Are Privatized Prisons on Walker Agenda?

Phil Scarr at Blogging Blue has been focused recently on what he describes as the U.S. Prison-Industrial Complex.  In a series of blog postings he gave some brief history of the industry and observations on how its growth seems to coincide with bad policy and massively disproportionate incarceration rates.

In laying out his case against privatized prisons Phil also introduced us to the Geo Group Inc. formally known as WCC (Wackenhut Correctional Corporation). It is one of the world's largest private corrections organizations.  He goes on to detail a specific horror story involving one of their facilities and he lists some of the various problems with a profit-driven approach to corrections in general.

The timing of Phil's blog postings on this topic couldn't have been better because I just happened to be examining the official calendar for Gary Hamblin, Scott Walker's Secretary for the Department of Corrections.  One thing that jumped out at me was that he met multiple times with Wackenhut and others.

Here is a sampling of meetings:

• February 9, 2011: Cindy Archer, Bill McCoshen and Wackenhut.
• March 15, 2011: Correctional Medical Services
• March 21, 2011:  A'Viands (food service provider from Minnesota)
• April 28, 2011: Dennis Schuh/Mueller Communications, Mark Schaefer and 3 staff from G4S Wisconsin 

It seems probable that his February 2011 meeting with "Wackenhut" was probably related to Scott Walker dropping his "bomb" on Wisconsin. Reports at the time seemed to suggest that Walker's administration was concerned about a possible strike or other labor unrest involving corrections workers.  That might also explain the presence of Walker right hand Cynthia Archer. However Hamblin also met in late April with "G4S Wisconsin" (purchased Wackenhut in 2002).  Note: Bill McCoshen served in the Tommy Thompson administration at the Department of Commerce and has been a political adviser to him more recently.  He is also the owner of Capital Consultants Inc. and a registered lobbyist.

You will notice that Hamblin and/or a key staffer also met with other private contractors including A'Viands, which was a Scott Walker favorite company in his efforts to privatize food services in Milwaukee County.

Speaking of Walker favorites in Milwaukee County, he was also fond of trying to eliminate public employee security officers positions and replacing them with Wackenhut.  He did this even though they didn't have the best track record with Milwaukee County.  However Walker illegally laid off the public employee security force at the Milwaukee County Courthouse and replaced them with Wackenhut.  Not all of the private workers that he installed were exactly of the best quality including some of the supervisors.

When you consider Scott Walker's knee jerk urge to privatize in Milwaukee County, his history with Wackenhut, his prison fascinations as a state representative and the curious calendar of his Secretary, you have to wonder what he might have in store for the Department of Corrections.  He is already showing his longtime pattern of dysfunction in that department so what comes next? Do corrections officers across the state have anything to worry about? I don't know the answer but given all of the circumstances I would suggest that they remain vigilant.

Tommy and Trouble in the Tea Party II

It looks like DC Super Lobbyist Tommy Thompson is having trouble with the Tea Party again. In fact it seems that the Republican establishment is trying to actually block Tea Party influence at the RPW convention. Apparently "...the Wisconsin GOP is getting ready to disqualify hundreds of tea party activists as delegates to the state convention". Word on the street is that the Republican establishment is worried that Tommy will be embarrassed at the convention.

Jeff Simpson wrote about this here: "The 10 people left in the 'tea party' are going to be mad!" 

Phil at Blogging Blue gave his take here: "Schadenfreude: Tommy Thompson Edition" 

If this drama sounds familiar it is because Tommy had the same kind of strong Tea Party resistance when he sent up trial balloons for a U.S. Senate run in 2010.  Those trial balloons were quickly and embarrassingly shot down.  Do you remember the leaked email from Tea Party leaders? Remember how outraged they were at the Republican establishment attempts to push Tommy on them?

Just in case you would rather have a visual example, here is a video showing the Tea Party disdain for Tommy Thompson. I hope someone is shooting video at the convention if the Republican establishment really does try to silence and otherwise block the "true believers" that they were so willing to use over the last few years.

Forward

Paul Ryan's Ayn Rand-Inspired Heresy

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Is the Ron Johnson Model the New Normal?

In 2010 a rich political newcomer won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Wisconsin.  Ron Johnson went on to avoid tough questions from the media, preferring to instead preach his fundamentalist Ayn Rand Gospel to the already converted.  Johnson married into wealth and certainly used a part of his personal fortune to bankroll his campaign.  The only opportunity most Wisconsinites had to see this political unknown was in his many misleading TV ads.

Now that Johnson has undoubtedly proven himself to be a know-nothing ideologue, you have to wonder if he would have ever been elected had voters known more than what showed up on TV.  You don't have to take my personal assessment of him, check out what some of his own Republican colleagues recently said about him in Roll Call:

“He’s an interesting case study of someone who has talked more than he has listened, lectured more than he has developed relationships with his colleagues, and now he’s having a tough time because of that behavior in advancing his policy goals,” one senior GOP aide said. “It’s kind of like watching a temper tantrum by a 2-year-old in the middle of the grocery store.”

Now Wisconsin is preparing to vote for U.S. Senate again and we have yet another filthy rich political newcomer spending gobs of his own money to get the job.  Like Ron Johnson in 2010, Eric Hovde is using his own personal wealth to flood the airwaves with ads.  Just before Hovde officially launched his campaign it was reported that he would be able to tap his own wealth gained through family real estate holdings, banking and hedge fund management to the tune of $10 million.

Like Johnson, he has not been properly vetted by voters and if he continues using the Johnson model that may never happen.  Right now the only thing that most people know about Eric Hovde is that he keeps giving us the evil eye, wearing white pants and running up stairs. Call me old fashioned but I really think that voters should get the chance to actually know the candidates well beyond this kind of gimmicky TV ad persona.

Hovde's new bio ad tries to make it seem like he is just one of us regular folks. But is it really the "American Dream" to find yourself born into a wealthy lifestyle and then simply use that inherited leverage to add to that wealth? Despite the perception that Hovde's new ad tries to paint I don't know many people that fit his actual real life profile.

• Growing up as a privileged son of a real estate developer that was also an official in the Reagan administration.
• Hedge fund manager that has lived for decades in Washington D.C. before conveniently moving back to Wisconsin just in time to run for U.S. Senate.
• In one 1980's media report he was described as a "Washington D.C.- based S&L industry consultant"
• To this day he appears to buy banks like most of us buy groceries (including bailed out banks, even though he was allegedly against TARP)

Don't get me wrong, we've had many wealthy candidates that have lived privileged lives and some have done outstanding work in public office.  But the problem here is a combination of factors taken as a whole : 

1. An unknown, untested, unvetted and unpredictable candidate 
2. No real policy track record of any kind 
3. Using vast personal wealth to create a fictional TV character. 

That was essentially the Ron Johnson Model to office and I don't want to see it repeated by anyone of any ideology or party.   The growth of this phenomenon should be concerning to everyone of every political stripe.  It may be good for a candidate's own ego, it may be good for their wealthy cronies or for their political party but it is certainly not good for the future of our electoral system or for the governance of our nation.  

Walker Still Treats Public Safety as a Photo Op

Today the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Sheboygan County District Attorney Joe DeCecco called out Scott Walker for his hypocrisy on public safety issues.  While Walker is busy posing for pictures during National Victim Rights Week, his actual policies paint an entirely different picture.   The Sheboygan DA accused Walker of merely posturing on the topic. He specifically referenced the funds that the state cut for the victim/witness advocate programs around the state.

“This critical program, mandated by state statute to be provided by county government, and which provides safety, security and services to victims and witnesses of crimes, has had its state reimbursement fund cut by some $400,000, leaving counties holding the bag without the means to obtain the necessary funds to cover that gap,” DeCecco stated, referring to the ACT 10 prohibition against any county’s raising property taxes. “Once again,” DeCecco said, “county budgets providing state-mandated essential services are nothing but pawns in an Administration’s game of hypocrisy.”

This is certainly not the only public safety issue that Walker has undermined while he has been governor.  Here are just a few other curious actions that don't seem to comport with his PR driven public face on the subject:

• Drastic cuts to shared revenue that have negatively impacted local communities public safety efforts.  For example last year Beloit braced for the cuts and faced a planned reduction of 20.5 public safety positions. Likewise the City of Manitowoc prepared for 8% cuts in both police and the fire departments. The police and fire chiefs were directed to cut nearly a combined $1 million. 
• A year ago almost to the day Walker threatened to overstep his boundaries to layoff assistant district attorneys from all over the state.  At the eleventh hour he relented from his bullying tactics that have long been his hallmark.
• Literally just before Christmas last year Walker announced a new round of cuts including $2.46 million to the Department of Justice and $9.46 million to the Department of Corrections. 

None of this is a surprise to anyone that was paying attention to Walker's horrible record in Milwaukee County.  In fact I posted a blog in 2010 highlighting only some of those public safety blunders.  The title of that blog was "Public Safety as a Photo Op" and it is very clear that Walker is still treating things that way as a dysfunctional governor.

Walker's Inflated Numbers

Scott Walker and his unquestioning operatives are now touting phony numbers of "savings".  The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel legitimized the claims by giving it the front page treatment although there was certainly a curious qualifier in that story.

"But the figures also included a significant amount of savings for local governments that could not be verified."

So it should be no surprise that as local governments and media outlets actually started looking at the numbers, they started finding problems.  The first local fact check that I saw was from the Sheboygan Press where they describe Walker's local numbers as "inflated".   This was the key passage from the report:

The $1 billion figure includes an estimated $1.3 million in savings in the City of Sheboygan, where city officials said the money saved under the budget bill was far less, totaling $420,000. City Administrator Jim Amodeo said the governor's estimate assumes Sheboygan employees weren't previously paying any money toward their health insurance when in fact most were paying 8 to 10 percent. "The savings wasn't everything the governor's office said it would be," Amodeo said.

I would assume that this was just bad research by the Walker administration but it is consistent with a long record of made-up estimates and cherry picked numbers.  Remember the initial Capitol clean-up estimates that the Walker administration claimed? What was it again? Eight zillion dollars? Some in the media dutifully reported the phony number without verifying it in any way. Later we learned that the Walker administration pulled the estimate directly out of their own nether regions. Why would people so willfully fall for a Walker estimate on anything ever again? This should be especially true during the heat of a high stakes election.

There were reports last year already showing the insufficiency of the Walker "tools" for local governments.  We should revisit some of those reports now that Walker is touting the new phony numbers. For example the La Crosse Tribune highlighted the negative (or at least lack of) impact of Walker's "tools" in that region.  Here are some of the highlights that remind me of the exact points made in the Sheboygan Press today:

• The City of Onalaska lost $139,783 (10%) in state payments but they got no savings from the health care cost shift because employees already were paying 20 percent of their premiums.
• In Holmen, employees were already paying a share of their health care premiums that met the state’s new requirement.  In the end the village was left with a $42,231 hole because of Walker's policies. 
• West Salem's only union employees were in the police department and were thus exempted from Walker's "tools".  When comparing their very limited savings versus the loss of state aid, they also lost more than they gained. 
• The Town of Onalaska had only 3 union employees but their contracts lasted until the end of 2012 and other employees worked without pension and health benefits. So Walker's "tools" didn't help them either. In fact they ended up with a net loss when you factor in Walker's drastic cuts to programs like shared revenue.

I think that it is a fairly safe assumption that the Walker propagandists did not drill down to these levels while generating their phony numbers.  I would suspect that these communities along with Sheboygan and many others across the state might also find Walker's made up numbers to be "inflated".

Who is "it" working for again?

Paul Bucher Knows First Hand

It is clear that the right wing must be very fearful of the John Doe investigation involving Scott Walker. In recent weeks they have participated in a clearly coordinated smear campaign against the law enforcement professionals in the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office.

First the smear machine Media Trackers, with their horrible record in tow, complained that a number of employees in the DA's office exercised their constitutional rights by signing recall Walker petitions. It amounted to a few dozen employees out of hundreds of staff including support staff such as secretaries and others. Media Trackers employed their typical innuendo-based tactic, even though none of the people actually working on the John Doe participated in the recall effort. But as is always the case with this smear machine, it isn't about the truth or reality, it is about tainting the opposition at all costs.

Almost on cue came the ever-uptight former Waukesha County District Attorney Paul Bucher. He picked up the Media Trackers smear and carried it further by requesting that the Republican Attorney General take over the John Doe investigation. Remember in the 2006 Republican primary for attorney general? Remember when J.B. Van Hollen told Bucher "you suck"? Well he must not feel much differently because he fairly quickly shot down the absurd Bucher demand.

Paul Bucher would know something about being a truly partisan district attorney.

• While he was DA and starting his Republican run for state attorney general, some raised "serious questions about whether he is capable of separating his political ambitions from his prosecutorial duties". The questions were raised because former Democratic Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager sent him a routine offer of assistance in a case involving alleged illegal campaigning in Waukesha County by an aide to state Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills. In response "Bucher freaked out" sending a "bitter rambling screed" to the AG. Apparently he was more concerned about partisan appearances and his political campaign than utilizing full state resources to investigate the incident. [Capital Times, "Bucher Blows Up", 10/5/05]
• In 2006 an attorney for former Governor Jim Doyle contacted members of the Elections Board regarding a matter pending before them. It involved Doyle's Republican opponent for governor, Mark Green. Paul Bucher inserted himself into that situation by launching an "investigation" alleging possible open meetings violations. The same day that Bucher launched his dead end "investigation" the executive director of the Republican Party of Wisconsin admitted that he also contacted a Republican member of the Elections Board. But Bucher conveniently didn't express the same fake outrage over that development. [Capital Times, 9/23/06]
• In 1996 a recall election was launched against former state Senator George Petak (R-Racine). The Republican Party of Wisconsin asked for an investigation into alleged "criminal wrongdoing" during the recall process (sounds familiar). Paul Bucher dutifully agreed to launch a phony "investigation" into the recall effort. Organizers of the recall described the Bucher "investigation" as a "total waste of taxpayer money." They proved to be correct about Bucher's "investigation". [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 3/15/96]

As you can see from these few examples, Paul Bucher certainly knows about (mis)using a district attorney's office for political purposes. Given his own history, he certainly seems like an odd character to serve as point man for attacking John Chisholm's office and his integrity.

Milwaukee District Attorney John Chisholm is the model example. He is a straight shooter and everyone knows it. As Xoff has already said, "He holds elected office as a Democrat, but is as close to non-partisan as anyone holding a partisan office". There are many examples of his independence including investigating and prosecuting numerous Democrats. I also remember his office taking part in J.B. Van Hollen's "Voter Fraud Task Force" in 2008. Hardly the act of a hard core Democratic partisan and it certainly didn't bring him praise with progressives at the time. But he did what he thought was right at the time, as he always does.

The bottom line: Paul Bucher's wild rhetoric seems to be a classic case of partisan projection.

Terry Moulton on His Jobs Agenda So Far

Walker's Wrong Way at Revenue

Earlier this year the Institute for Wisconsin's Future released a study showing that there are more than $900 million in taxes legally owed to the state but they have not been collected. It also estimated that there are several hundred million more dollars that have not been collected due to misfilings and nonfilings. These figures show that Scott Walker has apparently decided to totally ignore these streams of revenue that are currently and legally owed to the state. He is doing so while at the same time proclaiming that "we're broke" and using that statement as a pretext to make drastic cuts to education, local transit, Badgercare and other critical programs.

When I first started reading this IWF report I assumed that the Walker administration was just simply inept in failing to collect revenues that were already legally owed to the state. However I forgot about the fact that his default positions are equally both short-term and politically motivated. In fact he often remains stuck in that position even if it brings large long-term losses for the government and pain for his average constituent.

The IWF report goes on to provide detailed information that seems to take this issue far beyond ordinary Walker incompetence. Consider some of the following data points:

• Staffing was increased at the Department of Revenue in 2009 and it turned into more collected (already legally owed) revenue for the state in 2010.
• Scott Walker's administration ordered a cutback on DOR's goals for collecting such unpaid taxes. In fact the Walker goal was 10% less than what was actually collected in 2010.
• Under the current (Walker) state budget DOR lost some 52 staffers and a full 80 positions remain vacant.
• In January Walker's administration announced additional budget cutbacks (known technically as "lapses") that will further deplete DOR resources.

Again this comes straight from the Scott Walker School of Politically Motivated Mismanagement. Broadly cut public employee staffing for short-term (largely political) gain. But in doing so, he puts off the longer-term consequences for those actions. In this case that includes hundreds of millions (if not billions) of dollars in uncollected funds that are already owed to the state. The bottom line is that paying for increased staff at the DOR is a smart investment. The additional staffing would not only pay for itself but could help offset other Walker-imposed cuts.

The premise behind the IWF report makes total real-world sense in nearly every way. Unfortunately we no longer live in the real world, we sadly reside in the dysfunctional kingdom of Fitzwalkerstan.

Paul the Butcher

By Matt Wuerker from the Cartoonist Group via Center for American Progress

Media Distractors

The right wing Republican front group Media Trackers exists to unfairly taint the opposition and to distract an already tabloid-prone media. Based on everything that they have done in their relatively short existence, that much has been abundantly clear. It seems that some in the media are finally noticing the pattern of deception employed by Media Trackers while others still blindly promote their smears.

Legitimate news outlets should be referencing Media Trackers record before even considering mentioning them, much less amplifying their distractions. Frankly, their record is rather embarrassing and is filled with little more than innuendo, partisan rush to judgement and willfully negligent"research".

Here are some of their distractions that stand out to me and they should give at least a moment of pause to legitimate members of the media:

The Underage Girls that Weren't: Remember when Media Trackers promoted video of what they described as underage girls signing recall petitions? They even suggested that the African American girls were being compensated with cigarettes. The only thing that they had was video and their own wild speculation. Certain members of the more tabloid-prone media (WTMJ) quickly amplified the innuendo but the claims were quickly and easily proven to be false. Confirming the wild speculation would have only taken an extra layer of research but they were not interested in accuracy, only in distracting the larger media and attempting to taint the recall process.

Trying to Tarnish Senator Taylor: Late last year Media Trackers targeted a vocal Walker critic and major voice in the recall effort, Senator Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee). Once again, the group found enough information to quickly publish a smear on Taylor but not enough to actually make a legitimate case against her. They targeted a property owned by Taylor but run by her mother as a ministry to the homeless. They suggested that there were illegalities because homeless people actually registered to vote and listed that shelter as their residence. They further embarrassed themselves after finding out that one of the residents had been convicted of a felony once upon a time. Again they quickly ran with blind allegations of a felon voting without bothering to check if he was still on paper (he wasn't and was perfectly eligible to vote).

Public Smears vs. Sworn Statements: Another Media Trackers failure was the debunked "BBQ for votes" nonsense. They claimed that a progressive coalition's get-out-the vote effort engaged in "illegal election behavior." They suggested that the coalition exchanged free BBQ for votes. Their star witness to these wild allegations was one of their own staff members. When questioned under oath, he was specifically asked if anyone told him that he had to sign up to vote to get the food. In spite of Media Trackers public statements and vile innuendo on the matter, their star witness under oath was forced to admit that they were essentially baseless. No one ever told him that he had to sign up to vote to get BBQ.

Judicial Commission FAIL: More recently Media Trackers has been engaged in a coordinated effort of intimidation that would have made Joseph McCarthy blush. They have been steadily trying to tarnish anyone that dared to sign recall petitions against Walker. Not long after the Judicial Commission filed an ethics complaint against angry partisan Justice David Prosser, the smear machine went desperately fishing for what they perceived to be dirt on commission members. Again the group rushed to judgement over-hyping what they thought that they found. The group claimed that a number of commission members signed Walker recall petitions and were thus overly-partisan (an absurd argument in its own right). However they wrongly identified one member and the others no longer even served on the commission.

Targeting Walkergate Investigators but with Faulty Aim(s): Now, with cult-like fervor, the smear machine is continuing to target more people that exercised their constitutional right by signing a recall Walker petition. This time they are spewing their vile brand of innuendo at the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office. Once again their efforts are so easily transparent. Something in the Walkergate investigation must have them and/or their funders worried. They have identified several dozen employees, out of the hundreds that work in the office, that signed the Walker recall petition. Some of the people that signed are support staff like secretaries and others. However not a single one of them are actually involved in the Walkergate investigation itself. The group's effort is clearly to taint the Walkergate investigation and the entire district attorney's office.

The pattern with this right-wing smear machine is abundantly clear. Why any member of the legitimate media would even consider citing this group is beyond me. They have repeatedly proven that they play fast an loose with the truth only to serve very narrow and nasty political aims. Apparently they are of the mind that the ends justifies the dishonest means. That kind of relativism is a peculiar approach for people that self-identify as being "conservative" and as having "traditional values".

They call themselves "Media Trackers" but their real goal is to simply be a media distractor.

Got a Prescription from Your Congressman?

By Mike Peters from the Cartoonist Group via Center for American Progress

Tom Barrett February 2011

I hate this...as I said the other day, I have not even made up my own mind about which Democrat that I will be supporting in the primary for Governor. But these unfair smear attacks on Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett are just not right nor are they factual. You should be able to state your case without using these kinds of nasty tactics against another Democrat and a longtime ally.

Yesterday Mayor Barrett understandably criticized the misleading video being sent around about him. The video that provides only one portion of his comments to Charlie Sykes in 2011. It conveniently doesn't include the rest of the context, like when he clearly states that he fully supports the right to collectively bargain.

Reports indicate that AFSCME sent around the edited video and apparently they have sent around yet another email that isn't much better factually speaking. Here is one unfortunate example from that recent email:

“Ask yourself this: Why don’t I remember Tom Barrett’s role during those crucial weeks..."

If the people asking this question can't remember Tom Barrett's role during those crucial weeks, allow me to take you down memory lane.

Tom Barrett Comments on Collective Bargaining February 2011

"The budget adjustment bill pits general City of Milwaukee employees against the fire and police unions," - Tom Barrett [2/16/11]

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett voiced strong support Thursday for the state Senate boycott by fellow Democrats trying to save public employees' collective bargaining rights. [MJS 2/17/11]

"Instead of talking with teachers, nurses, and law enforcement personnel to work together on a solution to our budget crisis, Scott Walker is dividing Wisconsinites by attempting to end the collective bargaining rights Wisconsin public employees have had since 1959." - Tom Barrett [MJS, 2/22/11]

"I fundamentally disagree with the attack on the right to organize," - Tom Barrett [MJS, 2/22/11]

Barrett offered a budget-repair bill alternative that removed the attack on collective bargaining [MJS, 2/25/11]

"It's now clear to us that this is an ideological war, and it's a national ideological war, and the purpose of it is to take away the rights of people who work for the government" -Tom Barrett [MJS, 2/25/11]

"It is time we return to our Wisconsin, the Wisconsin where we can sit down at the table and work out our differences..." -Tom Barrett [MJS, 2/25/11]

Win on the Merits

First let me say that I have genuinely not decided which Democrat I am personally voting for/supporting in the primary for Governor. We have outstanding candidates that have very different strengths, weaknesses and skill sets. All four of the announced candidates come from different situations that can often require different styles of governing. Obviously I will get behind whoever wins the primary 100% but I really don't like some of the tactics that I have been seeing from my own friends and allies this week.

It started with listening to Sly on Madison's WTDY earlier this week. I normally enjoy going to his show's blog and listening to segments of the show. This is especially true because in Milwaukee we have no real alternatives to the right wing madness traveling our airwaves. However this week Sly has been conducting what I view as unfair one-sided attacks on Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.

In several cases both Sly and his guests have rushed to conclusions that are frankly ridiculous. Tom Barrett = Scott Walker? Are you serious? Barrett is "cozying up to Charlie Sykes"?? Because he did an interview with him? Really? Then he and several of his guests reference a very selectively edited video to draw all kinds of absurd conclusions?

I'm not saying that people should not voice their criticisms of Tom Barrett or any other candidate but at least do so in a substantive way. If you want to spend all of your time renegotiating City of Milwaukee contracts, then feel free to focus on that one issue. But in my view this election is much broader in scope and there is far too much at stake for that approach. And if you are going to make that your primary focus, at some point someone should be offered a chance for a rebuttal.

But these over-the-top smears, out-of-context videos and charged hyperbole are really not necessary. Frankly this kind of an attack is something that I fully expect from Republicans. I don't expect it from friends and allies because it is counterproductive no matter who wins the Democratic primary.

By all means, enthusiastically get behind your favorite candidate! Feel free to make your case to everyone that will listen. But please do it on the merits of your case and not by acting like a Wisconsin Republican or by employing their kinds of tactics.

Does Latest Block News Give Them Pause?

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Dan Bice is reporting that the Feds have opened an investigation into Wisconsin Republican operative Mark Block. Reportedly they are interested in Block organizations like Wisconsin Prosperity Network and Prosperity USA. It appears that the investigation is related to the use of those organizations finances and the start of the Herman Cain comedy campaign for president.

As the Bice column and many other people have noted, Block has a history of crossing a few lines. The most cited example is when he served as campaign manager for former-Supreme Court Justice Jon Wilcox in 1997. Regulators accused him of election-law violations and he settled with them by agreeing to a 3 year ban from Wisconsin politics and a $15,000 fine. Now we have this newly reported investigation and I have to wonder what Block-connected Republican front groups, operatives and donors are thinking?

For example our fragile friends at the MacIver Institute have been deeply involved with Mark Block since before they were even fully established as an official right wing spin machine. Based on MacIver's IRS filings Block served on their board as "treasurer" in at least 2008 and 2009. He was still listed on their website as being a board member as recently as November 2010. Heck, the organization is even named after Republican operative John MacIver, someone that a Journal Sentinel profile described as Block's mentor.

One of the Block organizations that is reportedly part of the federal inquiry is the Wisconsin Prosperity Network (WPN). Do you remember the first big story detailing that effort? It was a Mark Pitsch 2009 story in the Wisconsin State Journal. It detailed the right wing plans of creating 14 new Wisconsin front groups as part of the newly proposed Prosperity Network. The story listed the MacIver Institute as the very first entity to be formed as part of the scheme.

As of at least February 2011, MacIver was still listed on the Wisconsin Prosperity Network website as a "networked organization". At that time the WPN website invited people to become a member and "prosperity warrior" by giving $500 in annual dues. The "benefits" of giving to WPN included the following:

Prosperity Warrior benefits include membership in Americans for Prosperity Wisconsin Chapter (AFPWI) and subscriptions to The John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy, First Freedoms Foundation, and American Majority Wisconsin Chapter. Benefits also include complementary admission to WPN regional policy briefings, the WPN annual state briefing, Americans for Prosperity (WI) Defending the American Dream Summit, Tailgate for Taxpayers, annual MacIver Institute Gala Banquet, and a Wisconsin Prosperity Network lapel pin.

I am writing about this as yet another reminder of just how deeply Mark Block has been involved with the extremist right wing infrastructure currently ruining running Wisconsin. And the latest news of a possible federal investigation into Block's various ventures makes me wonder if it gives any of them even a moment of pause?

Fun Fact: This didn't seem to fit anywhere in the actual blog posting, but I noticed that Block's Wisconsin Prosperity Network had a post office box at the same New Berlin post office (53151) that served the MacIver Institute in at least 2008. I'm curious what other right wing Republican front groups have been based in that post office and why it is so popular with them?

MacIver Institute: Delicate Little Flower or School Yard Bully?

Earlier this week I got an email from a Dustin Beilke. I don't know Dustin but it was an opinion column that he wrote about the right wing MacIver Institute. I didn't post it as a guest column on this blog because A. I don't really do that here and B. I didn't have the time to do it properly. But that opinion column did surface elsewhere.

Next thing you know there were reports of people at MacIver disputing things in the column. That is fine, they should do that if they disagree or if they feel the need to correct the record. But at some point it crossed a line in my opinion and became more like bullying of local liberal bloggers and others. I'm hearing that people from MacIver were making both veiled and not-so-veiled threats to drag people into court. People that they know don't have access to the special interest funding that they posses.

With so many old partisan Republican hands over at MacIver, who knew that they would be so super sensitive? Or maybe they are just trying to silence their detractors in schoolyard bully fashion, I can't make up my mind.

Now don't get your wires crossed, this doesn't mean that I personally vouch for every single thing that Beilke said in his opinion column. But I do most definitely agree with the idea that the traditional media should be careful in how they use information that comes from MacIver. Because I do think that it is a right wing spin machine run by long-time Republican partisans with very obvious goals that don't include the production of legitimate straight news. Is having that opinion worthy of being the subject of bullying tactics and threats of lawsuits? No and it sets a horrible precedent.

Previously on this Blog:

• Introducing the Scott Jensen Chain Gang
• Shady Org Lies about Jensen Ties
• What MacIver Forgot to Mention Today
• Scott Jensen Finally Gets His Man!
• MacIver Punks Press, Pols and Public
• Does MacIver Handle All Requests to GOP Legislators?

Quick Hits: Private Sector Scott, Partisan Judges, Perennial LaBarre

I've been so busy with work that I have been inconsistent with blogging. Sorry, but I have to keep the lights on. However that doesn't mean that I haven't had things to say recently. So I'm going to try doing a quick hits blog posting when appropriate. I may not have the time to dig in deep on various issues but at least I can quickly get some relevant content out there. So here we go...

Scott Walker Going "Back" to the Private Sector?

Last week Scott Walker suggested that it might not be so bad to lose his recall election because then he could make "real money"by going "back to" the private sector. After hearing the comments the first thing that I asked was, "does he really think that his salary and benefits package as governor is not 'real money'?" How out-of-touch can he get...dare I ask?

The second thing that I asked was, "exactly why is he talking about going 'back to the private sector'?" When was the last time he was even IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR? That is a rhetorical question because I already know the answer. It was in the early 1990's when he was still in college and very shortly after he dropped out. What? Is he planning on going back to the Red Cross, IBM or getting back his old part-time gig as a building supervisor at Marquette's Helfaer Recreation Center? "Back to the private sector"...give me a break.

Judges Signing Recall Petitions vs. Straight-Up Partisan Judges

Some in the media and many on the rabid right got overly uptight about a number of sitting judges that signed Walker recall papers. Given our toxic political climate perhaps it wasn't the best move by the judges but in reality it isn't the end of the world either. More importantly I was struck by the hypocrisy and hype of this particular story. For example, did anyone in the media bother to focus this much on Waukesha County Judge Mac Davis' hardcore partisan background when he was busy ruling for Republicans? I'm trying to remember the outrage on the right when Angry Jurist David Prosser didn't step down from politically charged cases even though he was Republican leader in the state legislature. I assume that these same people are going to demand that the embarrassing and unethical Michael Gableman step down from political cases that come before the high court. Remember he was a big time Republican fundraiser for Scott McCallum who eventually appointed him to the bench in the first place. Don't even get me started on former Republican legislator, Walker BFF and all around right wing extremist Mark Gundrum.

If you don't have a problem with these purely partisan judges then kindly don't bother me with those that chose to sign recall petitions.

Please Let Perennial LaBarre Run!

As we already know, the CRG Network filed for two new recalls yesterday. I've already written about how I have doubts about CRG's recall abilities. So I am clearly getting the cart before the horse here, but if there is a recall election I sure hope that Shirl LaBarre is the Republican candidate! She is the person that filed the recall papers for Democratic Senator Jauch. She is a wacky right wing perennial loser-candidate and although her campaign committee name is "Go Far with LaBarre" I wouldn't expect her to go very "far" in an actual election.

Prepare but Don't Fear CRG Bluster

It must be a combination of recall-envy and a prolonged lack of attention. Or maybe it is just a group of longtime Scott Walker zealots trying to exact revenge. In any case the odd right wing club, Citizen's for Responsible Government (CRG) is threatening to launch a recall of Senators Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center) and Bob Jauch (D-Poplar). They are reportedly talking about it because of only one issue: the senators refused to support mining legislation written by and for one mining company. As far as I can tell the senators were not against a mining bill entirely but were against this free pass legislation pushed by Walker and the Republican mafia in Madison. So given the roots and history of CRG, it is no surprise that they are once again surfacing to make threats.

For those that may not know, CRG has been a Walker-loving club since he was pushing for a recall of Milwaukee County Executive Tom Ament in 2002. There was broad based outrage over the pension scandal at that time and a legitimate group of citizens organized as a result. However it didn't take long for right wing talk radio and their various allies to totally hijack that effort. Suddenly it became about promoting Scott Walker and the CRG that we know today was formed. During his train wreck tenure in Milwaukee County, CRG continued to blindly promote Scott Walker's political career.

CRG was successful in pushing Tom Ament out of office in 2002, they were successful in recalling several Milwaukee County supervisors and they were successful in getting Scott Walker elected. But that was Milwaukee County in 2002, it was fresh off the pension scandal and I can't think of a successful recall effort from them since. Oh, they have made many recall threats since then but most if not all of them were total failures. They've threatened recalls against more recently elected Milwaukee County supervisors, at least one Milwaukee Alderman, and other local officials in Wauwatosa, Cudahy and elsewhere. Not to mention the embarrassing effort to recall Governor Doyle.

So before the Senators get too worried about this threat, I hope that they take a moment to examine CRG's historic role of Walker zealotry. I hope that they look at their actual recall-to-threat ratio. Frankly, since their zenith in the early 2000's they haven't been very successful at recalls. That doesn't mean that the senators shouldn't prepare for the possibility, because one sugar daddy could finance such an effort, but they shouldn't fear CRG. Most of what they have been doing over the last decade has been bluster and Walker boosting but little else.

Afterthought: CRG and knee-jerk Republicans might want to fully consider the possible ramifications of recalling Schultz. Given the make-up of that district, it could very well backfire on you if you are successful. What you may end up doing is simply flipping the seat to Democrat.

Scott-Walker-Gate

Scott Walker's "Good Government" Challenge

Scott Walker has become famous for trying to be on all sides of nearly every issue. Sometimes it happens very quickly, as it did with his ever evolving position on taking federal stimulus funds among other issues. Other times he flip-flops over a longer period of time, multiple times, on a broad range of issues. I'm convinced that the only real predictor for Walker's waffling is if it personally benefits him politically in the short term.

On October 8, 1996 then-Representative Scott Walker announced his "Good Government Package" of legislative proposals. I'm sure that he thought that this was a winning issue for him at that time. The true sign of this is that he all but announced the package from the rooftops. Here are the items that Representative Walker was promoting at that time:

1. Allow individual candidates and political parties to offset up to the amount of independent expenditures spent in any given campaign.
2. Require full and accurate disclosure of every phone call to a voter and require a copy of the script for each phone call be filed with the Elections Board within 24 hours of the first call to voters.
3. Prohibit "mega-PACs" by limiting transfers between political action committees to no more than $5,000.
4. Require that a minimum of 50% of all money spent in a campaign be raised from individuals living within the district.
5. Allow the Elections Board to develop a system for electronic filing of campaign finance reports.
6. Ban legislators from working as lobbyists for at least one year after leaving office.
7. Require legislators to follow the same laws the public does by removing the legislative immunity provision in the constitution.
8. Ban fundraising by candidates, campaigns, and legislative campaign committees until the enactment of the budget.

Since Walker was sworn in as governor we have witnessed him amassing unprecedented power. Whether it is the legislature so willingly giving him their rule making powers or his wiping out scores of civil service positions to make them politically appointed. Walker's actions as governor show that he must fancy himself as some sort of emperor of Wisconsin. His faithful and unquestioning Republican rubber stamps in the legislature have done everything possible to accommodate him in that self-delusion.

So while Scott Walker is busy ramming special interest legislation through, it would be interesting to see him take one brief moment to ram through the remaining elements of then-Representative Walker's "Good Government Package". He certainly could accomplish it, if he really ever wanted to get those things done in the first place. It would also be a great test for Walker to prove that he actually cares about something more than his own political fortunes.

Reaffirming Representative Walker's "Good Government Package" would be one way to prove this because many of these provisions would run contrary to his actions as a recall candidate. For example, while Walker has been busy raising unlimited cash from special interests, over 60 percent of it has come from out-of-state contributors. Sorry, but that flies directly in the face of Representative Walker's 50% rule.

So I would like to challenge Governor Walker to actually live up to the "Good Government" guidelines as expressed by Representative Walker in 1996. Obviously there is zero chance of that happening, which again proves the original point made here. Scott Walker's number one value is advancing his own lifelong political career and nearly everything else is relative and/or secondary to that self-serving priority.

Interview with Kathleen Falk

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to do a quick telephone interview with Democratic candidate for Governor Kathleen Falk. Many of the hot button issues that were recently relevant in some circles don't really interest me very much. So naturally I chose to focus on just a few isolated questions that I personally found interesting. Kathleen Falk will certainly do many more interviews with other bloggers, reporters and others during this campaign. So if I didn't ask your question or address your topic, I'm sure it will be addressed at some point.

First I mentioned the fact that both Scott Walker and Kathleen Falk were County Executives of the two largest Wisconsin counties. They served in these positions roughly during the same periods. Since that timing may mean that they also faced similar challenges, I was interested in hearing Kathleen Falk compare and contrast her tenure with Walker's in Milwaukee County.

Kathleen Falk said that her time as Dane County Executive couldn't be any more different than Walker's in Milwaukee County. She said that it wasn't only like night and day in policy but also in terms of values and style of leadership. In terms of style she said that some want to be known by who their political enemies are and they like to pit people against each other. Obviously she was accurately implying that this is how Walker chose to operate as Milwaukee County Executive (and now as Governor).

Falk went on to say that people who tend to operate in such a divisive fashion continually try to make demons out of their political opponents just to advance their own political agenda. She said that this is certainly not her style and that most Wisconsinites do not desire such a divisive approach to policy or even to politics. She said that this is typically true even when people are looking for a change agent. Most simply want competent stable leaders that help to ensure things like their children having good schools, the growth of family supporting jobs, clean air to breath and clean water to drink.

Kathleen Falk went on to give a more specific difference between her time as Dane County Executive and Walker's time in Milwaukee County. She started by acknowledging that the national recession certainly took its toll on local government budgets over the last few years. She said that her response in Dane County was to properly adjust to the major changes in circumstances while Scott Walker chose to just keep doing that same old things. While Walker continued his same ideology-based approach, Falk sought to collaborate with others to solve the challenges together.

One specific example that she used was that she went to union leaders and let them know that she would like to speak to front line county workers. So she went to talk to people like snow plow truck drivers and mechanics. During those discussions she talked over the issues and listed the various choices. She said that this collaborative approach lead to county employees giving up 5% of their salary. She says that she knew that this was not an easy choice for Dane County workers but after being included in the process as a valuable partner, they were willing to make that sacrifice. After the budget issues were resolved, Falk bragged about Dane County workers rather than trying to score political points for herself. In the end she said that public employees want to be respected just like everyone else and voters want quality public services. Falk said that the approach that she used toward budgetary challenges accomplished both.

During my discussion with Kathleen Falk I also mentioned the role that special interests like Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce played in her 2006 run for attorney general. They have become nothing more than a financial arm of the Republican Party and in 2006 they proved it by dumping millions of dollars into the AG race attacking Kathleen Falk. Even with their millions in attack ads, that race ended with a historically razor thin margin. Given that experience and seeing that a potential run against Walker would dwarf that special interest attack, I asked Kathleen Falk how she planned to address the situation.

The first thing that Kathleen Falk mentioned was just how vicious and inaccurate the WMC ads were in 2006. She also noted that even though they spent some $3.5 million against her that year, they didn't spend any of it in Dane County. She said that WMC didn't run their over-the-top attack ads there because Dane County knew her record and would have known that the attack ads were false.

In terms of what she would do in an election against Scott Walker, she said that she will count on the voters of Wisconsin to rely on other sources rather than just nasty attack ads from special interests. She further said that an election against Walker in 2012 will not be the exact same situation that existed in 2006. She said that polls have already shown that many people have already made up their minds about Scott Walker and the direction of the state.

Falk further pointed to the fact that even though Walker and his special interest allies have already spent millions of dollars in unanswered ads, the polls show that the dial has not really moved for them. In fact she said that the Walker campaign apparently knew that their ads were not working because they stopped doing them and then started sending out massive numbers of expensive direct mail pieces. All of these facts seem to indicate that massive amounts of attack ads may not provide the same bang for their buck as they have in past elections.

After all of the turmoil and division that Wisconsin has faced on Scott Walker's watch so far, Kathleen Falk says that people are more ready than ever to get away from the extremism and go back to the idea of a competent and stable state government.

Tim Russell's "Time Away During the Work Day"

Over the last several weeks the John Doe investigation into Scott Walker's campaign/county operations has certainly provided many compelling revelations. One of the most telling was the email that Walker sent to Tim Russell after Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Dan Bice broke the news about Darlene Wink posting political online comments on county time. In the email Walker said the following:

"We cannot afford another story like this one. No one can give them any reason to do another story. That means no laptops, no websites, no time away during the work day, etc."

This statement has been analyzed in many different ways. Some have focused on the fact that Walker sent an email about official county personnel matters from his campaign account. Others have understandably questioned why Walker would communicate with Russell on a personnel issue given the fact that he no longer worked in Walker's office. Most have also focused on the "no lap tops" portion suggesting that it shows that Walker knew about the secret network that was set up in his executive offices. But today I'm personally wondering about the last part of that email because I haven't heard much commentary on it. Specifically the "no time away during the work day" part.

What exactly did Walker mean when he said "no time away during the work day"? Did he know about members of his administration going to campaign events or meeting and planning with political operatives during the work day? Now that most of his top aides have either lawyered up (including Walker) or have been formally charged/convicted of crimes, we certainly can't rely on any of them to enlighten us on the issue. So I went looking for any possible examples of "time away during the work day" that I might find from Walker administration emails from April-June, 2009.

Obviously it is a very small sample size but I can only use what I actually have to try and determine what kind of "time away" that Scott Walker could have been talking about. In those 2009 emails I found one email chain that stood out from the rest in this area. It involved longtime Walker campaign/county aide Tim Russell and the President of the right wing MacIver Institute, Brett Healy. You might recall that this group has frequently tried to provide cover for Walker's extreme agenda. Recent examples include their rather desperate "it's working" campaign. The latest manifestation of it includes a Koch Brothers fueled $700,000 ad buy.

Brett Healy was formerly the Chief of Staff to former Republican Speaker Scott Jensen. In fact he testified in 2006 regarding the caucus scandal. At the time of Healy's April 2009 email exchange with Tim Russell, he had recently been appointed as President of the then-newly formed MacIver Institute.

On Monday morning April 6, 2009 at 10:07 a.m. Healy emailed Tim Russell at his county email address on what appears to be a work day. After requesting Russell's contact information, they both plan a meeting at the Marquette University Starbucks for Thursday April 9th at 9:00 a.m, which also appears to be on a county work day. In planning the "time away" Russell and Healy exchanged some 7 emails in less than an hour. Milwaukee County taxpayer dollars hard at work! Thank goodness we were all paying Tim Russell to exchange emails and eventually meet with the head Walker enabler at MacIver.

This Russell/Healy meeting happened only a couple of weeks before Scott Walker officially announced his campaign for governor. Did Russell and Healy talk about that coming event? These are two long time political operatives, did they discuss anything political during this meeting during the county work day? A look at the MacIver website several weeks after this meeting shows a continual diet of bashing Walker's perceived opponent at the time, Governor Doyle. Their website also featured the typical gushing over Walker that has become MacIver's hallmark.

In any case, was this Russell/Healy meeting the kind of "time away during the work day" that Walker later banned after he got the bad Wink-related press? Given the facts that we have learned from the John Doe investigation recently, it would certainly be interesting to know more about what Walker was referring to in that statement.

Introducing WalkerInvestigation.com

Find out everything that you ever wanted to know about Walkergate at a new Democratic Party of Wisconsin website: WalkerInvestigation.com

To Quote Walker's 2002 "Ament/Amen" Ad...

"Corruption cannot exist where there are no hiding places"

[Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 3/17/02]

Indeed

Walker Administration Emails 2009

Anyone that was reading this blog in 2010 is probably familiar with my struggles in getting records from Scott Walker's Milwaukee County administration. I only received certain records 9 months and hundreds of dollars after requesting them. Even then, they only sent some of them after a reporter questioned them about the long delay. I've repeatedly written about Walker only "turning on the light" for friends, including an anonymous shill blog that may have been run by some of Walker's county staffers.

Some of the records that I did finally receive included a ton of county emails from 2009. Given some of the recent developments and the news surrounding the John Doe investigation, I decided to search those 2009 Walker emails from a new point of reference. FYI, this blog posting may very well turn into the first of a series.

One thing that certainly stood out in the recent criminal complaints was the email from Scott Walker, using his campaign account, to address the Darlene Wink situation with right hand man Tim Russell. After seeing that Walker used his campaign account to discuss county business, I decided to again search my 2009 Walker administration emails for similar examples. I wanted to test whether Walker's intermingling of his campaign email and county business was a common practice.

Please note that the Walker administration used Lotus Notes and the electronic email records that they finally sent me are in that format. Since I don't have Lotus Notes the emails are a bit of a maze of Lotus Notes code and other data. To check out the emails that I am going to reference below, see them HERE. It is admittedly a pain to read but I've tried to make the reading easier by putting relevant information in bold. I've also deleted vast amounts of the Lotus Notes code. If you are interested in the original version with all of the code, let me know. There could be interesting discoveries hiding in that code.

Here is a summary of interesting items that I found in Walker 2009 emails (instances of Walker using his "skw@scottwalker.org" email address for county business):

• The first email chain listed in the above linked doc appears to be Walker sending a response to a Public Policy Forum draft report on the county budget. Walker seems to be sending it to his county staff. But he sends it to their private emails along with the business emails for Keith Gilkes (his campaign manager) and RJ Johnson (someone that served his campaign as a consultant). If I'm following this right, it then looks like he then forwarded that message from his campaign email to his county email.

• There are at least two examples of Walker forwarding Wispolitics emails from his county address to his campaign address. Both examples include prominent reporting on Walker's campaign for governor. One mentions the RPW convention in 2009 and that Walker won the straw poll and the other mentions his "very special announcement" from April 2009. I'm wondering if the county paid for the Wispolitics reports, exactly how could he legally forward them to his campaign email? Is that giving something of value from the county to his campaign? Does it violate Wispolitics policy against forwarding their products to others?

• An email that appears to be from Cynthia Archer to Walker at his campaign email address (and copying other staff...including Walker campaign consultant RJ Johnson). In that email she spells out their various "options" after a greatly anticipated arbitration hearing. It looks like Walker then takes that Archer email and forwards it from his campaign account to his county account.

Again, what is up with this mixing of county issues and campaign emails? Am I the only one that finds such free email usage suspicious? Did these emails happen before the establishment of the secret network that has been described by the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office?

NOTE: When requesting the email records, I only asked them to go from April - June of 2009. So these emails only represent a sampling from those 3 months.

Key Questions for Scott Walker

Over the last few weeks I've been openly asking questions related to recent developments in the John Doe investigation of Scott Walker aides. First were the questions related to the arrest of longtime Walker campaign/county aide Tim Russell. Next came the questions about open records and Walker staff involvement with the shill ScottforGov blog. Now more charges have been issued on more Walker aides and naturally that brings an entirely new set of questions. Those include some serious questions for Scott Walker directly. First lets quickly review some of the recently reported findings.

Quick Review:

Yesterday the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office announced charges against longtime Walker aide Darlene Wink and former county/campaign aide Kelly Rindfleisch. Wink had already admitted to leaving political comments on blogs when she was on county time. She resigned in May 2010 when it was discovered. But these charges allege that she was also doing extensive planning for Walker fundraisers and communicating regularly and directly with Walker's campaign and others.

Kelly Rindfleisch was hired at the beginning of 2010, the same year that Walker hoped to win the race for governor. In the communications revealed in her criminal complaint she admits to a friend that "half of what I'm doing is policy for the campaign." Indeed the complaint reveals that she had more than 1,000 emails to top Walker campaign staffers on county time. Those contacts included Keith Gilkes, Stephan Thompson and Jill Bader. There were also communications longtime Walker friend and county/campaign aide Jim Villa, who had an unofficial advisory role with Walker's 2010 campaign.

The complaint for Rindfleisch actually includes an email from Scott Walker to Tim Russell. It is his reaction to the Dan Bice story about Darlene Wink posting political comments on county time. In the email Walker said the following to Russell:

"We cannot afford another story like this one. No one can give them any reason to do another story. That means no laptops, no websites, no time away during the work day, etc."

Perhaps the most remarkable thing that was revealed in the criminal complaint is that selected high level Walker administration officials were using a "secret email system" and network to communicate with each other and with the Walker and Brett Davis campaigns. Not only were they using this secret network for campaign related communications but according to the complaint they were also using it for official county business.

Key Questions for Scott Walker:

1. When Scott Walker emailed Tim Russell with the above listed message, why did he use his campaign email account? This was at the very least a county personnel issue and it was county business. Why would Walker use his campaign email to conduct what was clearly county business?
2. Scott Walker's email to Russell specifically mentions "no laptops", so that shows us that he knew that his top staff were busy using such laptops on county time. How and when did he find that out? It was obviously important to him so why didn't he follow up on that order? Remember that according to the complaint, Kelly Rindfleisch continued doing campaign work on county time after that incident.
3. Could someone please explain the employment dates of Kelly Rindfleisch because the timeline looks pretty damning? She had an extensive political and fundraising background including for the infamous Republican legislative caucus. She was hired at the beginning of a big election year to do what she described at least partially as "policy work for the campaign". Then she left the county job only weeks after Walker won the 2010 election. She was doing work for/with the Walker campaign until only days ago. Again, the timing of her employment stinks to high heaven. What is the story on that?
4. What is up with Walker's top past/present campaign staffers? What? Didn't a single one of them wonder why county employees were communicating with them on a regular basis during work hours? Reading the extensive communications, you certainly get the idea that it didn't bother them one single bit.
5. How many open records requests were thwarted by the existence of the Walker administration's secret network?

The taxpayers of Milwaukee County and the people of Wisconsin should demand some answers and it should be Scott Walker that directly gives them.