Attacking LGBT Families Nets Nothing for Walker

True to form Scott Walker has been pandering to the most extreme elements of the right wing. This kind of thing seems to happen every time that he approaches any election (especially one for governor). One of the groups that he apparently has been trying to court are those that have a sick obsession with gay people.

Last year Scott Walker vetoed an effort to treat the families of all Milwaukee County workers equally. Actually the measure sought to simply study the idea of allowing domestic partners to have access to the same benefits package as everyone else. Walker claimed that his veto was about money but everyone knew that it was really about blowing a right wing dog whistle. This year he also said that if he were elected governor he would oppose the state’s domestic partner registry and any benefits for the same-sex partners of state workers.

What has Walker's pandering on this issue really brought him? Well, in the middle of a heated primary, Walker's flirting with the gay-obsessed has done very little. Today the PAC for the loudest gay-hating group in Wisconsin issued their endorsement for governor. They endorsed both Scott Walker and Mark Neumann. Perhaps it is not a major surprise since Neumann did say that he wouldn't hire a gay person and if he were "elected God" homosexuality wouldn't be "permitted".

Appling and Co. must have not received the Walker/Republican Party of Wisconsin memo. They were supposed to fall in line and endorse the coronated candidate. Even after all of Walker's anti-gay extremes they still didn't pick him over his primary opponent. But I would guess that his running to the extreme right on this issue certainly hasn't helped his image with fair-minded independents. I would suggest that Walker's pandering on this hasn't just been a net loss but it has also turned into an epic FAIL.

Walker's Open Records Games are Costly

Today Dan Bice reported that Scott Walker's administration has charged Milwaukee Supervisor John Weishan $2,800 to fulfill and open records request. What did Weishan get for that price tag? Four meaningless sheets of paper and a list of Walker employees according to the report. What makes the open records obstruction even worse is the fact that Walker's office didn't really provide the supervisor with the actual records themselves. Apparently he was only given summaries of Internet surfing done by Walker and his underlings. Naturally that summery was also produced by Walker workers.

Scott Walker has a long history of obstructing open records requests from political opponents and other people that he perceives as adversaries. I have some personal knowledge of that fact. But more specifically, Walker has been caught before not giving the actual records requested but rather producing some doctored data instead.

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). Quite simply it wasn't what Riemer asked for in his request. 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."

As I concluded when I chronicled my own Walker open records odyssey several months ago: "Although Walker's policy positions change with the wind, it seems that his approach to open records has not changed at all." Walker's open records games are not just costly to the requester, but they are also costly to any sense of open government in Milwaukee County.

Lessons from a ND Wind Farm

Last week I spent some time visiting friends in the Dakotas. One interesting thing that I enjoyed seeing first hand was the significant investment that North Dakota and its various partners have made in clean energy. Specifically they have developed multiple wind farms across the state to harness an asset of which they have an abundant supply.

Google took notice and in May announced that they were investing $38.8 million into two of these ND wind farms. Just those two alone are set to produce 169.5 megawatts of power which is enough to power some 55,000 homes. North Dakota's entire population is about 640,000. Add to those numbers the power currently coming from the other wind farms in the state and you have a wealth of clean power being generated. So much so that North Dakota actually exports some of this clean energy.

I got a close up look at the wind farm in Edgeley, ND. I had just a few general observations after having actually been near the 800 acre site. Although I didn't expect them to be small, I was a little surprised at just how large the turbines were (330 feet from top to bottom). Another interesting note was how the wind farm in Edgeley has apparently been accepted by the town. In fact, in 7 years it appears that they have become a big part of the town's identity.

As I was admiring North Dakota's use of wind power, I couldn't help but think back to my own state and similar efforts that are just getting off the ground . I wondered what lessons might be learned from the North Dakota wind farms that might benefit Wisconsin's pursuit of clean energy technology. I also couldn't help but hope that as this industry continues to expand that all of these wind farms will be serviced by the new turbine manufacturing company that will be locating in the City of Milwaukee's Menomonee Valley.

Walker was where we thought he'd be...

Three Cheers for the City of Milwaukee!

I was out of town last week (which is why there was no blogging) and the night before coming back home I heard about the deluge that was hitting Milwaukee. The first news that I got was from a relative that was watching my home while I was gone. They informed me that I had water in the basement. Later that evening there was a power outage at my home and I had difficulty communicating with that relative, which was maddening. (Thank goodness I didn't see this video until after I was home!)

Viewing the press conferences held by City of Milwaukee officials online was certainly encouraging. It was very clear that all aspects of city government from the Mayor's office to first responders, public works and health department officials had all risen to the occasion. In addition to online access, it was also helpful to get useful information from city officials doing interviews on national outlets such as the Weather Channel.

By the time I got back home and after the City sewer system was able to catch up, nearly all of the water in my basement had already gone down the floor drain. After cleaning out the basement and tossing things that had been damaged I called the City and their clean-up crews picked the stuff up only a handful of hours later.

Although there were certainly tragedies as a result of the flooding, there were also positives to take away from the experience. Neighbors helping neighbors and City of Milwaukee officials and workers showing that they are both ready and able to respond to emergencies in our community. Our tax dollars hard at work when we need it most.

Public Safety as a Photo Op

What you see in this photo is vintage Scott Walker. Always looking for a shameless photo op and always reading from the same shameless and politically calculated talking points. Unfortunately for him, anyone with the slightest desire for facts, will rightly roll their eyes at his gimmicks and reject his phony rhetoric. The latest example came yesterday at a press conference about public safety.

At the press conference Walker again read from the same old talking points. "I'm a crime fighting superhero". The only problem with Walker's posturing on public safety are the hard numbers that his administration has generated while he has been county executive. Once again the Walker rhetoric does not match the reality of his record.
Consider the following:

In the 2002 Budget there were 1,125.3 funded position equivalents for the Sheriff. In the 2009 budget that number was down to 952.9 (Walker’s recommended budget would have brought it down to 946.0)

In the 2002 Budget there were 638.1 funded position equivalents at the House of Correction. In the 2009 budget that number was down to 486.0 (Walker’s recommended budget would have brought it down to 482.0).

Even Walker's political ally Sheriff David Clarke described Walker's budget as a "patchwork" and promised that he would have to release 120 inmates and reduce freeway patrols.

Then there was Walker's privatization scheme which brought this guy to supervise security at the Milwaukee County Courthouse.

As Capper has repeatedly pointed out, Walker's disastrous policies at the Mental Health Complex have also generated problems for local municipalities and their police departments.

Who could forget Walker's screw up that ended in a full 8 days of furloughs for Milwaukee County public safety officers?

Line of the Week: Feingold Campaign

“Ron Johnson doesn’t understand that when you’re in a hole, you stop drilling."

-John Kraus, a senior strategist for the Feingold Campaign.

Why Didn't Johnson "Just Say No"?

Even his fellow Republicans seem to be stumped over his vacillating positions on what should have been a clear cut issue.

Maybe it had something to do with his Big Investment in BP and Big Oil in general.

Suffering from Walker Whiplash?

I'm officially diagnosing Scott Walker's most devoted followers with what must be a blinding case of Walker Whiplash. The condition is caused from watching Scott Walker quickly change his positions the moment that he thinks that it will benefit his endless campaign. The latest example is his pledging today to sign a repeal of the statewide smoking ban even though he said only four days ago that "it was too early to seek exemptions to it." What prompted this latest Walker equivocation? It was his Republican primary opponent Mark Neumann's declaring that he would work to repeal the new law. Neumann took a harder right wing position on the issue and suddenly Walker had to change his original position to match it.

I know that my head is spinning from all of Walker's sudden changing of direction. What is worse is that they just keep coming faster and faster the closer that we get to the fall elections. I can't imagine what it must be like to be a hard core conservative that actually cares about right wing ideological purity only to be subjected to this Walker Whiplash. This is only the latest example of Walker changing positions depending on his political calculations. Consider this small sampling of his sudden flip-flops:

• He said "no thanks" to federal stimulus funds but then used those same funds to plug multiple holes in his Milwaukee County budget for this year. With an even bolder level of hypocrisy he began trying to take credit for programs that were funded by the federal stimulus.
  
• He supported concealed carry legislation but then voted against similar legislation just before running for Milwaukee County executive. Now that he is running for governor (again) he is suddenly for concealed carry again.
  
• He originally surprised me by seeming to second guess Arizona's troubling new immigration law. But in less than 24 hours and after catching hell on his Facebook page, he changed direction on that issue.
  

The only real way for the right wing to avoid a continual case of Walker Whiplash is to finally demand some consistency from him. It would be refreshing to see those that claim to admire absolutist stands on right wing issues to actually force him to take a position and actually stick with it. And I mean stick with it regardless of what his primary opponent does or how the political winds change. I hope that conservatives will finally hold him accountable for his continual policy and position changes. Such a self-correction would bring a welcome relief to all of us.

Is Priebus Dilusional, Dishonest or Both?

The last time we talked about RPW Chair Reince Priebus, we highlighted his email about the "total unity" around Michael Steele and how he was "kicking ass" in DC. We now know that his assessment on that dysfunctional situation was completely wrong. Earlier this week Reince decided to give us an encore performance of being embarrassingly wrong.

On Tuesday the Republican Party of Wisconsin churned out a press release in which Reince falsely accused Senator Russ Feingold of being "silent" regarding the Bucyrus effort to obtain U.S. (big-government)Export-Import Bank approval on an important project. Had the RPW or Reince been the slightest bit interested in reality they would have known that Senator Feingold was very involved in advocating for Bucyrus. His involvement wasn't limited to gimmicks like running inaccurate political potshots in the paper. Maybe that is what threw Reince. Senator Feingold along with Governor Doyle, Mayor Barrett and most of Wisconsin's congressional delegation, did the actual work of advocating for Bucyrus.

Reince and the RPW's dishonest/delusional (take your pick) attacks were so far off base that it brought about a public correction from the Bucyrus CEO, Tim Sullivan. Obviously even he felt the need to set straight the RPW falsehoods. In an open letter to Reince, Sullivan said some of the following:

"Senator Feingold sent two separate letters to Chairman Hochberg of the U.S. Export-Import Bank in support of the loan guarantee...In addition, Senator Feingold reached out by phone...Bucyrus has been fortunate to have elected officials from both sides of the aisle, including Senator Feingold, working to persuade the U.S. Export-Import Bank to provide loan guarantees..."

About that Deficit...

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities produced the above chart to help show the major contributors to the current federal deficit. The chart accompanies the latest installment in their ongoing series, "Economic Recovery Watch". I certainly hope that those feigning sudden outrage over the federal deficit will be first in line to call for an end to the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. After all, as far as contributors go, it is second only to the two wars.

UPDATE: It looks like Ron Johnson has "no opinion" on the massive portion of the federal deficit that came at the hands of George W. Bush. Yet in his latest commercial he bemoans the idea of "unsustainable debt and spending". Which is it Ron? Or maybe your values vacillate depending on the political party of the president.

ht: Daily Kos

Another Example of "Total Unity"

In April I blogged about an email that a Wisconsin Republican sent to RPW Chair Reince Priebus. The email was an inquiry about his trip to Washington D.C. If you recall, his response to the email was the following:

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

My April blog posting was a reaction to a rapid fire series of RNC controversies, which seems to be the hallmark of Michael Steele's tenure as RNC Chairman. Now only a couple of months later we have an entirely new example of what Priebus calls "total unity".

Recently Steele was caught on tape blaming President Obama for the war in Afghanistan and essentially saying that it is a failure and that it should have never been fought in the first place. Not only has Michael Steele apparently forgotten who was president when the war was first launched but he has also ignored years of Republican declarations and positions about the war. His caught-on-tape moment has brought with it another round of Republican "total unity" dramatics.

Here are just a handful of relevant "links" that spell out the current situation:

Top Republicans Pile On Steele, Call for His Ouster
McCain calls Steele's remarks on Afghan war 'wildly inaccurate'

Liz Cheney joins calls for Steele to step down as leader of the RNC

Republican Senators Denounce Steele’s Remarks

Happy Fourth (Unless You're Unemployed)

Just before leaving town, two of Wisconsin's most extreme and out-of-touch representatives in Congress voted against extending unemployment benefits through November. Naturally those two were Paul Ryan and F. Jim Sensenbrenner. Two guys that have never had to seriously worry about how they were going pay their most basic bills and take care of their family.

In an era when being Republican means party line votes and saying "no" to everything, it was actually quite remarkable that 29 of them actually voted "yes" to further help those that are struggling. This fact pushes Ryan and Sensenbrenner even further to the extreme corner that most of us already know that they occupy.

Ryan and Sensenbrenner's votes not only show that they have zero interest in struggling Americans but it also reveals their tendency to put rigid ideology over actual results. A study from the Congressional Budget Office ranked unemployment insurance as the most effective form of economic stimulus.

While they attend Fourth of July events, someone should remind them that there is nothing patriotic about sitting in the lap of luxury while causing further misery for a struggling working class.

One-Time Exception or New Walker Policy?

Although he appears to have been brought kicking and screaming, it looks like Scott Walker has decided to go forward with an emergency check of Milwaukee County buildings. The suggestion was first made by Milwaukee County Chairman Lee Holloway shortly after the tragedy at the O'Donnell Park parking structure last week. Perhaps the most surprising thing about this development is the apparent change in Walker policy on putting safety above cost.

When commenting on the emergency plan to check the safety of Milwaukee County buildings, Walker admitted that he didn't know what it was going to cost to pay the private contractor that he plans on using. He remarked that "public safety must come first" and that "money can be moved around to insure that safety remains a priority." It is really too bad that it took a tragedy to convert Walker to such a preventative approach.

He certainly didn't use that approach when he was warned about necessary maintenance at the courthouse. Ignoring those warnings thankfully didn't end in injury as limestone crashed down to the sidewalk. Walker also didn't apply this new safety before cost approach to Milwaukee County's Mental Health Complex. After years of cuts in funding and in staff, there is an entire menu of safety issues out there. The latest one involves an unexpected $15 million price tag for taxpayers.

If Scott Walker would have exercised a safety-above-cost approach from the beginning perhaps he wouldn't be in this current unstable situation. Right now he doesn't know what the cost will be to have a private firm come in on an emergency basis to do these building inspections. Perhaps if he wouldn't have decimated the Architectural, Engineering and Environmental Services division in the first place, we could already be confident in the county's buildings or at least in the cost to properly inspect them. It would have largely been a built-in and already budgeted cost as opposed to the current expensive guessing game with a private contractor. Consider the following and how Walker's new approach may have changed things:

• In the 2002 budget the Architectural, Engineering Environmental Services division had 70.4 full-time equivalent positions. In the 2010 budget there were only 36.4 such positions remaining.
  
• Investments in that division have gone down from $7,339,513 in 2002 to $6,703,375 in 2010.
  
• Both a Milwaukee County audit in December and a Public Policy Forum analysis last October offered some brief but important commentary on the divisions' staffing issues and its impact. I wonder if these reports have anything to do with Walker's apparent nervousness about audits?
  

Considering his past policy and budgeting you can imagine a much different situation had he employed his new policy from the very beginning. There is no doubt that a long-term safety-before-cost approach would have provided some stability today. We would be talking about a solid public investment rather than an unknown private price tag after the fact. The only remaining question is whether the current Walker response is a one-time exception or if it is new Walker policy?

Waiting for Wall's Second Epistle

I don't think that anyone was expecting the interview that former Republican U.S. Senate candidate Terrence Wall gave to WTDY. In it he accused establishment candidate Ron Johnson of everything from paying off people at the convention to tampering with convention voting. After hearing Wall's comments I assumed that it was just a moment where his emotions got away from him and that it was probably the end of it. Clearly I was wrong because now Terrence Wall has gone into even more detail by writing a small epistle about a RPW "culture of corruption".

Wall's latest blistering attack on Ron Johnson and the RPW establishment that cornated him included all kinds of new accusations. They include some of the following:

Hiring away Wall's direct-mail vendor

Trying to hire away Wall staff at the convention at "above-market compensation"

Party officials ordering Wall staffers to vote for Johnson at the convention

A Brown County official ignoring his county's rules which called for "no endorsement".

People being given their ballots back and told to vote for Johnson.

People allegedly asking Wall supporters "what do we need to give you to get you to switch your vote?"

A man with a woman's credentials trying to vote.

People that were upset about the way the convention vote was handled but being silenced.

Swiping Wall ballots so that they were never counted.

A misinformation campaign on the convention floor.

Wall being threatened that if he ever wanted a "career in politics" that he would remain silent about the alleged activities at the convention.

The piece ends advising the readers to "stay tuned" because Wall has more to tell next month. He promises that it will be a more "humorous edition" but something tells me that the RPW and what Wall describes as "kingmakers" don't find any of this to be very funny. If the recent endorsements of David Westlake are any indication, it looks like the Tea Party doesn't find much of this funny either.

As for me, given the remarkable accusations in this first Wall epistle, I will certainly be waiting for the second (regardless of its humor quotient).

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.