Legislators Call For Probe Into Walker's Honey Wagon

Be careful if you decide to jump on Walker's wagon.

A few days ago, I shared the story of how Scott Walker's corrupt DNR tried to help Herr Environmental, Inc. get away with dumping three times the legally-allowed limit of human effluence on farm fields near residential drinking wells.  To make matters worse, Herr Environmental then tried to cover up their crime by submitting false reports.

Walker cronies Scott Gunderson and Matt Moroney, both of whom Walker politically appointed to the suddenly lax DNR, tried to make the problem go away by obstructing justice.  Instead of referring the matter to the Department of Justice, as the inspector had recommended, Gunderson and Moroney referred the matter to the District Attorneys, knowing that any fines which might be imposed would be just a small fraction of what they should have paid, not to mention that the DOJ would have had them pay for testing the 40 drinking wells which might have been contaminated.

Unsurprisingly, it turned out that Herr was a campaign donor to Gunderson when he was a state representative.  He also donated to Scott Walker, Rebecca Kleefisch and her husband, Joel Kleefisch, who had pushed for the problem to go away.

Late into the night that the news broke, DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp issued a press release which was nothing but a feeble attempt to say, "Nothing to see here. Carry on."  With this press release, she confirmed what many suspected, which was that she was not appointed for her desire to protect the environment, but she was just another one of Walker's tools.

Two former DNR secretaries, former governor Tony Earl and Scott Hassett, blasted the way that Walker's DNR handled this.  It is interesting to note that the one former DNR secretary who was Republican refused to comment.  Then again, he is a bureaucrat with the UW system, so he is probably afraid of any retaliation if he did make a comment.

Today, twelve state legislators - Reps. Brett Hulsey, Louis Molepske, Mark Pocan, Fred Clark, Tamara Grigsby, Kelda Roys, Gordon Hintz, Penny Bernard Schaber, Frederick Kessler, Terese Berceau and Senators Lena Taylor and Chris Larson - called for a legislative investigation, along with hearings open to the public, into the scandal and subsequent cover up:

“The Attorney General should immediately review this case to fetter out any undue political influence that seems all but certain to have happened in this case,” said Rep. Louis Molepske (D-Stevens Point), ranking Democratic member of the Natural Resources Committee. “The legislature’s standing committees should review the actions by the DNR political appointees who took it upon themselves to shield a political donor from the full prosecution by the AG’s office that should have happened as the mainline scientific staff requested.  This is not about politics.  This is about innocent families whose private wells may have been significantly contaminated thereby exposing particularly those with decreased immune functions to E. coli, increased nitrate levels, and other serious health impairments.”

But leave it to one of my favorites, Senator Lena Taylor, to come up with the line of the day:

“Gov. Walker seems to let polluters and corporate donors do whatever they want and ignore protecting the drinking water of Wisconsinites.  It sure smells like pay to spray to me,” said Senator Lena C Taylor (D-Milwaukee).

Wouldn't it be a grand sight to see the authorities impound Walker new campaign vehicle, the Honey Wagon?