Friday, January 9, 2009

Fighting Newspaper With Newspaper

It seems that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's editorial staff disagree with me again. They apparently believe that I was overly zealous in my post asking for a recall of Scott Walker.

Let's break down their argument. The first paragraph reads:
We hear there's some talk now about having Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker recalled. Check out Chris Liebenthal's blog. While we disagree with Walker's stand this week that he's not going to ask for federal stimulus money - and have disagreed with him on some other issues - disagreement is not a reason to have someone recalled. That's what elections are for.
I agree with this paragraph, except for one minor point. The talk did not start now. The talk started months ago, when Walker once again issued a myopic and malicious budget proposal that would only further endanger the County, its resources and its services.

James Rowen called for it in early September 2008. Jason Haas echoed that sentiment. As did I. Even then, we weren't the earliest. I also found that the Facebook page for Recall Scott Walker was started at least as early as August 2007.

So you can see that this is not a new sentiment. It's just that more people are calling for it.

The second paragraph skews way off:
Walker may be wrong, and sometimes he tries to have it both ways such as by saying that he won't ask for any federal money but may accept some if it's offered. But he's been honest and he's maintained his principles. Those are good traits in a politician. Save recalls for folks who have committed malfeasance or have otherwise behaved badly.
Walker's hypocritical ways is nothing new. I've been talking about that for almost a year at folkbum's.

As for honesty, well my friend, Jay Bullock, has been calling Walker out on his dishonesty even before I entered the blogosphere. Walker's dishonesty hasn't improved over the years either.

And the only principle that he has maintained is that he will do whatever he feels is necessary to get him into the governor's seat.

Ah, but now for the best part: Is Walker malfeasant?

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, itself, had an entire series, which lasted for over a year, entitled "Abandoning Our Mentally Ill," which highlighted how Walker willfully put mentally ill people, and the staff that works with them in harm's way.

It was also MJS that reported on the audit that showed the parks' facilities to be so bad that some were deemed to be irreparable. Again, this came to be through Walker's decisions.

And as they did with the mental health system's failure, MJS ran a series of articles on how Walker has let the transit system fall into such a poor state that in 2010, the system will be decimated, unless corrective action is taken now. And they were also the ones that just recently reported about the $91.5 million for transit that Walker is letting sit idle because he refuses to sit down and meet with City of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barret.

MJS also reported on how the public assistance call center was severely understaffed, despite having 25 positions fully funded in the budget. This led to a federal lawsuit being filed against the county and a loss of at least one contract, and another, even bigger contract, being threatened.

Twas the paper that informed us that the House of Correction was so understaffed that overtime costs soared beyond what was budgeted, that officers were being needlessly injured, and that a federal audit showed severe shortcomings. These were all the results of Walker's decisions.

This list goes on, but I am sure that the gentle reader has an idea of the pattern here. Due to Scott Walker's decision making, which was predicated on his perpetual run for governor, Milwaukee County has been led down the path to hell in a handbasket.

So, I would say that by purposely failing to uphold his oath of office to protect and serve Milwaukee County, for his own political gain, would fall under malfeasance, which the paper says is an offense worthy of recall.

Like it's first paragraph, the editorial post's last paragraph is correct with their late addendum.

The recall will have to wait until April.

4 comments:

  1. "But he's been honest and he's maintained his principles. Those are good traits in a politician."
    Wow, the MJS agrees with me? Maybe it is a conservative newspaper. (sarcasm)

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  2. no kidding, capper. that's why i volunteered for lena taylor's campaign last year. walker should never have won, but money talks. :(

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  3. capper, I'm confused. Who in the world is this Chris Liebenthal guy?

    Malfeasance to me, and I think to most of the voters, means doing something illegal. I don't think these examples show he has.

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  4. @Dan,

    I've been saying it all along, without the sarcasm. Just more proof.

    @Hermes,

    I agree, but Lena just ran a crappy campaign. Now we will have to pay the price for it.

    @TC

    I don't know who that Chris guy is either. I'm still trying to find out who Dean is.

    As for the voters, I think that when they see what Walker's misadminstration has really cost them, they will agree with the recallers.

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