Crime Might Not Pay, But Cronyism Sure Does

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had a couple more articles about Cindy Archer, the Scott Walker minion who has been put into a fish bowl when the FBI raided her home, among others, last week as part of an ongoing John Doe investigation which has been dubbed Walkergate.

In one article, they find that when Walker changed dozens of civil service jobs to political appointments, not only was he able to give jobs to a lot of his cronies and campaign donors (or at least their sons), he was also allowing them to have a double win day by also jacking up their pay considerably.

As MJS shows in this chart, Archer was the big winner in Walker's appoint-a-crony game:

Courtesy of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

It could be that Walker wanted to distance himself from Archer due to her involvement in Walkergate, but also didn't want her to turn on him so gave her a position that she doesn't really have experience in, but sweetened the deal to appease her for having to take a step down.

What is surprising is that no one in the media is making a bigger deal about the fact that she's been lying to them all along, saying she was hoping to come back to the state when she already had the new job with its exorbitant pay raise.

On the bright side, it's entertaining to watch one of the local yokel teahadists get his tea bag all tangled up while trying to rationalize the crony promotion. I guess massive increases in spending for government employees is OK after all, as long as a Republican does it.

In the other article, they interview some County Board Supervisors who all point out Archer's fierce loyalty to Walker.  Meh, it only means she knows which side of her bread has the butter on it.

But what is a bit odd about this article is that, towards the bottom as they give an abbreviated recounting of recent events, they include this non sequitur:

Authorities took Wink's work computer and executed a search warrant on her home. They also took a work computer from Tim Russell, a longtime Walker ally who was county housing director.

Russell recently lost his west side house to foreclosure.

He had taken out a mortgage for $184,000 with a 9.7% interest rate in 2003 for his house on N. 49th St. He was sued by his bank in July 2010 for defaulting on the loan.

At first, Russell mounted an aggressive defense. But he reversed course earlier this year, agreeing to give up the house. Last month, a Milwaukee County judge entered a judgment against Russell. The house is expected to be sold at a sheriff's sale soon.

I'm not sure what that has to do with the rest of the article, unless they are trying to infer he lost the home because of legal costs. But even that wouldn't make much sense, since Russell was already living in Sun Prairie long before any of that happened.

What would be interesting to know is why a person with an apparently successful business in Milwaukee would move to a place more than an hour away from said business.  This is especially true when one considers gas prices and that he apparently was having money problems from legal costs and/or losing his job with the county after Walker left him high and dry.