Cronyism In The Capitol - So What Else Is Old?

The gentle reader might remember the name Judith Rhodes Engels.

She was involved in the original caucus scandals from a decade ago, soaking the taxpayers for over $6,000 in legal fees for her illegal politicking.

Her name came up again several times during Walkergate.  She had been caught out posing as a Milwaukee County resident and joining Scott Walker on his campaign bike ride.  She was also found to be the main fundraiser and very special friend of State Senator Scott Fitzgerald.

And even though she was strictly a political operative, it turns out that she was inexplicably involved in a number of emails regarding the gerrymandering scandal.  This was, of course, highly unusual and probably illegal, since she should not have been involved in official government business.

But all of this is just par for the course for Walker and his ilk.

Just as is the cronyism that prevails in Walker's regime.

That's why it should come as no surprise that Tom Engels, Judi's hubby, is leaving his position with the Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin on August 16 to take a position in Walker's administration.  Despite the fact that this was to remain strictly hush hush until Walker made his announcement, indications are that Engels will be in the Department of of Registration & Licensing, Walker's favorite political appointee dumping ground.

Indubitably, Engels is being rewarded with this job for the way his wife has put herself out in years of service to the GOP.

Funny thing is, I don't see the couple doing any carpooling:

Fitzgerald's Proposal Leaves State GABsmacked

After the caucus scandals rocked the state a decade ago, both parties came together and worked in a bipartisan fashion to create the Government Accountability Board (GAB). The GAB was created to replace the Elections and Ethics Board, which was so dysfunctional that it didn't even investigate the crimes for which five people had been convicted in a court of law.

Now, State Senator Scott Fitzgerald (R-Arkham)has decided that he doesn't like the way the GAB is working, even though he was a full supporter of it when it was created. His beef is that he thinks that it is partisan and favors the Democrats, meaning that it won't let the Republicans do whatever the hell they want to do.

His brilliant idea on how to fix his misperception is to make the non-partisan board less partisan by replacing the non-partisan judges with partisan activists.

Yeah, I'll let that sink in for a minute.

This idea was immediately panned, not just by the Democrats, but by neutral, outside observers:

A professor specializing in election law who has studied the accountability board bemoaned the proposal.

"I think that's about the worst idea I've heard this year," said Daniel Tokaji, a professor at Ohio State University Moritz College of Law who has written about Wisconsin's accountability board.

"I'm not surprised to see a partisan politician try to wrest power from the GAB. It's unfortunate, but not surprising," he said.

He called the accountability board a national model, saying it does a much better job than the partisan secretaries of state who run elections in many other states.

"The umpire is a player for one of the teams" in those states, Tokaji said.

Senator Chris Larson continued with the sports analogies by comparing Fitzgerald's proposal to the replacement referees that made the beginning of the NFL season such a farce.

I think it would be closer to the truth if you combined the two analogies. It would be more like the replacement refs, but having them picked out by the two sides.

Brian Fraley, in an obvious effort at doing some damage control, became desperate himself. In an article that he got published at Red State, Fraley starts grasping at straws. Some of the arguments that he used to support Fitzgerald's folly was the ridiculous claim that names like Adolph Hitler and Mickey Mouse would be accepted by the GAB, even though no such names were submitted. He also pointed out the work of the fallacious True the Vote, which proved to inaccurate at best. Fraley also adds in the allegations of voter fraud which were totally debunked by the Racine County District Attorney's Office.

The Democrats blasted Fitzgerald's proposal as yet another partisan power grab by the Republicans. And rightfully so.

It's quite obvious that Fitzgerald's proposal has nothing to do with creating jobs, fixing the economy or saving taxpayer money. What Fitzgerald is proposing is an effort to further stack the deck in the Republicans' favor, just like with their gerrymandering and voter suppression.

One might think that since the Republicans control both houses of the legislature, the governor's office, the attorney general's office and the majority on the State Supreme Court, it would seem that Fitzgerald's complaints about the GAB rings false.

I would have to agree.

But it might be the fact that the elections the Republicans could not control, the one for president and U.S. Senate, which were handily won by President Barack Obama and Senator-Elect Tammy Baldwin, that the Republican agenda is not only not working, but an increasing number of people are rejecting it, and the Republicans, which is making Fitzgerald so uneasy.

Then again, Fitzgerald might also have underlying reasons of a personal nature for his proposal.

Keep in mind that it is Fitzgerald's campaign fund raiser and special friend, Judith Rhodes Engels who has her name all wrapped up in Walkergate, the second version of the caucus scandals.

Rhodes Engels was riding with Walker during his last Harley Davidson campaign tour of the state. It was also Rhodes Engels who was found to be giving Walker's Kelly Rindfleisch all the information regarding Fitzgerald's campaign donors.

Furthermore it was Engels Rhodes who partook in a series of secret emails regarding the state function of redistricting, or in this case, gerrymandering. And Rhodes Engels has been observed many times coming and going from Fitzgerald's office in the Capitol Building.

Fitzgerald's proposal might not be just another power grab, but it might very well be a CYA maneuver to protect himself and his special friend/fund raiser.

It's ironic how Fitzgerald now wants to change the GAB - which he voted for to deal with things like the caucus scandal - possibly in order to avoid responsibility for the caucus scandal-like behavior that he and his staff have participated in.

Caucus Scandal 2011: Hit Me With Your Best Shot

Last month, I reported on the latest version of the caucus scandals.

In that story, I showed that the aides de camp for Paul Ryan, Jeff Fitzgerald and Scott Fitzgerald, as well as Scott Fitzgerald's chief fundraiser and "special friend" were conducting state business, well, gerrymandering, using private emails to avoid discovery by an Open Record Requests.

That story came to light after the Democrats regained control of the state senate, and by this, gained control of the emails and other documents related to the Republicans' gerrymandering.

But that was not the only story those treasures contained.

There is also the tale of the hits being ordered by Republican leaders on particular people that they wanted out of the way. Politically speaking, that is.

Let me give you a couple of examples.

The first hit was ordered by State Senator Leah Vukmir.

The Wisconsin State Journal skimmed the surface of the story when the documents and emails were first released:

In one email, state Sen. Leah Vukmir, R-Wauwatosa, offered these thoughts about redrawing her district: "Western Wauwatosa — yes (more GOP)," "West Milwaukee — No (forgot to mention this part of current district — VERY Dem" and "Milwaukee — cop wards if needed."

She also wrote in the May 4, 2011, message to Tad Ottman, an aide to then-Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, "This is such a big task. So glad we are in control!"

Ottman worked on the redistricting plan out of the office of law firm Michael Best & Friedrich, which helped write the plan.

Vukmir could not be reached Tuesday for comment.

But like I said, they only skimmed the surface, not wanting to dig too deep and expose the vile syndicate-style of management the Republicans thrive in.

To get the whole story, you have to go to the email itself. The gentle reader will note right off the bat the addresses being used were, just like in the Ryan/Fitzgerald story, private emails. Again, this was to keep things on the sly and away from the purview of anyone filing an ORR.

The first part of the email is what was highlighted in the paper. But the key part is that bottom, which the paper failed to report:

If you need a way to take the Staskunas seat, put a little bit of my Senate seat into New Berlin(2-3 wards could make that a GOP Assembly seat). Western West Allis/Eastern Bkfd and New Berlin are areas of like interest. (The previous Duff seat had parts of New Berlin, Elm Grove, Bkfd and West Allis)

Hope that helps!

Leah

As you can see, she was ordering the hit on Tony Staskunas, a moderate Democrat that had represented that area for a long, long time. But he was a Democrat and so he had to go!

Staskunas decided to retire after he saw how the district was rigged to strongly favor a Republican. The corrupt and greedy Joe Sanfelippo, Milwaukee County's only-part time supervisor, and one of the main players in the county having to pay out $4.5 million for the illegal furloughs, is aiming to buy that newly gerrymandered seat.

That one was pretty straightforward.

The next one is a little more complicated, but still easy enough to see.

In this story, the hitwoman is State Representative Michelle Litjens.

Here's the email:

Adam Foltz
To: Michelle Litjens

Michelle,
As per our conversation, here are the maps in question. Please delete these when you are done and don’t share with anyone outside of Robin, Fitz and I.

Thanks,

Adam

Again, the personal emails to avoid records requests. Also not the blatant reminder that they they are all part of the super-secret money-loving voter-hating club.

The maps referred to in the email are the old and new maps for the 55th Assembly District, represented for the psst 20 years by Republican Dean Kaufert.

Yes, you read that correctly. Litjens was ordering a hit on a fellow Republican.

Why? Well, Kaufert was not always the good, goose-stepping soldier they want in their ranks. He was a co-owner of a bar with Steve Foti, who gained his claim to fame in the first caucus scandal before becoming a lobbyist. Kaufert also ran against Mike Huebsch (yes, Scott Walker's Mike Huebsch) to be Speaker of the Assembly.

But the most likely reason is because Kaufert is one of the four Republican representatives who had the spine to stand up for the people of his district and voted against Act 10.

There's been a rumor that Walker and his crew were threatening Republican lawmakers with a primary against a teahadist candidate if they dared defy Dear Leader and his agenda of destruction.

As if to enforce that rumor, Kaufert did pick up a teahadist challenger named Jay Schroeder, who dubbed himself the "true conservative."

It should be noted that Schroeder lives in Menasha, which only got added to the 55th with the gerrymandering. Also noteworthy is that Litjens had more than a passing familiarity with Schroeder since he had once ran against her for the district he used to live in - before said gerrymandering, of course.

Scott Wittkopf recently pointed out that there was solid proof that Scott Walker and the Republicans were controlling the message by telling squawk radio hosts like Charlie Sykes, Vicki McKenna and Jerry Bader on what to say and what talking points they should use.

Of course, for my long time followers already knew this from the days I was writing more at Whallah! which did nothing but expose squawk radio for what it is - free advertisement and a campaigning outlet for Republicans.

To further strengthen, look at this obvious bit of collusion as the would be "media" go to work for Litjens agenda of getting Kaufert bounced in the primary:

• Media Trackers: Kaufert is a liberal
• Media Trackers: Kaufert a friend of WEAC
• Media Trackers: Kaufert's business partner is a cokehead (as opposed to being a Koch-head which is perfectly acceptable, and expected, in their circles)
• Media Trackers: Kaufert leads whisper campaign
• Mark Belling: Kaufert is a RINO and should run as a Democrat
• Jerry Bader: Kaufert is no good because he voted against Act 10

Yeah, nothing to see here, kids.

The funny thing is that despite the gerrymandering, despite the handpicked teahadist candidate and despite the coordinated attack by the Republican propaganda machine, Kaufert still won the primary by a full 30 points.

Maybe the Republicans aren't as infallible as they would like to think they are.

But keep in mind that this is but just two examples. And in both of these examples, they used private emails, secrecy pacts and purity tests to gain and maintain control of the legislature.

Not only is that extremist, that is also rather fascist.

Caucus Scandal: The 2011 Edition

A little more than a decade ago, Wisconsin was rocked with the caucus scandals, where it was found that both Republicans and Democrats were found to be having their caucus staff doing illegal politicking while working on state time and using state equipment.

The caucus scandals again rose in prominence in the past year as Walkergate, the John Doe investigation into Scott Walker, his campaign and his staff at Milwaukee County, revealed that they were also partaking in illegal politicking while on the taxpayers dime.

While many in the state, including myself, thought that Walkergate was the be all end all of scandals, it appears that it might have been just the tip of the iceberg.

Let me explain.

Recently, when the Democrats finally reclaimed the majority in the state senate, many people, mostly Republicans, thought it was a meaningless gesture and a waste of everyone's time and money. Their rationale for this feeling was that, thanks to their gerrymandering, the Republicans were ensured to regain the majority in the fall. Furthermore, because the legislature is out of session until next year, the Democrats would be unable to get anything done before they lost control of the senate again.

However, it just may be that gerrymandering that they were so proud of which might prove to be a major problem for them.

We saw some of the corruption that went on behind the gerrymandering when it was revealed that the lawmakers had done such things as signed secrecy pacts. It was then learned that at least two Republican aides, Tad Ottman and Adam Foltz, were working out of the Michael Best & Friedrich law offices while they were supposed to be doing the state's work.

When the Democrats regained control of the senate, one of things that did happen is that they were able to get their hands on all the documents regarding the gerrymandering. When these became available, most of the media focused on the partisanship of the gerrymandering and how it was obviously meant to infringe on voters' rights. While this is undeniably true, it is also only part of the story.

For example, there is one email from Andy Speth, who is Paul Ryan's Chief of Staff:

Thank you for being available to participate in the call this afternoon with the Speaker, the Majority Leader and Congressman Ryan. The purpose of the call is to get everyone on the same page as far as the process and timing of the congressional redistricting map is concerned.

What a nice, polite email showing a team working together, right?

Well, not exactly.

Take a look at the whole email.

First note the names of the people to whom Speth is emailing:

• Tad Ottman - Staffer for Senator Scott Fitzgerald and one of the two working in the law firm while being paid by the taxpayers.
• Adam Foltz - Staffer for Representative Jeff Fitzgerald and one of the two working in the law firm while being paid by the taxpayers.
• Andy Gustofson - Another staffer for Jeff Fitzgerald.
• Judith Rhodes-Engels - Now this is where it starts to get interesting. Rhodes-Engels works for WISGOP and his the main fundraiser for Scott Fitzgerald.

So what is a fundraiser for WISGOP doing on this email list?

Scott Fitzgerald and Judith Rhodes-Engels

Well, that might be answered in part by the next revelation. Look at the email addresses that Speth sent his missive to. They are all the private emails of the people involved.

This would indicate that they were doing government work using their private emails, except for Rhodes-Engels. For that, Speth used her WISGOP address. You don't suppose they were doing this to avoid open record requests, do you?

Now look at the time of the email: Tuesday, June 14, 2011 at 9:53 am.

I find it unlikely that they all were off on that day. And even if they were, that still doesn't explain why they were discussing government business on private emails or why a political operative was involved in the discussion.

I also find it curious why the Fitzgerald boys and Ryan were having their staffers and political aides involved in a process that was so super secret that they had to have all the legislators sign secrecy pacts. Was it secret to give them an advantage or was it secret to hide the fact that they were practicing illegal politics?

Now let's take a look at a second email:

Look at the first line of this missive:

To keep all of us in the loop at the staff level, I want to share with you the feedback I received from Congressman Ryan regarding the conversation he had this morning with the Speaker and the Majority Leader.

Well, that clarifies that they are doing this as staffers. But it also highlights the fact that they are doing so on private emails and with a political operative, Rhodes-Engels, in their midst.

Keep in mind that Rhodes-Engels has been discussed here before. She was first introduced when she pretended to be just a normal Milwaukee County-residing, Harley-riding woman who supported Scott Walker and went along for his campaign motorcycle ride. Her name also came up in Walkergate in that she shared Scott Fitzgerald's campaign donor database with Kelly Rindfleisch so that Rindfleisch could help raise funds for Walker and Brett Davis, Walker's choice for Lieutenant Governor.

I have also become aware of the fact that she has often been witnessed to be in Scott Fitzgerald's office in the Capitol, which is a distinct no-no.

Now we find her involved with the gerrymandering scheme.

Was she involved in order to glean information to be used in fundraising for the inevitable court fights? Was she there to give insight on the possible political ramifications? Or is she simply a Jill-of-all-trades and used interchangeably between legislative and political business?

What makes this even more ridiculous is that Rhodes-Engels was involved in the first caucus scandal (p. 16):

[DCI Special Agent] Strauss reports that she has participated in interviews with Judith Rhodes Engels (“Engels"), who has stated in part the following. Engels was state-employed in the Ladwig Capitol office November 1996 - March 2001. Sherry Schultz was in charge of fundraising for individual Republican members of the Assembly, including completing their campaign finance reports and assisting in fundraisers. After the 1998 elections, Engels and Ladwig discussed the fact that Schultz was “creating a monster” in that legislators were becoming too dependent on Schultz and her campaign finance related services. Engels worked with Schultz on fundraising issues. Schultz did not appear to have any duties other than fundraising. Engel's job was to keep track of contributions from legislators to RACC, which are referred to as "assessments." Schultz's duties included keeping track of where this money went for the individual campaigns. On occasion Engels received checks for individual campaigns and provided them to Schultz. Schultz created various documents regarding fundraising at RACC meetings held in Jensen's Capitol office. In a RACC meeting after the 2000 election in Jensen’s Capitol office, Jensen thanked Schultz for all she did for members of the “team” in connection with the money that had been raised.

It does make one wonder if Rhodes-Engels is just stupid, so arrogant she thinks she is above the law or so sleazy she just doesn't care.

But what this does show us is that the Republicans didn't learn one damn thing from the first caucus scandal. It also shows us that our previous estimates of the spread and depth of corruption in the Republican Party were grossly short of the mark.

WISGOP is nothing more than a vast criminal syndicate.  They need to have their crimes brought to the light of day and to the halls of justice.

I certainly hope that someone has brought this to the attention of Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne. Not that the John Doe investigations into Walker and his crew aren't keeping him busy enough.

Walkergate: Same Names, Different Scandal

Ten years ago, Wisconsin was rocked as the caucus scandals were uncovered and reported on.  The scandals involved the members of both the Democratic and Republican caucuses and how they were using taxpayer money to run their political campaigns.  Investigations were done, immunities were handed out, charges were filed and hearings were held.

Scott Walker was apparently not involved in those scandals, or if he was, he was never caught.  If he had been, a lot of grief might have been avoided.  It might have ruined his career, sparing us all from the damage he has caused.  And even if he survived, it might have even sunk into his thick cranium that this was a bad thing and he wouldn't do it.

But he wasn't and now we have Walkergate, son of the caucus scandals.

I was reminded of this when a friend of Cog Dis sent this list of all the people, from the left and right, that submitted their legal bills to the state for the taxpayers to cover.  There are some repeated names there.

The first name is John Scocos, then deputy secretary of the state Department of Veterans Affairs and former Assembly chief clerk.  From the caucus scandal, he asked taxpayers to pay his bill of $44,411.  His bill was for legal bills for open records lawsuit filed by newspapers to get names released and legal fees incurred in lawsuit filed by Common Cause of Wisconsin to get a judge to order Scocos and Senate Chief Clerk Donald Schneider to stop paying legal fees with taxpayer money.

On the bright side, Scocos isn't part of Walkergate, but he is apparently corrupt enough to make it to Walker's current, albeit very temporary, administration.

Another name I recognized is Judith Rhodes Engels, who put the tax payers on the hook for $6,349 for the caucus scandals.

While we don't know what she did then, we know that Rhodes Engels is now Scott Fitzgerald's primary fundraiser, among other things.  She also partook of the infamous Harley Davidson ride as well as shared Fitzie's list of donors with Walker's fundraiser, Kelly Rindfleisch.

And speaking of Rindfleisch, we all know that she was campaigning for Walker and Brett Davis, his first choice for lieutenant governor, while on the taxpayer-funded payroll. And from the criminal petition against her, we know she learned how to do this during the caucus scandal, where she was given immunity:

And Brian Fraley, the person that taught her all she knows, is the former ALEC employee who is chief propagandist at the disgraced MacIver Institute.  Fraley also has close ties to Walker, which might explain how Walker came to hire Rindfleisch in the first place.

Fraley's actions in the caucus scandal was worth $2,128 in legal fees, paid for by us.

There is one last name on the list that has a role in Walkergate as well, but one that is not really known.  That person is Greg Reiman, who worked in Walker's office during the scandal.  His bill came to $1,410.

Reiman followed Walker to Milwaukee County, and even though he wasn't in Walker's inner circle, they apparently stayed in close contact, as shown in this Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report on Reiman's possible involvement in Walkergate:

On April 15, 2010 - months before any formal competition or public request for bids had been formulated - a county Aging Department official involved in office-space planning sent an email to a commercial real estate broker.

In the email, obtained by the Journal Sentinel, Gregory Reiman alerted commercial real estate broker Scott Revolinski of RFP Commercial that the county was discussing moving workers from the county-owned City Campus to the Reuss Federal Plaza, which already housed the Aging Department.

He wrote that the county was willing to sell City Campus, an aging former hospital at N. 27th and W. Wells streets, for $1 to avoid maintenance costs.

"Not very many people know about this yet," Reiman wrote. "I believe they have only talked to the City of Milwaukee Dept of Development and possibly David Boerke (who manages Federal Plaza). I am also telling one other developer I know about this opportunity."

Reiman added: "I told Scott Walker that I would mention this opportunity to you and see if RFP might be interested in this building. If you are interested I will put you in touch with Scott's Chief of Staff, Tom Nardelli."

A county employee, concerned that Reiman might be revealing insider information, turned the email over to the district attorney's office in August 2010.

As I said above, one would have thought that even if Walker wasn't directly involved in the caucus scandals - something which I personally would find highly doubtful - one would think that he would have at least learned that it was not a good idea to keep doing it.

Obviously he didn't.  Whether it's because he is so dense that he just doesn't pick up on things easily, or whether it's because he is simply that megalomaniacal that he didn't think he also had to follow the law might not ever be known.  But either way, it shows why he shouldn't hold any public office.

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.

MacIver Institute - Anything But A "News Service"

MacIver Institute.

Such an innocuous sounding name.

The MacIver Institute, according to their "About Us" page, is:

The John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy is a Wisconsin-based think tank that promotes free markets, individual freedom, personal responsibility and limited government.

John K. MacIver pursued the notion that ideas are the most powerful force in politics. Though he never held a government post, few Wisconsinites have had a greater impact on the public affairs of this state and the nation. John either founded or led many of the most effective business, civic, cultural and political organizations in Milwaukee and Wisconsin. An advisor to Presidents, college interns and business titans, John MacIver believed that good government could be good politics. In John’s honor, The MacIver Institute will produce a new generation of ideas to make Wisconsin great again.

Sadly, they don't live up to their self-proclaimed esteemed values. Last month, the Cap Times called them out on their continuing fantasy tale that somehow, maybe in some alternate universe, Scott Walker's budget is working. They also lambasted them for their false and egregious attack on the Government Accountability Board. Do read the entire thing, but I would simply point the gentle reader to this passage found at the end of the article:

But we do know that John MacIver, a Milwaukee lawyer and political campaigner who played an important role in electing moderate leaders such as former Gov. Warren Knowles, would be shocked by what is being done in his name. Closely tied to Tommy Thompson and George H.W. Bush, he was a classic mainstream Republican.

A frequent figure in the pages of The Capital Times from the 1960s until his passing in 2003, MacIver respected Wisconsin’s institutions — and the truth. A UW-Madison graduate who was always active in civic and state affairs, he frequently served on boards and commissions. And he is well recalled for his work with Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, to create Wisconsin’s Commission on Judicial Elections and Ethics.

Younger Wisconsinites who may not remember MacIver should be aware that the institute that is named for him appears to be taking its lead from hyper-partisan out-of-state interests that have little interest in Wisconsin’s civic — and civil — traditions. That’s not the way John MacIver, an old-school Wisconsin Republican whose memory we well regard, operated.

A large part of the MacIver Institute, which was founded in 2009, is their "news service." Their news service consists of a glorified blog and the occasional press release. (Whoever heard of a news service that has to issue it's "articles" via press release?)

If one is to give credit to what they claim, one would think that it was filled with journalists, reporters and such. Well, let's look at just exactly who they are, shall we?

Cory Liebmann of Eye on Wisconsin has been on top of this since the beginning, and marks some of the founders in a must read piece.

One of the big names involved is Scott Jensen. Jensen was the Republican ring leader in the caucus scandal from ten years ago, the same one that has come up again with the ongoing Walkergate investigations. Jensen was originally found guilty, but was able to manipulate his way out of it. Jensen has also been involved with a group looking to profiteer by privatizing education and has had his fingers in the gerrymandering debacle that is in the hands of the federal court.

The original treasurer for MI was none other than Mark Block. Block has a long and sordid history in Wisconsin politics. Block was the leader of the Koch-funded front group Americans for (Koch's) Prosperity, whose purpose was to trick people into thinking that slashing their own financial throats would make the bleeding stop. Block had also been fined $15,000 and banned from politics for illegally coordinating with an "independent group" while he was campaign manager for former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Jon Wilcox. Most recently, he worked with the womanizing Herman Cain in his failed presidential bid.

Liebmann also used a tweet by Block to tie in a couple more telling names: James Klauser and Michael Grebe.

Klauser is a long time Republican power broker with ties to the deep pocket donors. As a point of interest, he was all for Mark Neumann's campaign until he suddenly shifted gears and jumped over to Team Walker.

Grebe is the head of the notorious Bradley Foundation and is Walker's campaign chair.

Bill Osmulski is the only MacIver member that actually has any experience as a reporter. But according to Sourcewatch (which is also full of interesting tidbits about this group), he left journalistic ethics at the door when he got hired:

Former television reporter Bill Osmulski works for the MacIver Institute. In 2009 he was charged with obtaining interviews with two elected Wisconsin officials under false pretenses, by failing to disclose his affiliation with MacIver. Osmulski led the two officials he spoke with to believe he was conducting the interview for a local television station. When asked about the incident, Osmulski claimed he did not reveal his affiliation because the officials did not ask him for it, but Stephen Ward, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Journalism Ethics, said reporters have a duty to disclose their affiliation and the purpose of their interview prior to conducting the interview. "You should be open about all your affiliations in advance," Ward said.

Another board member is one that the sorely-missed Illusory Tenant had field days with: James Troupis. Troupis is a Republican lawyer-for-hire who has been tied up with the gerrymandering scandal, as well as working for such characters as the three most disreputable members of the Wisconsin State Supreme Court: David "Chokehold" Prosser, Michael "Loophole" Gableman and Annette "Show me the money" Ziegler. Troupis was also the legal mastermind behind the idea that it was OK for the Scott Fitzgerald to issue arrest warrants for their political opponents, the Fab 14.

The president of this old boys club is Brett Healy. I would refer the reader again to Cory Liebmann, who covers Healy's past and points out that Healy had been Scott Jensen's Chief of Staff and had testified in the caucus scandal hearings.

Most interesting, Liebmann points out that Healy and Tim Russell, one of the "stars" of Walkergate, had at least one exchange of emails and set up a meeting, all apparently on county time. These communications and meeting between these two GOP operatives took place just before Walker officially announced his run for governor. Liebmann poses the question whether they might have had a political tinge to their conversations. I would add the question of whether this was the only occasion where this happened.

Lastly, but far from least, is MI's communication director, Brian Fraley. As one might suspect by now, Farley is entangled in a myriad of sordid and sinister ways.

Contained within the Walkergate complaint against Kelly Rindfleisch, we found that she first learned the skill of illegal campaigning during the caucus scandal. Her boss during that time and the person who ordered her to do illegal activities was Fraley:

Fraley also is the person who bought the ownership of the right-wing consultancy agency, the Markesan Group. He bought it from Jim Villa, who was going to work as Scott Walker's Chief of Staff, and whose name has been brought up as part of the Walkergate investigations, dealing with a possible pay for play scheme while Walker was Milwaukee County Executive.

The real jaw-dropper about Fraley comes from Sourcewatch:

The MacIver Institute's Director of Communications is Brian Fraley, who served as the Senior Vice President for State Affairs at America's Health Insurance Plans in Washington, D.C. Fraley was also the national Health and Human Services Task Force Private Sector Chairman for the American Legislative Exchange Council.

Yup, he was working directly for ALEC.

So, in an effort to sum up this rogues' gallery of Republican malefactors, we have a group with direct ties to the Koch Brothers, the Bradley Foundation, ALEC, WISGOP and Scott Walker's campaign. They've been caught repeatedly violating journalistic ethics and running with provably false information and have assailed the very democracy of the State of Wisconsin.

And yet they would have us believe that they're a nonpartisan news group that brings us objective, factual news? Hell, they make the guys at Wisconsin Reporter look like alter boys.

At least now when one sees one of their "reports," you will know exactly where they're coming from.

If the reader is need of some comic relief after reading all of the above (presuming that you've made it this far), they just came out with a real knee-slapper.

Despite their ties to the deep pockets of the Koch Brothers and the Bradley Foundation, they have published a post begging for help to stave off the attempts of unspecified, nameless oppressors who would stop them from their mission of usurping our state even further. The whole thing should sent the reader into convulsive fits of derisive laughter, but my favorite line is this:

We have no intention of backing away from the facts. The truth. The news.

Whenever someone confronts them with the facts, the truth and the real news, they don't back away, they run away.

But here's an idea: Instead of giving them one red cent, make a donation to the place that gives you the real story, the real truth that is verifiable and documented - right here at Cognitive Dissidence. You can use the link or just click on the button up on the right side panel.

And as always, whether you donate or just come to get the story, thank you for your support.