Walkergate: Hey Doe, Whaddya Know?

As much as Scott Walker would wish that John Doe would just dry up and blow away, the news keeps popping every few days, making sure it stays fresh in everyone's memory as we inch closer to November.  Without further delay, lets look at the happenings of recent days.

Helluva Lotta Cooperation!

The most recent story, and one of the bigger ones, is that Walker's recently released campaign finance another $320,000 for legal defense cooperation:
reports show that he paid out

Gov. Scott Walker funneled more than $320,000 from his campaign account to defense attorneys over the last six months as he and his allies fought a secret probe into fundraising and spending during the 2012 recall election.

[...]

Walker's report showed his political committee sent nearly $213,000 to Sidley Austin, a large Chicago law firm where defense attorney John Gallo is a partner; more than $83,000 to the Mequon-based Biskupic & Jacobs law firm; and $25,000 to Milwaukee defense lawyer Michael Steinle.

All the expenses were labeled "legal fees — compliance/administrative."

They come after Walker's campaign paid Biskupic & Jacobs $86,000 in the second half of 2013. The firm is run by former U.S. Attorneys Steven Biskupic and Michelle Jacobs.

The latest legal expenses come on top of almost $650,000 that Walker's campaign paid to attorneys during an earlier John Doe investigation into his aides and associates during his time as Milwaukee County executive. That brings the total the governor has had to spend on John Doe investigations to nearly $1 million.

That puts Walker well over the $1 million mark in legal cooperation.  That's a lot of money for someone that keeps claiming he has done nothing wrong.  One would think that his campaign would be squeaky clean by now with all that cooperation and compliance.  Apparently, that's not the case, since Walker has been so reluctant to talk about any of this.

I just wonder what Biskupic is going to call his new yacht...the Georgia Thompson?

Delaying The Inevitable Even More

In another front of the John Doe saga, two unnamed intervenors have been trying to do whatever they can to delay the release of more documents stemming from the investigation and the myriad of lawsuits.

Federal Judge Rudolph Randa has granted their request, giving them three more weeks to try to block the release of what could be up to 3,000 pages.

I also note that the propagandists like Charlie Sykes have stopped gloating about the federal lawsuit.  I guess they are finally figuring out that they're not so smart after all now that they are in danger of exposing themselves.

Here Comes the GAB

In news related to the federal lawsuit that the unnamed intervenors are trying to delay, the Wisconsin Club for Growth has asked the political activist Randa to add the Government Accountability Board to their lawsuit.

Like the prosecutors have done, GAB has taken the bull by the horns and have filed a petition with the federal appellate court asking to be added to the proceedings there.  Their reasoning is that they should be allowed to explain that they agree with the prosecutors on what is illegal campaigning.

It should be noted that despite the right's false cries that this is a partisan witch hunt, all of the GAB members are Republicans.

Original Doe Records

Another thing that is making Walker reach for the Maalox is that the first batch of documents from the original Walkergate investigation is due to be released in August.  The release comes after repeated resistance by Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele to do his job in getting the documents.

The amount of material is not nearly as much as Abele led us to believe.  What is disconcerting is that Abele is paying $85,000 to a private law firm to go through the papers and redact information.  Based on previous statements by Abele - including his desire for Walker to go through the documents to approve what is released - there should be concern that the documents being released are all there are and whether Abele is holding some important information back in an effort to conceal something that he or his allies might not want to be public knowledge.

But If It Wasn't Illegal...

Walker and his apologists have all but admitted that his campaign was working hand in hand with these dark money special interest groups.  Their argument has boiled down to the fact that they don't believe that what they were doing (and continue to do today) was illegal.  However, they were fully aware of what the state rules said and what the GAB considered to be the law for years.

If Walker and his cohorts in crime felt that the law was wrong or the interpretation was wrong, they could have easily filed a lawsuit challenging them.  Not only did they not challenge them in a court of law, they also took the exceptional and egregious steps of trying to change the law so that they could legally do what they had been doing all along.

In other words, they were trying to close the legislative barn door after the horses had run out.

While Walker's high priced attorneys might be able to keep him out of jail for now due to technicalities that doesn't mean that the people are going to buy his cockamamie obfuscations.

It's time for Walker to come clean and give the people some straight forward and honest answers.