Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Walker: How Dare They Spend Money On Jobs And Not CEOs!

In what just may be the biggest blunder of his campaign so far (which is saying a lot since there has been so many biggies), Scott Walker took to the grandstands to stand up for Fred Luber, a big time Republican campaign donor and former campaign staffer who is not going to make as many millions of dollars as he could have.

Trying to stomach the obvious cronyism and pandering to his fat cat campaign donors is hard enough. But Walker is so desperate that he and his very rich sympathizer have resorted to flat out lies, as shown in this story from the BizTimes Milwaukee:
Luber said Super Steel sought assistance from the city in its efforts to land the Talgo contract.

“Going back to last summer, Super Steel took Talgo to the city of Milwaukee and asked for help,” he said. “On the first of February, Rocky (Marcoux, commissioner of the Department of City Development) told us what he was going to do with Talgo. Instead of funding us, (the city) was going to fund the Tower (Automotive) facility with millions to rebuild the building, free rent for a year and then no taxes and all utilities and the other things including job training. At 84 years old I never thought I’d live long enough to have the city take business from us. We have the only train manufacturing plant in the state of Wisconsin. Now there’s going to be another one at the Tower site built by the city with our taxpayer money.”

However, Department of City Development spokesman Jeff Fleming said city officials originally pushed for Super Steel to get the Talgo contract and only offered the Tower Automotive site to Talgo after the company told city officials that the Super Steel facility would not meet its needs.

Talgo spokeswoman Nora Friend said Super Steel first wanted to be a subcontractor to build the trains. Talgo turned that offer down because it was too expensive, she said. Super Steel then submitted a bid to provide space for Talgo, but the space did not meet the company's needs, she said.

After the Tower Automotive site, the runner-up sites were in Racine and Janesville, Friend said.
Talgo will lease the space at the Tower Automotive site from the city at market rates, for $2.59 per square foot, or $344,470 a year, Fleming said. The city is not providing free rent or utilities, he said.

“What Scott Walker and Fred Luber are saying is false,” Fleming said.

"This is just political talk," Friend said. "We are not getting any subsidy at all."
Did you catch what Luber is really complaining about? It's not that his company didn't get the deal with Talgo, it is simply that he now has to actually compete with another business. Luber apparently is just like Walker, in that he feels things should just come to him because of who he thinks he is, and not have to actually earn it. If that doesn't smack of elitism, I don't know what does.

The tax money that Luber is whining about is actually ARRA funding that Tom Barrett and Jim Doyle went out and actively pursued. Walker could have done the same thing, but once again chose to put his political campaign before the common good, and tried to refuse the stimulus funding, until he got smacked down by the County Board.

What makes this even more repulsive on Luber's part is the simple fact that Tom Barrett actually stood up for Luber's company, Super Steel, and asked Talgo to reconsider their rejection of Super Steel. The question is: Where was Walker at the time he was supposed to be helping his good chum out?

Apparently, Walker was busy with his campaign to get all the addresses and other information from his incomplete campaign finance report and out hitting up other wealthy donors around the state.

For Luber to attack the man that tried to help him, while kissing up to the one that didn't lift a finger to help is rather telling of what kind of person he really is. Walker really knows how to pick his friends, doesn't he?

ADDENDUM: I almost forgot this. Another reason Walker didn't help his fat cat sugar daddy out was because Walker had already abolished the Department of Economic Development. It shows how important Walker really thinks it is to brings jobs here, much less anywhere else.

Bill Christofferson really hits the L'Affaire de Walker et Luber right between their weaselly eyes.

One Wisconsin Now has more on how much Luber has pumped into Walker's and other Republican campaigns.

James Rowen brings us to how Barrett's team also slams Walker's weaselly ways.

Between Walker's continuing and escalating campaign gaffes, the fact that his mismanagement of Milwaukee County is going to be very noticeable in the near future, that he still has a messy 2011 budget to contend with and still no contract with the largest unions to help ease the matter, and that Mark Neumann is leading him in every corner of the state but the southeastern corner, it would not be at all surprising that he drops out of the race before the primary. Again.

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