smdh http://t.co/pFVBnW8nHg pic.twitter.com/8QV8grrxXd
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) March 27, 2015
From the Capital Times article:
… The Republican governor and likely 2016 presidential candidate spoke on Wednesday at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon in Phoenix, Arizona. The event was closed to press, but video of Walker’s conversation with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt was recorded by the opposition research group American Bridge and released by the liberal advocacy group One Wisconsin Now.
According to the video, the final question Hewitt asked Walker was, “Does the prospect of being commander in chief daunt you? Because the world that you describe when you’re talking about safety is going to require a commitment to American men and women abroad, obviously at some point. How do you think about that?”…..
Hugh Hewitt is the putz who thought running his mouth from an office in the Empire State Building was equivalent to reporting from the front line of the Iraq War, so no doubt he was pleased with Walker’s response. But the Koch brothers may want to get their favorite sockpuppet a little better informed before he takes his act out in front of the voting public.
Cervantes
Gerald Ford was an Eagle Scout.
GregB
From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Camp Grenada.
Yatsuno
Yes our teeth and ambitions are bared…
Wow that just got poignant.
Germy Shoemangler
Are the Koch brothers suffering from buyer’s remorse? Is there a lemon law for buying presidential candidates? If the vehicle makes funny noises, he can be traded in for a more reliable model?
Bobby B.
If I remember right, Hewitt was one of the “Northern Alliance” of bloggers, armchair warriors who cheered Bush on while literally screaming (remember Lileks’ “FUCK YOU!!” to an Iraqi civilian?) at dissenters.
schrodinger's cat
Ceiling Cat has decreed that Caturday be a day of rest, free from Koch Brothers and their minions. Also, too
Caturday Thread needs Kitteh!
Zinsky
Walker is a dullard and even dull people recognize that. You can see it in his eyes. Americans will not elect someone they think is at least as dumb as they are themselves. Dubya seemed like a smart guy to dumb people, at least. I dunno – it takes one to know one, maybe.
Baud
I’m kind curious to see what the union busting badge looks like.
WaterGirl
Is there some short summary or translation for what Walker said?
I am currently in Comcast hell, on hold with tech support for the third time today, so my head is close to exploding without having to actually watch or listen to Walker.
Tommy
@Bobby B.: Yes, yes he was. It shouldn’t surprise me but it still does, that those that never served, won’t serve talk about war all the time. My father worked for the DoD for 30+ years. He would never be considered a liberal. Strange thing, he thinks war is a bad idea in almost every instance. He was against going into Iraq. Thinks we should have been out of Afghanistan years and years ago. Talk about bombing Iran and he’d flip out, which is strange since he kind of wrote the manual on the use of air power during war.
I like to think I am pretty smart and up to date on current events. But as to war, I differ to him. Funny how a far left liberal and a conservative can get so in sync on the issue of war. Makes me wonder why Congress can’t do the same!
Kped
I love that Reince Priebus thinks that putting Hewitt in charge of half of their debates this fall and next year will prevent anything embarrassing from happening. I mean, Hewitt is exactly the kind of person who will cause embarrassing things to happen, because he lives so far in the bubble.
The liberal media ain’t the problem kids, it’s the belief system.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
I blame Obama.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Grrrr.
gbear
The audio from this prank call should be enough to forever disqualify Walker from any public office. Walker kissed the fake David Koch’s ass so blatantly & he’s so proud of his work to screw citizens and deliver the state to a few rich assholes. Walker is a sick fuck.
WaterGirl
@gbear: I remembered that call, but I didn’t recall which fascist midwest republican governor that was.
I hope that gets some play during the primaries!
gbear
@WaterGirl: It’s been popping up on a few websites I read. Maybe Maddow will run with it if Walker starts to get some traction.
pluege
gee, BSOA must have a scumbag merit badge now.
Sherparick
@Cervantes: Gerald Ford was pretty much considered a “RHINO” by 1976 when Ronald Reagan ran against him. He does bear the heavy burden of bringing Don Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney into the heart of Government, but it should always be remembered that he voted for both the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. http://www.npr.org/2013/07/14/201946977/the-civil-rights-stand-of-a-young-gerald-ford the Republican Party before Nixon’s Presidency, before it made its unholy alliance with Conservative Movement, the Theocons, and the Neo-Confederates, was a very different thing as was the Democratic Party before 1968 and the destruction of the New Deal Coalition. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=5097
1968-72 I think ranks up with 1774-76, and 1859-1865 as pivotal periods in American history. I think it marked the end of American Democracy and the growing ascendancy of American Plutocracy.
Ford also served on the U.S.S. Monterey in the Central Pacific Campaign of 1943-44. So please let us not compare him to the turd, Scott Walker. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Monterey_%28CVL-26%29
Tommy
@WaterGirl: I wish I could say I feel your pain but I can’t. My ISP is stellar. I can’t believe I just said that but it is true. My last corporate job was “virtual”. Most people were on Comcast. The horror stories were legendary. They all said they wish they had what I had. It just works. Always works with no effort on my end.
Corner Stone
@WaterGirl: He basically rambled incoherently for several sentences and then said that being an Eagle Scout was a challenge you had to live up to your whole life.
From my reading he doesn’t say what he learned as a teen sets him up to be CinC, but he does sound foolish for making a reference to Scouting as a teen as a thought process for how to deploy our military around the world, if needed.
22over7
Question for the group: Do you think the R candidates will beat each other up like they did in 2012? I know Reince has scheduled far fewer debates in hopes of avoiding a trainwreck, but we’ve got nearly a year until Iowa and these guys have to do something to distinguish themselves.
Tommy
@22over7: IMHO they will crush each other. They want 18-22% of the population, the Tea Party, the far right. They will do anything for that vote including killing their own in the process. Mark my words here. It is going to get very ugly. Funny for us, but ugly.
seefleur
My husband and two sons are all Eagle Scouts. They have all commented that Walker was probably one of the very few whose mommy and daddy pulled strings (or did a lot of the work) to get him the award. Sadly, that does happen and in this case, it brings in to question not just the the recipient but those who signed off on the award. In other words, if Walker is an Eagle Scout, that lowers the prestige for those who worked their asses off to EARN Scouting’s highest award. Also, too, I can think of at least a dozen Eagle Scout recipients who are wonderful human beings, contribute to their communities and are totally unsuited to be the President. That would include my three Eagle Scouts.
schrodinger's cat
OT food question:
I have a ton of ginger, besides candied ginger what else can I do with it.
Mike in NC
Team Bush will deploy a hit squad to make short work of Scotty.
Tree With Water
I’m with Lewis Black. Not even LSD prepared me to entertain the notion that any one of today’s republican wannabes might conceivably wind up as POTUS. Of course, I felt the same way about Ronald Reagan. Twice.
Tommy
@schrodinger’s cat: Tea.
beth
@schrodinger’s cat: You can always freeze it.
Gravenstone
@Cervantes: Gerald Ford was also an accomplished legislator before being selected to succeed Agnew and in turn having to succeed Nixon. The comparison is a profound insult to Ford.
muddy
@schrodinger’s cat: Slice it and dry it. Make ginger marmalade.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I was certain Gee Dubya’s campaign was over when he dismissively sneered that Al Gore wanted to turn Medicare in to some kind of (snort) federal program. Then I said the GOOPers would never nominate McCain or, four years later, Romney. I should say I’m done making predictions, but what the hell, it’s the internet.
Tommy
@beth: A couple months ago I bought a stand alone freezer. Also a system to air bag stuff. I didn’t think I could freeze this or that. But Internet. You can freeze a lot of shit I didn’t think you could freeze. Use some Google and you can find amazing stuff of what is possible.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@schrodinger’s cat: There are a bunch of recipes using ginger at CloveGarden. Maybe a few of them are appropriate?
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
Germy Shoemangler
@schrodinger’s cat: My wife always buys ginger. Scraps off the skin and boils ginger tea with sorrel. You can brew ginger beer, it ferments.
Cervantes
@schrodinger’s cat:
Ginger beer.
Germy Shoemangler
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I was certain Ronald Reagan’s campaign was over when people said “But he’s Ronald fucking Reagan.” I remember the sinking feeling I had when the winner was announced.
schrodinger's cat
@Cervantes: Recipe, please.
I do make ginger tea, and use ginger when I am cooking but I have about two pounds of it.
Pogonip
@Baud: I do too, but what about that summary?
Gene108
@schrodinger’s cat:
Pickled ginger
Cervantes
@Pogonip:
Er … That was the summary.
WereBear
@WaterGirl: I had a week where I had to wrestle Time Warner Cable both personally and professionally. It took a great deal of self-control not to track down the CEO and fill his shirts with peanut butter.
trollhattan
@Germy Shoemangler:
The Kochs are protected by their bidnez model, which dictates they buy presidential candidates by the sixpack.
VidaLoca
@Zinsky:
As a resident of Milwaukee County and a person who has observed Walker’s rise to power and success since he became County Executive in 2002, I disagree.
Walker is quite smart, for certain values of “smart”, and it’s a mistake to underestimate that. If you don’t believe me you can ask the Wisconsin Democrats who have developed quite the skillset in underestimating Scott Walker. Walker is an opportunist par excellence and as such is, and always has been, all about one thing: advancing the career and the interests of Scott Walker. He combines ruthless ambition with a fine sense of seeking the main chance.
Walker didn’t take the same route as, say, Ted Cruz — who’s smart for about any value of “smart” that matters. Instead he dropped out of college 40-some credits short of graduation and began to work on building a political career. He lost his first race for Wis. Assembly at the ripe young age of 22 (that would have to be shortly after dropping out of school), to Gwen Moore, but won the next time he tried, at age 24 after he moved out to a more conservative suburban district.
That was 1992. He’d still be a back-bencher in the Assembly but for the fact that he spent a lot of time in those years getting recognition as a talented and loyal operative from the power brokers in the state GOP. When his big chance came in 2002, he left the assembly and was carried into the County Executive job in a special election, by the local branch of the Tea Party (yes, before there even was a Tea Party “Citizens for Responsible Government” was the Milwaukee branch of what became the TP). The reason for the election was a financial scandal organized by the endless fuckery of the Democrats who then controlled the County Board.
Two things stand out about Walker’s career: blind ambition, and lack of talent among the Democrats. They created the conditions where he could rise to power and they have no idea how to put that batch of toothpaste back in the tube.
Where Walker is weak — and where I’ll concede some validity to the case that he’s stupid — is that he’s spent all his years grooming himself to be ready for the next step up the ladder. He’s neither wise nor learned (in fact, as everyone knows, he’s a dropout) so he surrounds himself with sycophants who will deny, cover, and compensate for his weaknesses and tell him that he’s a really smart guy. He will have a hard time, in the space of less than a year, getting up to speed on foreign policy. But he’ll get the help from the best talent the Kochs can hire to give him a leg up.
schrodinger's cat
@Cervantes: Recipe, please.
ETA: I do use ginger in cooking and make ginger tea. However, right now I have about two pounds of ginger, far in excess of my ginger requirements for the week.
Pogonip
@schrodinger’s cat: Freeze it–it gets mushy, so slice it first–or plant it and make more ginger! A pot of ginger makes a great gift and it’s about the cheapest good gift you can give.
WaterGirl
@Germy Shoemangler: Reagan was in Bedtime for Bonzo, for pete’s sake! I mocked his candidacy and was sure he couldn’t get elected.
I, too, will never forget the moment when I heard he won. Sliding down to the floor with the wall at my back, crying. The only other time I’ve done that is decades ago when I lost my job. Some things you never forget.
Germy Shoemangler
@trollhattan: Ahh, the value pak
Corner Stone
@WereBear:
What was your entrance music?
WereBear
Know who else was an Eagle Scout?
WereBear
@Corner Stone: Send in the Clowns.
Cervantes
@Gravenstone:
Who, as the NYT said in an obituary, “did not write a single piece of major legislation in his entire career.”
All I said was that he’d been an Eagle Scout. Imagine your response if I’d actually insulted him!
Germy Shoemangler
@WaterGirl: I remember during Reagan’s campaign when he said our problem was too much regulation on business. Too much food inspection. He assured us that we wouldn’t return to the time of the early 20th century of tainted meat.
And a few years later children were dying from e-coli hamburgers.
I had just started working full time in 1977. I saw a profound change in the workplace post-Ronnie. “Work harder, work faster, no raises, just be glad you have a job”
Ferdzy
@schrodinger’s cat:
If I have too much (usually because it was on sale) I peel it and puree it with an equal amount of peeled garlic, and freeze it in icecube trays. (Special colour coded ice cube trays that only get used to freeze herbs.) Then put it in ziplock bags and pull out a cube or two whenever you make anything calling for ginger and garlic. (Curries, stir fries, etc.)
Germy Shoemangler
@schrodinger’s cat: It should ferment nicely for ginger beer. Crisp, thirst-quenching, great in the summer or for the Catmas holidays.
Tommy
@WereBear: I was a Boy Scout. Being an Eagle Scout, more effort than I wanted to give. To me it is just an commitment to do something, finish something earning badges. Like college. I had a 3.75 GPA. Worked my ass off but I don’t think that in and of itself is a reason I should be POTUS. Being an Eagle Scout or having a good GPA if that is what you say makes you Presidential material you got nothing going on.
WereBear
@Germy Shoemangler: By 1982 my Fortune 500 corporate overlords were showing us videos of preachers screaming about Pink Floyd.
My career there was basically over.
Tree With Water
@VidaLoca: Thanks for that profile. I don’t think the eventual democrat nominee will have any trouble exposing Walker, but weird and terrible things can happen to render that irrelevant.
Tree With Water
@Tommy: I never ascended higher than a webelos badge in the cub scouts. I suppose the highest office I can ever hope to attain would be along the lines of secretary of commerce… maybe even assistant secretary. You’re loss, America.
Gin & Tonic
@Tommy: Which bagging/sealing system did you buy and how do you like it?
gf120581
@VidaLoca: Thing is, though, he might not get the chance. If he keeps bumbling like this and goes into a Rick Perry-style swoon, the Kochs and others will cut him dead and go to support another (likely Rubio, who seems to be the one the billionaire class REALLY likes).
Tommy
@Tree With Water: My most memorable moment as a Cub Scout was making fire with lent from the dryer and flint. I should be POTUS for that.
sharl
@VidaLoca: I add my gratitude to that of Tree With Water at #56 – thank you for this detailed background.
Reminds me that I’ve been meaning to put together an update on the latest happenings, whisperings, etc. – to the extent I know them – among MD Dems to come up with a candidate for the seat of retiring Sen. Barbara Mikulski. Need to gather links and whatnot…
Tommy
@Gin & Tonic: This one. Just a run of the mill thing. Works far better then I would have ever thought. It is just amazing. It is the best, IMHO, the $80 you will spend.
VidaLoca
@Tree With Water: You’re welcome. I still hold out some hope that people will see through Walker and I agree that he’s done a lot to help them get to the point where they can do so. It’s pretty clear by now that at the moment he’s not ready for prime time, at least in the context of a national Presidential campaign. I suspect that neither he, nor the people who have carried him thus far, have completely realized the degree to which he falls short but I do think that he is (and they are) smart enough to get the picture and do something about it. There may not be enough time for that though.
Just because Walker does not bring the resume that, to use the example again, Ted Cruz does, do not assume he’s stupid. They’re different animals entirely. And don’t confuse Walker with someone like Sarah Palin, who genuinely is stupid; there’s a lot more to him than that. Walker, at the least, is clever.
VidaLoca
@efgoldman: Well, you may be right and I hope you are. I’ll grant you that state politics doesn’t expose the glaring weaknesses Walker brings to the table on foreign policy; a national campaign is a completely different terrain. On the other hand, if making Walker look like a fool were easy the Wisconsin Dems would have pulled it off by now and so far they’re 0/3.
VidaLoca
@gf120581: I think that’s a perceptive insight. Thing is, if the Kochs are as smart everyone thinks they are, they should have figured out Walker’s weaknesses a long time ago and cut him off by now. Two points:
1. Walker is well known to be a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Kochs. Thing is, he’s also gotten a lot of money from smaller-time players. To my (limited) knowledge, nobody knows all the sources of his campaign fund. Maybe he rides as hard as he can through Iowa and New Hampshire, sees if he catches fire; if he does and other contributors get on board… who knows?
2. Maybe the Kochs are already as aware as we are that Walker has a lot of shortcomings — but they don’t care. Even in failure Walker can do a lot of damage; his campaign gives credibility to a lot of bankrupt ideas (such as right-to-work, not the Eagle Scouts).
Cervantes
@VidaLoca:
I agree, with one minor note:
Among the “best talent” in that hotel that day were people who caused incalculable misery and damage in Latin America, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. I guess you didn’t say so because, after all, it goes without saying.
Oh, and I think this is the link you meant to provide.
glaukopis
@schrodinger’s cat: Ginger Syrup. Good on oatmeal.
sharl
Shortly after this post went up, the following came up on my Twitter feed, from the spookily authentic-sounding homage account @Dick_Nixon*
Even if 102-yo Zombie Nixon is correct, I honestly don’t think foreign policy matters much to most voters, unless it connects (or can be made to appear to connect) in a very direct and obvious way to domestic issues that hit people where they live.
*background on the person behind that account here – he doesn’t call it a parody site; whatev… But the guy seems genuinely pretty well informed on politics (and baseball, fwiw). Cannot tell what (if any) political affiliation the guy has (fwiw#2).
Corner Stone
@sharl:
Support Israel? Check.
Forcefully confirm the need to bomb browns? Check.
We’re done here.
sempronia
@glaukopis:
yes! This is what I was going to suggest. Spicy-sweet ginger syrup over a hot steamed egg or milk custard (or very soft tofu, “tofu flower”) is a classic Hong Kong dessert. Perfect for a snowy Boston weekend.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I think most voters don’t give a lot of thought to foreign policy, but I think there can be significant visceral reactions. I think ISIS put the Republicans over the top in Colorado and No Carolina
sharl
@Corner Stone: Haha, pretty much.
In response to one of my brother’s anti-Obummer rants, I said something to the effect of ‘well at least he hasn’t been like his predecessor who resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people in Iraq who were no threat to us whatsoever.’ The response (roughly): Well, um, yeah, that wasn’t good.
If my brother were politically knowledgeable, he could have countered with Obama’s drone program and the Libya disaster, but following stuff like this isn’t his thing. He makes for a perfect victim for Fox misinformation. I’m not sure he votes though, so the damage may be at least somewhat limited.
Most of my family aren’t the old, angry white ragebot pensioners who are Fox’s primary demographic, but they do tend to get their “news” from there, and otherwise have the TV on that station in the background while doing household stuff. [In fact, I learn all sorts of things from Fox about American black folk when I visit family, e.g., apparently Al Sharpton is the King of the Black People. I didn’t know!]
So yeah, Israel Uber Alles and kill any foreign browns that some domestic leader said might be skeevy; your moral supremacy is preserved if you feel sorta bad about unnecessary deaths after the fact (or you can just shout USA! USA! loudly; that works too).
sharl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That’s a very good point. I’ve followed you here long enough to know how closely you follow U.S. media, so you of course know our media’s complicity in ratcheting up that ISIS hysteria which, combined with their hysteria-hyping of Ebola, really had some impact in last year’s elections. Awesome “reporting” there, folks!
Josie
@schrodinger’s cat: I’m with Beth. Cut it up into pieces the correct size for recipes (1-2 inches) and freeze it in baggies.
Cervantes
@sharl:
I’d say it was more than 100,000 civilian deaths in 2003-2008 alone.
Germy Shoemangler
Open thread:
Not to flog a dead horse, but I just saw this salon article on Amanda Cox:
http://www.salon.com/2015/03/27/amanda_knox_verdict_the_real_evidence_and_why_almost_everything_you_think_you_know_about_the_case_is_wrong/
The author suggests Amanda is guilty, but then ends the piece with “we’ll never know.”
WaterGirl
@Germy Shoemangler: Amanda Cox or Amanda Knox?
sharl
@Cervantes: Oh yeah, I know the actual casualty numbers are much higher, and the numbers I toss out in arguments like this are even lower than the most cautiously conservative counts. But in family arguments like this, I low-ball such numbers for somewhat tactical reasons; it’s not like either my brother or me are going to have any impact on our government’s policy or our media’s malfeasance, and “tens-of-thousands” would be plenty bad enough, given the facts.
[ETA: added a bit to the end to explain the rationale behind my “tactics”, such as they are.]
Germy Shoemangler
@WaterGirl: Whoops, I’m confused today. Explains why I found myself reading Salon.
WaterGirl
@Germy Shoemangler: that made me laugh.
Cervantes
@sharl:
Yes, the estimate I gave is consistent with those provided by the folks (at your link) who warn against inflating the numbers.
David Koch
Can you imagine the hysterics in the Beltway media if Al Gore had said this.
Cervantes
@David Koch:
Or, more to the point, even if he hadn’t.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Germy Shoemangler: @WaterGirl: Me too. I skimmed taht article but the whole time I was thinking, “Well, this is Salon…” I thought they hit rock bottom when they were trying to resurrect Camille Paglia and asking Lady Lynn de R. if she was still a PUMA. The last few months, I miss the subtlety and wry good humor of Professor Paglia.
Keith P.
If only he had served on his local PTA as well, he’d be qualified to be Galactus.
Tommy
@efgoldman: Pretty sure it was 65 plus the other day. Like yesterday. Snowning now.
David Koch
Walker says Iran are thieving black guttersnipes and Israel are wasp aristocrats. And Obama is messing with the natural order.
This actually happened.
Jim C.
Who knew that being an Eagle Scout was training to be Commander and Chief? If I had known, then maybe I might have taken my Cub Scout days more seriously rather than an annoying chore that I was forced to do before I could go back to playing my Nintendo. It could have been the first thing that came to my mind when I got a softball question in a fluff interview from a sympathetic interviewer on whether or not I was ready to order people into combat.
Missed opportunities. Obviously I’m being snarky here, but seriously Walker, dude, the fifteen year old applying to be fry chef comes up with a better answer to his lack of experience in the topic being asked about than this. All your time preparing to run for president and the best answer you could come up with in advance to the lack of military experience is that you were an Eagle Scout back in the day?
You couldn’t have said something about how as governor of your state you’re the commander and chief of the state national guard or something? Still not really impressive but sure as hell better than how you got some merit badges back in the day
smh
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Yatsuno:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XkU23m6yX04
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@David Koch:
Uh, Walker realizes that the WASP aristocrats are the villains in the movie, right?
I actually don’t think his metaphor is bad but, as with Ted Cruz’s “Green Eggs and Ham” stunt, he’s got the lesson of the piece completely ass-backwards.
SuperHrefna
@glaukopis: Ooh, that is a tasty looking recipe. Last time I had too much ginger I tried making preserved ginger in syrup, I think from the a Williams Sonoma preserving cookbook ( love that book!), but I must have boiled it down too much because I was left with ginger stick. It’s hard to get spoonfuls out from the jars but it does make a yummy ginger tea! Maybe next time I should try this ginger syrup.
Comrade Carter
From those of us in Wauwatosa to those of you out there: Scotty Walker!
Betsy
@schrodinger’s cat: Plant it. It will grow into a cool tropical plant.
Then, of course, you’ll have more ginger root …