Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Walkergate: Abandon All Hope Ye Who Are John Doe

Scott Walker thinks you are dumb.

Or to be more accurate, Walker hopes you are very dumb.

Walker is trying to use one of the oldest plays in the book to mislead people regarding Walkergate.

First, he has operatives start a whisper campaign.  Let's say something like that Walkergate is dead.

These whispers reach the ears of the corporate media, who then reports it as fact.

Then Walker's echo chamber echoes it until it gains legs.

Then Walker comes out and says something like this:
Immediately after speaking at the dairy business meeting, Walker said he didn't know whether the John Doe investigation would wrap up with Russell's plea hearing, saying almost everything he knew was based on media accounts. He said there seemed to be a growing sentiment that the investigation was coming to an end.
Fortunately, the gentle reader already knows better.

He can get away with this to a certain degree because he knows that, contrary to another one of his whisper campaigns, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm and his staff are professionals and will not release or leak any information illegally, even in order to defend their reputation.

What Walker is trying to do is bury the Walkergate story. It just wouldn't do to have the future Republican presidential candidate weighed down with the fact that he is the subject of a John Doe investigation. That really puts a damper on the flow of campaign contributions.

So Walker has been going around telling anyone and everyone who will listen that " It's gone on for two years. Hopefully, after this week, it will be over."

The first order of business is to point out that it took four years to convict Blago, and his case was not nearly as complex or as vast as the corruption in Walker's administration and campaign. It probably took over a year just to gather the evidence from the purloined computers and the Mystery Dumpter O'Fun's contents.

Along the same line, Walker also repeated the line of "We started it." Even if you give him that point for the sake of argument, Walker would still need to explain why he stonewalled the investigation he allegedly started.

And presuming that Tim Russell's plea bargain finally goes through this Thursday, Walkergate is far from over.

First of all, there still would need to be Russell's sentencing hearing, Darlene Wink's sentencing hearing and the whole trial for Russell's partner, Brian Pierick, who is facing two charges of child enticement. That trial won't even start until the end of January, two full months away from now.

So not only is Walkergate not done, the first phase of Walkergate isn't even over yet.

But, as you know, there's more. There's always more.

There's is still a rogue's gallery of reprobates and miscreants that need to be accounted for.

We also know that there are many aspects to Walkergate besides campaigning on taxpayers time and embezzlement. Things like pay for play shakedowns and bid rigging.

Then there is the claim that Walker is making in denying that he is a subject of the Walkergate investigations.

State law clearly states that the DA is under no obligation to tell a person if they are the target. However, if the person is not a target of the investigation, the DA may publicly state that the person is not the target, like Chisholm did with Andrew Jensen and Michael Maistelman.

Obviously, Walkergate was a factor during the recall. If Walker really wasn't a subject of the investigation, Chisholm would have given him a letter clearing him so that it wouldn't interfere with the election. Yet Walker has produced no such letter.

Another way for a person to know they are not the target is if they are granted immunity, but that is a matter that happens in a public hearing. No such hearing happened and thus we know he wasn't granted immunity.

Lastly, while Walker might hope that this is the end of this John Doe, there is a courthouse full of John Does waiting to step up. I'd say that there is a pretty good chance that at least some of them have Walker's name and the names of his underlings on them.

With a new budget starting on New Year's Day, there's no reason to believe that we won't be seeing the start of the next phase.

On the bright side, Walker made his statements to a group of dairy farmers. Of all people, they are used to the sight and smell of manure.

20 comments:

  1. Unfortunately, the state has plenty of dumb voters. How do you think he got elected?

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  2. ^^^ and won the recall

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  3. he got re-elected because the voting machines were fixed......not because most people wanted him

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  4. I think your description of things is very accurate. Scott's sweating and he doesn't want to admit it.
    Gee, I wonder why he's holding off on that Presidential bid announcement.
    It's hard to run for President from a jail cell.

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    1. That has been done. Though with very little success.

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  5. 6:25AM,

    In the recall, Walker spent 88% of the money to get 53% of the vote. Barrett spent $3.48/vote. Walker spent $23/vote.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/wisconsin-recall-results-scott-walker_b_1572887.html

    The elites, like the Koch brothers control Scott Walker. He's pro-monopoly, pro-oligopoly.

    "We stand equally against government by a plutocracy and government by a mob. There is something to be said for government by a great aristocracy which has furnished leaders to the nation in peace and war for generations; even a democrat like myself must admit this. But there is absolutely nothing to be said for government by a plutocracy, for government by men very powerful in certain lines and gifted with “the money touch,” but with ideals which in their essence are merely those of so many glorified pawnbrokers."
    Theodore Roosevelt (1858 – 1919)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Roosevelt

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  6. Thanks for your continuing coverage of Walkergate!

    I've been hearing all sorts of rumors about Russell and Walker being more than co-workers or friends. Are these just nasty meritless rumors or do you think there's anything to them?

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    1. I am not Capper, but if you want an opinion from me, Anonymous Progressive Voter, then I would say, that probably goes into the Rumor Only Category.

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    2. I would put it down as irrelevant, subheaded under Who cares?

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  7. I think the Milwaukee County Lefties trying to crucify Walker after being elected twice need to put up or shut up.

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  8. Can someone point out which specific e-mail(s) Walker was copied on which shows his knowledge of campaigning on County time by his employees? That would seem to be the crux of any case against him - which frankly I must have missed...

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    1. The prosecutors know that, not the blogs.

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    2. I beg your pardon, but I've pointed out three emails that show this.

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  9. Walker's tone has completely changed since Russell copped a plea: up until now it was all" we are cooperating, letting the DA do his job, blah blah..." Now it is "It's been 2 long years, the investigation must end..." a subtle jab at the DA.....Walker knows the walls are closing in...

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    1. I noticed that too. It's subtle, but this is the first time Walker has speculated on a date. He knows that Russell was the guy who set up all the IT infrastructure (campaign website, illegal router, the campaign blackberries, potentially the gmail accounts, god knows what else). Russell was also the boss of Rindfleisch, Wink, and Fran McLaughlin. I guess you could say he is the top of the bottom, with only Nardeli and Walker left at the top.

      If Russell's plea deal looks like Rindfleisch's, I'm guessing for a very muted response. If it looks like Wink's, within minutes the RW will start their assault on the DA. That's when we'll know it's on.

      Something I'd also like to ask of Walker is what he thinks about the fact that everybody who directly reported to him in the two years prior to his election to Gov. has been charged, convicted, or been given immunity except for he and Nardelli. When you think about it that way, that's pretty f'ing crazy.

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  10. Since Walker "is not the focus of the investigation" and is only "cooperating", why would he care how long the investigation lasts??...we know the answer...

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  11. Actually I think he just wants it to go away - and hopes his Chicago lawyers will make it so. But he also realizes that it is causing him political damage - even if he is never indicted. So he is trying to discredit the DA, claim he is cooperating, etc.

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