Sunday, February 24, 2013

Dennis Smith Flees, Problems Remain

As Jeff Simpson reported on Thursday - and the only one to do so from what I can see - all sorts of horrible details of Dennis Smith's adulterous love affair came out in the trial of his mistress' husband.

That same day, Smith tendered his resignation as Scott Walker's Secretary of the Department of Health Services, and the rest of the media caught up to news of the trial.

True to their nature, instead of scorning the disreputable Smith, the Republicans arranged for him to land in a cushy job in a Washington, D.C. law firm where he can spend his time devising new ways to screw over the poor and deny them health care.

Walker immediately named the heavy -smoking Deputy Secretary Kitty Rhoades to be his successor as head of the Health Department.  There's no advantage for the taxpayer or the needy in this announcement.  The former Republican legislator is just as conservative as the rest of them and is likely to keep waging the war on the poor and elderly that Smith was originally hired for.

One might hope that at least with Smith's departure, at least some of the corruption would be gone.  After all, when he wasn't busy canoodling with another man's wife, he was busy meeting with such important health care-related groups and people like the MacIver Institute, Keith Gilkes, Mike Huebsch, the Wisconsin Restaurant Association, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce and the Heritage Foundation.

One might hope that the corruption would be gone, but one would be sorely disappointed.  Because still in the office of Director of Medicaid is Brett Davis, Walker's first choice for Lieutenant Governor, and another one of the players that was involved with Walkergate, the caucus scandal-type of illegal politicking that Walker had his county staff doing in their runs for higher office.

To this date, Walker hasn't had even an investigation into Davis' role in Walkergate, but less held him accountable.  But that's not surprising since that would raise more questions that Walker doesn't really want raised nor answered.

3 comments:

  1. the rats are the first ones off the sinking ship

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  2. Be of good cheer. If indeed Kitty Rhoades is a heavy smoker, perhaps she can single-handedly generate a pile of revenue for the state with Scottie's new $50 per month fine for state workers that smoke.

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  3. Maybe Kitty Rhoades can bring in Philip Morris to argue that heavy smoking lowers health care costs because heavy smokers die young. ALEC probably has the legislation ready for Scotty and Kitty.

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