Casting Pearls Before Swine

On Monday the Public Policy Forum (PPF) posted an item on its blog that it categorized as "PPF Pearls". The item used the millions of dollars that are now needed to correct problems at the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex as an opportunity to make a larger point. The point being that PPF made several budgetary suggestions last year for Milwaukee County and very little (if any) of them were ever used.

One of their suggestions which they featured in Monday's blog posting was the following:

"The Forum's 2009 budget review recommended establishment of an independent entity - along the lines either of the independently elected city comptroller or the state's Legislative Fiscal Bureau..."

The PPF idea is certainly worthy of note but it is not the first time that such a suggestion has been made. Very early in Scott Walker's tenure as County Executive, a special commission made a very similar recommendation. In Bruce Murphy's 2005 piece, "The Great Imposter", he reminded us that Walker had all but ignored that very same reform-minded suggestion.

I will personally look forward to more "PPF Pearls" but I hope that they don't expect Walker to enact any of them. To borrow a convenient biblical idiom, if the past is any indication, proposing real reform to Walker is like casting those "pearls before swine".

Someone Find the Voter Fraud Task Force!

Thanks to Terrance Wall and his recent allegations, we may have a new "voter fraud" investigation involving Ron Johnson! Where is J.B. Van Hollen and Milwaukee County ADA Bruce Landgraf when you need them? They seem to chase any and every "voter fraud" allegation, both real and imagined. I seem to recall that they were the primary forces behind the "voter fraud task force" launched in 2008. Seems like we may have had a "voter fraud" incident right here in Milwaukee County, at the RPW convention. Quick! Someone find the task force! (or Batman...whoever responds first)

Ron Johnson's New Policy Advisor?

Last week I tried to pin down the small and rather odd list of policy positions held by Ron Johnson. Now this week we are learning where he may be getting some of his off-the-wall ideas. On Wednesday, Johnson's hometown paper reported that he played a major role in bringing controversially extreme right-wing author Charles Murray to town.

Murray co-authored the book, "The Bell Curve" in 1994. One of the more infamous claims of the book includes the idea that genetic differences between blacks and whites account for poor performance by African-American students. Murray has also suggested that some kids should simply not be encouraged to go to college.

Assuming that Ron Johnson ever gives us an actual policy position on education, I'm eager to examine it for Murray's influence. Depending on what we find, we may have to assume that Charles Murray is Ron Johnson's newest policy advisor (assuming that he actually has anything other than political handlers in the first place).

Walker's Record of Obstruction Continues

It is a shame that a sitting Milwaukee County Supervisor may have to take legal action to obtain county information from Scott Walker's office. I am certainly not surprised at Scott Walker's obstruction on open records requests. He has a long history of playing all sorts of games with any requester that is not a close ally. Consider some of the following examples:

In 2004 Walker's opponent for County Executive, David Riemer, requested signed pension waivers of all "at-will" Walker employees. When the request was made, Walker didn't have many of the waivers signed even though it was one of his original promises. He proceeded to stall Riemer's request and dealt very deceptively with it. The full truth wasn't learned until after the 2004 election and it resulted in a complaint with the Wisconsin Department of Justice. That complaint led to a nasty letter from a DOJ attorney which commented saying the following:

"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."

I have personal experience with Walker's obstruction as I have outlined in a previous blog posting. Last June I submitted an 8 part open records request of Walker's office. It took several months to even obtain the first few applicable records. The real outrage was that it took 9 months and an inquiring reporter to motivate them enough to finally produce the calender and email record portions of my original request. As they are trying to do with Supervisor Weishan right now, they charged hundreds of dollars for the privilege of finally being able to inspect public records.

Just last week One Wisconsin Now put out a press release suggesting that the Walker Administration is apparently stonewalling one of their open records requests for his pension records.

And now we have him blocking a sitting Milwaukee County Supervisor from obtaining Milwaukee County records. Maybe a lawsuit is the only remedy at this point. Maybe it will be the only cure to Walker's record of obstruction.

Aside: Compare the above pattern of obstruction to the Walker Administration's responding to an open records request from the now defunct shill blog, ScottforGov. The request was not even signed by an actual person, only by "ScottforGov.com" (an actual name may not be required on an ORR but this still seems very strange). Their request last year was handled originally by the same Walker staffer that resigned because of her political blogging on county time. I can't help but wonder if that had anything to do with the fact that ScottforGov's request was fully processed for free in about 2 hours? When I think about it that way, maybe the Walker Administration does legitimately have something to fear from Supervisor Weishan's open records request.

Flipping the Script

Zach at Blogging Blue put together this clever take on the recent Republican Governor's Association attack ad. I love it when people flip the script like this!

I'm Sensing a Theme Here...

It seems that Ron Johnson is part of some strange right wing club. The membership of that club is apparently required to hold very extreme and rather odd "policy" positions. They apparently are further required to hide and otherwise dodge the legitimate media. I wonder if someone in Wisconsin's media can give Johnson the same grilling that his fellow club member received in Nevada recently?

WMC Prez for a Day

Last week we learned that James Haney, President of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) plans to retire. I instantly thought that it could be an opportunity to chart a more constructive course. Under Haney WMC has essentially ceased to be an organization that really represents the best interests of Wisconsin business. On his watch it has become little more than the sugar daddy arm of the Republican Party.

All of this made me think of what I would do if I were WMC Prez for even a day. Some of my immediate plans might include some of the following:

Shut down the WMC's "Issue Mobilization Council" which spent approximately $4 million to buy two seats on the State Supreme Court in 2007 and 2008. They have also spent massive amounts trying to sway other elections in other years.

Invest that money in a program with a laser-like focus on Wisconsin entrepreneurs that bring new technologies and ideas to the table. Maybe it involves grants for training programs (perhaps partnering with the Department of Commerce which is already doing something similar) or maybe it involves grants to help worthy projects develop their technology or idea. Maybe the grants could help already established businesses grow or expand in ways that are critical to their success. The bottom line is that the current partisan slush fund could be put to much more constructive use.

Pardon me, but could we focus a bit more on actual small business? I know that the typical WMC idea of "small" comes from some special dictionary in an ivory tower somewhere. I'm talking about actual small businesses here. Think of "mom and pop" shops around the state. They could use more attention from an org the purports to represent them.

Its legitimate to lobby for and against specific pieces of legislation, but WMC should make sure that their messengers and the message is equally legitimate. All too often both have been little more than an expensive exercise of hyper-partisanship. Perhaps we could start by focusing on a major issue where there could be constructive compromise and collaboration rather than focusing on rigid ideology and isolation.

Speaking of rigid ideology. I would put a select group of WMC's research/policy folks on probation until they have proven that they can do their work based on facts and data rather than running every single thing through a hard right filter.

And the most important change. I would ban all WMC employees from wearing bow ties on company time.

For all I know, WMC could be doing some of these things already. If they are then they should be doing more of it and making it even more visible. While Haney has been in charge, WMC has been increasingly known for one thing, electing Republicans. That has to change or they will eventually lose all relevancy. They are not the only game in town anymore. There are newer biz orgs that are focused on actual ideas and solutions rather than hyper-partisanship. If I were WMC Prez for a day, it would look a lot more like New North and la lot less like Mr. Burns.

Ron Johnson's Odd Collection

Early on Ron Johnson admitted in an interview that he was still working on his policy positions. As I recall, he would only commit to supporting "freedom" at the time. Now we are starting to gather quite an odd mix of policy positions from Ron Johnson. Here is the list that I have so far:

Favors Drilling for Oil in the Great Lakes
We Shouldn't Pick on BP
He is glad that there is global warming
He was one of only a few private citizens to testify against the bipartisan Child Victims Act
Supports the Patriot Act and Real ID but only when a Republican is President
Supports massive unfunded federal mandates (see his support for Real ID)
Praised Russ Feingold for opposing Wall Street bailout
He is willing to take away new protections for children with preexisting conditions

That is one heck of a list of policy positions, no wonder he is trying to avoid real questions from both the media and from Tea Party people. With such an odd collection, its no suprise that even the RPW chair didn't want to talk about it.

UPDATE: Illusory Tenant reminds us that Johnson also supports teaching creationism.

So When Can We Officially Ignore CRG?

I personally started ignoring Citizens for Responsible Government (CRG) shortly after they were hijacked by partisans that had an almost creepy infatuation with Scott Walker. But it doesn't really matter when I first started disregarding them. The real question is when will the media finally look at the CRG for what they really are? When will the media start disregarding their hyperbolic attempts for publicity, their self serving actions and their blind infatuation with Walker?

Consider just a short list of their willful blindness regarding Walker:

When Scott Walker kept and even promoted aides that were very close to Tom Ament why didn't they go on the warpath? Even when two of those aides stood to get the same big-time pension payouts that caused all of the outrage in the first place? [MJS, 4/18/2004]

When Scott Walker broke his promise of having "at-will" employees sign waivers to refuse lavish pension benefits, where was CRG to hold his feet to the fire? Walker didn't even make an attempt to get those waivers until after David Riemer filed an open records request for them.

What about the 2007 pension scandal that happened five years into Walker's watch? Where was CRG then?

Where was CRG when Walker broke a campaign promise by giving himself a $50,000 raise?

Where was CRG's fake concern about government spending and tax increases when Walker was proposing budgets that increased both categories by 35% and 18% respectively?

You get the idea. Being phony (not to mention self serving) seems to be in the DNA of CRG. It seems pretty clear to me that their primary reason for being is to help advance the political career of Scott Walker. So I guess it makes perfect sense that they would seek to silence what is probably his most determined critic.

CRG filed a complaint with the Milwaukee County DA claiming that our friend Capper, who is a county employee, was doing political blogging while at work. Again with the phony...where was CRG when a longtime Walker staffer was caught doing political stuff on the job? That activity was in support of her boss's political campaign and appears to have taken place directly from his office!

We don't even know if their allegations against Capper are true. If you look at the response that Folkbum posted on this topic, it appears that the alleged dates are either furlough days or days that Capper had off. Folkbum was able to determine this by spending 5 minutes on Google. Was CRG so eager to silence a Walker critic that they didn't bother doing the slightest bit of due diligence?

I don't know exactly what is going on in the DA's office about this but if CRG ends up being proven wrong (as the above item suggests), are they going to publicly apologize? Are they going to do the RESPONSIBLE thing and reimburse taxpayers for the time and resources that were used by the DA's office? Those questions are important but perhaps the most important is what else do they have to do to lose all credibility with the media? When can we collectively and officially start ignoring their mania?

UPDATE: Also read Illusory Tenant, Brew City Brawler, and Haas 414 on this issue.

Pretend Plan Won’t Absolve Past Policy

While Scott Walker has been Milwaukee County Executive, it seems that every year or two there is another preventable tragedy at the Mental Health Complex. As Walker's irresponsible budget/staff cuts have had time to sink in, those tragedies have expanded.

There was a starvation death, a near starvation and the facility receiving the most serious citations possible by the state.

A 50% increase in assaults on staff.

We now know that preventable sexual assaults occurred which threatened federal aid.

A Walker BHD appointee's screw up put the entire county budget into near chaos.

In 2010 (so far) we have at least two long lists of code violations, safety and other issues. Now we are learning that it could cost Milwaukee County taxpayers some $15 million.

These tragic results really shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. You only needed to look at Walker's politically motivated policies to see what was coming.

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.

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).

I have to imagine that all these overtime costs helped contribute to greater long-term spending. 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.

I imagine that Walker and his political cronies are in full damage control mode right now. In the coming days I fully expect him to make some sort of announcement hoping to deflect attention from his never ending mess at BHD. Hopefully the media will not forget one key question: How can we trust any Walker "plans" to correct his problems when his policies helped cause them in the first place? Sorry, a pretend plan will not absolve your past policies.

Stunt Wars: Neumann vs. RPW

I attended the Democratic Party of Wisconsin's convention in Middleton over the weekend. I am no expert on political conventions but I enjoyed most of it. Although there were several entertaining moments I have to highlight what I sense is only the first installment in an ongoing Republican production of what I'm dubbing "Stunt Wars". This initial episode involved the Republican Party of Wisconsin vs. their Republican nemesis Mark Neumann.

I don't know who first thought up the rather desperate stunt of showing up at the Democratic Party's convention but both Mark Neumann and the RPW tried to grab some attention that way. On Saturday Mark Neumann showed up with his wife and two supporters (whose identity I don't know). Most people knew about his stunt before it happened so he was greeted and surrounded by Tom Barrett signs. He was allowed to answer questions from the media and he also openly engaged with some of the individuals that surrounded him. Maybe I missed it but he didn't appear to have a handler of any kind trying to control the situation. As a result he was in all of his extremist glory, not appearing to recite a prepared script. After engaging a bit, he went on his way.

It seems that every day brings new revelations of the internal war going on between the Republican Party of Wisconsin establishment and Mark Neumann and his (tea party?) base of support. So I guess I shouldn't be surprised that they would try to out-stunt each other at the Democratic Party's convention.

A couple hours after the Mark Neumann stunt, RPW Executive Director Mark Jefferson showed up with a handler. The only people that seemed remotely interested in Jefferson's (already used) stunt were a few reporters and a few bloggers. Jefferson read his canned talking points in response to any and every question. He made zero effort to actually engage anyone in a substantive way and it appeared that his handler was there to ensure that he didn't get thrown off his script.

After both rather desperate stunts were over, it was clear that Mark Neumann's gained much more attention in every aspect. In fact I had a hard time even finding a few media reports on Jefferson's script reading session. So if we have to declare a winner in the first episode of Stunt Wars, you have to give it to Neumann.

As a public service, we will continue monitoring the Republican Stunt Wars as they are surely going to increase in number and in levels of absurdity.

Wisconsin Weekend Events Abound

This weekend the Democratic Party of Wisconsin will hold its convention. I will be there attempting to break the world record for passing out business cards. If you are not attending, you can check out the various speeches at the link above.

Once again on the very same weekend, Wisconsin's LGBT community will be celebrating at Pridefest. The headliners this year will include Kathy Griffin (Friday), Patti LaBelle (Saturday), and Joan Rivers (Sunday).

Oxymoron of the Day: WMC Optimism

Using the words "WMC" and "optimism" in the same context is moving very quickly up my favorite list of oxymorons. I discovered this very rare usage today in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The story reported the results of a survey of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce board of directors and members. In unprecedented fashion they actually showed some optimism for a change.

WMC has been notorious for constant negativity and the bashing of Wisconsin's business climate. They are also a major force behind the entire "tax hell" myth, even as Wisconsin's rankings have gone way down under Democratic Governor Jim Doyle. The lowest tax rankings in 49 years in fact. Remarkably, a majority of those surveyed identified the effects of the (Bush) economic downturn as their number one concern (44%) as opposed to taxes (19%) and regulation (16%). A full 45% said that they planned on hiring over the next 12 months. Again, these are large companies that are members of WMC, not just companies in general. Given where these numbers are coming from, I find them remarkable. WMC and (slight) optimism, who would have thought it was even possible?

Now for a survey of one. Given its record of being the sugar-daddy arm of the Republican Party, I fully expect WMC as an organization to flip on these latest survey results as the political season continues to heat up. It simply isn't in their narrow political interests to be optimistic about anything going into a political season. So you can expect them to go right back to the Republican "Party of No" playbook: doom, gloom, negativity and general bashing of Wisconsin.

But How Will Walker-Neuman Pay for It?

From One Wisconsin Now

Klauser to Tea Party: Fall in Line!

Former GOP big-wig Jim Klauser must still fancy himself the kingmaker of the Republican Party of Wisconsin. All of the former Klauser-haters like right wing talker Charlie Sykes are now pointing to his latest open letter. One of his first open letters came last year when he wrote about how much better Mark Neumann would be as a Republican candidate. Now he is promoting an open letter to Neumann telling him to basically shut up and fall into line. Neumann's big sin appears to be two-fold: 1. Staying in a close race after the party bosses have already coronated Scott Walker and 2. Using Walker's own record of phoniness against him. Not only is Jim Klauser commanding Neumann to fall in line behind Walker, but he is also by extension saying the same thing to Neumann's supporters.

During the RPW convention, I commented that the throwing of non-establishment candidates under the bus could very well backfire. In this case, Mark Neumann is clearly running an insurgent campaign within the Republican Party. The most passionate elements that will vote in the Republican primary are probably tea party people. Many of them also categorize themselves as insurgents. Naturally, Neumann has made a huge play for their support and as far as I can tell he has made significant progress since last year. I would suggest that this is the reason that the polls have tightened in this primary.

I certainly don't claim to be an expert on the Tea Party movement in Wisconsin, but I think that they have a focus on being ideologically pure. Those that actually compare Scott Walker's rhetoric to his actual record can't help but want a right-wing alternative. But the RPW and party bosses like Jim Klauser are not having it and they are actively trying to eliminate those choices. I can't imagine that those barking orders from the Republican establishment play particularly well with folks that have already expressed their frustrations. I would suggest that the harder the Republican establishment pushes the true right-wing believers, the more likely the strategy will backfire.

If They’re Cooked Numbers, Then Walker’s the Chef

Republican candidate Mark Neumann took what was probably his most direct shot at Scott Walker thus far in the primary. Today he held a press conference right outside of Scott Walker's official office and exposed him in ways that progressives and Democrats have been doing for months and even years. Finally he called bogus on Walker's rhetoric versus reality on government spending.

Walker responded by saying that Neumann's numbers were "cooked". If I were Neumann I would say, "Oh Yeah? Well if they are cooked you were the chef Scott!" The reason that this is the perfect comeback is because it is simply the truth. The numbers that Neumann is using are Scott Walker's numbers from Scott Walker's own proposed budgets.

I've been harping on this for many months now, along with many others. Every year that Scott Walker has proposed a new budget it has included more spending. In his budget for 2003 he proposed $1.1 billion in spending, for 2010 he proposed $1.5 billion. Sorry, those are his numbers and the last one is 35% larger than the first one.

This is certainly not a news flash, but for me responsible spending increases are not a problem in and of themselves. In fact I look at it more as an investment in the common good. The problem here is Scott Walker's breathtaking dishonesty and the willful ignorance of the cult that follows him. You can't rail against government spending while increasing it every year. At least you can't anymore.

So while we are talking about Walker and cooking, maybe he should also fix up a full serving of crow. His phony rhetoric just wont fly for much longer.

UPDATE: Scott Walker tried to present a weak "fact check" of his own numbers yesterday. Essentially he is saying "yeah but if you don't include this part of my spending increase the number goes down." Yeah, and if I don't include my mortgage payments, my spending level goes down dramatically too! In making this argument Walker actually invokes the fact that he has taken advantage of Recovery Bonds which came courtesy of the federal stimulus. Too bad Mark Neumann has his own stimulus-related hypocrisy to worry about or he could capitalize on yet another opening that Walker has given him.

Honoring Everyone's Sacrifice and Service

LGBT members of the armed forces have served and sacrificed for our country throughout our history. This Memorial Day those that have followed in their footsteps are much closer to serving proudly, openly and without fear.

Out-of-Touch: Johnson’s Preexisting Condition

Ron Johnson received his coronation by the RPW elites over the weekend but aside from his reciting of tea party bumper stickers and slogans, he has shown very little in the way of actual public policy. He admitted as much on several occasions saying that he was still working on his actual positions on the issues. One of the places that he recently made such an admission was on Mark Belling's radio program. In fact his only real attempt at discussing policy revealed not only that he is light in that department but also that he is totally out-of-touch with average Wisconsinites and the struggles that they face.

When talking about what made him enter the race he said the following:

"Well, I can tell you well first of all the theme of my campaign will be freedom. Okay, that's the main reason I'm running is freedom, and the trigger point, the straw that broke the camel's back from my standpoint was the passage of ah the Health Care Bill—ObamaCare, and the assault on freedom that that thing represents."

When asked by Belling if he is really ready to run for office he responds with the following statement and what appears to be an unrelated personal story:

"I believe I am. But let me tell you just one other thing about a motivating factor here Mark in terms of health care. My, my, my first child was a daughter and she was born with a very serious congenital heart defect that required major surgery to reconstruct the upper chamber of her heart. Now what I had to do was I had to call up around the country to find the most advanced medical treatment for her. Now the good news though, I'll skip ahead, she now is a twenty-seven year old woman and she is a nurse in a neo-natal intensive care unit herself."

So let me see if I am getting this straight. He has a child that had a very serious pre-existing medical condition yet he wants to "repeal" protections for nearly 100,000 kids in Wisconsin with pre-existing conditions that could otherwise be denied health care? News flash to Ron Johnson! Most of those 100,000 Wisconsin children don't come from families with multimillion dollar fortunes to pay for their medical care. If you include all Wisconsinites under the age of 65, the number of people with preexisting conditions swells to over 1.1 million. The health care reform that is now law gives us a much needed level of protection for those people. Ron Johnson wants to take those protections away, leaving both children and adults (who are not multimillionaires) to fend for themselves.

Apparently Ron Johnson doesn't only suffer from a lack of ability on public policy but he is also deeply out-of-touch.

“They Don’t Think for Themselves”

Those were the words of a Dave Westlake supporter just after Westlake was thrown under the RPW bus at their convention this past weekend. Westlake certainly wasn't the only one that was run over by Republican insiders. Delegates also decided the throw Terrance Wall under the bus even after he has thrown a ton of his own money into the race. It looks like the real estate mogul made a bad investment, thanks to the RPW insiders.

The above Republican candidates were only the latest to be thrown under the bus by their own party. That process was started the moment that they decided to break with some 32 years of tradition and coronate Scott Walker right in the middle of a heated primary with Mark Neumann. Not only did the RPW throw Mark Neumann under the bus, but even a number of his followers were kept on the street outside of the convention (presumably so that they could also be run over later).

It is clear that the RPW insiders are trying to hurry up and rally behind one candidate (no matter how flawed) in certain races but not in others. But I have to wonder if they have rushed too fast to coronate some of these people. For example, Ron Johnson has not even figured out his policy positions opting instead to read the same old substance-free bumper stickers and slogans. What policy surprises and gaffes can we expect from him along the way? Has the RPW even taken the time to properly and completely vet him in their mad rush to throw the other Republican candidates under the bus?

In coronating a struggling Scott Walker, the RPW's strategy could also backfire. Mark Neumann's campaign has done much better this year and has actually made more of a race in the Republican primary than many would have thought was possible. Neumann has been successfully making inroads into the tea party and it is hard to throw him under the RPW bus without throwing them under as well. Somehow I don't think that they take kindly to party bosses decreeing that their candidate (and they) should shut up and fall in line. We already know that there is a history of tension between party bosses and the tea party folks.

So now that they have run over many of their own candidates (along with their supporters), it will be interesting to see if the RPW bus backfires or otherwise breaks down along the election year road.

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.

Another Use Found for Walker’s Joyride

Everyone knows that Scott Walker has been on absolutely all sides of the federal stimulus issue (sometimes at the same time). A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel headline said it best when it reported on the hypocrisy of Walker comments in a fundraising letter. The title was "Walker's Stimulus Position Depends on Who He asks". One minute he tells the most rabid elements of the right wing that he will not "feed at the trough" and the next minute he is trying to take credit for programs and investments that were funded via the federal stimulus.

I think that the blog Pretty Important is on to something with a posting yesterday. It tracks some of the communities where Walker is making/has made a stop on his campaign season joy ride. Pretty Important points out the various benefits that have been received via the stimulus in places like Wisconsin Rapids, Waupaca and La Crosse. I agree that Walker should have to explain why those local communities should say "no thanks" to the stimulus dollars. In fact last year I suggested that Walker should have to go on an anti-stimulus tour of the state, doing that very thing. Considering that he is currently on his Rolling Blunder tour, perhaps he can conveniently fold in some chastising of local communities over their acceptance of stimulus funds.

If he really is against the stimulus (even though he relied heavily on it in Milwaukee County) then he should point a judgmental finger in the following directions during the current/next leg of his trip:

• Over $3 million for the School District of Hudson
  
• Over $9.6 million for the Eau Claire School District
  
• Over $30k to Eau Claire-based Badger Truck Refrigeration Inc.
  
• $2.3 million for improving an airport in Oneida County
  
• $12.6 million to upgrade clean water technology in Rhinelander
  
• $1.8 million to the School District of Rhinelander
  
• Tens of Thousands of dollars to several Langlade County farms to promote clean diesel.
  
• $1.8 million to the Unified District of Antigo
  
• Millions of dollars for State Highway, local road and bridge repairs in all of these areas.
  
• Residents in all of these communities that took advantage of new homebuyer tax credits, in addition to the weatherization and the Making Work Pay tax credits.
  

As Scott Walker continues his joy ride to these communities and beyond, he should finally be forced to get consistent on his stimulus position. He should be forced to fully explain why these local communities should have refused those extra dollars for some of their most important projects and investments. Then he should have to explain why he took the same kind of money himself.

UPDATE: Blogging Blue has highlighted additional stops on Walker's Rolling Blunder tour.

What Can $204,000 Buy Me?

Over the weekend the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Milwaukee County has spent $204,000 in legal bills specifically to handle the endless problems at the Mental Health Complex. Problems like starvation deaths, overdoses, massive increases in assaults on staff and now sexual assaults of patients. I'm just wondering what that $204,000 could have bought us if we didn't need it to defend incompetence?

Using this salary report as my guide, I came up with some of the following examples:

Pay a full year's salary for 3.5 Registered Nurses
Pay a full year's salary for 3 Sheriff's Deputies
Pay a full year's salary for 4 new Assistant District Attorneys
Pay a full year's salary for 6 new MCTS Bus Drivers
Pay a full year's salary for 9 veteran security guards
Pay the full median income of 5 Milwaukee County residents

Walker policies regarding the Behavioral Health Division have largely brought us to this place. Cut staffing and budgets, short-term politically motivated thinking, at an unacceptable long term cost. A cost to both taxpayers and unfortunately even to the most vulnerable. This legal expense is just another example of that endless pursuit of short-term gain, coming at a long term cost for everyone.

Afterthought: Since it is highly unlikely that Scott Walker would invest this kind of money in the items listed above, maybe the following are examples that might speak to him more clearly:

Pay for 68 campaign season joy rides across the state.

Pay for 5 members of the Millwaukee County Executive's staff to troll comments sections of blogs and other sites.

Scott Walker by the Numbers

150 Years and Counting (Walker's Bad Policies)

Today the Milwaukee County Transit System is celebrating its 150th. The system has been and is a critical element to economic development in the Milwaukee area. Unfortunately it has been in deep trouble, especially over the last number of years.

An editorial in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on the subject today calls out state officials but conveniently leaves out two key names that should be held to account regarding MCTS. Those names would be Scott and Walker and the politically motivated short term thinking that he brings with him. He has continually cut routes and boosted fares during his time as county executive. The Public Policy Forum produced a study which showed a direct correlation between those short term moves and a rapidly declining ridership. So it should be no surprise that twice during Walker's administration the system hit historic levels of decline in ridership.

Today's festivities will include free riding on Route 15 and the unveiling of a new look for the 90 new Clean Diesel Buses. Most of those new buses come to us courtesy of the federal stimulus that Scott Walker was against and then for (depending on who was asking). In fact, it sounds like a decal or emblem of some sort will be prominently displayed on all of the new buses reflecting the fact that the stimulus bailed out Walker and paid for the much needed new buses. "Thanks for saving me from myself, Mr. President!" -Scott Walker

So while we celebrate MCTS 150th, perhaps we can hold out hope that the system's best days are still ahead of it. A key to that hope will be a County Executive that is capable of thinking about good public policy and long term solutions rather than self promotion and the politically motivated short term. When we get to that destination, maybe we can celebrate by having George Takei back to cut another commercial for MCTS.

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.