one fucking finger to help the “socially liberal” side take the hill. All the heavy lifting will still have to be done by left wingers.

    (Of course part of the reason for this is probably that, as Krugman pointed out on his blog the other week, “libertarians” don’t actually exist).

  85. 85.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 21, 2015 at 12:07 am

    @J R in WV:

    Don’t forget, you CAN use the good Old Anglish word FUCK all you need to!!!

    OTOH, “Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck….., ” while accurate, is not informative.

  86. 86.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 21, 2015 at 12:12 am

    @Chris: Folks like the Alcotts described themselves as socially radical and fiscally conservative. Today, people misinterpret this. They were in favor of government programs and things that improved equality. At the same time, they were careful with their own money. That is all.

  87. 87.

    jl

    April 21, 2015 at 12:13 am

    @Frankensteinbeck: In fact, now that I think about it, a lot of the farmer and other rural teabaggers I know, think that they already would be rich, or at least much better off than they are now, if it were not for that damn government thwarting them at every turn. So they are bitter about that.

    So, sure, there was that time the laid out a lot of bucks for that mail order course that never arrived or turned out to be pamphlet they could read at the library, or dropped out the vocational school when they realized they did not already know it all and just paid to get the certificate with no extra work.

    And then there was the time they gave 20 grand in cash up front to that nice white Christian man contractor, who disappeared.

    And sure, there was that business that went belly up because they couldn’t get labor at a decent price and kept hiring meth heads. (Edit: because no one worth a damn needed to work because of government welfare)

    But, there were all those other times, that damn government just shut down their sure fire schemes! Because the government wanted them to fail. FAIL! Think about that!

  88. 88.

    shortstop

    April 21, 2015 at 12:40 am

    @GxB: I think sometimes about how hard it must be for those of you in blue pockets to watch the regression of your state. After all, Illinois is red outside of Chicago, our university towns, parts of Rockford and some union strongholds downstate — so there but for the grace of dog, aka the sheer size of Chicago, go we. (Maybe not quite, though — a full-on tea partier like Johnson has never been elected to statewide office here, or even had a serious chance. We elect straight-on establishmentarian douches like Rauner.)

    It’s with a certain amount of frustration that I think about how much time — really quite a bit — I’ve spent in WI, mostly Milwaukee, getting out the vote the past few years. Meanwhile, the not-insubstantial number of family and friends I have in Madison seem to believe that chatting to like-minded others over craft beers, on political blogs and on Sunday kayaking expeditions constitutes substantive political activism. Yeah, a few of them did hit the Capitol for an hour or two to show us what democracy looks like, but overall I’ve been astounded by the lack of effort they put forth to make sure everyone likely to vote Democratic gets to the polls.

    This is my own anecdotal evidence, of course — for all I know, Dane County is bursting with lefties who put their cash in the vicinity of their yaps, and I just don’t know any of them online or off. And as I said above, Chicago’s big enough that we never have to be tested on how hard we’d have to work to GOTV if Illinois were as closely divided as Wisconsin is. Certainly we saw in November what happens when part of Chicago doesn’t come out to vote! All the same, I think I’m done giving my time and effort to WI until I can see progressives there putting more skin in the game.

  89. 89.

    NotMax

    April 21, 2015 at 12:53 am

    Just noticed that Three is running on TCM right now. Uneven film, but does have one scene nude scene with a young Sam Waterson.

  90. 90.

    Mike J

    April 21, 2015 at 1:07 am

    Wha?

    Servin was charged with involuntary manslaughter, reckless discharge of a firearm and reckless conduct in the shooting of 22-year-old Rekia Boyd, but Porter, in issuing his verdict, said Servin’s conduct was “beyond reckless” and therefore, “it would be improper to allow the trial to continue given the total failure” to prove recklessness.

  91. 91.

    Peale

    April 21, 2015 at 1:24 am

    @Mike J: it’s too late at night for this. That doesnt make sense. So I would get off Scott free if the judge thought the charges were too light?

  92. 92.

    srv

    April 21, 2015 at 1:29 am

    @? Martin:

    Hmm. I have a bad feeling that Saudi Arabia and Iran are about to become a thing.

    Obama knows who his master is:

    Pentagon officials on Monday said that the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt has been moved to the coast of Yemen in the event that it needs to intercept shipments of Iranian arms to Houthi rebels in the chaos-filled country.

    Out the window, your nukular deal, is.

    Who knew Fivers were Twelver biotches? Remember when Uncle Ho got all his orders from Red Square?

  93. 93.

    Mandalay

    April 21, 2015 at 1:32 am

    @Mike J: That’s a doozy. The complete ruling is here (at the bottom of the page).

    I think it would take a lawyer to make sense that decision. It’s certainly not trivial for a layman to follow the argument being made.

    The cop who got off seemed hellbent on pouring gasoline on the fire:

    “Justice was served today,” Servin said. “I’ve always maintained that an accident occurred with Miss Boyd. … I think it was a mistake for the state’s attorney to charge me. But I also explained to the family, if this is what they needed for closure, to be charged, I hope they got what they’re looking for.”

    He’ll need to be watching his back for the rest of his life.

  94. 94.

    Mike J

    April 21, 2015 at 1:39 am

    @Mandalay: He also said:

    “Any reasonable person, any police officer especially, would’ve reacted in the exact same manner that I reacted,” he said. “I’m glad to be alive. I saved my life that night. I’m glad that I’m not a police death statistic. Antonio Cross is a would-be cop killer.”

    Here’s what happened:

    In the early morning hours of March 21, 2012, Boyd was with a group of people gathered in an alley in Douglas Park. Servin, who was off-duty at the time, encountered the group after leaving his house to get food.

    From inside his car, prosecutors said Servin told the group to keep their voices down. Cross was one of the people in the group, and he pulled what Servin said he thought was a gun, prompting him to open fire. That object turned out to be a cell phone, prosecutors said.

    Servin allegedly fired five shots over his shoulder into the group, and at least one of the bullets hit Boyd in the back of the head, killing her.

    Five shots over his shoulder sounds plenty reckless. Shooting at a person who is holding a phone sounds reckless. Missing the unarmed person you were trying to kill and hitting a bystander sounds reckless.

  95. 95.

    Mandalay

    April 21, 2015 at 1:46 am

    Cops seem to be addicted to murdering black people:

    Baltimore police vowed on Monday to make a full and swift probe of the death of a black suspect who suffered spinal injuries after white officers arrested him..The U.S. Justice Department is conducting a separate review of complaints about Baltimore police…It followed a Baltimore Sun newspaper investigation that found the city had paid almost $6 million since 2011 to settle more than 100 lawsuits alleging police brutality and other misconduct.

    The murdered man’s spine was “80 percent severed at his neck”, but the cops have absolutely no idea how it happened? We are so fucked.

  96. 96.

    Mandalay

    April 21, 2015 at 1:53 am

    @Mike J:

    Antonio Cross is a would-be cop killer.

    For using his cell phone? Words fail me. We are so, so fucked.

  97. 97.

    JustRuss

    April 21, 2015 at 1:58 am

    Is anyone else seeing an ad for CNN’s Parts Unknown? I ask because I rarely watch TV, but I happened to catch the show a few nights ago at my mom’s place. Some of her utilities are in my name, but not cable. Just wondering how paranoid I should be.

  98. 98.

    gene108

    April 21, 2015 at 2:14 am

    On February 1, he boarded USAir Flight 1493 in Columbus, scheduled to arrive in L.A. at 6:11 p.m. Koch was in an aisle seat in the second row in first class, across from an elderly couple. The flight was uneventful, but immediately after the plane touched down at LAX, about a third of the way down the runway, Koch felt a violent shudder and heard the sickening sound of crunching metal. A shower of sparks passed the window to his left. A ball of fire rolled by.  A flight attendant came on the plane’s P.A. system, yelling, “Stay down! Stay down! Stay down!”

    The pilot had failed to see a SkyWest Metroliner commuter plane carrying 12 passengers and crew members. Air-traffic controllers had cleared it to taxi into the path of the USAir 737, which was now crushing it under Koch’s feet.

    The jet took a violent left turn as the wreckage of the commuter plane became wedged in the plane’s left landing wheel. The 737 charged across the taxiway at high speed. “I stupidly unfastened my seat belt,” Koch recalls. He was hoping he could run to the exit and be the first in line to get out. A few seconds later, the plane collided with an abandoned fire station, sending Koch flying forward over the unoccupied first row and into the bulkhead.

    He crawled down the center of the aisle toward the back and encountered a group of people crowded there, frantic, but making little progress. He was last in line. After a couple of minutes on his hands and knees, he said to himself, “This is crazy. If I don’t figure another way out, I’m going to die.”

    So he stood up, his head in the cloud of toxic smoke, and walked back, trying to hold his breath, to the front of the plane. An intense fire burned outside. “I said to myself, ‘My God, I’m going to die! What an interesting experience! I’ve done a lot of fascinating things, but I’ve never died before.’ ”

    He moved to the right side of the plane, almost unconscious from the smoke, and pulled open the galley door. The emergency slide had not deployed, so he jumped out of the plane in his stocking feet, falling hard onto the pavement.

    Koch spent two days writhing in pain in intensive care, suffering from smoke inhalation, with tubes passed through his nose into his lungs. Everyone who had been around him on the plane—including the elderly couple sitting to his right—had died. He was the only passenger in first class to survive.

    From the Biz Journal article at the top.

    Maybe it is true that the good die young.

    This piece of shit, Scalia, Cheney, Kissinger, etc. are still kicking…

  99. 99.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    April 21, 2015 at 2:45 am

    @gene108: I remember that crash.

  100. 100.

    gene108

    April 21, 2015 at 2:52 am

    @efgoldman:

    The states that favor it are pretty reliably blue, and in the deep red states no Dem is going to win the EVs. So the question is: is it an election turning issue in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia?

    The vote to ban gay marriage in the North Carolina constitution passed by overwhelming margins in 2012.

    If you look at the map about how the vote was distributed, the college towns – RTP, Boone, Wilmington, etc. – were in favor of gay marriage, while the rest of the state voted something like 80% to ban it.

    There’s a lot of resentment on the Right that gay marriage bans are being overturned by the court. I’m sure this is a font of anger that can be tapped into for 2016 and milked a bit longer.

  101. 101.

    NotMax

    April 21, 2015 at 3:08 am

    @ says:

    Then again, if the Supreme Court formalizes same-sex marriage at the end of June, that provides well over a year prior to the election for people to see that the Sun still rises in the east and sets in the west and take note of the lack of rains of frogs and locusts.

    Yes, there will still be a faction which is on the wrong side of history, but the longer the new normal is in place, the more their numbers will shrink.

  102. 102.

    NotMax

    April 21, 2015 at 3:09 am

    #110: @gene108

  103. 103.

    ? Martin

    April 21, 2015 at 3:17 am

    @gene108: Thank goodness he ignored that federal regulation to keep his seat belt on until the plane reached the gate. Nothing a few billion dollars can’t solve…

  104. 104.

    gene108

    April 21, 2015 at 3:30 am

    @? Martin:

    The whole Biz Journal article was fluffing the right-wing billionaires about all their charitable giving.

    After Dave Koch got in the plane crash, he was diagnosed with cancer. He gave $100 million to MIT (his alma matter) for cancer research, and another $100 million for the New York theatre and opera.

    Ken Langone, founder of Home Depot, gave $100 million dollars to NYU’s medical school and they named it after him: The Langone School of Medicine.

    What the article leaves out is the charity seems to be the rich giving money to the already reasonably well off and not so much to do stuff like help the homeless or how so much charity would not be needed, if we had better government resources handy.

  105. 105.

    Tommy

    April 21, 2015 at 4:01 am

    @shortstop: Just so you know I am down state here in Illinois. About six hours from Chicago in a car. As blue of a district as you will find. Now I will admit we elected a Republican to our House seat. But that was the first time in 70 years we did that. We are pretty much all blue here!

  106. 106.

    Matt McIrvin

    April 21, 2015 at 4:28 am

    @NotMax: I’ve been assured that a decade is not nearly long enough to wait to see whether gay marriage destroys society in Massachusetts.

  107. 107.

    opiejeanne

    April 21, 2015 at 4:31 am

    @Mandalay: Did you see the video of him being dragged to the police van? He didn’t look like he was resisting, he looked like his body was limp from the neck down.

  108. 108.

    opiejeanne

    April 21, 2015 at 4:32 am

    @Mike J: that was the trial that they talked about on the news this evening, that had just ended?

    That judge needs to be removed from office.

  109. 109.

    Cervantes

    April 21, 2015 at 5:00 am

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I’ve been assured that a decade is not nearly long enough to wait to see whether gay marriage destroys society in Massachusetts.

    Trick question.

    It’s always been dog-eat-dog in Massachusetts.

  110. 110.

    Cervantes

    April 21, 2015 at 5:11 am

    @gene108:

    He gave $100 million to MIT (his alma matter) for cancer research

    More than twice that to MIT generally, and more than four times that towards cancer research generally, the overlap being roughly $200 million.

  111. 111.

    raven

    April 21, 2015 at 6:14 am

    Oh man, Halperin and Joe have the goods on the Clintons, may as well hang it up!

    eta It is so cute when Joe imitates the big dog.

  112. 112.

    NotMax

    April 21, 2015 at 6:17 am

    @raven

    Oh no! How many paper clips did she pilfer from the State Dept.?

  113. 113.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    April 21, 2015 at 6:18 am

    @raven: Well Ho did figure out why Hillz erased all those emails. Genius!

  114. 114.

    raven

    April 21, 2015 at 6:19 am

    @NotMax: It’s “death by a thousand cuts” according to whoever the brother they have on this morning.

  115. 115.

    raven

    April 21, 2015 at 6:20 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA: All this motherfucker babbles on about is that we need to be tougher with Iran then he scoffs at the ships being sent.

  116. 116.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    April 21, 2015 at 6:21 am

    @NotMax: Bill was getting paid for speeches(like no other President, cough Reagan), and Hillz did favors for them. IT’S ALL IN THOSE ERASED EMAILS! Wake up sheeple!

  117. 117.

    sparrow

    April 21, 2015 at 6:22 am

    But then, he isn’t a young or a healthy man, there have been scares, despite his best efforts he’s not yet been able to buy physical immortality.

    Thank god for death, the great equalizer.

    For now.

  118. 118.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    April 21, 2015 at 6:24 am

    I can’t make any comments, I’m being OPRESSED!

  119. 119.

    sparrow

    April 21, 2015 at 6:25 am

    @gene108: Of course they’re not going to say those things, that would be questioning the Established Order and How Things Are.

    I’m reminded of a CNN broadcast years ago when Walker was booting the unions, and the entire segment framed the debate as “(a) unions must die or (b) state will go bankrupt”… aka, “you are an idiot if you pick b, what kind of person are you? All serious people accept a. But we here at CNN report on the controversy and let you know about idiotic opinion b, oh yes!”

  120. 120.

    Matt McIrvin

    April 21, 2015 at 6:54 am

    @NotMax: I just saw someone on Facebook complaining that she stole all the china from the White House. The classics never die.

  121. 121.

    Baud

    April 21, 2015 at 6:56 am

    @raven:

    She’d be 50 points ahead if it weren’t for all these scandels!

  122. 122.

    Alex S.

    April 21, 2015 at 7:11 am

    @gf120581:

    I knew Walker always was guy #1 for the Kochs and I thought that the financial support they gave to Rubio was primarily to hurt Jeb (nobody else gets hurt by Marco Rubio), so that they can enforce a Walker-Bush ticket instead of Bush-Walker. But you’re probably right, Rubio is also being used as a secondary option if Walker implodes.

  123. 123.

    Iowa Old Lady

    April 21, 2015 at 7:23 am

    It’ll be interesting to see how far Koch money takes Walker. Can you buy an election in 21st century America?

  124. 124.

    sparrow

    April 21, 2015 at 7:35 am

    @Iowa Old Lady: Didn’t Romney already prove no?

  125. 125.

    OldDave

    April 21, 2015 at 7:42 am

    @gene108:

    “I said to myself, ‘My God, I’m going to die! What an interesting experience!

    What a fucking shame that you didn’t, Mr. Koch.

  126. 126.

    Iowa Old Lady

    April 21, 2015 at 8:05 am

    @sparrow: That was my hope.

  127. 127.

    Tommy

    April 21, 2015 at 8:32 am

    @NotMax: LOL. I am not a huge fan of Hillary, but the women has done a lot of stuff. Early on she was working on the House Committee. First lady for eight years. Senator. Sec of State. Last I checked that is a pretty good resume.

  128. 128.

    Frankensteinbeck

    April 21, 2015 at 8:32 am

    @jl:
    You do have a big point. One glance at Glen Beck’s sponsors tells you that conservatives are the target market for get-rich-quick schemes, and Sovereign Citizens are conservatives as well.

  129. 129.

    Bobby Thomson

    April 21, 2015 at 8:50 am

    @Exurban Mom: his dropping out of college is a rake for his opponents to step on. Plays right into anti-elitism.

  130. 130.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    April 21, 2015 at 8:52 am

    @Mandalay: beyond he is following in the footstep of Paulin – someone looking for the easy way and they want to be president, which is likely one of the hardest jobs in the country.

  131. 131.

    Tommy

    April 21, 2015 at 9:05 am

    @Bobby Thomson: I will not put down somebody that doesn’t go to college. I don’t think I am better I went to college. I have a MA, my dad and grandfather PhDs. If for no other reason it taught me to do something for an extended period of time. Finish something I started. He didn’t do that.

  132. 132.

    rikyrah

    April 21, 2015 at 11:48 am

    folks on the blogs had it nailed long ago that Walker was the Koch candidate.

  133. 133.

    rikyrah

    April 21, 2015 at 1:16 pm

    @Mandalay:

    And he dropped out of college? Really, he’s their choice?

    There are many reasons to avoid choosing Walker, but that isn’t one of them.

    Actually, it is.

    It astonishes me, but not really, the excuses being made for this.

    Why shouldn’t the American people have standards.

    And, yes, let’s bring this back to Black and White.

    Would a Black candidate, who was a COLLEGE DROPOUT be taken seriously?

    OF.COURSE.NOT.

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    […] like yesterday’s Koch Bros public announcement that Scott Walker was their guy may have been a ploy to get Jeb Bush (well, Jeb’s handlers) to pay attention to their GOP […]

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