Good News

By Jeff Simpson

Who doesn't need good news during these crazy days?

MILWAUKEE -- Governor Walker's former deputy chief of staff will report to prison later today. 

 

Kelly Rindfleisch worked for the governor while he was Milwaukee County Executive.

 

She was sentenced to six months for fundraising for a Lieutenant Governor candidate while on the clock for the county.

 

I love when true criminals get to pay their penance.   

The Corporate Wolf At The Door

Last week, I reported about how Scott Walker wants to throw the disabled and frail elderly to the corporate wolves.  In a nutshell, he wants to do away with programs like IRIS and Family Support Program, and make it mandatory that these vulnerable citizens are forced into a privatized version of Family Support:

Walker would also award all of these contracts in a no bid process.
And to show that the care of these vulnerable adults are not his priority, Walker wants to take oversight of these programs from the Department of Health Services and give it to the Commissioner of Insurance.

In other words, Walker wants to force the frail elderly and disabled adults into a single, expensive program. He then wants to give these contracts - worth more than $3 billion - in a no bid process to large for profit insurance companies, who will have little or no oversight.

Gee, do you think he is fishing for the Big Insurance campaign donations with this immoral giveaway?

The big question is what company could do what Walker wanted.

It would have to be a big insurance company to be able to set up a statewide system. But because Walker wants it done by the end of next year, it would have to also be a company that already has a pretty good understanding of how the system works so that they could be ready to go in such a relatively short time.

The only logical conclusion would be WPS Health Insurance.  They are a huge mulitbillion dollar company who already has contracts to be the third party payer for many of the state's Family Care systems.

To make WPS seem even more likely to be the corporate wolf that Walker wants to feed on our vulnerable citizens is the ties he has to the company.

Just a year ago, Brett Davis, who was Walker's Medicaid director, suddenly up and left his job.  Just a few weeks later, it was announced that Davis had been hired at WPS at vice-president of provider relations.

This is important for a couple, three of reasons.

One, the Family Care program is funded through Medicaid, thus giving Davis an upper leg on most people on being able to run this program in the private sector.

Secondly, the timing of Davis' departure from the state and hiring at the state would make him eligible to do lobbying with the state.  And don't forget that Davis used to be a state legislator himself before Walker gave him his cushy job.

Scott Walker and Brett Davis

Thirdly, Walker and Davis do have a long and tight relationship. The gentle reader might recall that Walker had wanted Davis to be his Lieutenant Governor.  This was evidenced by the fact that Walker had Kelly Rindfleisch doing Davis' fundraising instead of her supposed duties as Walker's Deputy Chief of Staff at Milwaukee County.  Other emails from the Walkergate investigation showed that Walker's team didn't think much of Rebecca Kleefisch, who eventually did become Walker's lieutenant governor.

Now, this is all purely speculation.  But given Walker's modus operandi, it all fits together so very well.  It also follows the pattern that Walker tried to use when he wanted to set up a perpetual taxpayer-funded campaign donation scheme with Sportsman United.

And let's face it...is there anything that we wouldn't put past Walker trying to do, especially if it was meant to further his political aspirations?

Walker: Torn Between Two Lieutenant Governors

On Tuesday, Governor Scott Walker and Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch are expected to announce their official campaign for reelection. You know, the one that they've been running for two years now.  Except now it's official.

One can expect the usual lies and fabrications that they have done such a great job creating jobs, cutting taxes, protecting the environment and bringing all sorts of freedoms to the people.  It'll be enough to gag a maggot.

But one of the biggest lies that they will tell that day is one that will be unspoken.

Walker and Kleefisch are going to be up on the stage acting like they are part of one big happy team.  This, of course, couldn't be any farther from the truth.

And I'm not referring to the purge/exodus that is happening in the Republican Party right now.

I'm talking about Scooter and Becky.

If the gentle reader would remember, two years ago, when Kelly Rindfleisch was supposedly "working" as a Milwaukee County employee, namely as Walker's Deputy Chief of Staff.  Even though she was supposed to be a county employee, by Rindfleisch's own words, we learned that she had spent "half her time" working on the campaign for Brett Davis, who was running as lieutenant governor.

As Rindfleisch went through her trial, we learned that not only was she working for Davis, but so were a lot of other people.  So much so that it quickly became apparent that Davis was Walker's preference in being his lieutenant governor.  I wondered at the time, and have done so several times since, how did this make Kleefisch feel, knowing she was second fiddle:

The other thing that I question is, if Davis was indeed the first choice for Lt. Gov by Walker and WISGOP, I wonder how Walker's relationship with Rebecca Kleefisch really is. Is she aware that Walker apparently had his people working for Davis? If so, does she trust Walker? 

What is her relationship with the party like?

Kleefisch sure hasn't done much publicly, either as Lt. Governor or as a politician.. To me, this could indicate a possible trust issue going in either direction, or even both directions, between her and Walker and her and the WISGOP machinery.

It seemed like Kleefisch's feelings regarding this was a moot point.  At least until last month.

Obviously, Kleefisch won the primary and went on to be Walker's Lieutenant Governor.  Walker gave Davis the consolation prize of being appointed as the state's medicaid director.

But then things changed

In March, the emails and documents that were the basis for the charges filed against Rindfleisch were released to the public. These emails revealed that Davis was not only Walker's lieutenant governor of choice, but Walker's and Davis' people didn't care for Kleefisch at all, and would often complain about her and ridicule her.

Within three weeks of this new coming out, Davis suddenly resigned his cushy director's position for a mystery job in the private sector.

I've seen some people speculate that Davis' sudden departure was due to the Walkergate investigations.  That theory, however, doesn't make sense since Davis was in the position for three years before leaving.  If the investigation was the reason, he would have left years ago.

The timing of it would make it seem that Davis was forced out by Kleefisch, who was no longer able to deny that she wasn't Walker's - or the Party's - first choice.

The fact that Walker is well known to be all about image and not substance, it would make sense that he would sacrifice Davis in order to keep up the appearance of he and Kleefisch being part of one big, happy family.

Oh, but how he must pine for what might have been though...

And don't worry about Davis. He landed well as one might have expected.

It was just announced last week that Davis is now the Vice-President of Provider Relations for WPS, a health care giant that has many lucrative contracts with the state, not only as a health care carrier but also as a third party payer for Medicaid-related services.  (Gee, do you think Davis had a hand in that contract?)

It's nice to see Walker take care of both the lieutenant governor he has and the lieutenant governor he really wanted.

Walker's Travel Crony

By Jeff Simpson

We already know with people like Brian DeSchane and Dennis Smith that of all of Scott Walker's flaws, his hiring ability might be his biggest weakness.  

Now they are at it again in Fitzwalkerstan.  

The University of Wisconsin System named five finalists for the position of vice president for university relations, including the president of a Milwaukee real estate group who is closely allied with Gov. Scott Walker.

Who is the finalist that is closely allied with Scott Walker?   Our old friend Jim Villa:

Villa’s name appears throughout recently released emails from the governor’s former aide, Kelly Rindfleisch, while Walker was Milwaukee County executive and while he was running for governor in 2010. He’s identified as follows in a 2012 criminal complaint against Rindfleisch:
“Mr. Villa was a former chief of staff to then (Milwaukee) county executive Scott Walker. Mr. Villa served as an informal adviser to the Friends of Scott Walker. He is and was a personal friend to Gov. Scott Walker.”
Rindfleisch was convicted of felony misconduct in office for campaigning on taxpayer time. She is appealing.
In a Feb. 8, 2010, email from Rindfleisch to Brett Davis, Walker’s preferred candidate for lieutenant governor, Rindfleisch wrote:
“I am also working on Villa to get him to agree to host an event. The money guys know him and associate him with Walker, so they would respond to him. That’s the same reason John Hiller is on the list. He’s known as a Walker guy.”

Readers of CogDis remember the name Jim Villa, as the life of the party at the ALEC conventions:

  Jim Villa and Jim Emerson, two state Senate staffers who led the fact finding mission for the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), are expected to testify.
"Arrrgh! God, it hurts when I pee," shouted Villa from a ground floor state Capitol restroom. "I thought Clymedia was a flower!"
Emerson is expected to report that legalized prostitution can have a hug upside, including being a tourism attraction for the Wisconsin Dells to take the place of Tommy Bartlett's Robot World, and an employment opportunity in the form of W-2 transition
jobs.
"By the end of the trip it felt like I was hooked up to one of those milking machines," Emerson said. "I will never be able to look at ping pong balls and uneven parallel bars the same way again."
Villa said that the success of the fact-finding mission was the result of NCSL's commitment to research.
"NCSL completely kicks ass," Villa said. "I went to an ALEC conference on blowjobs and it took a week for me to get the taste out of my mouth."

 What better person to represent the University of Wisconsin in an executive position?   Do we still have to pay for his attendance at ALEC conventions or has he earned enough loyalty rewards points?


 

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.

Walkergate: "The Campaign Group"

As I just wrote about, when Kelly Rindfleisch was in court to be sentenced today, the information that came out during the hearing not only shook the courthouse, but the entire state.

Among the myriad of bombshells dropped was the fact that there was not just one or two overly zealous aides doing the illegal politicking, as the right wingers would have you believe, but that it actually involved most, if not all, of Scott Walker's administration and top campaign officials:

Landgraf said "The Campaign Group" included Walker, Gilkes, campaign spokeswoman Jill Bader and campaign adviser R.J. Johnson. It also included several top county aides to Walker: Cindy Archer, who was county administration director; county chief of staff Tom Nardelli; spokeswoman Fran McLaughlin; housing director Timothy Russell; and Rindfleisch.

It struck me that this list was insufficient as that it did not include all of the names or what roles they played.

I will endeavor to address this issue now by providing a scorecard of sorts of the who's who of Walkergate, presented in no particular order.

Darlene Wink: Wink is the woman who kicked off the whole Walkergate mess. She was Walker's constituent liaison as well as a co-vice chair of the Republican Party of Milwaukee County. She opened this can of weasels when she got busted leaving comments on JSOnline, promoting her boss and trashing his opponents in the primary and general election. She has since entered a plea deal and turned state's witness against all of her co-conspirators. She is due to be sentenced on November 21, but this could very well be postponed again.

Kelly Rindfleisch: Rindfleisch is a GOP operative who Walker hired to first be a policy advisor and then his Deputy Chief of Staff. By her own admission, she spent half of her work time campaigning for Lt. Governor candidate Brett Davis and Walker, even though her past involvement in the caucus scandal should have taught her that campaigning on the taxpayer dime is illegal. She was just sentenced to jail, but the sentence was stayed while she files an appeal. It should be noted that Walker and WISGOP had bought her silence and to take the fall.

Tim Russell: Russell is a long-time special friend of Walker's. Russell worked on all of Walker's campaigns. In between campaigns, and often during them, Walker would appoint Russell to county positions, including Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of Housing. Russell is also the one that set up the secret router and email system that Walker's crew used to campaign and avoid open record requests. Russell's trial for embezzling from a veterans group starts on December 3rd. Russell could also be eventually charged with many more crimes as well. It will be interesting to see if Russell will have better thoughts and take a plea deal like Wink or if he will be emboldened by Rindfleisch's sacrifice for the team to fall on his secret router as well.

Keith Gilkes: Gilkes was Walker's campaign manager. He was also found to be in regular contact with Walker's county staff and even directing them to do things to benefit the campaign. Walker rewarded Gilkes by making him his Chief of Staff in Madison. Interestingly, there have been complaints filed that people seeking contracts or other boons from Walker needed to email Gilkes at his consultancy email address instead of through official channels.

Jill Bader: Bader was Walker's campaign spokesman. Not only was she tied up in the daily campaign/county conference calls, she also was famous for making racist tweets and setting up meetings at official county events.

Cindy Archer: Archer was Walker's Director of Administration at Milwaukee County. We have already known for some time that Archer was in contact with Walker's campaign and was developing strategies on how to deal with events and issues that would paint Walker in a bad light. In other words, she was part of the damage control team. Walker rewarded her with jobs in the state, including lucrative pay raises. It is rumored that Archer has a grave medical issue now.

Tom Nardelli: Nardelli was Walker's Chief of Staff at the county. It is rumored that he was hired as a reward for not running against Walker. He quickly became Walker's enforcer in the county, bullying who he could and firing who he couldn't. However, I knew Nardelli was bad news long before this broke out. My late grandfather, may he rest in peace, told me not to trust him. Indeed, Nardelli had claimed that he had no idea who hired his deputy chief, Rindfleisch, or why they did. The emails show that the truth is that he was as much part of the collusion between county staff and campaign staff as anyone.

Brett Davis: Davis is a former representative who was running for Lt. Governor. He was Walker's first choice and Walker had his staff help him at every turn. Even though Davis didn't make it through the primary, Walker kept him close and made Davis his Director of Medicaid Services. Davis has not been charged with a crime...yet. It is worth noting that Davis also had his house raided during the investigation.

Judith Rhodes Engles: Engles is the primary fund raiser for State Senator Scott Fitzgerald. Engles had taken part of Walker's campaign motorcycle tours of the state, even though Walker tried to pretend that they were really to promote tourism. She was also in contact with Rindfleisch, even sharing Fitzgerald's most prized possession, his list of major campaign donors.

Fran McLaughlin: McLaughlin was Walker's spokeswoman at the county. We had already learned that she was helping with campaign press releases while working for the county. McLaughlin, along with Wink, was also the one that handled my inquiry regarding a photo taken by Brew City Brawler showing an Americans for Prosperity banner showing a county parks logo on it.

Cullen Werwie: Werwie was first Davis' campaign manager, then moved to Walker's campaign after Davis failed to make it through the primary. Walker rewarded him by making him his gubernatorial spokesman. Curiously, Walker has kept him in that role even though Werwie has been granted immunity. Perhaps this is way of buying his silence as well?

Jim Villa: Like Russell, Villa was an all positions player, serving as Walker's Chief of Staff at the county as well as working on Walker's campaigns. There is a plethora of emails between Villa and Rindfleisch related to campaign issues even while she was working on the taxpayers dime.

John Hiller: Hiller was Walker's campaign treasurer for eighteen years until Walker suddenly decided he was not up to the job. Hiller is also a realtor that tried to use his dual positions to do bid-rigging and pay for play for Walker.

Reince Priebus: Priebus was the head of WISGOP during this campaign. There was at least one email sent to Priebus by Wink, during her work hours at the county, regarding a campaign issue. It would also have taken someone at Priebus' level to help coordinate some of the collusion between people, such as Fitzgerald sharing his campaign donors with Walker and Davis.

Michael Grebe: Grebe is the head of the Bradley Foundation and was Walker's campaign chair. Not only was he involved with some of the emails, there is the apparent collusion between the campaign he chaired and the foundation he ran, especially when it came to voter intimidation billboards. And I'm not the only one that found Grebe's actions suspect.

And last, but in no way least of the Walkergate characters is Scott Walker himself. Monday's hearing showed him involved in many emails between county and campaign. But not only did he partake in this exchange - as the gentle reader already knows, there's more, there's always more - he was directing it:

Given the number of people listed and the overwhelming amount of evidence we already know about, it is almost impossible for any honest, rational person to believe that the Walkergate investigation is anywhere near to being done. I still expect that once Russell's trial is over, and the new fiscal year starts for the DA's office, we will be riding this roller coaster again.

And hopefully, we will get the answers to two pressing questions.

One, does Walker still stand by his words from 2006:

"Unfortunately, we have a Governor and administration that condones unethical and illegal behavior," Walker said in a statement on Jan. 24, 2006. "The people of Wisconsin deserve better."

Or when he said this:

And two, who is John Doe?

Walkergate: Can I Get A Witness?

Eight months ago, I introduced you to Kelly Rindfleisch. I pointed out at the time how I thought Rindfleisch could become a pivotal character in the ongoing investigation into Scott Walker, his campaign and his staff, commonly referred to as Walkergate.

Sure enough, five days later, Rindfleisch was arrested and charged with four counts of illegal campaigning.

Now after eight months of some of the juiciest tidbits and some of the most frustrating attempts by Rindfleisch to stall or even derail the slow wheels of justice, we are just a few weeks from her jury trial.

And even though the trial is still some three weeks away, savory pieces of information keep coming out.

One of the most savory came out on Friday. The District Attorney filed their pretrial documents, including the state's requested jury instructions, their proposed Voire Dire Questionnaire, their witness list and their proposed verdict forms.

It is the witness list that has generated the most buzz.

The list contains 35 names, but unfortunately, neither the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel nor WisPolitics.com has shared the full list. But what they have shared is still pretty damn interesting.

Some of the names include:

• Brett Davis, Scott Walker's first choice for Lieutenant Governor. Davis was unsuccessful in his bid, but Walker kept him around by appointing him as the state Medicaid Director, a move that even conservative pundits questioned. Rindfleisch was Davis' main fundraiser during his short-lived candidacy.
• Michael Huebsch, Walker's Director of Administration and his right hand man. The listing has Huebsch down as "an event host," which the news outlets are interpreting to mean a specific campaign fundraising event.
• Keith Gilkes, Walker's former campaign manager turned Chief of Staff turned back to campaign manager.
• Cullen Werwie, Davis' former campaign manager, currently Walker's spokesman. Werwie is one of the biggest names of the people who have been granted immunity. The fact that Walker has kept Werwie on staff has also caused criticism from his conservative supporters.
• Jim Villa, former Chief of Staff for Walker while at the county. Villa was also involved with a lot of Walker's campaigning. Villa's name has also come up in the investigation into possible bid rigging while Walker was still Milwaukee County Executive. Villa was also Rindfleisch's vacation buddy.

There are some names which are conspicuous by their absence, such as: Tim Russell, who set up the secret router system Rindfleisch was using to do her illegal campaigning and was doing her job before she replaced him; Darlene Wink, who was working under Rindfleisch and also doing illegal campaigning; Fran McLaughlin, Walker's former spokeswoman and who was granted immunity for her testimony on how Rindfleisch had her proofread campaign mailers; and Andrea Boom, Rindfleisch's BFF who sold her out for a mere $47.60. Boom is currently Walker's campaign finance director.

But the biggest name on the list is none other than Scott Walker himself.

Oh, the imagination just runs wild at the thought of what questions they might be putting forth to Walker.

But I also foresee the possibility of trouble by putting Walker on the stand. I could see it becoming a case of he said/she said on whether Walker ordered her to do the illegal campaigning or whether he even knew it was going on.

Walker's name on the witness list does explain some things though.

It reinforces my thoughts that Walker is getting extremely nervous and thus is throwing Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Tommy Thompson all under the bus as he starts raising cash again for his legal cooperation fund.

It also would explain Walker's new found interest in the Constitution. Even though he has no use for the First Amendment and has so much as called the Constitution as being backwards, I bet he has the Fifth Amendment memorized and recites it in his uneasy, nightmare ridden sleep.

Then again, Walker might not need the Fifth Amendment since he has shown that he has no qualms whatsoever about blatantly committing perjury. If I was the Milwaukee County District Attorney, I'd have that complaint already drawn up, simply needing to insert the actual words used when Walker perjures himself and the date.

It should be noted that the final pretrial hearing is coming up Monday, but I don't expect much to come out of that except another request of delay by the defense. I don't expect that request to be granted given all the time they have been given already.

But as we wait to see what indeed comes on Monday and at the trial, I just want to give the gentle reader, and Kelly Rindfleisch, an appropriate musical interlude:

Up early in the morning with her on my mind

After finding out all night that I been cryin'

But I believe a woman's a man's best friend

And I'm gonna stick by her till the bitter end

Well she causes so much misery how's a gal supposed to be

Somebody somewhere tell her it ain't fair

Heh. Even Walker must be appreciating that verse.

Brett Davis

Remember this guy? Rumor has it he is a "taxpayer watchdog": Brett Davis was the guy who Scott Walker wanted as his Lieutenant Governor, (yes lets not forget Scott Walker wanted NOTHING to do with Rebecca Kleefisch and worked very hard to make sure it was not her)! Well Mr Davis after he lost, vowed he was NOT done with Wisconsin politics.

"I plan to be involved in Wisconsin politics for a long time to come," Davis said.

We did not know at the time just how involved in politics Mr. Davis was, and I do not mean the cushy crony state job he was given as State of Wisconsin Medicaid Director (Was Brian Deschane busy). No we found out recently that Brett Davis is so involved in Wisconsin politics he had his house raided like the rest of the Walker Administration.

From WisPolitics.com ... -- The attorney representing former Walker aide Kelly Rindfleisch says he plans to challenge evidence seized from the homes and offices of other former Walker staffers as well as former state Rep. Brett Davis as part of his defense for Rindfleisch against the charges filed against her in the ongoing John Doe investigation. Attorney Frank Gimbel said court records he’s now reviewing show the raids were executed in 2010 at the homes and/or offices of former Walker aides Tim Russell, Darlene Wink and Jim Villa, along with Davis. He said prosecutors also seized email and phone records for all of them in the raids, which he learned of recently after filing a discovery request. He said he’s only gone through a portion of the thousands of documents prosecutors have turned over to him so far.

So Brett Davis, who probably oversees more contract dollars than any other state official is having his house raided and files seized for illegally using taxpayer money, and still keeps his job. I wonder if Scott Walker has made any other hires this bad? At least he tells the truth right? Oops, not so much! My question is what does a "Strong Conservative" like Brett Davis tell his kids as the FBI is raiding his house?

Contact Scott Walker and let him know that Brett Davis can NOT be trusted with our Medicare dollars and to remove him immediately

!! Email govgeneral@wisconsin.gov Mail Office of Governor Scott Walker 115 East Capitol Madison, WI 53702 Phone (608) 266-1212 OR

Division of Health Care Access & Accountability Administrator Brett Davis 608 266-9622 Brett.Davis@wi.gov

Kelly Rindfleisch Is At It Again

Former Walker aide and fundraiser Kelly Rindfleisch, someone we are all familiar with, is in trouble again.  This from WKOW's Tony Galli:

COLUMBUS (WKOW) -- A former aide and campaign worker for Governor Scott Walker who faces misconduct charges was affiliated with a business with ties to the largest alleged violator of the state's No-Call List. Nevada state records show Kelly Rindfleisch as affiliated with National Lending Solutions, a business with a Columbus address, between December 2011 and March 2012. Milwaukee County's district attorney has charged Rindfleisch with misconduct in public office for allegedly doing campaign work while on-the-job as deputy chief of staff for then-Milwaukee County executive Scott Walker. Rindfleisch was criminally charged at the same time she was listed as the business reservation holder in Nevada. The business address for National Lending Solutions is identical to the address of American Lending Solutions, formerly First American Funding Company, owned by Michael Eisenga of Columbus. In a settlement of a state complaint against First American Funding for allegedly contacting more than one million consumers on the state's No-Call List with mortgage solicitations, First American was required to pay $144,000, and provide quarterly summaries of all its calls to ensure no additional pattern of No-Call violations.

So lets break this down, Kelly Rindfleisch was hired by Scott Walker to fund raise for Scott Walke rand Brett Davis on the taxpayer's dime. She did it so well that Scott Walker personally hired her, and she was expecting a nice cushy government job when the Walker/Davis ticket won. Surprisingly for her, they got in trouble and her spigot of taxpayer money dried up. So her friends at the republican party set her up with her next job. An unethical telemarketing company. But you say, she only worked there for a few months, you cant blame her for what they did.

But in later e-mails, Eisenga said the Nevada business filing involving Rindfleisch was part of a planned, but abandoned name change of his company to National Lending. Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection administrator Sandy Chalmers said at least one, previous violator of Wisconsin's No-Call list attempted to escape the terms of a negotiated court settlement by changing a company name. Eisenga said Rindfleisch was an administrative assistant who worked for his telemarketing firm from October 2011 to January 2012, when she resigned days before being criminally charged.

They brought in Rindfleisch to help them change the name of their company to avoid charges, and then she quit right before, she was criminally charged. It is a wonder how these people sleep at night. Now you say, so Eisenga hired her, that alone does not have anything to do with Scott Walker and the republican party of WI right. Wrong!

State and court records also list Eisenga's state tax debt as $224,178, in connection to his operation of a Columbus golf course. Records show Eisenga accumulated the tax debt during a time he contributed thousands of dollars to republican organizations and candidates, including a $10,000 contribution to Governor Walker in November 2009, and $7,500 to Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch in April 2010. Columbia County court records show tax warrants filed by the Department of Revenue against Eisenga list the address of the Republican Party of Columbia County.

Mr. Eisenga, does not like to pay his taxes but has plenty of money left over to give max donations to Scott Walker. When the government tries to get in touch with him to discuss his lack of interest in paying taxes, what address did they use to get in touch with him? The republican party of Columbia County. This guy is the typical Walker supporter. It appears that Scott Walker is going for another merit badge in hiring felons! It is no wonder that Tom Barrett wants Scott Walker to divulge who has been supporting his legal defense fund!

"The people of Wisconsin deserve to know the truth about your involvement in this investigation, and the compelling public interest for this information to be released is paramount," Barrett said. "At various points throughout this investigation, you have dismissed calls for full disclosure of why and how you were granted permission to create a legal defense fund as political stunts and distractions," Barrett wrote. "Yet there is no better way to finally put these questions to rest than to share with the public all information regarding this advisory opinion you received from GAB that allowed you to create your legal defense fund."

Finally a quick trivia question. Q. What other Governor in the history of Wisconsin has ever had a legal defense fund? A. No one!

Walkergate: Son of the Caucus Scandals

For the regular followers of the ongoing Walkergate saga, they already know that it is a vast and ever expanding web of deceit, lies and all sorts of illegal activities.

It is so vast, that even I have problems keeping up with everything, much less finding time to put fingers to keyboards to share what I have learned.  But even in the complex pattern of this web of corruption, patterns can be found and strands can be tied together.

We already knew that Scott Walker had allowed the office of the Milwaukee County Executive to be the campaign headquarters for not only him, but for the person he wanted to be his Lieutenant Governor, Brett Davis.

But a further analysis of the criminal complaint filed against Kelly Rindfleisch, who served as Walker's Assistant Chief of Staff as well as Brett Davis' campaign fundraiser, show that as all things Walker, there is always more.

It seems that not only were the County Executive's office used for its formal business and for campaign activities, but it also served as a fundraising center for WISGOP.

On page 37 of the complaint is this clip of an email from Cullen Werwie, then Brett Davis' campaign staffer to Rindfleisch:

click to enlarge

This clip would seem to indicate that Rindfleisch was known primarily as a campaign fundraiser.  The fact that she was also a government worker seems to be a distant second, if thought about at all.  This is supported by the fact that Werwie was asking Rindfleisch for help in amassing a large fundraising spreadsheet which could be shared between the campaigns.

The second clip is from page 45 and is an exchange between Jim Villa and Rindfleisch.  Villa was a former Chief of Staff for Walker and worked on his campaign to some degree:

This exchange shows Rindfleisch was working as a fundraiser for Walker and Davis at the same time, instead of serving the public, like she was getting paid to do.

Also please note two of the names mentioned in this exchange: John Hiller and Ed Aprahamian.

Hiller was the long-standing campaign treasure for Scott Walker until they separated ways about a year ago.  Walker would have us believe that he fired Hiller because he didn't think Hiller was up to the job of handling all of the donations coming in.  This sudden realization came after Hiller worked for Walker for 18 years.

Aprahamian is also a familiar name to me.  He is the owner of MidAmerican Building Services.  At the end of 2009, Walker granted Aprahamian a contract worth more than a million dollars to clean the Milwaukee County Courthouse as he laid off all of the county's housekeeping staff.  At the time, I pointed out that this appeared to be in violation of county ethics laws, as the timing of the donation coincided with the time he was proposing privatizing these services.

With the new information coming from the criminal complaint, I took a second look at Aprahamian's donations.  The Wisconsin Democracy's database shows the $1,000 that Aprahamian donated to Walker.  But it also shows that one year later, he donated another $1,000 to Brett Davis.

But I noticed something else odd about these donations.  For the donation for Davis, it lists Aprahamian''s employer as being MidAmerican Building Services.  However, for his donation to Walker, it shows his employer to be Gateway Services.

Gateway Services is another familiar name.  It is a name that was brought up as the company that is owned by Dan Morse and whose CEO is Phillip Prange.  They are big time fundraisers for Walker and have worked as campaign consultants for Walker.  This all came out when we took a look the skulduggery behind the propagandist group, Wisconsin Reporter.

The third clip I would point out comes from page 48 of the complaint:

There's Aprahamian's name again.

But the significance of this passage is that it shows that Rindfleisch was sharing donors between the campaign.  This is highly unusual.

Politicians treat key donors as a dog treats a bone.  They are very territorial and protective of their donors and the best ones are kept close.  Sharing these key donors are almost never heard of.  Rindfleisch is politically savvy enough to know that she wouldn't be in the business long, if she hadn't gotten Walker's blessing before doing this.

And the Jason Thompson mentioned in the clip is Tommy Thompson's son, who was Davis' campaign treasurer.

While most of the above items was already pretty much known, I would like to point this out lastly, again on page 48 is this:

Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce you to one of the smoking guns.

Judi Rhodes, aka Judi Rhodes-Engels, is someone else we know.  She is the Harley Davidson-riding GOP operative that specializes in raising funds for State Senator Scott Fitzgerald.  Rhodes sent a spreadsheet named "All Contributions-cfis-xlsm" to Rindfleisch, on what would be normally considered a work day during normal work hours.

This means not only was Walker having county staff running his campaign and doing fundraising on county time, and not only were the same staff coordinating things with the Davis campaign, but also was coordinating with WISGOP staff, under the leadership of State Senator Scott Fitzgerald.  How was this arrangement approved and by whom?

In summary, you have a distinct pattern of Walker using his county staff and his county executive office which was doing campaign activity, most of which was a fund raising fundraising operation not just for himself, but also for his choice for Lieutenant Governor, Brett Davis.  On top of all that, they were coordinating across multiple facets of WISGOP, most notably (for now) State Senator Scott Fitzgerald.

Does anyone, honestly believe that Scott Walker, Brett Davis, Scott Fitzgerald and maybe even Reince Priebus, didn't know about any of this nor gave their blessings to it?

We'd best hurry and get to the kitchen.  I think we're going to need a lot more popcorn for this. A lot more.

Walkergate: They'll Always Have Vegas

When Kelly Rindfleisch was arrested and charged for campaigning for Scott Walker's choice for Lieutenant Governor, Brett Davis, the criminal complaint included the name of Jim Villa.

Villa, who was Walker's Chief of Staff both as a legislator and as Milwaukee County Executive.  Villa also was "an informal personal advisor" to the Walker campaign.  The reason Villa was in the complaint against Rindfleisch is because he did a lot of campaign work for Davis, including doing various fund raising tasks.  He also confirmed that Walker thought Davis would be the best choice for Lt. Governor.*

But it appears that Rindfleisch and Villa were really close friends.  Besides letting her stay in one of his homes in West Allis so she could keep up the pretense of being a Milwaukee County citizen, the two of them have apparently gone on a very fun trip to Las Vegas:

Well, we can hope that the memories were very, very good for them.

Because it appears that this might all Rindfleisch has for a while.  She might be thinking the same since a very observant reader alerted me to the fact that Rindfleisch has dissolved her political consulting business last month:

It would not be surprising that if convicted, and the evidence appears to be pretty strong, she would go to prison.  She knew it was wrong, since she was already given a pass during the caucus scandals.

With Rindfleisch facing such high odds of being incarcerated, one must wonder how much Walker is sweating that she or any of the other defendants and/or witnesses will turn on him.

*Why hasn't anyone asked Rebecca Kleefisch how she feels knowing that Walker didn't want her as his running mate much less as Lt. Governor?

Davis Throws His Own Mother Under The Charter School Bus

In the latest Walkergate update, I pointed out that Brett Davis was getting a lot of support from the education profiteers:

Davis looked like someone who would fit in well with Walker's extremist agenda. He supported slashing school funding, which was in line with what education profiteers want and what Walker's attempting to do. The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign shows that groups like All Children Matter, Wisconsin Club for Growth and Coalition for American's Families put in undisclosed amounts of money to run issue ads. One Wisconsin Now reported that the financial backers of All Children Matter gave Davis $13,000.

This whole thing is slimier than I realized at the time.

One of these financiers behind All Children Matter include the same Swift Boater that just gave Scott Walker a huge check.

Even worse, Davis is willing to throw his own mother, who works as a public school teacher in Monroe, WI.

Nice to see that Davis thinks lucre is thicker than blood.

Walkergate: Caucus Scandal Redux

Note: The following was done with the assistance of the research crew at www.politiscoop.com.

As the gentle reader might remember, all those months ago, I wrote An Introduction to Walkergate. In that piece, I wrote about Darlene Wink and Tim Russell, two GOP operatives who were also working for Scott Walker when he was Milwaukee County Executive. I also pointed out how they were accused of campaigning on county time and with county equipment.

More recently, in an article I wrote for the Shepherd Express, I did an overview of the Walkergate investigation, again with everything coming back to indicate that there was a high level of illegal campaigning going on in the Walker administration and possible collusion with his campaign.

Over the course of the last few days, I've learned more things, things which might or might not be part of the official investigation being conducted by the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office, which is starting to make this whole stinking mess seem more like a redux of the caucus scandals which rocked the state ten years ago, when Walker was still a state legislator himself. The caucus scandals involved dirty politics at its dirtiest, done by both the Republicans and Democrats. The scandal, if I may oversimplify it, involved staff doing extensive politicking on the taxpayers' dime and collusion with third party groups.

Zach Wisnewski started things off by questioning why Cullen Werwie, former Walker campaign staff and current gubernatorial spokesman, was given immunity in the Walkergate investigation. Wisnewski gave us the first clue when he wrote this (emphasis mine):

During the 2010 Republican Lt. Governor race, Werwie worked for the campaign of former Republican State Rep. Brett Davis. After Davis was defeated in the September 2010 Republican Lt. Governor primary, Werwie went to work as the traveling press person for Scott Walker’s gubernatorial campaign. In that role, Werwie would have traveled everywhere Scott Walker went, working in close proximity to Walker, no doubt leaving Werwie privy to most – if not all – of Scott Walker’s communications while on the campaign trail.

I then received a tip from a friend of Cog Dis, who pointed out that there was another connection between Walker's campaign and that of Brett Davis.

That connection is a woman named Kelly Rindfleisch.

My tipster indicated that Rindfleisch had done consulting and fund raising work for Davis while she was employed by Milwaukee County as Walker's Deputy Chief of Staff, replacing Tim Russell, whom Walker had made his Director of Housing. A few weeks ago, Russell was arrested and charged with embezzling more than $10,000 from a veterans fund.

Rindfleisch's Linked-In profile does indeed indicated that she was Walker's Deputy Chief of Staff from January 2010 through November 2010. Further research indicated that Rindfleisch was the registered agent for a group called JVS Consulting. Davis' campaign finance reports show that he paid this agency $3,000 in his failed bid for Lieutenant Governor.

Now, none of this indicates that Rindfleisch, Werwie or Davis did anything illegal.  However, there are other facts that have surfaced in researching this angle that, well, I will just present them and let the gentle reader draw their own conclusions.

One of the things that stands out is that Davis appeared to be the candidate of choice for the WISGOP machine.  The Republican Party of Waukesha County, one of the reddest counties in the state, sent out mailers which endorsed Davis for Lt. Governor.  Davis was also endorsed by the Republican Party of Milwaukee County (home of Darlene Wink, Tim Russell and other names that have been popping up in the Walkergate investigation), Tommy Thompson, WMC and MMAC.

As a point of interest, and to further cement the ties that bind, Davis' campaign treasurer was Jason T. Thompson, son of Tommy Thompson, and currently an attorney at Walker's favorite law firm, Michael Best & Friedich.

Davis looked like someone who would fit in well with Walker's extremist agenda.  He supported slashing school funding, which was in line with what education profiteers want and what Walker's attempting to do.  The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign shows that groups like All Children Matter, Wisconsin Club for Growth and Coalition for American's Families put in undisclosed amounts of money to run issue ads. One Wisconsin Now reported that the financial backers of All Children Matter gave Davis $13,000.

After failing to win in the primary, Walker eventually appointed Davis to be the Wisconsin Medicaid Director, to work with Dennis Smith.  Davis and Smith had previously worked together in Washington, D.C., for then Secretary of Health Tommy Thompson.  We all know how things are working out for people dependent on Medicaid services.

Now on to Kelly Rindfleisch.

Rindfleisch was named in the complaint filed against Tim Russell.  Russell apparently listed her as Secretary/Treasurer and as a Director of Heritage Guard Preservation Society, Inc. (HGPS).  HGPS was the group that Walker personally assigned to handle the finances for Operation Freedom.  She denied being aware of this.  But she sure was aware of Operation Freedom.

On the Facebook page for Operation Freedom, Rindfleisch put in three entries (all of which one might assume was during work hours).  

As an oddity, it was also found that Rindfleisch had once submitted a picture of a "ghost" to International Ghost Hunters Society.  Putting one's beliefs and feelings regarding the paranormal aside for a moment, it should be noted that she submitted her picture and accompanying description via her state legislative email address.

Again, I would emphasize that none of this proves that Davis, Werwie, or Rindfleisch have done anything illegal or are necessarily part of the Walkergate investigation, with the exception of Werwie's immunity.  But they are things that I found interesting.

What I also found interesting, and I would hope the gentle reader also finds interesting as they come to their own conclusions, was this passage from an article from the Wisconsin State Journal, which I came across in my research:

In late January, three months before Gardner was charged, the head of a nonpartisan group that tracks political contributions was interviewed by an FBI agent who was interested in not only the Gardner contributions but also how legislative staffers hid illegal campaign activities in the caucus scandal 10 years ago. 

In that case, staffers of four partisan legislative caucuses were found to have been campaigning illegally on state time for both Republicans and Democrats. A John Doe probe, sparked by a Wisconsin State Journal investigation, resulted in criminal charges and fines against five lawmakers and four legislative aides, including the Legislature's top leaders, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala, D-Madison, and Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen, R-Brookfield.  

When he was interviewed by the FBI, Mike McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said he was unaware that the discussion was part of an ongoing investigation.  

In addition to discussing he Gardner donations, "The agent also wanted to talk about the caucus scandal: how it worked, how they covered stuff up, that sort of thing," McCabe said. "He never mentioned Milwaukee County."

If the authorities are indeed looking at Walkergate with the caucus scandals in mind, this could eventually turn into a bigger affair than even I imagined, with ramifications reaching not only around the state but around the country.

The other thing that I question is, if Davis was indeed the first choice for Lt. Gov by Walker and WISGOP, I wonder how Walker's relationship with Rebecca Kleefisch really is.  Is she aware that Walker apparently had his people working for Davis?  If so, does she trust Walker?  What is her relationship with the party like?

Kleefisch sure hasn't done much publicly, either as Lt. Governor or as a politician..  To me, this could indicate a possible trust issue going in either direction, or even both directions, between her and Walker and her and the WISGOP machinery.

This could get very interesting very fast.  Make sure you're stocked up on popcorn.