Kevin Drum has a good run-down of Scott Walker’s little scandal, where Walker’s staff people installed a separate router in his official office in Milwaukee when he was County Executive so they could exchange campaign email. Walker denied knowledge of this, but some recently released emails show he knew about it. He’s also had staff members go to jail for transferring money from a widows and orphans fund to the zoo, and a special prosecutor is looking into coordination between his recall campaign and big-money conservative groups.
What’s interesting about this lower-key version of the Christie scandal is that most of it didn’t need to happen. Walker could have separated his campaign staff from his County Exec staff. He didn’t need to hire a criminal slimeball–there are plenty of the non-criminal variety around. But he did, and in the end, even if he could overcome all of his other faults, this kind of Tricky Dick shit won’t fly in a national campaign. Scratch another one off the 2016 roster, because he just can’t suppress the little Nixon inside.
Joey Maloney
It was extremely little, Ensign.
raven
Tricky
evolved beyond the fist mistermix
@raven: Thanks.
Frankensteinbeck
If they could help themselves, they wouldn’t be the people they are. There are damned few Moriarities in the world, if any. Corrupt assholes do stupid things because if they could think long term, they wouldn’t mutilate the system they’re bleeding and nobody would care.
Omnes Omnibus
This has links to some of the recently released documents from the Walker investigation. Warning: Some of the files are huge.
Scott S.
I’ve never been able to believe conservatives who think Walker is going to be a national player. He’s a weird looking guy, his entire political career involves him screwing people over, and he can’t even begin to fake empathy. That made him a perfect Teabag candidate — but in the real world, everyone hates the teabaggers.
Cacti
In this case, Walker has benefitted from not being the favorite politician of the east coast media.
Mustang Bobby
So with the Villagers’ two favorite governors up a certain creek, who does that leave the GOP with? Santorum, Huckabee, Newt, or Jindal?
Ooh, this could be Jeb’s big break.
dmsilev
@Mustang Bobby: Ted Cruz? Rand Paul? Donald Trump?
So many nuts.
Poopyman
I can’t even ….
Poopyman
@Mustang Bobby: THAT’S Jeb’s break right there. The presnet that just keeps on giving, unfortunately.
Comrade Mary
Literally robbing from widows and orphans? So not just evil, but incredibly clichéd evil.
MomSense
@Poopyman:
WTF?? So he couldn’t be bothered to adequately fund the VA, or outfit our troops with body armor and now he is calling us out??
atlliberal
Remember the “culture of corruption” during the 2006 campaign. Does anyone really think Republicans have learned their lesson? I think it may be time to bring it back. It is corrupt to put party over country in the congress. It is corrupt to lie about your opponent to win an election, and it is corrupt to create fake charities to launder campaign funds. It is corrupt to allow lobbyists and Alec to write your laws for you and pass them without even knowing what is in them.
How corrupt is the Republican party? How is it possible they will be rewarded for their behavior over the last 5 years.
piratedan
@Comrade Mary: I’m sure the Walker staff were bemoaning the lack of dormant volcanic lairs from which to run their administration, although the corporate jumpsuits sure look spiffy!
Omnes Omnibus
@Comrade Mary: This is, of course, why I am pretty sure that being governor of a mid-sized state is Walker’s political ceiling. Add in the fact that he seems to have been able to get elected only by having his campaign flout campaign finance laws and regulations and the fact that dead carp have more charisma than he does and you have someone who isn’t going any higher. Hopefully, we get rid of him this fall and basically put a stake through the heart of his political ambitions.
Baud
@Poopyman:
Corner Stone
@Poopyman:
Where does one even begin?
IMO, this looks like another grift vehicle:
“Bush announced that his Military Service initiative has launched a multi-faceted, public-private partnership aimed at helping veterans assimilate back into civilian life.”
Let’s see…public funds to spend for “re-training” at private for-profit scam schools.
And I understand Paul Rieckhoff is in a tough spot, because if he criticizes Republicans nothing will ever happen…but nothing’s happening now. Except the military pension reductions.
Corner Stone
I wonder who let him out of his artist cave to give this speech.
Who thought this was a good idea?
Mustang Bobby
@Poopyman: Chutzpah on crack. With cheese.
Baud
@Corner Stone:
I thought they reversed that.
ETA:
http://www.minnpost.com/dc-dispatches/2014/02/reversing-course-congress-restores-military-pension-increases
Violet
@Corner Stone: Democrats probably picked the lock and set up the microphone. The more George W. Bush tells the 99% how they need to sacrifice more, the better it is for Democrats.
Corner Stone
Anyone who ever thought for one second that Gov Walker was going to leap onto the national stage…I don’t know how to end this sentence.
JGabriel
mistermix @ top:
In the GOP? I’m not so sure.
Corner Stone
@Baud: My understanding was that reversing that cut was “the one get” that Republicans were going to shoot for in the debt ceiling fight. But they couldn’t even agree to that. It was killed in less than 24 hours to leave the clean vote that Democrats passed.
mai naem
I’ve been following the twitter feed of Neal Kashkari(he of TARP kash-n-karri fame.) He’s running in the GOP gubernatorial primary in CA. He claims to be a non-teabagger/libertarianish GOPr. He’s gotten called out a few times by teabaggers for being a RINO. Anyhow, following his twitter feed, do they send all GOP candidates to some finishing school? He seemed to be tweeting different stuff but in the past couple of weeks he’s just gone to cut taxes, X company is leaving CA because of business environment(read- high taxes),teachers unions – bad, drill here drill now, Sunny and Bo eat off china plates. OMG really???? And then he’s got a bug up his butt about some high speed train project which he calls “Crazy Train.”
Baud
@Corner Stone:
See my edit at # 21. They did reverse the cuts separate from the debt limit deal.
Corner Stone
@Violet:
I hope some smartass like Charly P. writes a rejoinder to this effort and makes plain that the 99% that GWB is talking about includes those who didn’t serve or sacrifice. So, in that case, the 99% includes every rich person in the US. So his 99% completely encases the wealthiest 1% in this formula. So yeah, they should step up. Graduated Tax Rates for Everyone!
cane giallo
Making sure Walker doesn’t get reelected is the primary goal. But this stuff won’t hurt him at all; it’s too much ‘letter of the law’ criminality for it to change the mind of the average voter (who already voted for him). And he will have an unlimited (Koch) war chest to bury any negative message about him.
He may still be viable in 2016 as a successfully reelected GOP governor. Bush/Walker brings a nice geographic balance to the ticket. I’m convinced Jeb will be the candidate and he will not burden himself with an OBVIOUS nutjob (they are almost all nutjobs in the GOP now but some pretend to rationality).
maximiliano furtive, formerly known as dr. bloor
W.’s gonna “straight talk” Jebbie right out of a job.
mai naem
@Corner Stone: His brother Pierce is probably making money off the private schools. Or is it Neil who is the private school scam artist? There’s just too many Bushes to keep accurate track of their scam specialties.
Corner Stone
@Baud: Thanks. You know, I do now remember reading about that but for some reason I failed to connect what it was, or meant.
So thanks for linking.
Corner Stone
The Ukraine’s shit is all fucked up and bullshit.
JGabriel
maximiliano furtive, formerly known as dr. bloor:
Which may very well be W’s intent. Bush fils is an asshole with issues.
XeckyGilchrist
most of it didn’t need to happen
Neither did the scorpion need to sting the frog, at the risk of violating my own rule about reading the thread first.
Comrade Mary
@piratedan: Obligatory.
Tractarian
With all due respect, “Tricky Dick Shit” would have made a much better subject line.
Gin & Tonic
@Corner Stone: Here is video of police firing at protesters today. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=T6IbEIBhb8o
cmorenc
@atlliberal:
The problem with GOP self-perception of this behavior is that wingers see themselves acting in the role of Mr. Deeds-goes-to-Washington to put a stop to grossly out-of-control government spending and intrusively crushing reach and size of government. In their view, their obstructionism is putting country first, and the sort of cooperation and compromise that it takes to make government function is fundamentally corrupt, at least until they succeed in cutting government, taxes, etc. down to glibertarian size. Except, of course where it comes to women’s control of their vaginas and uteruses.
shortstop
Because the rest of the field is so bad, I really thought Walker’s presidential aspirations would survive the rumblings that have been going on. Happy to discover these direct ties exist and that I was wrong, wrong, wrong!
I am now changing my GOP ’16 candidate prediction to Raymond Tusk.
muddy
@atlliberal: I think now the media is starting to smell blood. Or they have been smelling it forever, but now are getting over their fear. It’s great for them, there is plenty of dirt on that side. Growth industry!
maximiliano furtive, formerly known as dr. bloor
@JGabriel: Maybe so, but if so, screw the ratfucking technique. If they’re going to play out some bizarre family psychodrama, I want them to go the Full Medici. I want fucking weapons involved.
IowaOldLady
Is it just a coincidence that R govs elected in 2010 seem to have corruption problems? There are corrupt Ds too, obviously. Blago anyone? But there do seem to be an unusually large number of R govs in trouble. Or who, like Kasich, should be in trouble.
muddy
@Poopyman: He has been painting pictures of skulls lately – Laura apparently broke in at this point to say, “animal skulls”, let we think he’s a weirdo? Apparently this all since he had that heart event.
Thousands die, he paints doggies, his toes in the tub, etc. He has a heart issue that was quickly and well dealt with. So NOW he is worried about mortality. What a shallow bitch.
Splitting Image
For the life of me, I still don’t understand why Brian Sandoval’s name never gets mentioned in these guessing games. Maybe he has so little charisma that he would be doomed to the Jon Huntsman role if he did run, but he still seems to be the only 2010 governor who has successfully kept his nose clean from major scandals. As a Hispanic token, he seems better than Marco Rubio. Susanna Martinez would be too for that matter.
I won’t place any bets on the 2016 nominee until after the 2014 elections are done (since the first job is to put the stench of loser on as many of the favourites as possible), but I will bet that if Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic nomination, Martinez is the likely VP candidate for the GOP.
shortstop
@IowaOldLady: It was a wave election. Rogue waves.
shortstop
@Splitting Image: Sandoval is pro-choice and insufficiently anti-gay. He just refused to defend Nevada’s same-sex marriage ban, which is simply enraging many conservatives.
Nicole
Wait- the zoo part confuses me. I looked at the Chicago Tribune article and it said the charity events from which he embezzled the money were held at the Milwaukee County Zoo, but didn’t say anything about him giving the money to the zoo; it seemed he was embezzling it for his own use. Which makes more sense. Can anyone point me to a link that says the money was embezzled for the zoo? Charles Pierce’s sentence about it doesn’t quite make sense to me, grammatically and I wonder if he meant “at” instead of “to.”
Corner Stone
Anytime someone mentions GWB’s new pro-veterans effort, they should include this link as mandatory:
Food stamp use among military rises again
somethingblue
Nor could Nixon, but it didn’t stop him getting elected President—twice.
Frankensteinbeck
@cmorenc:
This is mostly true. They DO think the GOP is fighting the good fight, not acting out of a selfish power grab. Well, generally. Every time anyone fails they become RINOs, but the conservative ‘fuck everyone and give the country to plutocrats’ philosophy is seen as serving the country’s interests. It seems confusing because they use code words like ‘fiscal discipline’ which they’re obviously not interested in. This is standard abusive asshole behavior, though, and theirs is the abusive asshole philosophy. They think helping people is wrong and hurting people must be good for those people, and we really have to majorly cut back on helping people if the system is so badly skewed that a negro could become president.
Corner Stone
@Splitting Image:
GOP Strategist: “Hey! I’ve got an idea. Let’s run a Gov whose name never gets mentioned!”
GOP#2: “Hmmm…that’s just crazy enough to work!”
GOP#1 & #2 at same time: “To the Grift Phone!”
Corner Stone
MSNBC Chyron: Kiev Protestors Capture Police Officers
Allegedly dozens captured.
Splitting Image
@shortstop:
At this point, I think that it’s impossible for any of them to be sufficiently anti-gay, but if he’s pro-choice, then I guess he’s toast. Doubtless the village press understands their audience.
So who does that leave as last man standing? Jeb? Cruz? Newt Gingrich writing another book?
Ben Cisco
@Joey Maloney: Win.
Gretchen
@mai naem: Really? Real candidates are going with the joke picture of the Obama dogs sitting at the table? They really expect people to believe that Michelle put dog food on the china?
Gin & Tonic
@Corner Stone: Here’s a photo of a priest leading some captured police officers to medical treatment. https://twitter.com/maxseddon/status/436420553818533888/photo/1
catclub
@shortstop: Jon Thune?
Walker could still win the Iowa Caucus – he beat up on unions and he is big with the fundies ( why I do not know.) Of Course, so did Santorum for all the good it did him.
slippytoad
@Poopyman:
I don’t know what possessed Junior Shrub Failure of a President to open his gaping stupid yawp now. But did he ever find something motherfucking insulting to say.
Suck my DICK George.
muddy
@Corner Stone: Those takers ought not have so many children. And often one parent is not at home! tch tch
Corner Stone
@muddy: I’ve also heard there’s a high rate of divorce amongst this population. Shows a real lack of character, if you ask me.
shortstop
@Splitting Image: @catclub: If Jeb comes in, I don’t think there’s any doubt he’s last man standing (bruised and bloody though he will be). If he doesn’t, I now have absolutely no idea who can survive the primaries and the competing catapults of cash.
Jude
@Nicole: Yes, the money was from a fund set up to allow children and spouses of KIA military to visit the Milwaukee Zoo. The asshole in question was stealing it for himself.
That’s right. One of Walker’s aides stole from war widows and orphans who wanted to go to the zoo.
kideni
This Walker document dump has been delightful, and I’m so glad it’s caught the attention of some of the national media outlets (decent coverage in the NYT and WaPo yesterday). Since I follow this scumbag closely, I already knew some of this, but a lot of the revelations are appalling – treating the starvation death of an inmate in a county psychiatric institution as purely a political problem, for example. The Progressive has a good synopsis of what’s been revealed thus far.
It’s concerned me that when he was on his book tour last fall, he was treated with kid gloves by the national media, none of whom questioned why someone who’s so unintimidated spends as little time as possible in his own state and can’t go anywhere that’s not highly controlled and secure (since otherwise he might have to encounter someone who disagrees with him), or why anyone should follow the policy prescriptions of someone who’s driven his state into the ground economically and back to the 20th century socially.
Meanwhile, he’s a petty dictator who had me and about 180 other people arrested for protesting him, but those cases are starting to be thrown out on constitutional grounds (not my cases yet, but one judge ruled on it last week, and my judge is expected to review this all next week).
Chris
@cmorenc:
I think it’s a lot simpler than that – they think of this as their country – not “theirs” as in “I belong to it,” but as in “it belongs to me.” Whether it’s rich people who think they built it all and everyone else is just living off their charity, or racists who think it’s a white man’s country, or (most blatantly) fundies who insist, Constitution-be-damned, that it’s “a Christian nation” – same thing.
That’s why they see no dichotomy between party and country. They’re not selfishly putting their own interests ahead of those of their countrymen. They’re reclaiming their property from interlopers who have no right to it.
Omnes Omnibus
@kideni: I’ve been enjoying watching the cases get tossed. Best of luck with yours.
WaterGirl
@maximiliano furtive, formerly known as dr. bloor: I certainly hope so!
Augie
@Omnes Omnibus: Wisconsin is bluer than an America in general and they are going to re-elect this prick. I have no idea why everyone is so confident he is toast nationally.
Omnes Omnibus
@Augie: His reelection is not a sure thing. And I just explained why I, at least, think he has no national future.
Lurking Canadian
@mai naem: To be fair, if it’s Elon Musk’s train he’s talking about, it is kind of crazy.
kideni
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s been fascinating to be on this side of the legal system. My lawyer’s specialty is civil rights, and she’s really looking forward to turning the tables once this is done. The judges obviously hate this, and most of the DOJ lawyers don’t seem to have their hearts in it. My favorite directive thus far was from one judge, who asked the DOJ to prepare a cost-benefit analysis of pursuing 400 cases that takes into account the costs to the county court system, the costs people like me bear, legal fees, etc. They don’t have to do it, since he can’t actually order them to, but it was great seeing him scold the DOJ lawyers like they were wasteful schoolchildren.
Omnes Omnibus
@kideni: The judges have made it as clear as they can within their role that they think these arrests and prosecutions are ludicrous. From what I hear, the only people at the DOJ in favor of any of this are the political appointees and van Hollen toadies.
kideni
@Omnes Omnibus: Absolutely. But apparently the word has come down that the assistant attorneys general are expected to pursue these cases to the end of the earth or suffer the consequences. It’s disheartening to see people who should be spending their time going after child abusers and sex offenders instead going after people for these civil forfeitures.
And hey, America, if this is what Walker does to people who don’t like him when he’s governor, just imagine what he’d do with the full resources of the federal government behind him! I’d like to be as sanguine as you are about his national chances, Omnes, but he seems like teflon sometimes, and the national media get so sucked in by Midwestern nice that they don’t see the sociopath behind it. I never thought people would be suckered by W either, and we saw what happened there.
Cervantes
@kideni:
A cautionary tale if ever there was one.
Gravenstone
@kideni: Funny you mention child molesters. What, with the state making a a big show of yanking he job offer to the incoming director of the Sand Ridge sex offender evaluation process because he had the temerity to believe former felons deserved a modicum of respect.