Lyin' Ryan Joins Trump's Fickle Campaign Strategery

Donald Trump really fumbled the ball when it came to a scheduled campaign rally in Wisconsin on Sunday.

He originally announced that he would be coming to West Allis, WI, a suburb of Milwaukee. It didn't make a lot of sense at the time since Trump had performed so badly in Southeastern Wisconsin that he lost the primary to Ted Cruz.

Then the details came out about the rally and things went from perplexing to downright silly.

He scheduled the rally for 3 pm, a half hour before the Packers game started. Now, anyone that has been to Wisconsin on a Packer Sunday knows that the entire state damn near shuts down for those three and a half hours. The streets and the stores are empty as people go to wherever they plan on being to watch the game.

To make it even more preposterous, Sunday's game was a "gold ticket" game, which means that the game would be attended heavily by Milwaukee season ticket holders. (The Packers used to play three games a year in Milwaukee. The gold ticket package was to keep those season ticket holders and the revenue.)

I was looking forward to seeing the handful of people that would have gone to this last minute rally.

But someone must have tipped Trump's campaign off on how poorly they would do and they abruptly canceled the rally and chose to go to Minnesota instead.

But there's more. There's always more.

Lyin' Paul Ryan, who had disinvited Trump from a rally last month and vowed to never defend or campaign with Trump again because of the infamous "grab them by the p*ssy" tape, apparently was ready to break that promise too:

For the second time in as many months, the possibility of a joint Paul Ryan-Donald Trump campaign appearance was floated and quickly yanked away.

The Republican presidential nominee earlier this week scheduled a Sunday afternoon rally in West Allis, just outside Milwaukee. It was to be Trump's sixth Wisconsin event since he lost the state's primary election to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

"We don't know if it's scheduled firm or not yet, but I intend to do it if he's here," Ryan told reporters Saturday when asked if he would attend the Trump rally. "Here's the point: we're going from here to Mukwonago to go campaign with Mike Pence. So everybody's schedule is a little bit in flux in these closing moments, but if our nominee comes, we'll campaign with him."

With Trump's viloe personality, insane comments and fickle nature, it is no wonder that he has been consistently behind Hillary Clinton by six or seven points.

With Lyin' Ryan once again living up to his nickname, it would be no small wonder why he might lose his Speaker position after all the poor decisions he's made.

The only thing surprising is why these two characters aren't close friends, with so much in common.

Rience Priebus: Email Scandals? IOKIYAR!

While Reince Priebus was on ABC News “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” when he wasn't trying to raise the latest Trumped up rumors about Hillary Clinton's alleged email scandal, he said something that was so thick with hypocrisy that it made my hair hurt:

STEPHANOPOULOS: -- the only conclusion we've had from the FBI director so far is that no reasonable person would have prosecuted.

PRIEBUS: Right. That -- that's their conclusion so far. But they're also actively reviewing 650,000 emails. And I can assure you, that we already know that some of them are not duplicative. Six hundred and fifty thousand emails on Anthony Weiner's laptop suddenly show up about a month ago. The investigation is continuing. And, look, I think the American people have serious concerns about it. I would. And I take most people do. And they think that, obviously, this is going to be a big liability for her.

Y'know, it's kind of funny that Priebus is suddenly so seriously concerned about Clinton's alleged email scandal when he didn't bat an eye when his decades long friend, Scott Walker, was declared to be at the heart of a criminal scheme.

Then again, maybe Priebus wasn't concerned since he already already knew about it. After all, he was part of it.

At least now I can understand how Priebus can be such a tool for Trump and the Republicans. He sold his sold and his pride long ago.

Cross posted from Crooks and Liars.

Happy Anniversary, Scott Walker!

Happy Anniversary to Scott Walker!

It was one year ago today that Scott Walker's presidential aspirations were officially declared dead.

When he ended his 70-day campaign, he was a hot mess.  His campaign owed over a million dollars and he was underwater in the pools, with less than a 40% approval rating. When he dropped out, he encouraged other Republican hopefuls to follow his lead so that there could be a focus on keeping Donald Trump from being the Republican nominee.

One year later and we find that Walker isn't faring any better than he was then - and in some ways, even worse off.

His campaign still owes hundreds of thousands of dollars and he is becoming more and more desperate in trying to raise any money to pay off his massive debt.

His approval rating is still underwater, as evidenced by a Marquette University poll that came out today:

Gov. Scott Walker's job approval was 43%, with 52% disapproving of his performance.

And now we find Walker touting Trump and encouraging people to vote for him.

And as the icing on his anniversary of failure cake, The Guardian recently reported on new Walkergate emails which really show just how corrupt Walker is and how he ran the state on a strictly pay-for-play basis.

So Happy Anniversary to Scott Walker! Now let's all raise our glasses in a toast that Walker will still get the one gift that he so richly deserves - an indictment.

WISGOP Develops A Sudden Case of Mass Trumpphobia

Just a couple, three weeks ago, Wisconsin's top three Republican office holders - Lyin' Paul Ryan, Ron Johnson and Scott Walker - traveled to Cleveland to pay homage and swear fealty to their wigged overlord, Donald Trump.

On Friday, Trump and his sidekick, Mike Pence, are coming to Green Bay for an event. However, all three Republicans who just pledged their support has suddenly become afraid of Trump and are fleeing before him:

Walker, Ryan and U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson are all taking a pass on appearing with Trump on Friday.

Walker will be viewing flood damage in northern Wisconsin. Ryan plans to be in the southern part of the state, where his district is. And Johnson has "prior commitments," according to his spokesman.

Ryan has the most plausible excuse. Wisconsin's primary election is on Tuesday so he would want to be doing last minute events to help rally the troops and GOTV events.

Ryan's excuse is definitely plausible - but it loses some of that plausibility when one also recalls that Trump refused to endorse Ryan and was praising Ryan's opponent earlier this week.

RoJo hasn't said where he will be or what he will be doing Friday night that would keep him from coming. However, giving how has consistently been behind his opponent, Russ Feingold, in both the polls and in fundraising, it's entirely conceivable that RoJo will be begging his father-in-law for his old company and job back.

Walker's excuse of touring the flood-ravished region of northern Wisconsin is the weakest of the three.

It is true that the area was hit by bad flooding that caused untold millions of dollars of damage and claimed three lives. But that happened nearly a month ago. Walker is only now getting around to touring the region?

What we are witnessing is a phenomenon that will likely spread among Republicans across the country - trumpphobia, the irrational (or rational) fear of being seen with their chosen nominee for president.

Or maybe it's just further proof of the adage that their is no honor among thieves.or Republicans, but I repeat myself.

Just Exactly Who Did Scott Walker Endorse?

It was a little bit more than surprising when Scott Walker agreed to speak at the 2016 Republican Convention in Cleveland on behalf of his primary nemesis, Donald Trump. After all, after Walker was forced to drop out of his own presidential bid after a scant 70 days, Walker did everything he could to derail Trump's campaign. He urged other candidates to drop out so voters could focus on defeating Trump. He also led the charge to push for a Ted Cruz victory in Wisconsin.

When Walker spoke on Wednesday night, he delivered the promised hypocritical smear of Hillary Clinton. But that quickly turned into Walker's kick off stump speech for his own 2020 presidential bid.

He again trotted out the same dog and pony show, telling everyone in the crowd how he was a legend in his own mind. He boasted of a non-existent economic recovery, fictitious lower unemployment numbers, his completely false claim of cutting taxes for anyone but the rich and, of course, "bravely" staring down the protesters and unions. (At least he didn't compare them to terrorists...this time.)

Walker stump speech was just the end of Walker already schmoozing up to the delegates from the early voting states:

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, whose 2016 bid collapsed despite stellar fundraising, is doing his own tour of early state delegations, and meeting with some of the nation’s biggest GOP donors. Attendees at a Wednesday event sponsored by his political committee left with the impression that Walker was positioning himself for another White House run.

[...]

Addressing a delegation of North Carolina Republicans over breakfast Wednesday morning, Walker didn’t allude much to his future ambitions. But he didn’t miss an opportunity to remind a battleground-state crowd of his own political successes in Wisconsin, which he noted hasn’t voted for a Republican presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan.

“Common-sense conservative reform works even in a blue state like Wisconsin,” he said.

What this means is that Walker become even more of an attention whore, traveling around the country selling his snake oil. He's probably already writing his speech blasting Trump (and President Clinton, of course) after he loses in November.

Unfortunately, it also means that he will continue to tighten the screws on Wisconsin workers and taxpayers as he panders to his major campaign contributors.

Cross posted from Crooks and Liars

Republican Operatives Push To Dump Trump, Walker Wants In

Last week, I pointed out that Scott Walker was starting to waffle on his support for Donald T. Rump, the presumptive Republican nominee. I also pointed out that it seemed that Walker was trying to position himself to be the new nominee if all hell broke loose at the Republican convention.

During the past week, Walker continued to act like he was trying to position himself as a presidential candidate again.

During a vacation, er, trade mission in Mexico, smeared all the remaining candidates, saying that Mexican authorities were equally worried about each of them:

Gov. Scott Walker said Mexican officials have raised concerns with him in recent days about the trade policies Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders would adopt as president, but didn't consider any one of them a bigger threat than the others.

"In general, they're concerned about trade, and interestingly they're concerned not just about the presumptive Republican nominee, they were concerned about statements made by both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton about trade as well and what impact it might have," the GOP governor said Wednesday in a conference call with reporters.

Yeah, right, sure.

Like the Mexican authorities were just as worried about the Democrats as the guy who called them rapists and drug dealers and wanted to build a wall along the Mexican border and have the Mexicans pay for it.

At the same time, Walker channeled his inner Sarah Palin by blaming the media for his low poll numbers and for the fact that he just sucks:

Gov. Scott Walker says it's the media's fault that people feel bad about the state.

Walker reacted Wednesday to a Marquette University Law School poll showing 50 percent of respondents believe Wisconsin is headed in the wrong direction.

Walker said on a conference call that when he does listening sessions across Wisconsin he hears "good things."

But he says, "headlines are always about negative and bad things so it's no wonder people would feel that way in the polls."

The same poll shows 37 percent think the state budget is in worse shape than a few years ago, while only 31 percent thought it was in better shape. And 29 percent say they think the economy got worse in the past year compared with 25 percent who thought it improved.

To confirm my speculations, a local squawk radio "news" show reported that Walker was now "open" to being named the nominee at the Republican convention if the delegates decide to reject T. Rump, who has been continuously making an ass out of himself, as been sinking in the polls and has been costing the Republican party major corporate sponsors.

On Thursday, CNN reported that there are is a group of Republican sponsors, strategists and operatives looking at the long shot options in trying to dump Trump. What caught my eye is the name of one of the people spearheading this effort:

There is a group of people -- including Eric O'Keefe, a former top fundraiser for Cruz -- that recently formed a group they're calling "Delegates Unbound." They are working on a robust effort to convince delegates that they have the authority and the ability to vote for whomever they want.

A source working with the group told CNN that they are going to try to not only directly communicate with the delegates but also try to raise money to buy TV ads. This source insists the anti-Trump energy is out there among delegates but they just have to coordinate and harness it -- which is no easy task.

Not only is Eric O'Keefe a former top fundraiser for Ted Cruz, but he is the current head of the Koch-funded Wisconsin Club for Growth. O'Keefe is also one of the main subjects in the John Doe investigation between the illegal collaboration between O'Keefe and his group and Scott Walker and his campaign. They already have the emails showing Walker wanting his major donors to send their money to the Wisconsin Club for Growth since there were no limits and they would remain anonymous. WCfG then used that money to help Walker and other Republicans win the recall election.

As CNN reported, it would be extremely unlikely that these operatives would actually be able to oust T. Rump, especially this late in the game. But even if they did, they would be twice-damned fools to replace him with Walker. Walker is such a failure that he barely lasted ten weeks when he was officially running for president. If they tried to pick the popular candidate with this flop, they are just asking for an open rebellion.

Then again, the Republicans have never been known to give a damn about what the voters want.

And if Walker really thinks that he has a chance to win the nomination, much less the presidency, he either crazier and/or dumber than anyone had thought.

On the bright side, we will all be able to laugh at him once again when he fails.

The Return of Walker 2016

Well, that escalated quickly.

On Monday, Scott Walker had this to say about presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump:

A week after fellow Wisconsinite Paul Ryan endorsed Donald Trump's bid for president, Gov. Scott Walker said Monday he will have no problems supporting the presumptive Republican nominee even though "he wasn't my first choice."

Walker, in the Fox Cities Monday for a listening session, said in an interview with USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin that he believes Trump is a better fit for the presidency than the expected Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.

Walker, a onetime presidential candidate, said he has made it clear since the Aug. 6 Republican presidential debate in Cleveland that he would support his party's nominee, no matter who it is. That includes Trump.

"I said it then, and I'll repeat it now, that I felt like any of the people on that stage were better than Hillary Clinton," Walker said. "He wasn't my first choice. He wasn't my choice in Wisconsin. There are issues, not the least of which lately with his statements about the judge he commented on, which I just fundamentally disagree with him on, so just saying that I'll support him over Hillary Clinton doesn't mean I embrace all the things that he says or all the ways that he says it."

Walker said his support for Trump isn't a matter of party loyalty, but rather that he doesn't trust Clinton.

Not a warm embrace, but definitely supportive.

But by Wednesday, Walker had amped up his criticism of Hair Furor and the racist statements he had made towards U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel:

Gov. Scott Walker blasted presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s remarks about U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel on Wednesday.

“I’m focused on calling out the fact that I believe what he said about the judge is wrong, not as a Republican or Democratic or as a political person but just as an American,” the Republican governor told reporters at the Alliant Energy Center. “In this country, we don’t judge people based upon their race, their sex, their ethnicity, their religious beliefs. That’s just a fundamental principle going back to the founding of our country. “

Obviously, racist statements made by Trump is a bad thing, although he didn't mind it so much within his own campaign and staff.

On the same day, Walker served up some waffles strongly fortified with irony (emphasis mine):

In an interview with Madison, Wisconsin’s WKOW, Walker, who dropped out of the GOP race in September 2015, lamented the general-election matchup between presumptive nominees Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton.

“It’s just sad in America that we have such poor choices right now,” he said.

Walker, who endorsed Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in the Wisconsin primary, had previously pledged to support the Republican nominee “whoever that is,” arguing that any GOP candidate would be preferable to Clinton. On Tuesday, however, the Wisconsin governor seemed less certain of his ability to back Trump, pointing to the candidate’s accusations of bias against a Hispanic federal judge as especially troubling.

“He’s not yet the nominee. Officially that won’t happen until the middle of July, and so for me that’s kind of the timeframe,” Walker said. “In particular I want to make sure that he renounces what he says, at least in regards to this judge.”

Whoa! It takes some nerve for a guy that was so quickly and soundly rejected by both the voters and his own backers in his own presidential bid to be calling anyone "a poor choice." And that's not getting into his own underwater approval ratings.

The right wing site Red State started speculating that Walker is considering being the nominee of Trump is finally rejected at the Republican convention:

"He's not the nominee yet" really can only mean one possible thing: Walker is among the people who are at least entertaining the possibility that something might happen to prevent Trump from becoming the nominee in July.

When Jessie Opoien of the Cap Times asked Walker about these rumors, he downplayed them:

Gov. Scott Walker shook his head at rumors floated Wednesday that he is open to accepting the Republican nomination if Donald Trump's candidacy falls apart before the party's convention in July.

"I am completely committed to being governor," Walker told reporters. "If I run another campaign in the future, it’ll be running for re-election for governor in 2018, and I won’t make a decision on that until after the elections and after the budget. But that would be the only campaign I’d consider in the future."

Asked what he would do if the possibility were raised on the convention floor, Walker laughed.

"I think, we could talk about hypotheticals all day long. I don’t think any of those are likely," he said.

It would be easy to believe that Walker is just trying to hype this controversy and is making these speculative statements in order to help him restart his stalled fundraising efforts to pay off the $900,000 he still owes from his spectacularly failed presidential bid.

But the gentle reader should remember that Walker alluded to something like this two months ago. The gentle reader should also remember that the two chairs of the convention, Paul Ryan and Reince Priebus, are BFFs with Walker.

And with the way this election season has gone, can we really rule anything out?

Donald Trump: The Face Of The Republican Party

Remember, Republicans voted for Donald Trump to be their face in the upcoming presidential election because he most resembles their values and beliefs:

"Oh, look at my African-American over here. Look at him."

Trump/Walker 2016?

I'm not sure if Donald Trump was trying to appease the Republican establishment or was mocking them, but either way, he started to drop some names for possible running mates:

In an interview with USA Today, Trump indicated Walker, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Ohio Gov. John Kasich were possible vice presidential picks. Walker and Rubio have dropped out of the presidential race, but Kasich continues his run, as does Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

"There are people I have in mind in terms of vice president," Trump said. "I just haven't told anybody names. ... I do like Marco. I do like Kasich ... I like Walker actually in a lot of ways. I hit him very hard. ... But I've always liked him. There are people I like, but I don't think they like me because I have hit them hard."

Walker, who still has hurt feelings, laughed it off, but kept open the possibility of being someone else - anyone else's - running mate:

"I literally just heard it in the car and I said — I laughed — it's kind of interesting to hear that after the things that were said about me a couple weeks ago," Walker told reporters. "But I'm focused on being the governor of the state of Wisconsin. ... That's not even on my radar and it certainly wouldn't be with — I guess I was shocked more than anything to hear that."

He added: "I can't even fathom that. Like I said, it's almost breathtaking that I was listed in the first place."

Walker dodged saying whether he would accept an offer to run as vice president with Cruz.

"To me, I think that's so far off," he said. "I think if you've got a contested convention, I don't know that anyone's going to get the pick. The delegates may pick the vice presidential running mate."

Walker is probably afraid that he would have to wear a Trump toupee and cover up his glorious and growing bald spot.

I personally think that Walker is still hoping and praying for a brokered convention and that by some miracle, the Kochs, er, I mean, the party establishment, will pick him instead of Paul Ryan

The Bungling Brothers Circus Comes To Wisconsin

Not only has what's left of the Republican Presidential Circus come to Wisconsin, they wasted little time getting the show off.

The Republican establishment and their dark money overlords have decided to make Wisconsin the place they draw a line in the sand against the Donald Trump juggernaut. They are throwing everything they have at Trump here - from ambush radio interviews to every Republican leader in the state attacking Trump and praising Cruz.

It's not that Cruz has a realistic chance of becoming the nominee. The establishment just wants to stop Trump to make it easier for them to manipulate the rules of the convention so that a candidate of their choice is named.

This culminated on Tuesday when Scott Walker endorsed Cruz even though he already said that he didn't think Cruz or anyone else still in the race would be the nominee. Maybe that's why Walker's endorsement sounded a little less than convincing:

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker endorsed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the Republican presidential primary on Tuesday, telling conservative radio host Charlie Sykes he's "all in" for the "common-sense conservative who ... sticks to his guns."

Walker made it clear his support for Cruz isn't the result of an "anyone but Trump" mentality shared by many Republicans; rather, he's excited about the candidate.

"To me, I'm all in," Walker said. "This is not a default."

Um, yeah. If you have to try to convince people that Cruz is not your default choice and that you were just following orders in endorsing him, well, it's not very convincing after all.

Also, when Walker dropped out of the race in record time, he tried to get the other candidates to do the same so that they could focus on beating Trump.

Walker also promised to go around campaigning for Cruz although it's not clear what a governor with a 39% approval rating is going to do to help and not hurt the campaign.

Meanwhile, Trump had been predicting that Walker wouldn't endorse him. And when Walker came out with his endorsement of Cruz, Trump slammed him but good:

Trump predicted -- correctly, it turned out -- that Walker would endorse Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in Wisconsin's April 5 presidential primary. The real estate mogul suggested Walker may have been smarting from his short-lived presidential bid. Trump took credit for knocking the Wisconsin governor out of the race.

"We sent him packing like a little boy," Trump said during the 20-minute interview. "I'm the one that revealed his weaknesses."

Walker, Trump said, left the GOP primary field "in disgrace." Trump added, "I'm surprised he's got any juice left in Wisconsin."

Trump then pointed to Walker's recall election in 2012, saying there appears to be a lot of hostility in the Badger State.

"Wisconsin has a lot of problems. Plus, there's tremendous hatred. You look at the vitriol," he said. "I wouldn't exactly say, fellas, that things are running smoothly."

While Walker was still in the running for the GOP nomination, Trump said he simply pointed out that Wisconsin was facing a $2.2 billion budget deficit, something he said the second-term Republican governor never explained.

"The schools were going begging and everything was going begging because he didn’t want to raise taxes because he was going to run for president,” Trump said of Walker. “So instead of raising taxes, he cut back on schools, cut back on highways, cut back on a lot of things.”

In the end, Trump said: "I hit him very hard. . . . Literally, in one week, he was out of the race."

Meanwhile, Ohio Governor John Kasich (remember him?) was trying to keep even a shred of relevance:

Republican presidential candidate John Kasich said he wasn't surprised that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker did not endorse him on Tuesday and went instead with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

"I kind of thought this would happen," Kasich said.

The Ohio governor intimated in stops in Milwaukee and Waukesha that Walker's decision to back Cruz was little more than a speed bump — if that — in his run for the GOP nomination.

Kasich reiterated his belief that Trump won't get the necessary delegate count to make his nomination a certainty, and at the convention in Cleveland, Republicans will eventually turn to him — someone with leadership and experience.

"I have basically labored in secrecy for a very long time — and now, all of a sudden, I kind have some of the sun shining on me," Kasich said in Waukesha.

The strategies of the three candidates are also interesting.

Cruz is rarely stepping out of his comfort zone of the three ultrared counties around Milwaukee - Washington, Ozaukee and Waukesha - where the establishment is strongest. Meanwhile, Trump is hitting a lot of the outstate places where he has the strongest support. Kasich is going anywhere and everywhere, begging to get what votes he can. Kasich said that he wants to be a spoiler for Trump, but odds are he's going to hurt Cruz worse than Trump.

On the other side, both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are drawing good crowds and getting the crowds very enthused.

And of course, with the circus going into full speed, the rest of us are just sitting back and eating our popcorn.

#Feelthebern

By Jeff Simpson

Historically Accurate Western Illinois Mock Election predicts Senator Bernie Sanders as our next president.

 

#feelthebern 

Pop Goes The Weasel!

As the gentle reader knows, unless they just woke up from a coma, Scott Walker has ended his campaign. On Monday evening, he boldly gave his preemptive concession speech. (BTW, am I the only one that just died laughing when someone broke out in applause when he said he was quitting?)

When Walker formally announced his campaign a scant ten weeks ago, he said that God told him to run. Now he is saying God is telling him to quit in order to lead the other Republican candidates to also quit so that they can unite behind one "positive" Republican who isn't Donald Trump:

"I was sitting in church yesterday, the pastor's words reminded me that the Bible is full of stories about people who were called to be leaders in unusual ways. Today, I believe that I am being called to lead by helping to clear the field so that a positive conservative message can rise to the top of the field. With this in mind, I will suspend my campaign immediately.

"I encourage other Republican presidential candidates to consider doing the same, so that the voters can focus on a limited number of candidates who can offer a positive conservative alternative to the current front-runner.

"This is fundamentally important to the future of the party, and more importantly to the future of our country.

And yes, the crazies and the postmortem analyses are already coming out of the woodwork.

Some of Walker's cult-like followers are suggesting that Walker is playing rope-a-dope, either angling for a brokered convention or just to come back into the field of play after enough people dropped out.

Liz Mair, who worked for Walker for less than 24 hours, came out firing even before he made the formal announcement, blaming Walker's advisors and a poor campaign strategy. She also alluded to a "big story" that Walker would be tied to that was about to break. One can only guess what this "big story" is, but a good guess would be that rumor about Walker's campaign manager, Rick Wiley, and allegations of his lewd and lascivious behavior.

While all of this is going on, the Koch Boyz have got to be wondering how do they go about getting back all of the money they had invested in Walker. They must be feeling really bitter that all of the Kochs' money and the Kochs' men couldn't put the weaselly Walker campaign back together again.

Now, like the gentle reader, I'm as happy as can be to see Walker fall flat on his weasel face. But I have to keep my joy tempered for a couple of reasons.

One, while the rest of the nation is off the hook for now, we still have to deal with Walker. And he's going to be extra ornery due to his national embarrassment.

Secondly, history has a tendency to repeat itself if we choose to ignore it.

I've mentioned before that Walker had made a run for governor in 2006 because God told him to. Walker pulled out early on in that race because he was getting no support and was getting no traction. Walker then continued to campaign for the next four years, making all his decision based not on what was good for Milwaukee County or anything else but on what would be the most politically advantageous for him. He then went on to win in 2010, with a little help from the Koch Boyz and a secret router.

So, celebrate for now, but hang on because we haven't yet seen the last of Richard Milhouse Walker to kick around any more.

Scott Walker*

As the gentle reader already knew, Scott Walker turned in another unimpressive performance at last week's GOP debate on CNN.

That poor showing, combined with all of his gaffes, blunders and boneheaded comments has led Walker to drop drastically in the polls. Walker was the driver of the GOP clown car just two months ago with a poll rating of 29 percent. Now, in the first poll since last week's debate, Walker has dropped all the way to less than one half of one percent:



Go ahead and savor that for a moment. I definitely am.

Even though Walker is somehow trying to claim that he actually won the debate, he had already scheduled a meeting with his major fundraisers and donors to calm their fears and try to get them to give even more.

Apparently the meeting didn't go very well. Walker's donors have decided to take matters in their own hands and are trying to push Walker's campaign manager, Rick Wiley, out the door:

Well, it appears as though Walker’s donors are unwilling to wait-and-see from the sidelines and have taken matters into their own hands in an effort to rescue the campaign from ending like one-time competitor Rick Perry’s.

According to Buzzfeed, “a number of Walker’s donors and supporters have been circulating a rumor about Wiley in recent days, apparently aimed at discrediting him and bringing about a shakeup in the organization … They also said an anonymous letter about Wiley is circulating in political and donor circles, though it is unclear where it originated.”

Walker spokesperson Kirsten Kukowski acknowledged the rumors but would not confirm any details. Kukowski said the rumor was false and insisted that the campaign would not be distracted by what she called a “sideshow.”

It is said that the rumor being spread involves some sort of lewd and lascivious behavior from Wiley. What has been confirmed is that Walker's donors and supporters are concerned that Wiley has been expanding the campaign faster than they have been bringing in money. Sources have said that there has been massive layoffs of Walker's campaign staff across the country because their money flow has dried up to a trickle.

Likewise, Walker continues to cancel events around the nation as he focuses on just Iowa and South Carolina, like that will help him in the long run.

All of this has left Walker with a nasty problem.

If he keeps Wiley on staff, he will lose a lot of his donors, some of whom are said to already been looking at other candidates to donate to, in order to hedge their bets.

If Walker gets rid of Wiley, or if Wiley "resigns," Walker's campaign will be viewed as being in disarray and he will lose donors and the confidence - and money - of the few supporters he still has.

Personally, I can't think of a better person for this to happen to.

Do not be surprised if Walker soon has a similar experience as when he pulled out of the 2006 gubernatorial race, when God spoke to him and told him to pull out of the race. God being, of course, the dark money backers that had been supporting him up to now.

Jeb! Gets Punk'd!

Remember, Jeb Bush is supposed to be the smart one:

Walker To Propose War On American Workers

Scott Walker, in an act of desperation in trying to keep himself in the presidential bid, is taking things to an unprecedented extreme by declaring war on the American worker.

Per Scott Bauer of the AP:

Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker on Monday will call for sweeping restrictions on organized labor in the U.S., seeking to replicate nationwide his successful effort as Wisconsin's governor to curb the power of unions.

At a town hall meeting in Las Vegas, Walker will propose eliminating unions for employees of the federal government, making all workplaces right-to-work unless individual states vote otherwise, scrapping the federal agency that oversees unfair labor practices and making it more difficult for unions to organize.

Many of Walker's proposals are focused on unions for workers at all levels of government, while others would also affect private-sector unions. Labor law experts said such an effort, if successful, would substantially reduce the power of organized labor in America.

While Walker could enact some of the proposals via presidential executive order, others would require an act of Congress or changes in federal regulations. The goal, Walker said, is "to achieve fairness and opportunity for American workers."

"This will not be easy," Walker said in a statement to The Associated Press. "Many — including the union bosses and the politicians they puppet — have long benefited from Washington rules that put the needs of special interests before needs of middle-class families."

It's ironic that Walker would say that he is worried about the middle class since his plantation economic agenda has led Wisconsin to see the biggest drop in middle class families in the nation.

Experts in labor laws are aghast by Walker's agenda:

Experts were taken aback by the scope of Walker's proposals, which seek to undo decades of law and would gut the landmark National Relations Labor Act — adopted in 1935 and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the height of the Great Depression.

"I've never seen anything like this," said Ann Hodges, a professor at the University of Richmond who has studied labor law for more than 40 years. "This will take the breath away from anyone who's worked in labor relations for any length of time. ... It's pretty draconian."

Walker's plan also calls for prohibiting automatic withdrawal of union dues to be used for political purposes and forbidding union organizers to access employees' personal information, such as their phone numbers.

Lee Adler, a labor law expert at Cornell University, said Walker's proposals would eliminate workers' rights and make it more difficult for people to join the middle class.

"Mr. Walker could only be making these type of proposals to satisfy his most backward-looking, wealthy contributors, just as he pursued, as governor, policies advanced by these people that sought to destroy school teachers and other public employees' rights in Wisconsin," he said.

To be perfectly clear, Walker's proposal is to bring full-fledged fascism to the United States.

His agenda, given straight to him from the dark money special interests via ALEC, is not to help workers or give them freedom.His agenda is all about usurping control of the country for his corporate masters and to silence the voice of the people, especially those who would oppose them.

Walker Cancels Appearance At California Event

For months, Scott Walker was planning on headlining at the Republican state convention in California.

On Friday, he suddenly canceled his appearance without explanation:

Presidential candidate Scott Walker on Friday abruptly canceled his planned speech at the California Republican Party convention next weekend, according to someone involved with the event's planning who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

Walker, the governor of Wisconsin, had been a top draw to the state GOP gathering, and was due to speak at the Saturday night dinner in front of hundreds of delegates and guests in Anaheim.

Walker's campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

I'm trying hard not to read too much into this news, but one cannot help but speculate that his campaign is in trouble. After an endless series of punts, flip flops and gaffes, Walker has seen his support - both with voters and campaign fund donors - drop nationally.

This is especially true in Iowa, a must win state for Walker:

Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s once-strong lead in the Iowa polls has melted, as voters there turn their favor toward Donald Trump and Ben Carson, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll.

Mr. Trump was the favorite in the survey of likely Republican presidential caucus-goers released Friday, with 27% support, a 17 point rise since July 1. Mr. Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, was second with 21%.

Mr. Walker led polling in the state for months, only to be eclipsed last month by Mr. Trump, the brash New York developer and reality television star. The Quinnipiac poll shows the Wisconsin governor surpassed by nine of his competitors, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 9%, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 6% and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Sen. Marco Rubio and former Hewlett-Packard Co. chief executive Carly Fiorina, each at 5%.

Indeed, the Quinnipiac poll shows that Walker is at only 3% with likely Iowa voters.

Like I said, I'm not trying to read too much into the news of Walker canceling it trip to California. There are a lot of possible explanations. But I can't help but think that Walker realizes that he is in deep trouble and is going to try to salvage any chance he has in Iowa.

At the same time, Walker also knows he can't survive without the largess of his corporate overlords. He has been spending money on his campaign like a drunken Republican. If his puppet masters dry up his cash flow, he won't make it past Iowa anyway.

It appears that instead of "wreaking havoc" on Washington D.C., the only place Walker is wreaking havoc is with his own campaign.

Clinton Calls Walker "A Tool Of The Koch Brothers"

Hillary Clinton did a campaign stop in Milwaukee on Thursday night. During her speech, she said what many of us already knew - Walker is a tool for the Koch Boyz:

Making her 2015 debut in Scott Walker’s home state of Wisconsin, Hillary Clinton on Thursday unleashed her harshest and most extended diatribe yet against a Republican rival not named Donald Trump, accusing the governor of being a tool of the billionaire Koch brothers.

“It seems to me, just observing him, that Governor Walker thinks because he busts unions, starves universities, guts public education, demeans women, scapegoats teachers, nurses, and firefighters, he is some kind of tough guy on a motorcycle, a real leader,” Clinton said to a packed audience at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. “Well, that is not leadership folks. Leadership means fighting for the people you represent."

While Clinton frequently criticizes her Republican opponents on the campaign trail, her barbs are rarely so extended or pointed. She also mentioned Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, and Rand Paul on Thursday evening — but Walker faced the brunt of her fire.

“It looks like he just gets his marching orders from the Koch brothers and just goes down the list,” she added.

You gotta give Clinton credit, when she's right, she's right.

Interestingly, the local corporate media giant, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, failed to mention the line about the Kochs. But they did provide Walker's mewling response to Clinton, which shows that Walker has no limits to his hypocrisy:

Walker fired back at Clinton with a statement touting his record in Wisconsin and accusing her of fighting for the "ruling class."

"Hillary Clinton could learn a few lessons from the bold reforms we've enacted in Wisconsin since I took office," he said. "To move our country forward like we moved Wisconsin forward, we need a fresh face from outside Washington, D.C., to wreak havoc on the status quo and put hardworking American taxpayers back in charge. Hillary Clinton, who has been fighting for the ruling class over the working class for years, is not fit to take up that mantle."

If Walker thinks that creating the biggest drop in median income and in the middle class while lagging woefully behind the rest of the nation in job creation is fighting for the working class, it tells me that his mind is like concrete - all mixed up and firmly set.

Walker Blames Political Attacks For Slumping Approval Rating

Late in August, a poll done by Marquette University showed that Scott Walker's approval rating in Wisconsin had dropped to 39 percent. When asked about this, Walker resorted to giving a false choice on why his numbers are sinking:

Gov. Scott Walker says his dipping approval rating among Wisconsinites isn’t connected to his increasing absence from the state during his GOP presidential bid.

The latest Marquette University Law School poll shows that Walker’s job approval rating has dropped to 39 percent. But he doesn’t think that has anything to do with his time away from the state as he seeks the Republican presidential nomination.

"I think the biggest impact are just the attacks you see throughout the budget process," Walker said Wednesday.

He said once people see past political attacks on him, he’ll regain ground.

"I think a lot of it is some of the hype out of Madison and once people see the results as opposed to the political rhetoric, just as they have in the past, our numbers will continue to rise," Walker added.

What Walker failed to consider - and the media allowed him to avoid - is that the drop in his approval rating has nothing to do with either his presidential campaign or political attacks.

It could be that he is just doing such a shitty job that people are starting to wake up to just how bad things have gotten in Wisconsin.

Walker Loses War Of Words In His War On Workers

As Heather at Crooks and Liars pointed out, President Barack Obama went to Boston on Labor Day and put the smack down on Scott Walker:

"We're starting to hear a lot about middle-class values," he said. "Some folks seem confused about what exactly that means."

Without mentioning him by name, Obama struck at Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker for answering a question about his ISIS strategy earlier this year by saying: "If I can take on 100,000 (union) protesters, I can do the same across the globe."

"He is bragging about how he destroyed collective bargaining rights in his state," Obama said to boos Monday. "And [he] says that busting unions prepares him to fight ISIL. I didn't make that up. That's what he said."

Obama added incredulously, "Really?"

Several hours later, Walker's rapid response team came back with this weak Facebook post (all spelling and grammatical errors are theirs):

Well in reaction to the President's comments it's clear he stands with the big government union bosses while we stand with the people. It's part of tradition I guess. Last year the president came to Milwaukee Wisconsin to take a shot at us and this year on Labor Day where we are in the Live Free or Die state taking a shot at us. It's ironic we're here talking about freedom because what we did in Wisconsin was taking the power away from the big government union bosses and put it back in the hands of the hard working taxpayer. That's pro-worker. What we did was ultimately what we did was give people the freedom to choose if they wanted to be in a labor union or not. That's pro-worker. And certainly because of our reforms we've had three budgets, the total savings was $4.7 billion - that's lower income taxes and property taxes. That's pro-family. That's a stark contrast. It's not unexpected. I think the president views us unlike anyone else in this race because they know we don't just talk about it we get it done. We fight, we win, we get results. We've done it without compromising our conservative principles. It's why when I signed Right to Work the WH has a president had a statement attacking me, a governor, which is unprecedented. That's because he and his allies stand with big government special interests and we stand with the people. We've shown we can take on those powers. If I can do it in my state, a blue state, then we can on those powers in Washington and put the power back in the hands of the people. - Scott

Walker repeated this nonsense at a later press conference:

Walker told reporters that collective bargaining is "not a right, but is an expensive entitlement" and cited the cost savings in Wisconsin as a benefit to all taxpayers in the state.

He added that, "this is an issue where the president is just wrong."

OK, now let's put aside the fact that bragging about attacking and robbing one's own constituents of billions of dollars is nothing but a sign of a depraved mind. Let's also overlook Walker's obvious lack of knowledge about history in saying that Obama's comments are unprecedented.

Let's look at Walker's claim that his War on Wisconsin Workers saved taxpayers $4.7 billion - which is by far his biggest claim yet. Walker doesn't explain how robbing workers of their money saves them any money either. That's probably because he can't since his attack on workers has saved no money.

Don't believe me? Just ask Scott Walker. That's what he said in sworn testimony before a Congressional committee on April 14, 2011, right after he dropped the Act 10 bomb on Wisconsin workers:



As Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) got Walker to admit, there was no impact whatsoever on the budget. Walker's War on Workers is nothing more than a cynical political power play to gain and maintain control of the state.

The gentle reader must decide which Walker they are going to believe - the one who admitted under oath that his attack on workers had no financial impact on the state budget or the one who is making a desperate, last ditch effort to revive his failing presidential bid?

Scott Walker: A Pander Too Far

In Wisconsin, we take our football very seriously. Many of bleed green and gold and live and die by the Green Bay Packers. This is especially true since Scott Walker and his fellow Teapublicans have taken over and have been systematically destroying our once great state. Football is one of the few escapes we have anymore.

Because we take our football so seriously, one would think that the governor of our once great state would also be a big fan of the Packers.

But like everything else, Walker is apparently only a Packer fan when its politically convenient, such as tweaking fun at President Barack Obama (a Bears Fan) or sniping at Governor Chris Christie.

On Saturday, Walker was pandering to Cowboys fans while campaigning in Texas:

Presidential contender Scott Walker admits that his Green Bay Packers got lucky in last season’s playoff thriller against The Dallas Cowboys.

During a segment for Sunday’s Lone Star Politics, I got the Wisconsin governor to concede that Dez Bryant’s spectacular grab that would have put the Cowboys in position to win the playoff game was indeed a catch. Walker even said the league’s “goofy” rule that nullified the catch helped the Packers advance to the NFC Championship game.

“Tony Romo is a friend of mine because he grew up in Wisconsin,” Walker said with a smile. “I told him that was a helluva throw. It’s probably a goofy rule, but for us as Packer fans we like the fact that it’s a rule. But that was a helluva catch and a helluva throw.”

Well, isn't that special?

Of course, that is nothing compared to the pandering that Walker did for the fans of the Chicago Bears - the Packers' arch rival for nearly 100 years:

That's nearly as offensive to a Packers fan as when Brett Favre signed up with the Minnesota Vikings!

The gentle reader should keep in mind that while this post was written somewhat sardonically, the fact that Walker is indeed a feckless weasel and will only stand with a group or for a principle as long as it's politically convenient and advantageous to do so. Just look at how many times he has flip flopped on things like immigration and abortion.