Ryan Lends Name but No One Lends Him Support

Earlier this week Congressman Paul Ryan decided to lend his name to dueling DC fundraisers for both Scott Walker and Mark Neumann. Well, to be clear, he agreed to lend his name but apparently not his actual presence or endorsement. Seeing him lend his name made me wonder if any Republican officials/candidates have finally decided to lend Ryan some support. It was back in February when I asked Republican candidates and officials (especially those running for Congress) to publicly state their position on Ryan's "roadmap" legislation.

To refresh our recollection, Ryan's "roadmap" legislation is really just recycled right wing rhetoric probably cribbed from some 1980's position paper somewhere. You know the whole privatize and slash spending for Social Security and Medicare shtick that comes through every few years. Ryan's recycled "roadmap" doesn't actually accomplish its stated goal and it is based on several irrational assumptions. Perhaps that is why key Republicans were running from it early and often when he trotted it out for publicity earlier this year. The last time that I wrote about this, Ryan's legislation had only 8 co-sponsors Congress, none of which were from Wisconsin. So has anyone finally decided to lend Ryan some support for his misguided efforts? I hear that Sensenbrenner and Petri were at Scott Walker's DC fundraiser. Did Walker do his part to advocate for the missing namesake of the event?

It looks like Paul Ryan has gained the support of four more Republican Congressman; unfortunately none of them are from Wisconsin. Where the heck is Petri and Sensenbrenner on this and why haven't they signed on as co-sponsors yet? Similarly, where are all of the Republican candidates for Congress on this? Are they only convenient conservatives? No doubt the tea party types love to fawn all over Ryan and his "roadmap". So why aren't these allegedly principled activists demanding that their candidates lend Ryan's "roadmap" some support? If they don't stand for it now, what makes the tea party think that they will do it should they end up in Congress? The other two Wisconsin Republicans in Congress certainly have not.

Maybe the Republican convention would be a good place for these Congressional candidates to lend their support to Paul's privatization plans. If GOP activists and tea party-types really insist on ideological purity, one would think that they would demand that these candidates back up Ryan's "roadmap" with actual words. If not, then maybe they are not the conservatives that they claim to be.

So what say you, Sensenbrenner, Petri, Duffy, Kapanke, and the chorus of candidates in the 8^th Congressional District? Are you going to publicly lend your support to HR 4529 or not? Will the tea party hold you accountable or won't they?

The Right Wing Endorsement Sweepstakes

First there was the Twit-Off and now Mark Neumann and Scott Walker are trying to win the Right Wing Endorsement Sweepstakes. We already know that Scott Walker unsuccessfully tried to get the endorsement of Sarah Palin. Newt Gingrich came to town for a Walker fundraiser but he wouldn't actually endorse him. It appears that Walker did get the endorsement of Jeb Bush, but who would really know? After all, the media was locked out and only high rolling special interests were allowed. What we do know is that Mark Neumann just won the endorsement of another nationally recognized reactionary Republican, Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn.

For those that don't know, here are some of Coburn's extreme right wing "credentials":

• Forget terrorists, Tom Coburn is apparently more concerned about the LGBT Community saying that they have "infiltrated the very centers of power in every area across this country, and they wield extreme power…That agenda is the greatest threat to our freedom that we face today."
  
• In 1997 he proposed a bill that would have required reporting the names of those who tested positive for HIV/AIDS to public health authorities and withholding Medicaid funding from states that didn't comply.
  
• At a House subcommittee meeting on the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1996, which included testimony of Milwaukee's 1993 cryptosporidium problem, Coburn praised the spores that made 400,000 sick saying that they "can sometimes…be very helpful – for doctors – because it helps us identify those people who in fact are immune-compromised."
  
• In 1997 when NBC aired the Academy Award-winning movie Schindler's List. Coburn proclaimed that the airing of the movie had taken television "to an all-time low, with full-frontal nudity, violence and profanity." He also was outraged by the "…irresponsible sexual behavior…" of the movie.
  
• More recently Coburn has expressed his right wing cred in other ways, such as blocking things like the extension of unemployment benefits, veterans benefits, breast cancer research funding, child protection legislation.

I could go on forever on Coburn's wildly extreme record and over-the-top rhetoric, but you get the point. Apparently this is just the kind of nationally recognized reactionary endorsement that Neumann and Walker are desperately trying to win right now. Walker has Jeb and now Neumann has Coburn but the story is still developing as each of them tries to win the Right Wing Endorsement Sweepstakes.

Right Wing “RINO(kugel)” Hunting is Fierce

Wisconsin's right wing didn't waste much time forcefully attacking Dick Leinenkugel after he made his official announcement about running in the Republican primary. It really isn't that surprising, only the most politically out-of-touch person would have thought that the reaction would be any different. The only thing that may be slightly surprising is just how fierce and quick the right wing reaction has been to the former Commerce Secretary.

For example, Badger Blogger did a post declaring "Stop this RINO" and "Dick Leinenkugel is the very definition of RINO (Republican In Name Only), and must be stopped. Defeat Dick RINOkugel!"

Brian Fraley of the MacIver Institute sent out a tweet reacting to a Leinenkugel interview with Charlie Sykes and made this 140 character observation: "Dick Leinenkugel's @SykesCharlie Interview will haunt him for the duration of his campaign. Train Wreck would be polite." The tweet then includes the tag "#noleinie".

Conservative blogger Kevin Binversie retweets Fraley's sentiments that Leinenkugel's interview with Sykes was a train wreck.

Then there is the new Twitter feed, "RINOkugel", which not only tracks the other right wing attacks of Leinenkugel's candidacy, but it also offers its own original commentary. One that stood out to me was the following tweet from "RINOkugel":

"leinenkugel kicks off campaign at 4x drunk driver business?"

It appears that this is a reference to him making his official announcement at Helgesen Development Corp. in Janesville. When I saw this tweet, I did a quick check of CCAPS and I did find several OWI cases listed for a Jeffrey W. Helgesen, which is also the name of the President of the company. I don't know much detail beyond that but obviously someone else does and they are using it to question Leinenkugel about where he chose to kick off his campaign. If this tweet and the general right wing reaction is any indication, a "RINO(kugel)" hunt is already in full season and it has been noticeably fierce right from the beginning.

UPDATE: Blogging Blue takes a look at more reaction.

RJ Johnson, Milwaukee County Medical Examiner

Last week reports surfaced that Milwaukee County's Medical Examiner resigned. Those reports also highlighted the poor job that the Walker administration has done in terms of staffing key positions. Given Walker's track record of constantly hiring questionably qualified candidates from within his own political gene pool, I have to wonder which crony he will stick in the medical examiner's slot (assuming that he permanently fills it). RJ Johnson has been one of his latest political operatives; maybe he is due for a promotion on Milwaukee County Taxpayer's dime. I can see the sign on his office door already, "RJ Johnson, Medical Examiner". Given Walker's history of hiring political cronies, it may not be as far from reality as one might think.

Consider some of the following:

• Jim Villa worked for Walker's campaigns bouncing between them and taxpayer financed county jobs.
  
• Robert Dennik, a former lobbyist and Walker campaign manager was appointed as head of the now nonexistent Milwaukee County Division of Economic and Community Development. Let's just say that his time there didn't go so well for him or for Milwaukee County.
  
• Tim Russell has repeatedly bounced back and forth between Walker campaigns and taxpayer funded positions (including a recent promotion). At one point he even took over the train wreck that was the Economic Development job (with not much more success).
  
• Walker wanted to give a county job to Chuck Grapentine even though he didn't even want to move to Milwaukee County. Chuck is the father of a former Walker aide.
  
• Cynthia Archer was appointed as head of Administrative Services in 2007. She was previously a top administrator for Walker's former Republican colleague in the State Assembly, Carol Kelso.
  
• David Bradley Carr had not been out of law school very long before Walker replaced a veteran member of the Ethics Board with him. It was reported at the time that a partner at a law firm suggested Carr to Walker. Several partners and members of that same law firm have also been big campaign contributors to Walker. But I'm sure that had nothing to do with it.
  

I think the title of a May 9, 2002 MJS story had it right when it said that "Walker has rewards in mind for backers".

So like I said at the beginning, does this mean that RJ Johnson is up for a promotion to Milwaukee County Medical Examiner? Maybe Walker can follow that up with Jill Bader for Corporation Counsel and Keith Gilkes for head of Health and Human Services.

Does Neumann Have a Plan B?

Last week we found that there are some apparent rifts between elements of the Tea Party movement in Wisconsin and some of the Republican establishment. The Tea Party email that was leaked last week lamented an "old-guard Republican", "thinking in terms of Rs and Ds", and "GOP gamesmanship". The writer of the email also cited "a divide that's existed for some time now between the GOP and the grassroots." Some of Mark Neumann's messaging suggests that he is trying to exploit some of these rifts.

In several of his ads and in other elements of his messaging, he repeatedly refers to himself as a "conservative" rather than a "Republican". In fact, in a recent story he quite directly makes such a distinction. While touring a sporting goods store in downtown Portage, a man asked Neumann, "are you a Republican or a conservative?" Neumann apparently gave the answer that the man wanted to hear saying, "I'm a conservative". Neumann went on to answer that "Both Democrats and Republicans spend too much money." In a video interview that accompanies the story, Neumann goes on to suggest that he can help "restore the Republican Party to what it once was."

This approach makes strategic sense to me. After all, Scott Walker is clearly the Republican establishment favorite in the primary. Given that fact along with the rifts between the tea party and that same establishment, it makes sense that he is focusing on being a "conservative" and on trying to "restore the Republican Party". But can the Tea Party push Mark Neumann past the Republican establishment and across the finish line in the Republican primary? I don't know, but it will certainly be interesting to observe.

Another natural question that I find even more intriguing is whether Mark Neumann is truly committed to this approach? Will he take it all the way to its logical conclusion if he ends up losing to the establishment candidate? Given all of his "conservative v. Republican" messaging and his observation that the Republican Party needs to be "restored", is he preparing for a Plan B should he lose the primary? If he really believes that the current Republican Party needs to be "restored", is he willing to run as an independent and as the "real conservative"? I wish the editorial board in Portage would have asked him.

Tommy and Trouble in the Tea Party

Today Tommy Thompson is set to headline a tea party and apparently he is supposed to (finally) make up his mind about whether he is running. Not everyone is happy about seeing Tommy at the tea party. One of his potential opponents and someone that identifies closely with the tea party movement, David Westlake, made the following comments regarding Thompson's speaking today:

"He's using a platform that's supposed to be about rallying around a common cause to reduce the size of government, to lower spending and lower taxes and he's using it for his own personal announcement. He's not the tea party movement. He's a big spender and did a lot of things that was the antithesis of what people in the tea party want."

Tommy's potential primary opponent isn't the only person that isn't happy about his speech today. It has caused a rift between elements of the tea party, Americans for Prosperity and the Republican establishment in Wisconsin. An email exchange from within the tea party movement has been leaked. That email sheds additional light on what the rank-and-file actually think of Tommy and what they think of Americans for Prosperity's Mark Block. The subject line of the email reads, "URGENT: Immediate Coalition Response Requested re: Tommy Thompson". The entire email message is very illuminating on several levels and is provided below (I have redacted Mark Block's personal cell phone number):

Friends,

I'm writing to you on behalf of Tim Dake and myself regarding AFP's announcement that Tommy Thompson will be the main speaker at the Tax Day Rally tomorrow morning.

First, of all, it is now clear, based on media reports, that Tommy will be using tomorrow's appearance to test the waters in regards to getting into the senate race. He's basically come out and said that he'll know after tomorrow whether he's running. Tim and I have talked to many of you already, and we are aware that many people are feeling betrayed. I for one was incredibly frustrated and angry when I heard the news. We were promised by AFP that they would not use the Tax Day Rally stage as a stump for candidates. But that is exactly what Mark Block has done in booking Tommy--turned the stage into a political wind sock, and therefore, effectively, a stump. One could make the argument that Ron Johnson was also a bad choice of speakers in this regard since he's talking about getting in the senate race if Tommy doesn't.

Second, regardless of whether Tommy runs or not, we now have a large problem on our hands. As things now stand, thousands of people will arrive for the Tax Day Rally tomorrow only to find politics as usual in the form of a progressive Republican on the stage. This situation is extremely dangerous to us. It sends the wrong message about who and what we are as a movement. And it potentially compromises the trust that many have now begun to place in the vision and commitment of conservative grassroots in this state.

Let's be perfectly frank. Mark Block, the current director of AFP, is an old-guard Republican. He is still inured in party politics and has not made the paradigm shift that you and I have made. He's still thinking in terms of Rs and Ds--not constitutionalism versus progressivism.

Tim and I are requesting an immediate response from you. In order to have an impact, we need to be unified on this issue.

Do we stand in agreement that having Tommy Thompson speak is the wrong thing?

If so, Tim and I need you to call Mark Block now and voice your opposition. He needs to understand now that he is irresponsibly playing with our reputation, that co-opting grassroots events for political/GOP gamesmanship is not acceptable, that he has compromised our trust in doing this thing, and that if this bad decision is not immediately undone and rectified (meaning, someone else speaks in Tommy's place), there will be consequences in the relationship between local grassroots and AFP moving forward. Again, we need to be polite but very firm.

Here's Mark's cell number: 262.XXX.XXXX

If Mark asks what the consequences will be, tell him only that that is currently being actively discussed amongst the coalition members, but he should be assured that action will be taken.

The next matter we need to decide is what the more immediate consequences will be if Mark chooses to move ahead with having Tommy speak.

Again, we have choices.

1) We can threaten to pull out of the event. I'm not a big fan of this plan since AFP could perhaps quickly replace a lot of the local grassroots speakers with other GOPers. That would leave no way to counterbalance party nonsense with solid message.

2) We can either voice our displeasure and/or demonstrate it with a show of signs, or walk away when Tommy comes on the stage, taking as many people with us as we can. There has been some concern about such a strategy giving the enemy a chance to point to infighting in the movement. But actually, it's not infighting. It's a divide that's existed for some time now between the GOP and the grassroots. We would simply be rejecting what we see as an attempt to co-opt the movement and any statements/press releases could reflect that fact.

3) We can allow Tommy to speak, remaining entirely polite but unexcited. Giving him only a lukewarm reception tomorrow, we could possibly follow up with press releases, distancing ourselves from him the next day.

We are open to other suggestions, but we need them quickly. You can either email Tim or I or contact us by phone. I believe you all have Tim's number already, but I can be reached at the cell phone listed below.

Thank you for standing together as a coalition.

Kirsten Lombard

Organizer

The Wisconsin 9/12 Project

Madison, WI

UPDATE: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is now reporting on this issue.

UPDATE 2: Looks like Charlie Sykes joined in the Mark Block bashing on his program this a.m.

Scott Walker Presented Through Google Search

The blog Forward Our Motto put this video together using a new Google tool. Aside from the free advertising for Eye on Wisconsin, I especially liked how "Scott Walker's Achievements" brought back ZERO RESULTS.

Money Quote: Ben Stein

In his comments calling for the resignation of RNC Chair Michael Steele, Republican Ben Stein offers the following:

The GOP is not the party of small town virtues and verities if it has
multi-thousand-dollar bills for meals and drinks at The Beverly Hills Hotel and
the Voyeur Club.

The latest chapter in what Reince Priebus calls RNC "unity".

Speaking of Taxes...Don't Forget these Credits/Cuts

The President highlights many of the tax cuts and credits that were made available in the stimulus bill (there are more than a dozen) and reminds working families to take full advantage of them. He also points to some of the tax cuts/credits that we can look forward to because of the passing of health care reform.

The White House also offers this handy dandy Tax Savings Tool.

Fox News: IRS More Popular than Tea Party

Earlier in the week, Xoff drew our attention to a new Gallup Poll showing that the Tea Party was only slightly more popular (37% favorable) than socialism (36% favorable). Now Fox News has delivered a poll showing that the Tea Party is significantly less popular (39% favorable) than the Internal Revenue Service (49% favorable). Just before tax time no less.

ht: Think Progress

Welcome to the Leine Campaign HQ?

New campaign website registered under State phone

Is This What He Meant by "Unity"?

Not even a full year ago, an inquiring mind sent an email to RPW Chair Reince Priebus asking how things were going while he was in Washington D.C. I assume that at least part of that question was about his involvement with the long train wreck that had already become Michael Steele's tenure at the Republican National Committee.

Reince repsonded, "Total unity and Steele kicking ass...Really no lie - I will send you the links"

I wonder if by "unity" Reince actually meant firings, resignations and calls for Steele to resign? I wonder if by "kicking ass" Reince actually meant that Steele was telling GOP big-wigs to "shut up..."get a life" and "fire me"?

As far as sending links, I wonder if Reince sent any of these as follow-ups?

"RNC Fallout: 'Ashamed' donor closes checkbook"

"RNC Document Mocks its Own Donors"

"Bondage-Gate Fallout"

"The RNC is Spending More than it is Raising"

"DNC Outraises RNC by More than $2 million in March"

A Three-Pack of Questions

While everyone else is speculating about the rumors that Dick Leinenkugel is preparing to run for U.S. Senate, I have three basic questions, assuming that the rumors are true:

1. Exactly who recruited him?

I can't imagine that it was anyone at the Republican Party of Wisconsin, with all of their counterproductive vitriol while he has been Secretary of Commerce. Wasn't it Dick Leinenkugel that praised the budget last year, saying that it would "spur business growth"? You don't have to look at the RPW's budget-time talking points very long to learn what they thought of those comments. And what about the fact that he was headlining fundraisers for Democratic candidates as recently as December 10th?

Who knows? Maybe it could be big biz folks and/or Tommy loyalists that recruited him. Or maybe it was the national Republican big-wigs that have been so desperate to get a real candidate.

2. Whoever they are...are they really this tone-deaf to their increasingly extreme base?

Are Republicans so desperate to get a real candidate that they will simply ignore the feelings of the rank-and-file? For example, I'm sure that the average tea party attendee will have a hard time digesting Leinenkugel's declaration in November that "Wisconsin is a great place to do business" and his support for the stimulus and high speed rail. It all runs totally contrary to their folklore.

3. Will a tea party candidate enter the picture in the Republican primary to stand for the the things that they purport to believe in?

UPDATE: Not exactly the best start to a campaign...already being panned by some conservatives and using a state phone number as a contact for a campaign website?

Walker's Crumbling County

UPDATE: Now the MJS is reporting that Walker was warned back in 2008 that work needed to be done on the Courthouse...as per his usual approach, he kicked the can down the road at a much higher long term cost to taxpayers (in money and safety). Milwaukee County First, Illusory Tenant and Jim Rowen already have a few observations posted on this news.

We need a Folkbum in Congress

Visit Jay's campaign blog and join his effort to unseat Paul Ryan. Apparently he is getting so much traffic on the site, that his fundraising and email sign up pages are shutting down servers. BREAKING: Just when Jay had them right where he wanted them, he suddenly ended his campaign. Sadly Jay confirms that all of the rumors were actually true.

Neumann Joins the Bag Scott Walker Campaign

In an email to supporters on Monday, the Mark Neumann campaign brags that they are gaining momentem while Scott Walker is losing it. They base this on poll numbers from the Wisconsin Phony Research Institute (WPRI). That part of the email message wasn't all that interesting to me however. What did catch my attention was the direct shot that they took at Walker over his phony recycled brown bag gimmick. The email included the following comment:

"the Walker campaign's love of expensive fine dining and other meals that don't come in the made-in-Ohio Brown Paper Bag we see on TV."

Zing! It looks like Mark Neumann has officially become a member of the Bag Scott Walker campaign.

Limestone Keeps Falling on My Head...

I happened by the Milwaukee County Courthouse yesterday and saw that scaffold had been erected on several sides of the building. Today the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting on a measure which is meant to protect people from large pieces of limestone falling off of the courthouse.

Obviously I knew about the incident earlier this month, but what I didn't know was that it was a 20 pound piece of limestone that fell off of the courthouse. According to today's story it fell and shattered on impact with pieces flying as far as the 10th street parking lot. I wonder if any Milwaukee County vehicles were damaged from the debris? In any case, we are lucky that it happened when people weren't standing in the area.

Another thing that was made abundantly clear from today's story (if it wasn't already) is the fact that Scott Walker's administration has significantly cut funds for things like regular maintenance. Not just of the courthouse but of nearly everything. The MJS story reports the following drastic reduction of regular maintenance:

The county's budget for maintenance on the courthouse and some other major
county buildings has dropped dramatically this decade, from a high of
$2.2 million in 2001 to $140,000 this year, according to county figures. Actual
spending levels have fluctuated less, staying near roughly $1 million most years
- until last year when spending plummeted to just under $150,000.

Perhaps the money-quote in the story came from County Auditor Jerome Heer who said that the county had taken an unwise "break-fix" approach to maintenance. "The less you spend on preventive maintenance, the more you spend on repairs." The Walker administration's policy of short-term politically driven thinking bringing huge long-term costs is pretty clear. It makes as much sense as not paying to change the oil on your car and opting instead to eventually pay the much higher cost after the engine blows up.

My only question is, when can we expect Walker to hold another politically motivated grandstanding session about the falling limestone?

UPDATE: Milwaukee County First also addressed this issue and they give additional info on other glaring areas of neglect in Milwaukee County.

Big Insurance Bureaucrats Hard at Work

From the Cartoonist Group via Center for American Progress

The Walker Way is to Walk Away

I have been complaining for some time about Scott Walker's neglect and his administration's incompetence regarding the Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division. While individual workers and staff at BHD do a tremendous job, the higher levels of "management" and the Walker Administration have not given them the support that they need. The result of Walker administration incompetence has been disastrous over the years, and a clear and tragic pattern has been developing. Unfortunately the most vulnerable are repeatedly paying the heavy price for it.

In recent months we have seen the reports of sexual assaults of patients and poor conditions that are threatening to wipe out federal funding at BHD. As if these reports were not bad enough, some of the responses by Walker administration officials were contemptible. One of those officials appeared to minimize the sexual assaults by explaining that "this is not a case where there was a fatality or serious injury." One must assume that this disturbing reaction is official Walker administration policy since he took no observable action to correct the record.

Sadly the recent news of sexual assaults is not the first serious problem at BHD. In 2007 there was a 50% rise in assaults on staff. In 2006 the facility was cited by the State after a starvation death and other tragic issues. In 2005 there were preventable drug-related overdose deaths. This is not to even mention some of the budgetary and administrative bungling.

We are obviously witnessing a disturbing pattern of serious problems at BHD and Walker has apparently decided to walk away from them each and every time. When his administration received a letter of concern from a state legislator, he refused to comment and referred it to a county attorney. Maybe Walker is so willing to walk away from these tragic problems because he is worried that his short-staffing and short-funding of BHD will become a topic of discussion. Consider some of the following:

• Scott Walker has repeatedly cut staff at BHD. In 2001 there were 1,053.1 funded position equivalents. In 2008 that number went down to 890.9 and in his 2010 proposed budget he wanted to put it all the way down to 746.7.
  
• Cutting positions like this may play well to his political base, but it is a huge mistake to assume that cutting positions always makes fiscal sense. For example, in 2001 overtime costs stood at $2,807,027 (or the equivalent of 77.5 positions). After all of these years of drastically cutting staff at BHD, actual overtime in 2008 shot up to $4,719,383 (or the equivalent of 87 positions).
  
• One might assume that Walker's constant cuts and pushes to privatize at BHD equals less spending. That assumption would be completely wrong. In the 2002 adopted budget, BHD was slotted to have $136,850,224 in expenditures. In the 2009 adopted budget, that number jumped up to $187,598,123.
  

With a record like that, you have to wonder if there isn't a link between Walker's short sighted politically driven policies and some of the major issues that have occurred repeatedly on his watch. Maybe that explains why he is so willing to walk away, when someone starts asking the tough questions.

Walker Creates Jobs for All the Wrong People

Who can forget Scott Walker promising to end all unemployment in Wisconsin? The problem is that he lacks any credibility on any real job creation. He has done nothing to create real jobs as Milwaukee County Executive. That is until now. Unfortunately the jobs that he is handing out right now are to all the wrong people.

We all know how he used questionable means to send 27 Milwaukee security guards to the unemployment line. We also know that he awarded a contract to foreign-owned Wackenhut, to replace those jobs.

It is bad enough that this private firm has had a questionable history with Milwaukee County (not to mention others across the country). But now it appears that Wackenhut not only had a convicted felon guarding the Milwaukee County Courthouse, but that it also shipped in workers from Chicago and even Florida to replace the newly unemployed Milwaukee workers. So I guess one could say that Walker created jobs in this example, but unfortunately it was for a convicted felon and for people from Chicago and Florida.

Walker also continued his 8 year practice of recycling his campaign operatives through Milwaukee County government on the taxpayer's dime. Walker promised to eliminate cronyism back in 2002 but then he immediately began perfecting it. Capper draws our attention to a current example: Tim Russell who apparently got a promotion that may have included a $50,000 $2,500 raise.

Walker has been kind enough to repeatedly find taxpayer financed jobs for Russell, even if he wasn't qualified. Walker must really like Russell because he also pays him big bucks to work on his campaigns. Leading up to the 2008 race for county executive, Walker's campaign shelled out a $10,000 payment to Russell. Wow, Walker is really delivering a lot of cash to this guy! Sometimes courtesy of taxpayers and sometimes courtesy of Republican sugar daddies.

So maybe we can now admit that Scott Walker has created a few jobs this month, unfortunately it has been for all the wrong people. Sending more Milwaukee workers to the unemployment line while hiring felons, out-of-state workers and giving $2,500 raises to political cronies doesn't seem like the kind of jobs plan that will play well with the public.

UPDATE: It looks like we can now add Ohio to the list of out-of-state workers for which Scott Walker has created jobs.

Chuck Todd Out Reporting Wisconsin Media Via Twitter

It happens every election cycle, so we should really be use to it by now. Tommy Thompson ever so slightly flirts with the Wisconsin media and they dutifully respond by running front page stories about it. This little game apparently goes beyond just Thompson flirting directly, because the Wisconsin media also treats polls conducted by Thompson cronies as legitimate news. The Thompson-obsessed Wisconsin media has defaulted to substance-free reporting on anything Tommy related.

I couldn't help but notice NBC News correspondent Chuck Todd out reporting the Wisconsin media and doing so by way of a simple Tweet.

Will Tommy Thompson, if he even runs, be the SEN candidate who has hardest time
running against #hcr? http://bit.ly/9WFTOr

Chuck Todd's link points to a difficult issue that Thompson will have to face on health care reform, if he actually decides to run for anything. Although Republicans and their extreme base are attacking health care reform largely based on the individual mandate, many of them "forget" that this was also a big Republican idea. In fact a Miami paper actually cites Tommy Thompson, when he was working for George W. Bush, as promoting the idea himself. I wonder if Tommy's support of individual mandates would play well with the tea party types?

Thank goodness we have Chuck Todd's 140 character reporting to rely on! How else are we supposed to find out about these kinds of important and deeply relevant issues? Obviously, when it comes to Tommy Thompson, the Wisconsin media is leaving the heavy reporting to Chuck Todd and his Twitter account.

Not All AG’s Abuse Their Office

J.B. Van Hollen may be ok with repeatedly abusing his office for partisan pandering, but the vast majority of AG's around the country are refusing to waste taxpayer's money on political stunts. The latest example comes from Kentucky.

Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway announced yesterday that "he will not file a lawsuit against the federal government in trying to refuse the legislation." "I do not intend to use my authority as Kentucky Attorney General to sign our Commonwealth onto a health care lawsuit against the federal government, because I will not waste taxpayer dollars on a political stunt," Conway said. "Trey Grayson's gimmick may be good 'tea party' politics, but it's based on questionable legal principles," Conway said, referring to the Secretary of State's request that he file a lawsuit.

Update: Another AG refuses to abuse his office with JB-style political pandering. Despite threats and heavy political pressure, Georgia AG Thurbert Baker said, "I cannot justify a decision to initiate expensive and time-consuming litigation that I believe has no legal merit."

ht: Wonkroom at Think Progress

Get Your Hands Off My (Health Care) Tax Credit!

I don't have much time to blog this week, but I had to take a moment to defend my own economic best interests. I only have time to say one thing about all of this talk by extreme right wingers (and those that pander to them), about "opting-out" of health care reform.

Get your hands off my (health care) tax credit!

Unlike pandering politicians, many of whom have been on taxpayer financed healthcare for a very long time, I struggled through almost all of 2009 trying to find health care coverage that I could afford. I had to settle for something that cost too much and did too little. The historic new heath care package that became law yesterday has a ton of benefits, but one that stands out to me are the small business tax credits. That includes tax credits of up to 35% of premiums that are available right now and 50% beginning in 2014. Oh my goodness, I must be a socialist for wanting to take advantage of tax credits!

The benefits don't end with sizable tax credits for small business. There is something to help nearly everyone that has been genuinely struggling to afford decent quality health care. So get your hands off their health care benefits!

• Seniors get rebates to begin closing the Medicare Part D "donut hole" and no more co-payments under Medicare for preventative services.
  
• No discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions (first for kids then for adults starting in 2014).
  
• No more dropping people that have insurance just because they get sick.
  
• Free preventative care under new plans.
  
• Health insurance exchanges for individuals seeking insurance.
  
• Temporary high risk pools for uninsured with pre-existing conditions.
  
• A new investment in both community health centers and in increasing the number of primary care doctors.
  
• Allowing young adults to stay on their parents health care plans longer.

Like I said at the outset, I don't have a lot of time to blog this week, so I'll have to stop listing the many benefits of reform. But you get the idea. As long as the public starts realizing some of these benefits of reform, they are going to join the chorus. The quicker that these and other benefits start reaching the people, I think that they will tell grandstanding Republican politicians to, "Get your hands off my healthcare!"

Who Is Tommy Really Working For?

Walker Only Turns Light On For Friends

On Thursday Scott Walker's campaign put out a press release touting his alleged views on open government. It was an interestingly awkward release, especially since only a week earlier a reporter was questioning his handling of an open records request. I know about this because the specific open records request was one that I filed back in June. A funny thing happened on the day that the reporter called. Finally, after a 9 month odyssey and hundreds of dollars, Walker's people finally mailed the remaining records.

The original price tag that the Walker administration put on open government was over $1,100. All because I wanted to examine his emails, calendar, expense and other records...all public records and all things that should be accessible to the public. I have learned that, depending on who you are, the Walker administration is perfectly willing to make access to public records cost/time prohibitive.

It appears that the Walker administration only values "sunshine" if you are a political ally. In late 2007, Citizens for Responsible Government asked Walker's Administrative Services division to provide a large amount of accounts payable records. In less than one month CRG was charged ZERO dollars for a disk containing information for 188,000 transactions. Last year, in a separate request from the one cited above, I submitted a comparable request within the very same division. I was charged $200 and it took over three times as long as it took to cater to Walker's friends.

Last year even an anonymous request was given preferential treatment from the Walker administration. Some shill for Walker's endless campaign for higher office sent a request directly to his official email. In it they asked for a copy of an email that was sent to Walker's office by our friend Capper. They also asked for any letters of response from the Walker administration. That request was not even signed by an actual person, only by "ScottforGov.com". That request was processed and the documentation sent via email in less than two hours. Not to mention that the Walker administration chose to waive all fees for the extra special service. What makes this even worse is that Walker's cult at "ScottforGov.com" got the response to Capper even before the Walker administration bothered to get it to Capper himself.

I am certainly not the only open records requestor to have problems with Walker's open records obstruction. They have a long history of trying to keep the "wrong people" from public records. Back in 2004 the David Riemer campaign submitted an open records request to the Walker administration. They were trying to learn if Walker had kept one of his original promises: having "at will" employees sign pension benefit waivers. When the Walker administration received this request and realized that they had failed to keep that promise, they ran around trying to get as many waiver signatures as possible. When they finally did send records, it was only a listing rather than copies of the actual waivers (which would have shown the dates of the last minute signatures). Riemer later filed an open records complaint with the Wisconsin Department of Justice who had some of the following choice words for the Walker administration's open records games:

"In sum, this episode evinces a case of how government officials ought not to do business...Nobody honored to serve in public office ought to manipulate public records in this fashion -- that is the opinion of this office."

Although Walker's policy positions change with the wind, it seems that his approach to open records has not changed at all.

Levels of Phony: To Infinity and Beyond!

I don't know if this is a deliberate strategy or what, but the level of hypocrisy and phoniness coming out of Scott Walker's campaign seems endless. It is almost too much to keep up with and recent events are taking it to a whole new level. Just consider some of the more recent examples:

The phony brown bag campaign. Not only was it a total knock-off on someone else's 1998 gimmick but it is an attempt to rebrand Walker as frugal, when reality points to the exact opposite. Look at his campaign's big-spending habits, look at the increases in spending in his own proposed budgets, look at him breaking a 2002 promise by giving himself a $50,000 raise in 2008.

It is certainly worth noting that Mark Neumann is the latest Republican to hold a double standard on the federal stimulus, but for anyone associated with the Walker campaign to complain about hypocrisy on this issue is really quite shameless. Walker has been on so many sides of the federal stimulus issue (often at the same time) that he should just stop talking about it all together, much less attacking someone else for inconsistencies. If he is going to talk at all about the stimulus, perhaps he should finally answer the question about what he would have done without it.

You can tell that Walker and friends were on the defensive recently because they moved their phoniness into a dangerously high level. Claiming that you are going to end all unemployment in Wisconsin and then attacking strong efforts at job creation is bad enough. But to attack those efforts because one of your campaign sugar daddies didn't get to benefit from it is pretty disgusting. Then going on to attack a bid system that you yourself helped put in place is really quite remarkable.

Several months ago I warned that Scott Walker is like a slippery salesman that will say and do anything to promote himself, no matter how shameless. Recent events have not only verified this point but they have actually shown us that he is willing to go to uncharted levels of phony to advance his political career.

Phony Brown Bag Filled with Phony Rhetoric

Last month I pointed out that Scott Walker's latest political gimmick, the brown bag lunch campaign, was a total knock-off on something that was done in 1998. In fact Walker's phony brown bag gimmick is almost an exact copy of the 1998 version, complete with a template letter from the candidate's wife. Today the Associated Press is reporting on Walker's shameless recycling of other people's ideas. Walker's recycled brown bag campaign is bad enough, but he will need a lot more than a brown bag to hold all of the phony rhetoric that he is spewing out during it.

The entire premise of the recycled brown bag campaign is that Walker is supposedly a tightwad with money. It may be hard to make that pitch to the public when both recent news and his past record totally refutes the fake image that he is trying to create of himself.

• Walker paid the New Hampshire-based direct mail consultant (that helped him recycle the brown bag gimmick) SCM Associates some $336,000 last year according to the new AP report. It certainly doesn't sound like the Walker campaign is "brown bagging" it when it comes to buying recycled political gimmicks.
  
• Over the weekend, the AP also highlighted how much of a big spender Scott is on the campaign trail. According to that report, Scott Walker's campaign has spent $25,000 on meals at restaurants. Some of those bills included $2,182 at Middleton's Ruth's Chris Steakhouse and $805 at Timmer's in West Bend. Perhaps I'm not cultured enough to know, but I don't think that his kind of fine dining usually comes in a brown bag.
  
• If Scott Walker is such a brown bagging spendthrift it certainly doesn't show in his official capacity either. He broke a campaign promise that he made in 2002, giving himself a $50,000 raise in 2008. In addition, his spending based on his own proposed budgets has increased 35% during his time as county executive.
  

Whether it is his latest campaign gimmick or his actual record as county executive, there aren't enough brown bags to hold the many levels of phony rhetoric flowing from Scott Walker.

Walker Officially Owns the Incompetence

Milwaukee County First is again calling for some accountability at Milwaukee County's Behavioral Health Division. In fact, they are again calling on Scott Walker to finally fire his appointee that "runs" the division. While there are many frontline workers, project managers and professionals doing great work at BHD, the upper levels of management are doing them no favors. Back in November, after yet another scandal involving BHD's upper management, I commented that someone must own the incompetence related to that division. I also said that if Scott Walker didn't take some kind of substantive action that he ultimately would have to take ownership of it. Having seen no signs to suggest otherwise, it appears that Walker is perfectly content with the situation. As far as I am concerned, Scott Walker now owns the incompetence at BHD.

Where do you even begin talking about all of the terrible things happening at BHD on Walker's watch?

• In 2006 you have starvation issues and overdoses that brought serious warnings from State and Federal regulators.
  
• In 2007 you have a 50% increase in assaults on staff.
  
• In 2008 and 2009, the privatized security force at BHD went way over budget (so much for privatization being a silver bullet).
  
• In late 2009 you have the Walker appointee at BHD failing to do timely due diligence and throwing the entire county's budget into near chaos.
  
• Now you have sexual assaults at the Mental Health Complex for which you have been cited and now risk losing $60 million in federal funding?
  

Walker can be held accountable for this terrible track record because he has chosen not to hold anyone accountable himself. On the other hand, maybe Walker isn't holding the appropriate person accountable because he is that person. It seems that a very good case can be made for how his politically driven budgetary policies have helped foster the tragic conditions that we have witnessed at BHD. Consider some of the following data taken directly from the 2003 and 2010 proposed budgets:

• Scott Walker has repeatedly cut staff at BHD. In 2001 there were 1,053.1 funded position equivalents. In 2008 that number went down to 890.9 and in his 2010 proposed budget he wanted to put it all the way down to 746.7.
  
• Cutting positions like this may play well to his political base, but it is a huge mistake to assume that cutting positions always makes fiscal sense. For example, in 2001 overtime costs stood at $2,807,027 (or the equivalent of 77.5 positions). After all of these years of drastically cutting staff at BHD, actual overtime in 2008 shot up to $4,719,383 (or the equivalent of 87 positions).
  
• One might assume that Walker's constant cuts and pushes to privatize at BHD equals less spending. That assumption would be completely wrong. In the 2002 adopted budget, BHD was slotted to have $136,850,224 in expenditures. In the 2009 adopted budget, that number jumped up to $187,598,123.
  

Not only should Scott Walker own the tragic problems that have been happening at BHD on his watch, but he should also have to fully answer for how his politically motivated policies have helped foster the complete breakdown in the first place.

And I Thought T-Wall was Tone-Deaf!

A few weeks back I was saying that Terrence Wall was totally tone-deaf, but it looks like someone else wants to join him.

Tommy Thompson has been a D.C. lobbyist making big special interest bucks ever since he left the the Bush Administration. The other day he couldn't even name all of the special interests that he serves. As if he wasn't entrenched enough, now he is going to headline a fundraiser at a big D.C. lobbying firm? Is he really planning on running against Wall and Westlake? If he is, does he really think that this is the best way to kick it off?

Capper Captures Walker's Words

Capper at Cognitive Dissidence posted this screen cap, which was taken from Scott Walker's 2002 campaign website. The first of his three big promises was that he would "reduce the salary for the County Executive position by $60,000". It was $128,820 (MJS, 4/5/02) when he took office and now it is $129,611. Not only is that not a decrease of $60,000, but it is actually an overall increase.

Capper does a great job of pointing out that even though Walker did send $60,000 back to the county from 2002-2008, he still stood to gain a large bundle if his pension benefits were based on the official salary ($128,820-$129,611). So did Mr. "pension reformer" reform his own pension or did he try to grab as much cash as possible (behind the scenes) while he was posing for holy pictures?

Speaking of inappropriately posing for holy pictures, Walker made his very first ad about his 2002 campaign promise to give back $60,000 of his pay each year. Quite an odd thing to focus on when in 2008 (during the worst part of the Great Bush Recession) he arbitrarily decided to stop keeping that promise and gave himself a $50,000 raise. All the while, he was cutting important programs and sending other county workers to the unemployment line.

Walker ran this ad first because he is worried about his slippery words and broken promises on this issue. He should be worried and he clearly is trying to get out in front of it. Most people don't care how big you smile in a political ad if you are, at the very same moment, being captured by your own phony words.

UPDATE: Walker's first ad has now received some national attention, but I'm not sure it was in a good way.

I'm so glad that they cleared that up!

Yesterday former Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Capitol bureau chief Steve Walters asked Scott Walker for some specifics. He did it in a Wisopinion piece titled, "Walker promises -- so many questions, so few answers". Not only did Walters press for specifics on Walker's baseless promise to end all unemployment in Wisconsin, but he also asked Walker for specifics on some of his other empty rhetoric. That was yesterday and now today we finally got the "big answers" from the Walker campaign.

Today the Walker campaign put out a press release entitled, "They said it couldn't be done". When I saw this press release, I assumed that this was in response to Walter's questions for specifics. I was actually very interested in reading Walker's (lack) of reasoning behind the grandiose promises that he made at WMC. To my dismay, there was not one single specific detail listed in the press release. Not one piece of data to support any of his pretend promises. The entire press release is just a re-listing of his campaign's empty talking points, gimmicks and slogans. Then it links to a YouTube video that just repeats the same stuff, but never shows us the numbers or data behind the empty rhetoric.

Sorry Steve, it looks like you are not going to get your answers after all. It looks like the Walker campaign is determined to just recycle campaign gimmicks, repeat the same talking points, and ignore all of the real questions.

Has Klauser Lost His Influence with Tommy?

Since May 2009 I have periodically asked if GOP big-wig Jim Klauser was losing his influence in the Republican Party. It started when he (recruited?) got behind Mark Neumann and went on a media blitz that stepped on Scott Walker's official announcement. He was met with a stiff dose of reality and must have realized that this was no longer the Republican Party of old. Essentially the far right wing "patients" had taken over the Republican "asylum". It took a while but once he fully realized this fact he switched sides in the Republican primary for governor. Since then he has taken on a key role for the train wreck that is the Terrence Wall candidacy. Assuming that Klauser wont bail on yet another candidate, I can't help wondering if he is trying to keep his old friend Tommy out of the race while so many others are trying to get him in it.

Jim Klauser served in all sorts of roles for Tommy Thompson. He has been described as a close friend, key campaign advisor, and Secretary of Thompson's Department of Administration. Some actually referred to Klauser as a "shadow" or "second" governor while he was serving Tommy. So with all of this long history, what are the odds that Jim Klauser can fight back the sea of D.C. special interests (aka "all the right people") that are trying to convince Tommy to run? If he is unable to keep Tommy out of the Republican primary, does that mean that he has even lost influence with Tommy Thompson? Who would have thought?

This will certainly be a big test for Klauser, when you consider the special interest cash and influences that have taken over Tommy for the last several years. Let's face it; Tommy hustles for so many big D.C. special interests that he couldn't even remember all of them the other day. I guess the key question here is will Tommy listen to Jim Klauser or to special interests like Verichip? If Tommy eventually sides with the special interests does that mean that Klauser has even lost his influence with Tommy?

Walker Tries to Transfer Transit Blame

Once again, Scott Walker is trying to blame someone or something else for his failed policies in Milwaukee County. This time it is after a report that Milwaukee County transit ridership plunged to a 35 year low. Walker's response was predictable as he placed blame elsewhere. This time it wasn't an actual person or entity, this time he played the economy card. While the economy certainly could have played a role, it is no wonder that Walker ignored the other contributors that have made the problem so much worse.

This isn't the first time that ridership levels have plunged to historic depths on Walker's watch. The last time was before the Great Bush Recession, so placing blame solely on it now is just a weak attempt to transfer blame. Perhaps Walker would like to forget that 2007 was also a record breaking year for MCTS plunging ridership numbers. Again, that was before the Great Bush Recession and it was at the same time that transit systems nationally were soaring to a 50 year high. No, these latest numbers can't be laid at the feet of the economy alone. One can't seriously address this problem without addressing Walker's short-term thinking on transit. Short term thinking that totally ignores the devestating long term consequences that it breeds.

Scott Walker has proposed eliminating routes, raising fares or a combination of both in almost every budget that he has ever proposed as county executive. Those kinds of short sighted polices have consequences, and we started seeing them dramatically in 2007. Now we are seeing that they got even worse in 2009. There is no mystery here. The analysis of the historic 2007 ridership drop and the current drop both focus on the role of constantly rising fares and cuts in service.

In 2008 the Public Policy Forum released a study focusing on the desperate state of the MCTS. In that study they found a direct correlation between route cuts, fare increases and dramatically reduced ridership. They found that during years when there was no fare increase, the average annual ridership went up by over 184,000. They also found that during years of fare increases, average ridership numbers went down by an amazingly high 2.1 million.

Although all of the available data shows a very clear connection between raising fares and losing ridership, Walker continued his flawed short-term thinking on transit. In fact he tried to step up his short term thinking by inventing brand new ways to charge riders such as his proposed transfer fee. Not only did he continue the bad policies but he even went out of his way to create more. Not only did he promote these proven ridership killers but he did so at a time when people were already struggling to survive the Great Bush Recession. Walker may try to transfer his self inflicted transit problem, but eventually the truth will become one route that Walker just can't cut.

UPDATE: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel later reported that the current ridership plunge in Milwaukee County was more than twice as fast as the national average.

T-Wall should spring for a campaign tutor

Since Terrence Wall is a multi-millionaire, he shouldn't have much of a problem springing for a tutor for his campaign. Blogging Blue shows us exactly why such a tutor is necessary. One of T-Wall's underlings posted a blog citing U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and absurd comments that he made against having an up or down vote on the final version of health care reform legislation. As Blogging Blue has already pointed out, Hatch himself has repeatedly voted for bills that were passed through reconciliation. In fact his comments are being easily panned all over the place, the only thing that the T-Wall campaign had to do was care enough about the facts.

Maybe the staff at Team Pumpkin are too busy trying to figure out how to explain their candidates' tax issues or maybe they are too tied up in trying to keep Tommy out of the race to focus on accuracy. Since they are clearly too busy to study or fact check their own talking points, maybe T-Wall should spring for a campaign tutor or someone else to do their homework for them. For now, I will do them the favor of suggesting some good reading for the subject at hand. Who knows, maybe they will post a correction later.

First T-Wall and Company may want to review the long list of times during the Bush administration when Hatch and the Republicans passed bills through reconciliation. Even a conservative has described how Hatch has tried to entirely redefine words just to fit them into his list of talking points. Yet another observer explains how Orrin Hatch must think that you are stupid, if you believe his absurd arguments. If T-Wall and Company would rather just read one item on this issue, they should take a look at E.J. Dionne's column which hits nearly every point on why Republicans current rhetoric on reconciliation is a "big lie".

For all I know, T-Wall and Company are visual learners. Just in case that is the situation, I will provide this great presentation of the facts on Orrin Hatch, health care legislation and the Republican hypocrisy on reconciliation.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Wait! Is that a Socialist Rope?

From the Cartoonist Group, Via the Center for American Progress

Imaginary Jobs Count but Real Ones Don’t?

We already know that Scott Walker has a severe case of rhetoric-reality syndrome but his recent comments on jobs demonstrate just how severe it is getting. First he announces that he is going to create 250,000 jobs and completely end unemployment in Wisconsin. It is pretty clear that this number is based on nothing and was concocted somewhere in the depths of the Walker's imagination. Only days after making his grandiose promise, he proceeded to send 76 more people (that had real jobs) to the unemployment line. Based on Walker's comments to WISN TV, he apparently thinks that these jobs didn't count and were not real since they were in the public sector (by the way, what does that say about his job for which he gave himself a massive raise in 2008?). So 250,000 imaginary jobs count but 76 real jobs don't?

So if Walker is declaring that only private sector jobs count as being real, then why does he want to stop the investment in things like high speed rail in Wisconsin? Just today, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting that the train manufacturer's plant development would help bring as many as 1,000 jobs to Milwaukee. That number doesn't even include the jobs that will be created by them doing business with various area suppliers. So what is Walker's criteria for determining what counts as a real job? These are private sector jobs aren't they? Then why is he fighting the effort to create them?

If jobs generated through public investment and public-private partnerships don't count as real jobs, then what does that say for Walker's "Milwaukee County Works" (government) program? Walker's program itself is funded largely by the federal stimulus, and back in December Walker was talking about how his (government) program "jumpstarts job creation". So using Walker's latest line of reasoning, does he even consider his own program to be actually generating real jobs?

It seems that Scott Walker is going to treat the jobs issue just like he has treated the stimulus issue. He apparently plans to come down on every conceivable side of the issue (sometimes at the same time) just to hedge his political bets. In the end, Walker's imaginations about higher office are costing real people real jobs and that is a real problem for all of us.

Bringing Bus-Style Security to the Court House?

A large portion of the 76 working families that Scott Walker is sending to the unemployment line are experienced courthouse security personnel. Walker couldn't privatize that important work in his budget so he apparently has opted for a back door approach. He tries to privatize services, gets shot down, then develops a sabotage-based budget. When it inevitably explodes, he claims the emergency rule and lays off and/or privatizes the jobs that he wanted to in the first place. At least that seems to be the drill that I have observed over Walker's time in office. This time Walker plans on replacing the experienced workers with new people from Wackenhut. It will be interesting to learn more about the bidding process (assuming that there was one) for choosing this firm, because they have not had the best relationship with Milwaukee County in the last number of years.

For a number of years Wackenhut has had a contract with Milwaukee County to provide security services for its transit system. When assaults on buses started generating a ton of bad publicity, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke began publicly questioning the services that Wackenhut was providing. In 2007 Sheriff Clarke was so concerned about Wackenhut's level of service that he sent a letter to Scott Walker asking for an audit of the county's $1 million-a-year contract. In the letter Clarke stated that his office had to use its own personnel to address security problems on the buses. The hope was for Clarke to turn this extra security back over to Wackenhut after some order was restored but Clarke commented:

After nearly two years, we have not been able to turn this over to Wackenhut, not because we haven't established an acceptable amount of order, but because we fear that we will have to come back due to Wackenhut's mismanagement.

The story that reported on Sheriff Clarke's letter interestingly notes that Walker "could not be reached for comment…"

As reports of violence on Milwaukee County buses appeared to increase, there were no observable acts of leadership by Scott Walker. His lack of action was somewhat surprising given that his political ally, Sheriff David Clarke, had urged him to act on this public safety issue. The incidents were having a real impact on the image of the Milwaukee County Transit System based on the results of an internal MCTS opinion poll. The poll found that 14.6% of residents in 2008 felt that personal security on the buses had become worse. That was much higher than the 3.8% that felt that way in 2007.

Finally after no observable action from Scott Walker, the Milwaukee County Board passed a resolution calling for an audit of Wackenhut's performance in providing security for the MCTS. That internal Milwaukee County audit was completed in early 2009 and seemed to confirm many of Sheriff Clarke's concerns. The main take away from the audit was the fact that the private security force was spending only 3% of their time actually on the buses. According to the report, this was contrary to their original pledge when they first won the contract in 2003. At that time they promised that their security officers would spend closer to 85% of their time on the buses.

Not only did Scott Walker ignore Sheriff Clarke's questions about Wackenhut's level of service, but now he has decided to use them to replace courthouse security veterans? Is it smart to reward a questionable record with an entirely new contract and more responsibility? I know that it might fit Walker's rigid ideology and political goals, but someone should ask if it is smart to bring Wackenhut's bus-style security to the Milwaukee County Courthouse.

Tommy Doesn't Know Who He Works For

To refresh Tommy's recollection, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin has provided an extensive list of special interests that Tommy has worked for since becoming a big DC insider.