Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Don't Mark Your Recall Calendars Just Yet...

Monday was the day that Scott Walker had to turn in his challenges to the recall petitions against him.

But early in the day, he made it clear that he wasn't going to challenge any names.

And the people rejoiced.

Woot. Woot.

Walker claimed that the reason he wasn't challenging any of the signatures was because he didn't have enough time.

That is, of course, a load of rubbish.

First of all, he had three times the amount of time allowed by the law to do what he needed to do.  Secondly, Walker has raised more than $12 million for his recall campaign thanks to the law that waives any limits on donations.  The reason for that waiver is so that he could use it to defend himself by checking and challenging the signatures.  He could have hired 15,000 people - one for every ten sheets turned in - and paid them $100 for the day to check the signatures and still had enough to overdose everyone in the state with his insipid, fact-free commercials.

Or he could have just bought a program to check it and have enough to buy every man, woman and child in Wisconsin a bottle of soda.  And still have change left over.

Oh, and his new campaign mouthpiece, Ciara Matthews, showed that she is a perfect fit for his campaign by proving she is also suffering from truth-deficiency when she said: "It obviously takes more time to verify signatures than it does to collect them."

Again, the people rejoiced.

Woot. Woot.

Some of the celebrants went even so far as to foolishly try to forecast the recall election would be held in late May.

Silly kids! Don't they know tricks are for weasels?

There was two small, but crucial facts that they had missed.

One, Matthews refused to answer whether Team Walker would consider filing challenges at a later date.  The other was that they were setting things up for a lawsuit by Team Walker and/or the Koch-funded front groups who were holding their own "Verify the Recall" gimmick:
Walker attorney Steven Biskupic of Michael Best & Friedrich said that Wisconsin GrandSons of Liberty and We the People of the Republic, two tea party groups, had organized a effort called Verify the Recall to review signatures, but campaign finance laws prevented them from coordinating with Walker. The campaign asked the GAB to consider challenges proposed by the groups. 
Verify the Recall and True the Vote, another petition review group, on Monday released their own analysis of more than 800,000 of the signatures. The groups said their more than 14,000 volunteers from around the country had found some 55,608 ineligible signatures, 228,940 signatures in need of further investigation and 534,685 eligible signatures. 
Mark Antill of True the Vote said his group found “tremendous inconsistencies with the circulators” but acknowledged the recall would likely go forward based on its findings.
The GAB said it had received nothing from tea party groups. 
“There is no legal basis for us to accept third-party challenges,” Magney said.

On a side note, it appears that a lot of this "verifying" came from a shady teahadist group located in Texas.  This bears more investigation.

On another side note, if the Verify mob simply posted their findings, waiving fair use standards, and Team Walker could have used them since the findings would then be publicly available.  But they've already admitted that they couldn't find nearly enough names, under their stricter standards, to stop the recall.

There is a strong likelihood, even though they know the recall will happen, that they will file a lawsuit to contest this and drag things out.  You see, Walker still gets to have his unlimited fund raising until the GAB sets a date, if I'm understanding things correctly.

And even then, after Team Walker and his supporting cast of teahadists run out of legal tricks and stunts and other forms of chicanery, and the GAB is finally allowed to set a date, don't be so sure that things will happen as you might expect them to happen.

Over at blue cheddar, the specter of Walker resigning from office is raised and what the ramifications of such an act would be:
If Walker resigned within 10 days of the recall petitions being certified by the GAB, he would not be on the ballot and other Republicans would be able to vie for the nomination in a primary.  
Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch would become acting governor and could appoint a new lieutenant governor. Nothing, however, would stop the recall election from going forward.
The winner of the gubernatorial election would assume the office, replacing Kleefisch. Facing her own recall election, Kleefisch would return to the lieutenant governor’s post if she wins. 
However, if Walker were to resign more than 10 days after the recall petitions are certified, his name would still appear on the ballot. Assuming voters would not favor an indicted, resigned governor, Republicans would likely be forced to mount some type of write-in campaign to try to prevent the Democratic nominee from being elected.

What's that? Walker is too power hungry to ever consider stepping down?  He wouldn't jeopardize his ultimate aspiration of becoming President of the United States?

Yeah?  If that's what you're thinking, I've got two words for you: Sarah Palin.

These two equally incompetent, equally corrupt, equally megalomaniacal.  Walker would easily think that if she could become such a household name that people still would like to see her run for POTUS, well, surely God will speak to him again and tell him that this is the way he should go.


No one can know for certain what is going to happen, when the recall election might finally happen, or even who we would be recalling.

But what I can tell you, based on my ten years of dealing with Walker and his team of malefactors, is that if you come up with a scenario that is so absurd, so unethical and even illegal that even the most die hard skeptic and/or cynic can't imagine it happening, there is a good chance you'll find Scott Walker right there, in the middle of all of it.

18 comments:

  1. I posted this yesterday at Blogging Blue, under the, "Verify the Recall, Even Scott Walker..." thanks for further confirmation of the facts."

    nonquixote says:
    February 27, 2012 at 6:38 pm

    With $millions in campaign donations which were allowed specifically to Walker to begin collecting upon the first fake recall petition filed against him, supposedly to allow him to defend himself in the recall process, with as many unemployed people in WI who could have been hired with a portion of that money to vet signatures, Walker has no excuse, plain and simple.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Although he might have had a hard time finding unemployed people in Wisconsin who had not signed a petition ...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The GAB put that little caveat on the people they were hiring to vet signatures on the taxpayer dime, the job that should have been undertaken and performed by Walker and his campaign funds initially.

      There would be no such distinction necessary for Walker on the hiring of honest Wisconsinites looking for part time work. Any assumption that recall signers would not evaluate the petitions fairly is simply untrue. Not one of the fifty or so petitions which I personally certified in an office supervisory position, left the office if it was not properly filled out.

      Delete
  3. I don't think he'll resign, simply because it will be easier for him to obstruct the John Doe investigation while he is Governor.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Capper, great catch. Headline at the JS just looks dumb.

    OT, I'm waiting for Mike Grebe and the Bradley Foundation to be mentioned in the wingnut's version of ACORN: "Stratfor."

    ReplyDelete
  5. Without any challenges, I don't understand why the GAB can't very quickly do their face-check of petitions and stop when they reach the magic number to recall Walker and set the election date. I know they intend to look at all signatures and I'm uncertain of which standard, the old standard or the Waukesha-judge standard, they will apply. I believe they have a March 19 deadline to make their determination but why should it even take that long if they treat these petitions just as the ones they had to review for the summer recalls? What is the GAB's process now?

    ReplyDelete
  6. This might be ot-but you mention Sarah Palin. The recent email release by the state of Alaska had some emails which made me think of Scott Walker. Here is one of them.

    http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/314978-pra-gsp02-0023760.html

    "From: Rep. Mike Hawker[mailto:Representative_Mike_Hawker@legis.state.ak.us]
    Sent: Monday, June 29, 2009 9:50 AM
    To: Nizich, Michael A (GOV)
    Subject: RE: Rep. Jay Ramras' AGIA Conflict of interest

    If the governor had any personal integrity she would publicly repudiate these people and their interference in Alaska's business with their ad hominem assaults whenever someone raises a legitimate state policy issue.

    No one in this state believes you do not control this crowds strings. The media is onto this question and has been trying for a couple of weeks to get many of us on the record about the governor's apparent connection with this crowd. It is only a matter of time before this blows up in your face if she doesn't publicly denounce her national teams contract bloggers.

    How about Senate Judiciary committee hearings chaired by Hollis French, to investigate the connection between the governor, her national PAC and its laundered interference in Alaska political process? Just how close to illegal you are operating is a question everyone is interested in. "


    Mike Nizich at the time was Governor Palin's chief of staff. Mike Hawker was a Republican State representative. Hollis French (Alaska State Senator-Dem.) led the Alaskan Legislature's 2008 "Troopergate" investigation into the firing of Alaska public safety commissioner Walt Monegan.

    Later on June 29, 2009 Nizich referred this email to the AG (assume this was the Attorney General Daniel S. Sullivan, who had been appointed AG by Palin on June 16, 2009.) Governor Palin publicly announced her resignation Friday July 3, 2009, less than a week after this exchange.

    Additional related emails from Rep. Hawker on this subject dated June 16, 2009 here

    http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/320363-pra-gsp02-0024035.html

    http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/320365-pra-gsp02-0024052.html

    ReplyDelete
  7. I still don't understand why you lament Walker raising funds when he wouldn't have been able to do so with the unlimited rules had you not triggered the recall.

    As I've mentioned before: you started it. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't see where anyone here is lamenting Walker being able to get unlimited out of state funding to vet signatures and defend himself during the recall process. That he went to Waukesha to get a ruling that placed that financial burden on state taxpayers through the GAB is certainly disconcerting.

      We (the official Recall organizations)finished the process with a million plus people in agreement with the recall, but a private citizen started the initial recall with a filing that started the fund-raising clock for Walker and that individual to the best of my knowledge, never submitted a single signature (albeit his own) on a petition for recall. Might want to check out that fact.

      If that photo is you, you appear a middle-aged adult, so any real purpose for the third grade playground taunting?

      Delete
    2. She is a Walker supporter, and has a right to her opinion. I read her blog and thought she might be fair until I saw a link to an unsigned rant about teachers, calling them names. I have trouble with that position, as I myself was a teacher, an excellent person who was trying to teach students. I gave it my all, and now these cruel people hate teachers, so I lose respect for them.

      I personally think Walker started it, by not compromising. But worse than that, he appears to be controlled by outside money.

      Delete
    3. Thank You,

      I had already assumed as much as you have mentioned. A right to an opinion is not the same thing as a right to create the facts and then vomit an opinion based on those fallacious meanderings.

      Delete
  8. "But worse than that, he appears to be controlled by outside money."

    And local money...

    ReplyDelete
  9. Walker will never resign. He is too stubborn to resign. He will never admit or even realize that what he has done has done more harm than good for Wisconsin.

    As long as Walker has big money supporting him and enough people believing the B.S. that he and his staff spew out, and the right wing talk radio on his side he will keep going even more than the energizer bunny with a nuclear reactor on his back.

    Walker does not seem to care about Wisconsin or the average citizen. As long as he has the Koch brothers why should he? He can get more money on one trip to Texas than he can get in a month of going door to door in Wisconsin. And lets face it, it is the money that matters to him. And his future.

    To be continued.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous part 2.

    Look at Walker as Milwaukee County Executive.

    He never cared about Milw. County or solving any of the problems there. It was all just a stepping stone to the Governors Mansion.

    He came in on this voter anger over the "pension scandal" during the Ament years. Walker never did anything to stop the so called scandal, people continued and still continue to receive the big backdrop pension payments even after Walker left Milwaukee. Walker only made his top staff members sign off on the backdrop payments when the local paper caught them. He had to be forced to do it. I might get back to this later.

    Actually Walker left Milwaukee County in worse shape than when he took over, and he continues to make it worse as Governor. As Governor he has tied the hands of local administrators behind their backs and left them with very few options to solve budget problems.

    Gov. Walker says. You can't raise taxes to cover your costs, go screw your workers, that should solve your problems.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous part 3.

    Walker does not care about the people that he is supposed to represent. If he did why would he go around the state campaigning for Governor at the expense of the citizens of Milwaukee County?

    Come on now. Lets be honest. Who really thinks that Walker was promoting tourism in Milwaukee County as he rode around the state with his entourage? Don't you think he was going for name recognition? Think Walker, who cares about Milwaukee!

    It was too easy to ride around the state in that grey area promoting Milwaukee County as a candidate for governor.

    He was and eagle scout. Ethics. Values. Mister squeaky clean. He only surrounded himself with criminals who would do whatever it took and would break any laws to support his agenda. If they got caught money would come from somewhere to pay the high priced lawyers that would defend them. Even if, or especially if, they were Milwaukee County employees at the time of their alleged misdoings and they actually lived outside Milwaukee County (where there is a residency requirement during employment. Did Kelly Rindfleisch really leave her home and take up residency in Milwaukee for Walker?)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous part 4.

    Sorry, I didn't think my rant would take this much space.

    Walker is really only thinking of himself. He is only using the true believers to advance himself into a higher office. He did it to become Milwaukee County Executive. He used it to become Governor. Is he now doing it to get a higher office?

    Are big money conservatives funding Walker to promote their agenda?

    It sure looks that way. The Koch brothers and others keep giving him money to inflict policies on the state that favor the rich over the poor and middle class. These policies have resulted in a loss of jobs in Wisconsin while the rest of the nation is gaining jobs. If they succeed Wisconsin will have low wages for many blue collar workers. Costs for higher education will get higher for most students leaving each of them over a hundred thousand dollars in debt.

    While Walker rode into Milwaukee County on the so called "Pension scandal" he did nothing to solve these problems. The big checks continue to be paid out.

    Walker cried about how blue collar workers were the "haves" while non-government workers were the "have nots", he forgot his campaign promise of not taking a raise above what he made in the State Assembly. I guess those promises have an expiration date. He took the big pay raise without any complaint or protest. Then he bought a house with an in-ground swimming pool.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous part 5.

    It is probably the hypocricy of Walker and his co-conspirators that irritates me the most of all the things that they have done.

    As County Executive Walker imposed furlough days on all county workers to cover the cost of the fiscal crisis that he created. (There was no crisis until he decided to not cover the costs of operating Milwaukee County). Most workers had to endure a big pay cut to reduce the County budget. But Walkers top staff all got big raises that covered the cost of the furlough days, noone else got raises.

    If there was such a horrible budget crisis why wouldn't Walkers staff share in the pain? If they truely believe that worker pay needs to be cut to save the taxpayers, why wouldn't they take the cut just like every other worker?

    Walker has his sights set at an even higher office. His supporters do too, so they can get even more tax breaks.

    It doesn't seem that Walker believes that any worker should get paid a living wage. Neither public or private sector employee. He, on the other hand should get a free ride. The taxpayer should pay for his entire life. Free home, free food, all expenses paid. And all he had to do for it was screw the poor and the middle class, tell a few lies, well more than a few. But who cares. As long as someone is willing to fincance his next campaign, who cares?

    The poor and middle class don't contribute enough to make a difference. As long as they keep believing the crap that Walker feeds them who cares?

    ReplyDelete
  14. I was watching the great film "Mister Roberts" last night and it makes me think of Scott Walker. I mean the scene when Henry Fonda is listening to the broadcast of the end of the war in Europe, when the presenter talks about "the forces of ignorance, ambition and stupidity". That just sums up all of Scott Walkers political career. They must be cast out just like a malignant growth. Just like Scott Walker.

    ReplyDelete