Thursday, June 24, 2010

It's Not The Heat, It's The Hypocrisy

One of Scott Walker's most infamous traits is his hypocrisy. The most classic example of this is the way he bad mouths the ARRA, or stimulus, funds, and at the same time boasts about how he is using it to improve Milwaukee County.

On Tuesday, he gave us two more glaring examples of how he has mastered the art of being one of the best hypocrites around.

Whenever his primary opponent, Mark Neumann, shows some example of how he and Walker contrast, and why Neumann would be the better candidate for the governor's race, Walker and his crew go around whining about how Neumann should be focusing on the Democrats, namely Tom Barrett, instead of trying to win the primary. Never mind the fact that Walker has been attacking Neumann since Neumann first announced that he was throwing his hat in the ring.

Walker's complaints are echoed by talk radio and the usual suspects around the Blogosphere and inner Republican circles, who lament that Neumann has "gone negative," even as they go on to attack Neumann.

Today, Rasmussen came out with another meaningless poll which showed Walker and Neumann in a dead heat when paired up versus Tom Barrett. As expected, Team Walker sent out the obligatory press release, but with a twist:
• Walker’s favorable ratings are 51% favorable to 35% unfavorable (32% very favorable) to Barrett’s 42-44% (22% very favorable).

Meanwhile, Neumann is viewed very favorably by only 13%.

• Walker has the highest favorable ratings among GOP voters at 86%. He is viewed very favorably by 63% of GOP voters – only 23% of GOP voters view Neumann very favorably.
So Walker, who whines about "being attacked" by his opponent and how he never would do that, sends out a press release attacking his opponent.

The only thing remarkable about that piece of hypocrisy is that it isn't even the most egregious one.

Also on Tuesday, Walker sent out this tweet:

Wait a minute here! Walker is attacking someone for bad budgeting?! Our Scott Walker?!

Let's look at the problems that Milwaukee County has faced thanks to Scott Walker's budgeting prowess, or lack thereof:
  • The state had to take over the Income Maintenance Program due to Walker not filling the positions that the Board had funded. He needed the money to pay off for other things. Without the take over, the tax payers were facing having to pay a hefty amount from a class action lawsuit.
  • Female patients at the mental health complex are being sexually assaulted due to their not being enough staff to properly supervise the wards, due to budget problems. Not only did this endanger $60 million in funding, it opened the county to another massive class action lawsuit.
  • The mental health complex is found to be in shoddy condition. Repair costs could run as high as $15 million, but without addressing the problem, the County is facing steep fines.
  • Tax payers will have to foot the bill for nearly $300 million dollars in repairs and maintenance for the parks alone, due to poor budgeting decisions.
  • The transit system has been cut by 20%, keeping over 40,000 jobs away from transit dependent workers.
  • The House of Correction was wracked with excessive overtime and found to be in terrible condition by a federal auditor due to Walker's poor budgeting decisions.
The icing for this piece of hypocrisy is that Walker introduced an illegal budget for 2010, with a $32 million deficit hole in the middle of it. Despite the County Board's best efforts to fix it, the County is currently facing a $7 million deficit and Walker has offered no plans on how to remedy this. The 2011 budget looks to be only more horrific.

For Walker to criticize anyone, and I mean anyone, for bad budgeting shows that he is the master of hypocrisy. Of all time.

3 comments:

  1. Walker's ripping Barrett for cutting spending in other areas to keep other services such as the police and fire departments at adequate levels? Really? Apparently he also approves of the unfunded (and outdated) state mandate that led to the (minor) sanctions given to MPL, since he allowed it to go on when he was in the Legislature. This guy is as willfully ignorant as the people that supporter.

    And on Rasmussen polls, remember that it's agenda-setting season for Razzy. Any poll done by that paid hack more than 6 weeks before an election is an attempt to raise GOP prospects and depress Dem turnout.

    So plugging in the Raz-to-Reality adjuster (i.e 10 points to the Dems), you have Barrett with a slight lead over both, which seems about right.

    Walker with 51% favorability? He apparently polled nothing but landlines in the 262. Too bad for the state GOP, they're only 10% of the state's voters.

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  2. Interestingly, Rasmussen polls have been historically accurate in election turnouts. So how would you adjust that 10 points to the dems?

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  3. Arod- Watch how those Raz polls "adjust" in the last 6 weeks to get in line with the real world. They are garbage till then. And a paid hack like you knows it as well as anyone.

    Too bad for you, most of us in the contributing Wisconsin are onto the game as well. Razzy's GOP "lead" over Barrett will be crashing down in September just like so many Courthouse roofs and County parking garages (and you're damn right we're going there). You'll have to continue being stuck doing...whatever you do for a living.

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