Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Recall Retaliation

Among the many negative qualities that Scott Walker is known to possess, one of the most commonly recognized ones is his practice of cronyism. Walker's cronyism is so rampant that Madison could be in the running for Crony Capitol of the world.

On the flip side, another thing that Walker likes to practice a lot, but doesn't get nearly as much attention, is retaliation.

A prime example of Walker's art of retaliation is when he tried to go after Professor William Cronon of the University of Wisconsin. Cronon wrote a strong opinion piece lambasting Walker and his Republican legislative henchmen as well as a scholarly piece exposing ALEC for the first time to many people. In retaliation, Walker sent his hit men out to see if they could find a way to professionally ruin Cronon:
Why would the Wisconsin GOP want access to Cronon’s private emails?

Cronon theorizes, based on the keyword requests, that Wisconsin Republicans are trying to catch him in violation of state university rules by using a state email account to engage in “lobbying and electioneering to try to unseat these Republican legislators.” In other words, he says, Wisconsin Republicans want to damage him professionally in response to his criticism of them.

“That’s what they’re hoping to find,” Cronon says. “They’re trying to intimidate me. What they’re saying is that if an academic raises these kinds of questions, we’re going to make his life really uncomfortable. Intimidating people from asking legitimate questions is a McCarthyite tactic.”

Cronon says the Wisconsin GOP will not find evidence of what they’re looking for. “It’s not there,” he says.
Cronon wasn't the first to experience this type of harassment. Walker also tried the same thing on yours truly. Only after a lot of expense and stress, was it finally told that I was falsely accused. (I'm still waiting for CRG and Charlie Sykes to make their apologies. Good thing I'm not holding my breath.)

I have learned this evening that Walker is again exacting retribution and retaliation, this time in relation to the recall effort against him.

Walker apparently has been systematically going through the appointments he is to make to various committees and commissions around the state and comparing these names to those on the recall petitions and what roles they might have played in the recall effort. If the person in question signed the petition or had any role in the recall, they're not getting the appointment.

John Weishan
One such person is Milwaukee County Supervisor John Weishan. Weishan has been on the SEWRPC board for years. SEWRPC is the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission. However, when Weishan was again nominated for the commission by Milwaukee County Board Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic, Walker chose to pass him over for reappointment.

Walker's refusal to reappoint Weishan had nothing to do with wanting to put a political crony or yes man in the spot. He appointed Dimitrijevic who has also been an outspoken critic of Walker, both as county executive and as governor.

Weishan's sin was signing the recall petition. On top of that, Weishan, being a former marine, also went on tour around the state to speak out against Walker's war on veterans. And if that wasn't enough to earn Walker's wrath, Weishan, who was the one that sparked the investigation into Walkergate, also did a tour of the state to point out Walker's involvement in the scandal.

There are others who have similar stories, in that they took a visible stand against Walker, and now are being passed over for the committees, commissions and boards they were on until recently.

All of this only goes to show that not only is Scott Walker a despot, he's a petty one at that.

6 comments:

  1. I was gathering signatures at the Capitol the Friday before the deadline when a state worker came up to sign after waiting until the very end, he said, because he feared retaliation.

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  2. They threatened to take me away in handcuffs! What world am I living in?

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  3. I am participating in Gannett's "We the People" project, where they talk with people in the different media markets and tell our stories on how state and national politics are affecting us. I get interviewed about once a month and then they run the story in the Sunday paper. I am a public employee and was very critical of Walker in the stories before the election. Because of this, a local Tea Party member filed an Open Records Request for my work e-mail account. After meeting with my boss and our campus counsel, we responded by sending copies of e-mails that fit his Request. He has since responded back that we did not comply fully with his request and he will be "taking this up with his Senator!". (who happens to be a Republican) Make no mistake, this request was not aimed at my workplace, it was aimed directly at me for speaking out in the newspaper against Walker. This man wants me to loose my job for stating my opinion. This is the Wisconsin Walker has brought us.

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    1. That sounds a lot like what I went through. The RWNJs have filed numerous ORRs against me. It's nothing but pure intimidation and harassment.

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  4. Thats the whole reason that they came out with verify the recall so there would be a public record of people they can punish and intimidate.

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    1. another one of walkers "tools" to use to maintain power.

      bring on the indictments !

      the eagle-reporting from free america

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