Deep Thoughts

One from grumps:

You wouldn't take your dog to a vet who hated animals or trust your child to pediatrician who hated kids.

So why would you elect a Governor who hates government?

And Harris Kane wonders what would happen if Scott Walker actually had to fend for himself.

The Twit Off: The Greatest Twit

Harris Kane and Cory Liebmann have more.

I had noticed that Walker had a lot of spam-tweeters on following him and that he was following. My theory is that either an incompetent intern (or Walker himself) or some follow/unfollow bot just started following anyone that would follow him, and his Twitter site developed enough spam to draw attention.

Either that, or his stuff is worse than spam.

When The Spin Starts To Whine

More than a week ago, Michael Horne of MilwaukeeWorld.com reported that Scott Walker's campaign website was created by an Ohio firm. In itself, it's no big deal. But given that Walker has taken great pains to criticize Governor Jim Doyle for letting jobs leave the state, the fact that Walker went out of state for his website highlights Walker's trademark hypocrisy.

Lefty bloggers and eventually Channel 12 news picked up on Mr. Horne's story. Ignoring the bloggers, Aaron Rodriguez of the Hispanic Conservative hyped up the hyperbole and called Channel 12's coverage as being a "hatchet job."

Dan Cody pointed out Rodriguez' hyperactive hyperbole (as well as that of James Wigderson) regarding the story. This caused Rodriguez to go from spin to whine real fast.

First he tries, and horribly fails, to minimize Walker's hypocrisy. He tries to claim that it was not a matter of Wisconsin losing a job, but just losing a chance to bid on the job.

In other words, according to Rodriguez, Walker didn't take a job from the Wisconsin-based web designer, he only took away the chance for the web designer to have the job in the first place. Isn't that so much nicer?

Then Rodriguez comes up with this:

No, in Aaron’s world, consumers don’t appreciate a news network making the news rather than reporting it. Perhaps Walker had a contact in Ohio that promised a better price than Wisconsin contractors? Who really knows? But is seems rather obvious why a gubernatorial candidate might want to employ an out-of-state vendor for the job, and it's called confidentiality.

Unfortunately for Rodriguez, while he can have his own opinion, he can't have his own facts. I would refer the gentle reader back to Mr. Horne's post, in which he has added this addendum:

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 -- Harris Kane of Heartland Hollar was kind enough to fill in some blanks for us.
According to a message he sent to Milwaukeeworld:

"Great post on the Walker website. I think I might have the Ohio connection for you.

"Midnet does the Ohio GOP website

"Walker's former campaign manager, Bruce Pfaff, works for Ohio congresswoman Jean Schmidt.

"In the last election there were questions raised about the mixing of public and political work, something familiar in Wisconsin."

It wasn't a matter of who had the lowest bid or of confidentiality. It was about who had the political connections. Given how Walker has managed contracts for the County, having them almost all no-bid contracts to supporters, that this behavior would fall over into the way he is running his campaign is of no great surprise.

Of course, this isn't the only bit of controversy tied into Walker's campaign or his staff.

Harris Kane and Cory Liebmann have both written on how Walker's top adviser, R. J. Johnson has his own conflict of interest. Apparently, he is working for Walker's own political campaign, but also for the allegedly independent right wing front groups of Coalition of America's Families and Club for Growth-Wisconsin.

In the past, Walker has also liked to hold onto campaign workers, like Tim Russell, by giving them sweetheart jobs within his administration, even when they were clearly unqualified for it.

Sorry, Aaron, but just because you don't like the message, it doesn't mean the messenger is biased in any way. And going from spinning to whining does not add to your credibility.

Weasel Watch: Hurry Up, We Are Going Up North Edition

So, not my usual weasel stomping, but here is a quick round up:

Xoff points out that Wrong Way Walker doesn't know that he has been County Exec in Milwaukee for the past seven years.

Jim McGuigan wonders how a drop out can attack a college graduate on education.

And a new blogger, Harris Kane, is trying to take away my title of most Walker-obsessed blogger with all but one of his posts so far dealing with Walker in some fashion.

The now famous Waterboarding for Walker post, followed up with one about Walker eating a hero, instead of being one.

Then Cory Liebmann and Harris wonder where in the world is Walker during the swine flu scare.