And hilarity followed.
In case you did miss it, the recording is 20 minutes long, and is broken in two parts. Some good soul converted them to YouTube (please excuse the title of the videos):
The good folks at One Wisconsin Now was also kind enough to transcribe the entire conversation. Their transcription is here.
Many things can be gleaned from this, most of which has been picked up by various bloggers and media sources.
The most obvious, which the unions are rightfully pouncing on, is that Walker is a liar. For the entire duration since he introduced his reprehensible and destructive bill, he's been claiming it's not union-busting, but it's strictly to fix the budget. He betrays himself with his braggadocio, comparing himself to Reagan firing the air traffic controllers and taking credit for starting a new world order.
But everyone already knew that this was all about union-busting, so this is just more confirmation of old news.
There is also the fact that Walker revealed himself to be utterly untrustworthy, by describing how he would set a trap for the Fab 14, the Democratic Senators that took on the harsh burden of leaving their friends, families and loved ones behind and hightailing it out of the state to slow this monster down, giving the people of the state to see what a big steaming pile of you-know-what this really is.
Walker further shows his depravity by admitting he considered sending in plants among the peaceful demonstrators to behave badly and try to give these teachers, nurses, firefighters and cops a bad name. Obviously, even Walker realizes that his overreaching power grab is becoming increasingly unpopular and is willing to do anything to sabotage the people of Wisconsin, just to appease his benefactors, like the Koch Brothers.
But, as I've been pointing out for years now, Walker is a weasel, and most of the state has come to the same realization. Again, this is just more confirmation of something we already knew.
But there are two examples that I've seen only touched on briefly, which I believe to be more important than the union bashing or the weasel-like qualities which Walker displays.
One comes at the end of the conversation, when the pseudo-Koch tells Walker that he would reward him for being a good little lackey and Walker readily agrees:
KOCH: Ha, ha, ha. Well, I’ll tell you what Scott once you crush these bastards, I’ll fly you out to Cali and really show you a good time.That reminds me of the time during the campaign where Walker let a land developer fly him to Florida so he could collect donations from the road builders.
WALKER: All right that would be outstanding. Thanks for all the support in helping us to move
the cause forward. And we appreciate it and we’re uh, doing it, the just and right thing for the
right reason and it’s all about getting our freedoms back.
The other, bigger concern lies when Walker was politicking and collaborating with someone he thought was a very generous campaign donor:
KOCH: Yeah. Now what else can we do for you down there?
WALKER: Well, the biggest thing would be and your guy on the ground probably seeing this is
the well, two things. One, our members originally got freaked out by all the bodies here, I told them an interesting story, when I was first elected County Executive, in Milwaukee of all Places,
the first budget I put through was pretty bold, aggressive, the union went nuts on my and got all
sorts of grief, but a couple of weeks later I’m at a Veteran’s Day parade and I’m going down the line and usually unless you’re a veteran, or, ya know, when you’re marching with a veteran’s
group politicians all get (tape skip) applause but nobody get’s up. I come down the lie 40, 50
people in a row hands up, thumbs up, you know, cheering, screaming, yelling, way to go, hang in
there Walker and then after about 40-50 people like that there’s a guy flipping me off.
KOCH: (inaudible)
Walker: This goes on, you know, 40-50, ***(tape skip), the people who know it’s right will cheer you, applaud you, they’ll run through a wall for you, and the people that don’t like ya, they’re going to flip you off. But stop worrying about, ya know, them because the other day there were 70,000 probably about 2/3rds were against the bill, 1/3 were for. 70,000 people at the Capitol all week there’s been, ya know 15-30,000 a day but I remind all our lawmakers that there’s 5 and a half million people in this state and just because a bunch of guys who can jump off of work because their union rules doesn’t mean that the rest of the people in your district are with them. So one thing for your question is the more groups that are encouraging people not just to show up but call lawmakers and tell them to hang firm with the governor the better, because the more they get that reassurance, the easier it is for them to vote yes.
KOCH: Right, right.
WALKER: The other thing is more long term and that is after this, um, you know, the comingThis exchange could fall under a number of violations. He was politicking and soliciting help in the governor's office using government equipment, which is a major no-no. Mother Jones also points out that there could be a problem with him collaborating with a campaign donor, which could end up with possible legal troubles for Walker.
days and weeks and months ahead, particularly in some of these more swing areas, a lot of these
guys are gonna need, they don’t necessarily need ads for them but they ‘re going to need a
message out reinforcing why this was a good thing to do for the economy a good thing to do for
the state so the extent that message is out over and over again, that’s obviously, that’s obviously
a good thing.
KOCH: Right, right. We’ll back you anyway we can. But uh, what we’re thinking about the
crowds was, a, was planting some troublemakers.
Like the other points, this again, is just another reaffirmation of a problem we've been aware off. There is the ongoing John Doe investigation into Walker's county staffers and his campaign for illegal campaign practices.
Walker has also been the recipient of one of the largest fines handed down in Wisconsin history.
Walker's popularity was already dropping like a rock before this story hit the news or the Internet. This is only guaranteed to knock it down farther. Many people who voted for him are expressing voter's remorse. It is understandable that they would do that. It's has to be hard to support someone who is turning out to be a egomaniacal , maleficent and corrupt person.
At the very least, this incident should be investigated by an independent source. At this level, I can only imagine that would mean the federal government would need to do the investigation.
It is time that Walker gets realistic and loses the fantasy that he's some sort of presidential possibility. The truth is Walker has to choose whether he is going to do things the easy way or the hard way. He can keep fighting to suppress our rights, violate our natural areas and autonomy, and face a likely recall early next year. Or he could group up and actually start working with people, instead of trying to intimidate them.
The choice is up to him.
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