Which Walker Do You Trust?

Scott Walker has had a very bad week on just about every level. Not the least of which was his epic fail on the Arizona Immigration issue. When asked about the new and unfortunate law, Walker initially put on his "I'm a reasonable conservative" face. But the right wing tempest in a teapot quickly came back to burn him on the issue. Typical Scott Walker. He began speaking out of the other side of his mouth in less than 24 hours. So I guess this provides Wisconsin's tea party with a real "come to Jesus" moment. Tell us, which Scott Walker do you trust?

Although this may be the first time that hardcore right wing activists have noticed Walker double-talk, there have been countless examples during his time as County Executive. Here are just a handful of them:

• He originally said "no thanks" to stimulus funds for Milwaukee County, he sent out fundraising letters calling it "feeding at the trough" but in the end he used those stimulus dollars to fill gaping holes in his budget. The title of an MJS story had it right, "Walker's stimulus position depends on whom he asks".
  


• Every year he jumps up and down about the slight increases in the tax levy that the County Board passes. Even though he plays Chicken Little about those increases one year, the very next year he uses those same figures as the starting point in his own budget. If he was really against those tax increases last year, why is he implementing them himself this year? Just look at his own proposed budgets and you will see that he has raised property taxes by $39 million during his time in office.
  


• He came into office claiming that he would eliminate cronyism, but he just replaced most of the other guy's cronies with his own. There is a long list of political friends that he has continuously recycled into county jobs when they were not qualified. At times it has been like an endless revolving door.
  


• Walker jumps up and down about increasing government, spending and debt but he has made himself into the prime example of all three. He has increased spending some 35 percent as County Executive. He front loaded three years of borrowing and spending into one year (2010). As if that isn't enough, he subjected the taxpayers to a massive and risky game due to his $400 million pension obligation bond scheme. What the heck is "conservative" about any of that?
  

So as Republican insiders gather in Milwaukee for their convention they really need to ask themselves "which Walker do I trust?" More importantly, members of the tea party movement that pride themselves on right wing purity need to ask themselves the exact same question. The answer for everyone in Wisconsin, regardless of party or ideology, is that when someone has so many faces and speaks out of so many sides of their mouth, you don't trust any of them.