Who's The Wrongdoer Here?

Dan Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel looks at the issue of the timing of any further charges stemming from Walkergate.  He asks all sorts of legal professionals, from former judges and prosecutors to law professors about this.  The long story short is that Milwaukee County District Attorney is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.

If he files more charges before the recall election, Republicans will scream bloody murder about partisan politics and trying to interfere with the election.  And if Chisholm files charges after the election, especially if Walker won, they'd be screaming about trying to interfere with the people's will or some such nonsense.  Bice also states that if Chisholm doesn't file charges before the election, the Democrats will be screaming about that.

But while Bice states there is no clear precedent for this, he cites a number of examples when politicians of both parties were charged just before elections.

Bill Christofferson posts on this issue and vouches that Chisholm is not going to allow partisan politics are concern about the timing affect his decisions on when and who to charge.  He also cites another example of a Democratic DA filing charges against a Democratic politician just before an election.

My take on this is different from that of Bice and Christofferson.

To me, Chisholm isn't the person who needs to be scrutinized. To fret over when Chisholm might issue more charges misses the point.  It would be like a speeder blaming the cop who pulled him over for making him late.  If the speeder hadn't been speeding, the cop wouldn't have pulled him over.

Instead of trying to blame or excuse Chisholm for the timing of any charges, put the responsibility where it belongs - on Walker and his people that committed and allegedly committed the crimes.  If they hadn't been doing illegal campaigning, there would be no Walkergate and thus no charges to worry about.

Another Rat Flees Walker's Sinking Ship

It's being reported that Scott Walker's Chief of Staff, Keith Gilkes, is leaving his state job to go back to his political consulting business.

And speculation as to why and why now abound.

The speculation regarding Gilkes departure is fueled by the fact that so many of Walker's other staffers, both from the past and those currently serving him, are embroiled in the ever-expanding Walkergate.

It doesn't help Team Walker that there are inconsistencies, as usual, in their messaging.

The report from JSOnline indicates that Gilkes is going back to campaign life at Walker's urging and to prepare for the upcoming recall:

Walker said he wanted Gilkes to go to the campaign now because he wants to tout the benefits of his policies - including an explosive repeal of almost all collective bargaining for public employees.

"I think when the public sees the facts and we get our message out, people are going to be appreciative of what we've done and, hopefully, they'll want to send more people to Madison who have that kind of common sense when it comes to reforms," Walker told reporters at a Madison event.

"I absolutely do take it seriously," he said of a possible recall attempt.

But later in the very same article, Gilkes said that he was planning this all along and that there's nothing to see here:

Gilkes and Walker said the departure was not related to the investigation. Indeed, top Republicans had been privately saying even before the raid on Archer's home that Gilkes would be leaving the administration soon to prepare for a likely recall attempt.

Gilkes disclosed his plans to top Walker aides earlier in the day during a meeting of Walker's cabinet at a Madison hotel. In an interview, he said he would serve as lead adviser to Walker's campaign, but would also take on other clients for campaign work. He said he would not go into lobbying.

Gilkes said he had long planned to revive his political consulting business, the Champion Group, after working as chief of staff.

"My reputation is one of not wanting to stay in state government for very long," Gilkes said, referring to past stints in the Capitol between campaign jobs.

Both Walker and Gilkes deny that Gilkes' resignation has anything to do with Watergate.

But is that true?

Bill Christofferson says maybe, maybe not. He makes a valid point that not everyone is cut out for government work and thrive more on the political sides of things. To further support this would be to just say "follow the money." It is probably very likely that Gilkes can make much more than his state salary of $112,000 as a consultant, especially if he picks up other clients. (I did hear rumor that he has been in contact with one of the presidential hopefuls.)

For what it's worth, I haven't even heard of a rumor tying Gilkes into the ongoing investigation into all of the nefarious misdeeds of the Walker campaign and his staff. But then again, it's hard to imagine that Gilkes, who managed Walker's campaign and then served nine months as his chief of staff is completely unaware of everything that was going on. After all, it was Gilkes who allowed the phony David Koch phone call to go through, indicating that there was some awareness of the Kochs' ties to Walker.

But to say Gilkes' resignation has absolutely nothing to do with Walkergate would be a stretch of the truth, in my opinion.

Gilkes' truly might not be a person of interest in the investigation, but it's very hard to believe that he does not have some knowledge of what was happening during the campaign he was managing or in Walker's office where he was Walker's right hand man. It would not be surprising if he was at least questioned during the investigation.

At the very least, it would make sense for anyone to want to distance themselves from Walker's sinking ship, even in a discreet fashion. Especially if the pasture is greener away from Walker and his scorched earth.

Wisconsin's Right Wing Shorter

Conform or else!

This morning, TMJ4 came out with a report about a state employee and her husband who received a threatening letter in the mail. Apparently, according to the sender of the letter, a miscreant's miscreant that completely misnamed himself "American Patriot," the family's offense worthy of threats was that she was a public employee and he opposed Scott Walker.

If this cravenly coward was truly an American or a patriot, he or she would know to respect the Freedom of Speech. But this idiot doesn't even want them to have the freedom of independent thought.

It was also learned today that Bill Christofferson also received a threatening letter from some reprobate too afraid to put their name to their letter of hate:

Thug Letter

I'm not a little surprised that these letters didn't come in the form of letters cut out of a magazine and glued to a piece of paper.  They did however manage to confirm that they have atrocious grammar and were too dull to recognize that Bill isn't a public sector employee.

But this isn't the first time that people on the left have been threatened for speaking out.

I have received two such threats in the past year, one made openly and one via an unpublished comment which read "I have a hollowpoint with your name on it, Chris."

Zach Wisniewski and Jeff Simpson, over at Blogging Blue each have their takes on these deplorable acts.

But down to be outdone in the deplorable department, local squawker Charlie Sykes and his audience actually complaining that TMJ4 actually aired the story.

I've got a couple, three things to say about all of this:

1. If you don't like the fact that your behaviors make you look bad, don't do them.
2. It is pitiful that the right, not being able to come up with a cogent defense of their positions, have to resort to bullying and intimidation tactics in an effort to suppress dissenting voices.
3. I am still an American and a Wisconsinite and I will continue to act as a free person.  If you don't like it, that's your problem.

Walker Introduces Cabinet

And here his Walker's cabinet:

Awfully white, isn't it?

Not only does Walker's cabinet not reflect the citizenry of Wisconsin, as closer looks at his appointees are being taken, it's down right scary.

James Rowen takes a look at Cathy Stepp, Walker's hatchet woman for the DNR. Now word yet on who is going to be the Deer Czar.

And Bill Christofferson points out that Walker's new head of Health and Human Services, Dennis Smith, was the lead hatchet man with the Bush administration tried to kill SeniorCare. Don't be surprised to see 100,000 senior citizens thrown to the insurance wolves. It will probably kill them since they won't be able to afford the outrageous rates the insurance companies charge, but Walker won't care. The elderly don't donate to campaigns like Big Insurance does.

Walker: How Dare They Spend Money On Jobs And Not CEOs!

In what just may be the biggest blunder of his campaign so far (which is saying a lot since there has been so many biggies), Scott Walker took to the grandstands to stand up for Fred Luber, a big time Republican campaign donor and former campaign staffer who is not going to make as many millions of dollars as he could have.

Trying to stomach the obvious cronyism and pandering to his fat cat campaign donors is hard enough. But Walker is so desperate that he and his very rich sympathizer have resorted to flat out lies, as shown in this story from the BizTimes Milwaukee:

Luber said Super Steel sought assistance from the city in its efforts to land the Talgo contract.

“Going back to last summer, Super Steel took Talgo to the city of Milwaukee and asked for help,” he said. “On the first of February, Rocky (Marcoux, commissioner of the Department of City Development) told us what he was going to do with Talgo. Instead of funding us, (the city) was going to fund the Tower (Automotive) facility with millions to rebuild the building, free rent for a year and then no taxes and all utilities and the other things including job training. At 84 years old I never thought I’d live long enough to have the city take business from us. We have the only train manufacturing plant in the state of Wisconsin. Now there’s going to be another one at the Tower site built by the city with our taxpayer money.”

However, Department of City Development spokesman Jeff Fleming said city officials originally pushed for Super Steel to get the Talgo contract and only offered the Tower Automotive site to Talgo after the company told city officials that the Super Steel facility would not meet its needs.

Talgo spokeswoman Nora Friend said Super Steel first wanted to be a subcontractor to build the trains. Talgo turned that offer down because it was too expensive, she said. Super Steel then submitted a bid to provide space for Talgo, but the space did not meet the company's needs, she said.

After the Tower Automotive site, the runner-up sites were in Racine and Janesville, Friend said.
Talgo will lease the space at the Tower Automotive site from the city at market rates, for $2.59 per square foot, or $344,470 a year, Fleming said. The city is not providing free rent or utilities, he said.

“What Scott Walker and Fred Luber are saying is false,” Fleming said.

"This is just political talk," Friend said. "We are not getting any subsidy at all."

Did you catch what Luber is really complaining about? It's not that his company didn't get the deal with Talgo, it is simply that he now has to actually compete with another business. Luber apparently is just like Walker, in that he feels things should just come to him because of who he thinks he is, and not have to actually earn it. If that doesn't smack of elitism, I don't know what does.

The tax money that Luber is whining about is actually ARRA funding that Tom Barrett and Jim Doyle went out and actively pursued. Walker could have done the same thing, but once again chose to put his political campaign before the common good, and tried to refuse the stimulus funding, until he got smacked down by the County Board.

What makes this even more repulsive on Luber's part is the simple fact that Tom Barrett actually stood up for Luber's company, Super Steel, and asked Talgo to reconsider their rejection of Super Steel. The question is: Where was Walker at the time he was supposed to be helping his good chum out?

Apparently, Walker was busy with his campaign to get all the addresses and other information from his incomplete campaign finance report and out hitting up other wealthy donors around the state.

For Luber to attack the man that tried to help him, while kissing up to the one that didn't lift a finger to help is rather telling of what kind of person he really is. Walker really knows how to pick his friends, doesn't he?

ADDENDUM: I almost forgot this. Another reason Walker didn't help his fat cat sugar daddy out was because Walker had already abolished the Department of Economic Development. It shows how important Walker really thinks it is to brings jobs here, much less anywhere else.

Bill Christofferson really hits the L'Affaire de Walker et Luber right between their weaselly eyes.

One Wisconsin Now has more on how much Luber has pumped into Walker's and other Republican campaigns.

James Rowen brings us to how Barrett's team also slams Walker's weaselly ways.

Between Walker's continuing and escalating campaign gaffes, the fact that his mismanagement of Milwaukee County is going to be very noticeable in the near future, that he still has a messy 2011 budget to contend with and still no contract with the largest unions to help ease the matter, and that Mark Neumann is leading him in every corner of the state but the southeastern corner, it would not be at all surprising that he drops out of the race before the primary. Again.