Walkergate: "Pop!" Goes The Weasel

The other day, I noted that some unnamed intervenors were trying desperately to stop the release of some more of the Walkergate documents related to the ongoing investigation into illegal campaigning by Scott "The Weasel" Walker and associates.  Much to their dismay, their attempts were in vain and said documents - all 266 pages of them - were released today.

While some of the details are new and most interesting, the overall news is not new at all.

In a nutshell, the documents show that prosecutors have reason to believe that Walker and his campaign were coordinating with dark money groups like Wisconsin Club for Growth to help funnel money into state elections.  While the focus has been on the recall elections in 2011 and 2012, there are indications that this was going on for years before that.

That this was going on for a while should surprise no one. I would remind the gentle reader of the incident shortly after Walker dropped his Act 10 bomb on the state and he received a call from a person Walker thought was David Koch.  Walker showed his attitude towards illegal colluding then:

WALKER: The other thing is more long term and that is after this, um, you know, the coming days and weeks and months ahead, particularly in some of these more swing areas, a lot of these guys are gonna need, they don’t necessarily need ads for them but they ‘re going to need a message out reinforcing why this was a good thing to do for the economy a good thing to do for the state so the extent that message is out over and over again, that’s obviously, that’s obviously a good thing.

The smoking gun - or to be more exact, the smoking Howitzer - is an email from Walker to Karl Rove, the advisor to George W. Bush:

The documents include an excerpt from an email in which Walker tells Karl Rove, former top adviser to President George W. Bush, that Johnson would lead the coordination campaign. Johnson also is Walker's longtime campaign strategist and the chief adviser to Wisconsin Club for Growth, a prominent conservative group.

"Bottom-line: R.J. helps keep in place a team that is wildly successful in Wisconsin. We are running 9 recall elections and it will be like 9 congressional markets in every market in the state (and Twin Cities)," Walker wrote to Rove on May 4, 2011. Rove runs American Crossroads, which backs Republican congressional and presidential candidates.

Yes, you read that correctly, Walker was foolish enough to put into writing that they were breaking campaign laws.  But then again, with Walker, we always new that there was more. There's always more.

As noted above, some of the allegations is that Walker and his campaign had formed some sort of symbiotic relationship with the dark money groups in which they helped raise funds for each other and redirect those funds through a myriad of channels to help hide the source of all that dark money.  They would then use said dark money to help coordinate their campaigns to help the Teapublican politician or candidate, either by supporting them or attacking their opponents.

This is not unlike the case from California where prosecutors were able to expose and get convictions on money laundering by Koch Brothers-supported front groups.

By far, the best summary of the documents that I've seen thus far comes from Lisa Kaiser of the Shepherd Express.  It is worth a read and I would advise the gentle reader to follow Kaiser for further updates.

There is one thing that Kaiser hadn't gotten to yet is that fact that our old friends at the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) was also tied up in this:

Schmitz said Club for Growth also gave $2.5 million to Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, which through its Issues Mobilization Council ran ads supporting Walker and criticizing his recall opponent Tom Barrett. Schmitz also said WMC senior vice president James Buchen participated in conference calls with Walker and others involving the Senate and gubernatorial recall campaigns.

Schmitz alleged that in their court filings Walker’s campaign and other groups “tacitly admitted to violating Wisconsin campaign law.”

WMC was none too happy about getting caught being involved with this little love nest of vipers:

The documents reveal that Walker’s campaign, Wisconsin Club for Growth, Citizens for a Strong America, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and WMC’s Issues Mobilization Council sought to halt the John Doe investigation in state court last fall.

WMC, the state’s largest business lobby, issued a statement declining to comment on the John Doe investigation, but saying it follows campaign finance law.

“WMC wants to be explicitly clear that its grassroots lobbying activities are conducted carefully within both the letter and the spirit of state law,” the statement said. “WMC strongly disputes any allegations of wrongdoing made public today and will vigorously defend itself against any such allegations.”

Oh, puh-leeze!

Finally, there is no telling where this is going to go. The prosecutors appear to be set to push this thing through and see it to an end. However, it appears to my layman eyes that their investigation and any subsequent cases might be too compromised for them to effectively carry on.

However, that does not mean that the bad guys have gotten away with anything.  The gentle reader should keep in mind that the federal government has been helping with this investigation all along - especially since Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen has refused to get involved in the entire matter.

The gentle reader should also keep in mind that just two weeks ago, US Attorney General Eric Holder was in Madison to "meet with staff at the U.S. Department of Justice offices."

Maybe it's time to say goodbye to John Doe and say hello to RICO Suave?

Either way, it's most definitely time to load up on the popcorn again!

Pro-Plutocrat Referendum Group Broke Election Laws

It was pretty obvious from the beginning that Chris Abele, the Mitt Romney of Milwaukee County, wanted to make  his usurpation of power a sure thing.  (Just because the boy prince did not like being told no for the first time in his spoiled life.)

He and his plutocratic pals at the misnamed Greater Milwaukee Committee retained the silk stocking law firm of Foley and Lardner to write the bill that would eventually become Act 14.

He and his pals paid off people like Teapublicans Joe Sanfelippo and Dale Kooyenga to get the bill passed.

Part of the bill was a red herring referendum that they scheduled for the spring election, knowing that the voter turnout would be extremely low and extremely conservative.

Then in the weeks leading up to the voting day, he and his friends at GMC - people like Michael Grebe, Walker's campaign chair and head of the Bradley Foundation - started a PAC front group they called "Forward Milwaukee County."  Said group spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on radio commercials.  They sent out propaganda email blasts almost daily.

They even got the Republicans to do robocalling for them.

But even that wasn't enough for Abele and company to feel assured of victory.  They also had to break the law.

In their zealousness to get their email blasts out to as many people as possible, they did an open records request of the email databases for the county supervisors. Apparently, they didn't bother to check the databases before using them and sent their blasts to people on their county emails:

Click to embiggen

And it wasn't just them, but also elected officials, like the county board supervisors themselves:

Click to embiggen

Needless to say, it's against the law to send these emails, which blatantly tell the recipient to vote yes on the referendum, via the government emails.  It is also illegal to solicit elected officials in their offices or using their official email.  Thirdly, given that Abele was involved to some extent in this whole debacle, there would be problems with soliciting employees at their workplace.

All in all, some people are in serious trouble.  Abele might be able to worm his way out of it, but Rice is definitely on the hook.

And this is far from the first time that Abele played fast and loose with the law.

Joe Rice, the treasurer for this group, is a former county supervisor and should know the rules.  But apparently he and Abele just don't care. It's more than a bit reminiscent of their mutual friend, Scott Walker, and his staff, who didn't care about the rules even though they knew better.

It's a good think that Abele and Walker are such tight friends.  At the pace they are going, they will be sharing the same prison cell.

Is This A Budget Or Campaign Stunt?

As if the gentle reader didn't already know the answer to that question, they would just by the name of his latest campaign web page:

walkerbudget.com

Some people never learn.

Walkergate: John Doe Rides A Harley

As I mentioned in my previous post, I've been decrying the foul corruption of Scott Walker and his underlings since my first days as a blogger at folkbum's rambles and rants. Among the first things and top things that I had continuously harped on was Walker's "Executive Rides," thinly veiled campaign tours which he pretended were trips to promote tourism in Milwaukee County.

These "Executive Rides" have long been a thorn for both those of us who want clean government and for Walker himself. I say they've been a problem for Walker because he has been so inept and so corrupt, he kept tripping himself up every time he took one of these trips.

Image by Stuart Carlson

In 2005, when Walker was making his first gubernatorial run, he started to get called out for using county funds to promote his campaign bike rides.

The water got a little hotter when he was busted handing out $19,000 worth of goodies to people. He gave these goodies to the media in order to win friendly press and to non-media types who were supporting his campaign.

After Walker got bumped out of the 2006 race, things settled down for a little bit, although he was still using taxpayer dollars to promote himself on these Harley Davidson rides.

When Walker started gearing up for his second run for governor, so did his "Executive Ride" related antics.

In 2009, he got Air Tran to sponsor part of his campaign bike ride, which in itself was illegal. But he also had his scheduling secretary book reservations for the people that wanted to come along. Even though she was a county employee, he had her use her personal email to make the arrangements.*

Walker claimed that the illegal corporate donations were to save taxpayer money on his campaign rides, but the truth was that he was still using taxpayer dollars laundered through groups like ChooseMilwaukee.com and The Milwaukee 7, both of which Walker was a board member.

It was later learned that Walker had given Air Tran a contract for a much larger space at the county-ran Mitchell Airport about the same time they were making the announcement that they were sponsoring his bike ride.

That same year, Walker made a stink about two county supervisors who went to Washington, D.C. to see Obama's inauguration, calling the expense "mind-boggling." What he didn't mention is that these same supervisors came back with millions of dollars in stimulus funding. This was a much better deal than the thousands of tax dollars spent for his bike rides which only paid out in campaign contributions for Walker.

The year 2010 brought even more audacity from Walker.

Instead of taking his campaign bike ride at the end of June like he normally did, that year Walker moved his bike ride up to mid-May. He claimed that he did this because after years of this stunt, it was suddenly too hot at the end of June to ride a motorcycle. Just because this new dates for his campaign ride just so happened to end as the same time the Republican Convention was strictly coincidental, or he tried to get us to believe.

By now, the gentle reader is probably wondering just how the hell Walker was able to get away with all of this for all those years.

Well, the answer is pretty simple.

Walker was the person who appointed the people to the Milwaukee County Ethics Board.
In late spring, after the Ethics board had their quarterly meeting, Walker would run his bike ride past his hand-picked chairman of the board, who would rubber stamp it. By the time got around to reviewing the proposal for the ride, it had already happened, so the board would just approve it.

However, 2010 brought things that were too big for the Ethics Board to rubber stamp.

The Democrats got smart and finally sent someone to tag along to videotape Walker's trip. They got some interesting videos, too.

They got one where Tim Russell was seen unfurling Air Tran banners, even though he was supposedly acting in his official capacity as a county employee. In another video, Russell, sporting an Air Tran t-shirt, is arranging a photo op with local Republican politicians, including Senator Luther Olsen. Please note how Walker had to correct the group to say "Tourism" instead of "Republican" as the photographer had told them to say.

The Democrats took their videos** to the GAB, who then directed them to take it to the Milwaukee County District Attorney. Remember this the next time Walker tries to claim he initiated the Walkergate investigation.

And as a fun side note, the 2010 also featured a rider named Judith Rhodes-Engels, who is more infamous for being Senator Scott Fitzgerald's campaign fundraiser and close confidante.

So, why do I bring all this up?

Well, I was reminded of it when it was reported that a Harley Davidson dealer named Christopher Brekken filed a frivolous lawsuit against Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf, the main prosecutor handling Walkergate. From said article:

The suit, filed in Barron County Circuit Court in September, claims that Brekken could not produce or obtain the very specific information that had been subpoenaed, and he told Landgraf he could not.

But a bench warrant was issued for Brekken in October 2010 that required him to travel to Milwaukee that November to again affirm under oath that he couldn't find out the full credit card number used by specific person on a specific date at Rice Lake Harley.

In quoting the subpoena, the lawsuit redacts the name, date, amount and partial credit card number.

This does raise some interesting questions and opens the door to some even more interesting speculation.

Since Landgraf knew the identity of the person making the purchase, the date on which the purchase was made, one could logically conclude that he also knows what was purchased.  The only thing he apparently already didn't know was the full credit card number.

This leads me to believe that he found a receipt for a purchase made at that specific dealership.  The receipt would have the date, the amount and the name of the person making the charge.  However, all but four numbers would have been blocked off.

We know that the DA's office did very thorough raids on Walker's executive offices in the Milwaukee County Courthouse and on Tim Russell's county office and his home.  The receipt most likely came from one of these places and the purchaser was most likely either Walker or Russell.

And let us not forget that Russell already has a history of misusing government credit cards for personal purchases.

I don't know if we'll ever know who bought what, or whether it, whatever it is, was bought using a county credit card.

But it does show us just how thorough the DA's Office has been and how corrupt Walker and his gang has been, as if we need further proof of either of those things.


*This is something that has recurred in his time as governor, where he would have potential contractors submit their bids to his staff's personal email. He did this in an obvious attempt to elude open record request.

**Scott Wittkopf has two more videos that even I hadn't seen before.

Walkergate: The Slap On The Wrist That Was Heard Around The World

Today was the sentencing date for Kelly Rindfleisch, who was convicted of illegally politicking while working for then County Executive and gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker.

And she did indeed get sentenced, but there was so much more.

But first the sentencing.

Despite Rindfleisch crying her crocodile tear and trying to pretend to be sorry for doing the things that she already knew was wrong from her involvement in the caucus scandals, Judge David Hansher saw her for who she was:

Rindfleisch, who now lives in Columbus, Wis., apologized to "the people of Milwaukee County" for her crime.

"I want to assure them and assure you that Milwaukee County was always my first priority while I was employed as deputy chief of staff for the county executive," Rindfleisch said. Her wheelchair-bound mother and about a dozen relatives watched her sentencing. Some gasped when Hansher handed down the jail term.

The judge said while Rindfleisch had no criminal record, she had "a history of undesirable behavior," including involvement in the state Capitol caucus scandal. She was given immunity from prosecution for helping prosecutors in that investigation of campaign work done with state employees while on the job.

"I certainly question the amount of her remorse or regret," Hansher said. Jail time was necessary to act as a deterrent to others who might be tempted to mix campaign work with government-paid jobs, he said.

Despite his criticism, Judge Hansher showed an amazing amount of leniency.

While he could have given her three and a half years in prison and made her pay steep fines, he only sentenced her to six months in prison and three years of extended supervision. He also allowed her work release privileges and for her to sentence to be served in Columbia County, where she lives.

I would call it a slap on the wrist, but it was more of a wave above her wrist due to the fact that Judge Hansher stayed the sentence pending her guaranteed appeal.

When I first heard this on the radio this evening, I was appalled. I could see her appealing and having the conviction and sentence upheld. Then she would appeal it to the Supreme Court, and well, you know how corrupt that Court is.

But when I saw the excellent reporting by Marie Rohde for WisPolitics.com and by Steve Schultz and Dan Bice for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, I quickly forgot my anger and frustration.

As he made his case for the sentencing, Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf opened the door to a treasure trove of information, confirming things that I've been reporting for years:

In a lengthy presentation during Rindfleisch's sentencing, Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf displayed numerous emails between Rindfleisch and key members of Walker's campaign staff in which they discussed how to manage county government in 2010, while Walker was a candidate for governor.

Repeatedly, Landgraf argued that Rindfleisch knowingly broke the law by doing campaign work at the courthouse. In a new development, the prosecutor made clear - without saying it was illegal - that top Walker campaign officials influenced, even directed, county strategy.

"You guys are in the driver's seat," Rindfleisch wrote in one message to Keith Gilkes, Walker's former campaign chief of staff.

At another point, Rindfleisch said in an email regarding an effort by the campaign to plant stories about problems at the state Mendota Mental Health Institute: "This needs to be done covertly so it's not tied to Scott or the campaign in any way."

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.

Rindfleisch served as Walker's policy adviser and later his deputy chief of staff at the county.

Five members of the group spoke by phone daily at 8 a.m. to make sure the county executive's office was "in sync" with the "image" the campaign was advancing of Walker in his Republican race for governor against Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, according to an email Landgraf presented in court as part of a PowerPoint presentation beamed to a large flat-panel TV.

"There was close contact with the campaign" and Walker's county staff, Landgraf said.

The five members on the daily calls were Gilkes and Bader from the campaign and Rindfleisch, Nardelli and McLaughlin from the county executive staff.

The Campaign Group vetted press releases that were released from Walker's county office, Landgraf said. They included messages about a federal disaster declaration the county was seeking after torrential rains in July 2010; news reports in the Journal Sentinel in August that year about patient sexual assaults at the county Mental Health Complex; and the acknowledgment by Darlene Wink, a county office assistant, of sending campaign related emails criticizing Barrett from Walker's courthouse office.

It is thoroughly and utterly disgusting that Walker and his crew were more concerned about his image than the fact that vulnerable women at the mental health complex were being sexually assaulted, a problem that Walker could have prevented years before they were finally being publicly reported.

Equally egregious is the fact that when a part of O'Donnell Park fell on and killed a child and injured two others, Walker's first concern was not about the victims, but how it might effect his campaign. Instead of going to the victims' side, he ran to the courthouse to find and hide documents that showed that he had neglected maintenance on the building for years.

Indeed, there is this:

Gilkes, in an email written the day of the accident, advised Walker's county staff to "make sure there is not a piece of paper anywhere that details any problem at all." News organizations and lawyers representing victims and others filed numerous open record requests after the O'Donnell Park accident for inspection reports and other documents on its construction.

In what I am sure is pure coincidence, shortly after Walker left the county, it was found that scads of files and a number of computers came up missing. Officials recovered the computers in raids on the Walker Campaign Group's homes. And I'll bet you my bottom dollar that many of those files were found in the Mystery Dumpster O'Fun.

But even the level of depravity of Walker and his crew is neither new nor the biggest part of this story.

Nor is it the fact that Walker would be implicated and intertwined in the illegal politicking. After all, how many times have I told you that with all things Walker, there is always more, and pointed out the one email that we already know of showing that he was not only aware of the campaigning, but was directing it.

The biggest part of this story is that Walker apparently was not running his campaign out of his county office. Instead, his campaign was running his county office.

Now, given that we also know that Walker is gearing up for a presidential run, who do you think is running his office at the Capitol?

Ryan Launches October Surprise -- On Himself

In big elections like this year's, people - well, okay, politically geeky people - are often speculating on what the "October surprise" is going to be. October surprises are generally used to discredit a candidate's opponent just before an election.

However, Paul Ryan sprung an October surprise on himself as well as his running mate.

Hunter Walker at Politicker broke the story and has all the details, but the gist of the story is that Ryan may have spent some of his congressional campaign funding on activities related to his national campaign as the Republican nominee for Vice-President. But that is only one of the problems that they found with Ryan's campaign:

We asked Mr. Seifert for more specific details about who used the rooms, but he hasn’t responded to that request. After reviewing his email, we also noticed that the $4,183.20 was identified in the Ryan campaign’s disclosure report as having been spent at the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay, while the Wisconsin delegation was staying in a different hotel operated by the same chain, the Hyatt Regency Tampa. Based on their own disclosure reports Mr. Seifert’s claim Mr. Ryan’s congressional campaign purchased rooms at the hotel where the Wisconsin delegation was staying is untrue. Mr. Seifert has also not responded to a request asking for an explanation of this discrepancy.

While it may be theoretically possible the as-yet-unidentified “other staff members” from Ryan’s congressional campaign did in fact use the rooms, it is doubtful so many people were integral to his re-election bid. Additionally, paying for guests or essential staffers to attend the convention simply to view Mr. Ryan’s speeches, which were part of his national campaign for the vice presidency, would seem to constitute a clear violation. For example, there was no mention whatsoever of Mr. Ryan’s congressional campaign in his keynote speech.

Since we began working on this story, Mr. Ryan’s congressional campaign released a new financial disclosure report covering the period from October 1 through October 17. That report contained an additional expense that appears to be connected to the convention. At the start of the month, Mr. Ryan’s congressional campaign paid $16,411.36 for “rooms for national convention.” The payment was listed as going both to a Virginia-based consulting firm called the Townsend Group and to the Renaissance Tampa International Plaza Hotel. The Renaissance Tampa International Plaza Hotel is approximately six miles from the RNC and, based on Mr. Seifert’s descriptions, would not seem to have been associated with the Ryan for Congress hospitality suite or “beer and brats” event, which were both located at the site of the RNC. Mr. Seifert has not responded to a request for information about this expense. We also reached out to the hotel and the Townsend Group, but, as of this writing, we have not received a response.

Jerry Goldfeder is an attorney with the law firm of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP who specializes in election and campaign finance law. We detailed the convention expenditures made by Mr. Ryan’s congressional campaign to Mr. Goldfeder and asked whether he thought it seemed like a potentially improper use of campaign funds.

“It sounds as if he used congressional campaign funds for national campaign purposes and that’s highly problematic,” Mr. Goldfeder said.

The FEC typically investigates possible campaign finance violations only after receiving a complaint. We also asked Mr. Goldfeder whether he thought the RNC spending by Mr. Ryan’s congressional campaign would be investigated by the commission.

“If they see it, they will,” he said.

Perhaps the person most likely to file an FEC complaint in this instance would be Rob Zerban, Mr. Ryan’s Democratic opponent in his House race. When we informed T.J. Helmstetter, a spokesman for the Zerban campaign, about our findings, he said they would wait until they had more information about the situation to file an official complaint. However, he characterized the situation as part of a “pattern of dishonesty” on Mr. Ryan’s part.

“It’s definitely something that is troubling to us,” he said. “It’s not surprising to us given, Paul Ryan’s overarching pattern of dishonesty in this race, that something like this could pop up, but we’re going to wait until we have all the details before we rush to judgment or jump to file a claim.”

Mr. Helmstetter also pointed out that Mr. Ryan has faced allegations that his television ads in the race, which do not all specifically mention his congressional campaign, constitute improper use of campaign funds. He said both the issue of the commercials and the RNC spending raise “very important” questions.

“I think these questions are very important and the Ryan campaign needs to answer them,” said Mr. Helmstetter.

And remember, Ryan is supposed to be one of the smarter Republicans.

If this story grows legs, just ten days out from the election, it could spell big trouble for both of Ryan's races. Obviously, this is something that Ryan doesn't want to become common knowledge because of the negative impact it would have for him.

So let's help him out by making sure we tell everyone.

Walkergate Shocker! Scott Walker Is John Doe!

The Overpass Light Brigade
appearing in West Allis on 5/30/12

There was a whole lot of news popping about Walkergate today, but very little of it was new.  And, of course, as it usually is, there was some questions which were not pursued which should have been.

First, there is a report from WisPolitics.com which states that the attorney for Kelly Rindfleisch, Franklyn Gimbel, is planning on challenging a lot of the evidence which was obtained in a number of searches:

The attorney representing former Walker aide Kelly Rindfleisch says he plans to challenge evidence seized from the homes and offices from 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.

The searches of Russell's house and Wink's house is old news. They did Russell's house in December of 2010. That's where they also found the evidence to charge his partner, Brian Pierick, with child enticement. We also already new about Wink's house being raided.

The raid on Villa's and Davis' house is new news. But it's not too surprising. I've also heard that they had searched other homes as well. Remember, a lot of Milwaukee County computers and files came up missing shortly after Walker won the election in 2010.

It should also be noted that while the report accurately notes that Rindfleisch is facing charges related to the Davis campaign, the subsequent release of transcripts would indicate she was helping with Walker's campaign as well.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel also has an article on this aspect of Walkergate. There is nothing significantly new in this article. It does, however, include the fact that Rindfleisch was working on Walker's campaign as well.

However, the article does perpetuate a falsehood told by Walker, in which Walker claims "he was unaware of any violations of his policy that county staffers refrain from doing political work on taxpayer-paid public jobs."

Poppycock!

Not only was Walker aware of it, he was directing it!

MJS had another story in which they interviewed Judge Neal Nettesheim, the judge who is overseeing the Walkergate trial. Buried deep into the article, we see another confirmation of something we already knew - that Walker has appeared and testified before the judge:

Nettesheim declined to comment specifically on whether Walker was constrained under the John Doe law from discussing what he knows about issues under investigation or from releasing specific emails. Nettesheim noted that his secrecy order extends to all parties, including even the judge. Violators can be held in contempt of court, fined or jailed. Nettesheim would be the enforcer if violations occur.

The judge made clear, though, that no individual would be subject to the secrecy order unless he physically appeared in front of the judge while in court on the John Doe proceeding, and personally received the secrecy order from the judge.

Further, he said that an individual who had not appeared as a witness would be free to discuss or distribute documents even if those documents were evidence.

"If a non-witness, an independent third party, has documents in his possession, he or she entitled to do what they want with them," he said.

Finally, in yet another article by MJS, we have the most direct admission yet by Walker himself that he is the target of the John Doe:

Gov. Scott Walker said Wednesday he will not use campaign funds to pay for the criminal defense of his aides.

Walker made the comment a day after a report show he had transferred $100,000 from his campaign account to a criminal defense fund he has set up. In all, he has put $160,000 into the account.

That fund can be used for himself, his campaign or those working for his campaign. But Walker's comments Wednesday indicate he would use the funds only for himself or the campaign.

By the way, the article omits that he has put another $160,000 down to Steven Biskupic who is representing the campaign.

Imagine how many people could have been helped with that third of a million dollars that he is using to try to prevent, or at least, delay, justice being done.

But there is one aspect of the article that does raise a question in my mind:

Walker said he put money into the defense fund so that he could provide thousands of documents to Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, who is heading the investigation. Hiring attorneys was necessary to make that efficient, he said.

"It doesn't make any sense as governor to spend my time, spending hours over days, doing that," he told reporters at a campaign stop at Laminations Central in Appleton.

My question would be what documents would he be producing? Any contract bidding or communications about contracts would be government property. Is he saying that he took those boxes and boxes of missing files? If so, then what was in the Mystery Dumpster'O'Fun?  And for all the money that he's spending on these high-priced lawyers, just how many documents does he have in his possession?

And how could anyone with a clear conscience even consider supporting someone with such dubious character and such a high likelihood of being indicted in the relatively near future?

"Not Just for me personally"

Governor Walker released "new " jobs numbers for Wisconsin today that made it look like he was actually doing his job. However, we @ cog_dis showed you how he is just playing a shell game with the numbers and no matter how he does it, we are dead last in the nation in job creation. Walker is using numbers that no other state in our union are using.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics survey is more widely used, but Walker points out it is a poll, whereas the Department of Workforce Development figures are hard numbers. However, it is highly unusual to use the DWD numbers, according to Marquette University’s Economics Department chairman Abdur Chowdhury. “No other state in the union uses that data. Usually what states do is go with the Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The reason Scott Walker wants to use this data is it’s obviously more favorable to his administration,” Chowdhury said.

The thing is to get these new numbers, is fairly labor intensive by the Department of Workforce Development(DWD). Why would the DWD and Governor Walker spend the taxpayer time and money to come up with new numbers, when Scott Walker himself has held press conferences touting the wonders of the old way to track unemployment? Like so many other issues, to find out why these things happen you have to listen to the words of Scott Walker himself. at Approximately 1:10 into this news report Scott Walker tells us why he has had the DWD using taxpayer funds and public service man hours, to come up with these new numbers. To help his campaign of course.

"Thats good news, not just for me personally..."

Hmm do we have the Department of Workforce Development to find good news for Scott Walker's campaign? is that a legal and productive use of public money and services? or could that time maybe be used for something more productive? Maybe using taxpayer money to fund his campaigns is all that he knows?

Walkergate: That's A Whole Lotta Cooperating!

Last month, Scott Walker announced that he was creating a Legal Cooperation Fund.  For most people, it would've been call a legal defense fund, but Walker cannot bring himself to be honest with the people of Wisconsin, so he brought in two high-priced attorneys to help him "cooperate" with the DA's office in its ongoing Walkergate investigation.

What Walker didn't tell us is that he had hired these lawyers sometime last year.

We learned that today when Dan Bice broke the story that Walker has racked up somewhere between $55,000 and $99,999 in legal  bills:

But the first-term Republican governor must have retained the pair long before he made it public. 

As of Dec. 31, Walker owed more than $50,000 to Sidley Austin, a large Chicago-based firm that employs Gallo. Walker also disclosed that he owed between $5,000 and $50,000 to Terschan, Steinle & Ness, the Milwaukee firm where Steinle is a partner. 

The state requires public officials and political candidates to disclose in the annual statement any creditor to which they owe more than $5,000. Wisconsin officials and candidates then must say whether the debt is greater than or up to $50,000.

Now, we don't know how much the attorneys are charging Walker, but for attorneys of their caliber, it would not be surprising if it is at least $400 to $500 per hour, maybe even more.  That would mean that they put in over 100 hours of work on the case before the end of 2011.  The amount of hours is probably even higher, since a lot of the menial work would be assigned to junior members of the law firm for a lower rate.

But no matter how you cut it, that is sure a helluva lot of cooperating even before the first major arrests were made.

But that isn't all.  Remember, when it comes to Walker, there's more.  There's always more.

Long ago, Walker's campaign hired former US Attorney Steven Biskupic, who is employed by Walker's new favorite law firm - Michael Best & Friedich.  (How that isn't a conflict of interest, I don't know.)  Biskupic was to make sure the campaign was in compliance with election rules, which mostly means ensuring all the i's are dotted and all the t's are crossed.  At that time, the amount paid to the law firm was an amazing $60,000.

Bice reports that the amount spent by the campaign nearly doubled, like the amount of law firms:

In addition, Walker's campaign fund has paid two law firms - Michael Best & Friedrich of Milwaukee and Patton Boggs of Washington, D.C. - slightly more than $115,000. Walker said the campaign retained former U.S. Attorney Steve Biskupic of Michael Best after prosecutors subpoenaed campaign email in November 2010.

That's a whole helluva lot of complying!

I am sure that what we know of the Walkergate investigations is just the tip of the iceberg.  There is surely much more that hasn't been released yet.

But when you look at the things we do know already - Milwaukee County files and computers missing; raids on the homes of Walker's top aids; illegal campaigning by his top staff; that email from Walker to Russell that  no one seems willing to talk about; the mystery dumpster'o'fun; and now already very high legal bills topping in the neighborhood of $200,000 - well, that all points to one thing, at least if one is honest with themselves:

Scott Walker is in a world of hurt.

The only questions are when is it going to happen and whether the voters of Wisconsin will be made sufficiently aware of all the shenanigans that Walker and his crew had been up to before the same mistake is repeated.

I'm Sure It's Just A Coincidence

A couple of weeks ago, Team Walker sent out the following fundraiser email (links redacted by moi):

Dear Conservative,

As the duly elected Governor of Wisconsin I have been steadfast in my beliefs that limited government and fiscal responsibility should be the cornerstone of putting my state back on the road to prosperity.

I am facing a recall by the big-government public employee unions and their minions who are threatened by the voters actually being in charge of where their tax dollars are being spent.

In November of 2010, the majority of Wisconsin voters resoundingly said enough-is-enough to the status quo and put me in charge of a state that had been beholden to big government special interests with a tax-and-spend mentality that created a $3.6 billion deficit.

In less than a year we were able to eliminate this deficit and provide the freedom of choice for public employees. Our reforms are allowing them to decide if they would like to spend more than a thousand dollars a year in union dues or keep their money. We put a stop to the unions' railroading of the taxpayers' hard-earned dollars.

What we need now is your help in telling the unions we do not want another tax-and-spend liberal at the reins of power in Wisconsin. You can do this by contributing $20, $50, $100, or whatever you can afford by clicking here.

I have been a man of my word to the voters of this state and have always led by putting the interests of Wisconsin taxpayers first.

Since taking office, I have eliminated a bureaucratic and bloated budget mess left by the previous administration without raising taxes or laying off state workers. Thousands of Wisconsinites are back on the job, and statewide property taxes have decreased for the first time in years. Stand with me today with a generous contribution of $20, $50, $100, or whatever you can afford.

The people of Wisconsin deserve to see the bold and courageous choices I have made come to fruition. It is time to stop these out-of-state special interests in their tracks and let them know that our conservative values will not be taken lightly.

With your help, I will be the first Governor of Wisconsin elected twice in my first term.

Thank you for your support,

Scott Walker
Governor

P.S. Don't let the liberal elite and the Big Government Union Bosses control this election. Will you help me spread my message of positive reform with a generous contribution today of $20, $50, $100? Thank you!

Leaving aside the old tired lies about big union bosses (union leaders are democratically elected), that there were no public sector layoffs or that the budget is balanced, I would really like the Walker campaign explain why the exact same email was sent, verbatim, under this email address:

Scott Walker  <info@catholicvote.org>

Now, there wouldn't be any illegal campaign collusion going on, would there? The preacher's son and eagle scout wouldn't cheat or run an illegal campaign, would he?

Oh, yeah. Nevermind.

Don't Mark Your Recall Calendars Just Yet...

Monday was the day that Scott Walker had to turn in his challenges to the recall petitions against him.

But early in the day, he made it clear that he wasn't going to challenge any names.

And the people rejoiced.

Woot. Woot.

Walker claimed that the reason he wasn't challenging any of the signatures was because he didn't have enough time.

That is, of course, a load of rubbish.

First of all, he had three times the amount of time allowed by the law to do what he needed to do.  Secondly, Walker has raised more than $12 million for his recall campaign thanks to the law that waives any limits on donations.  The reason for that waiver is so that he could use it to defend himself by checking and challenging the signatures.  He could have hired 15,000 people - one for every ten sheets turned in - and paid them $100 for the day to check the signatures and still had enough to overdose everyone in the state with his insipid, fact-free commercials.

Or he could have just bought a program to check it and have enough to buy every man, woman and child in Wisconsin a bottle of soda.  And still have change left over.

Oh, and his new campaign mouthpiece, Ciara Matthews, showed that she is a perfect fit for his campaign by proving she is also suffering from truth-deficiency when she said: "It obviously takes more time to verify signatures than it does to collect them."

Again, the people rejoiced.

Woot. Woot.

Some of the celebrants went even so far as to foolishly try to forecast the recall election would be held in late May.

Silly kids! Don't they know tricks are for weasels?

There was two small, but crucial facts that they had missed.

One, Matthews refused to answer whether Team Walker would consider filing challenges at a later date.  The other was that they were setting things up for a lawsuit by Team Walker and/or the Koch-funded front groups who were holding their own "Verify the Recall" gimmick:

Walker attorney Steven Biskupic of Michael Best & Friedrich said that Wisconsin GrandSons of Liberty and We the People of the Republic, two tea party groups, had organized a effort called Verify the Recall to review signatures, but campaign finance laws prevented them from coordinating with Walker. The campaign asked the GAB to consider challenges proposed by the groups. 

Verify the Recall and True the Vote, another petition review group, on Monday released their own analysis of more than 800,000 of the signatures. The groups said their more than 14,000 volunteers from around the country had found some 55,608 ineligible signatures, 228,940 signatures in need of further investigation and 534,685 eligible signatures. 

Mark Antill of True the Vote said his group found “tremendous inconsistencies with the circulators” but acknowledged the recall would likely go forward based on its findings.
The GAB said it had received nothing from tea party groups. 

“There is no legal basis for us to accept third-party challenges,” Magney said.

On a side note, it appears that a lot of this "verifying" came from a shady teahadist group located in Texas.  This bears more investigation.

On another side note, if the Verify mob simply posted their findings, waiving fair use standards, and Team Walker could have used them since the findings would then be publicly available.  But they've already admitted that they couldn't find nearly enough names, under their stricter standards, to stop the recall.

There is a strong likelihood, even though they know the recall will happen, that they will file a lawsuit to contest this and drag things out.  You see, Walker still gets to have his unlimited fund raising until the GAB sets a date, if I'm understanding things correctly.

And even then, after Team Walker and his supporting cast of teahadists run out of legal tricks and stunts and other forms of chicanery, and the GAB is finally allowed to set a date, don't be so sure that things will happen as you might expect them to happen.

Over at blue cheddar, the specter of Walker resigning from office is raised and what the ramifications of such an act would be:

If Walker resigned within 10 days of the recall petitions being certified by the GAB, he would not be on the ballot and other Republicans would be able to vie for the nomination in a primary.  

Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch would become acting governor and could appoint a new lieutenant governor. Nothing, however, would stop the recall election from going forward.
The winner of the gubernatorial election would assume the office, replacing Kleefisch. Facing her own recall election, Kleefisch would return to the lieutenant governor’s post if she wins. 

However, if Walker were to resign more than 10 days after the recall petitions are certified, his name would still appear on the ballot. Assuming voters would not favor an indicted, resigned governor, Republicans would likely be forced to mount some type of write-in campaign to try to prevent the Democratic nominee from being elected.

What's that? Walker is too power hungry to ever consider stepping down?  He wouldn't jeopardize his ultimate aspiration of becoming President of the United States?

Yeah?  If that's what you're thinking, I've got two words for you: Sarah Palin.

These two equally incompetent, equally corrupt, equally megalomaniacal.  Walker would easily think that if she could become such a household name that people still would like to see her run for POTUS, well, surely God will speak to him again and tell him that this is the way he should go.


No one can know for certain what is going to happen, when the recall election might finally happen, or even who we would be recalling.

But what I can tell you, based on my ten years of dealing with Walker and his team of malefactors, is that if you come up with a scenario that is so absurd, so unethical and even illegal that even the most die hard skeptic and/or cynic can't imagine it happening, there is a good chance you'll find Scott Walker right there, in the middle of all of it.

Walkergate: The Caucus Scandal Rides A Harley

In what seems like a lifetime ago in some ways, but was really only five months ago, I wrote "An Introduction to Walkergate." In that piece, I mentioned the suspicious motorcycle ride that Scott Walker took on the pretense that he was promoting tourism in Milwaukee County, even though everyone could see that it was a campaign stunt:

Also in May of last year, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin followed Walker on his annual bike ride to promote his candidacy Milwaukee County.  This bike ride has long been a source of contention, with many, including myself, who kept pointing out that it was a thinly veiled publicly-funded campaign exploit.  Sure enough, they got lots of evidence, including footage, of long-time aide, campaign worker and close friend, Tim Russell, doing non-county work, even though he was traveling as a county employee. In August 2010, the Sheriff's Office did a search of Russell's office, confiscating his computer, his Blackberry and boxes of papers.

Little did I realize at the time what a big deal that motorcycle ride was going to be after all.

But since then, we've discussed the questionable way that the bike ride was funded by a private company that had just gotten a big deal from Milwaukee County a few weeks before. And don't forget the gaffe of "Say Republican!"  And don't forget that Walker had moved the bike ride up by several weeks because the end of June was just "too hot" to ride a motorcycle - never mind that the ride conveniently ended as the Republican state convention was kicking off in Milwaukee.

Another thing that we had discussed much more recently is the turn that Walkergate was taking to make it closely resemble the caucus scandals from ten years ago. Sure enough, five days after I wrote that, Kelly Rindfleisch, who had been part of the original caucus scandals, was arrested for campaigning and fund raising on county time and from her county office.

Well, now there is a tie between these two aspects of the Walkergate investigation.

That tie is named Judith "Judi" Rhodes Engels.

Ms. Rhodes Engels was part of the caucus scandal from a decade ago, at least according to the criminal complaint against Scott Jensen (scroll down to page 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.

Sometime after the caucus scandal, Rhodes Engels ended up working in the legislative office of Senator Scott "Snit Fit" Fitzgerald.

By 2007, she was working for WISGOP, but still helping out Fitzgerald and his brother:

Monday, December 10, 2007

Senator Scott Fitzgerald and Representative Jeff Fitzgerald Christmas Reception
5:00-7:00 PM
Erin’s Snug Irish Pub
4601 American Parkway
Madison, WI
Host options: Shamrock host level: $250/ couple (includes lapel pin), Pot o’ Gold host level: $100/ couple. Sorry, no PAC or corporate contributions. Please make checks payable to: Scott Fitzgerald for Senate and/ or Jeff Fitzgerald for Assembly, PO Box 2741, Madison, WI 53701. For questions or to RSVP, please contact Judi Rhodes at (608) 345-3780 or jrhodes@wisgop.org.

(If anyone could tell me what WASS stands for, that would be great.)

Ms. Rhodes Engels turned up again in 2010, but not as a fund raiser for the Fitzgeralds. Instead, she was one of the many GOP operatives that went along with Walker for that infamous motorcycle tour of the state to promote Walker's campaign tourism:

Two people not talking about any controversy are Judy Rhodes-Engels and her daughter. They are just two of the 140 riders joining Walker on his ride through much of Wisconsin, plus parts of Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan.

Rhodes-Engels said she is a fan of the attention their group gets as they roll into town on their choppers.

"When you're in a big massive group like this," said Rhodes-Engles, "everyone looks at you everywhere you go."

[...]

Most of the participants in the Executive's Ride aren't concerning themselves with any political bickering. They said they're just happy to be along for the trip.

"It's a great experience to share everything about Milwaukee with the rest of the state and even some of the other states that may not have been there," said Rhodes-Engles.

Well, isn't that just special?

As with all things Walker, there are a few special problems with this.

In 2010, Ms. Rhodes Engels was living in Cottage Grove, WI, which is in Dane County, some 70 miles to the west of Milwaukee. Another problem is that, when she was not donating $700 to Walker's campaign, she was still working for WISGOP:

(click to embiggen)

On a side note, her 2011 donations total nearly $2,000, with a really odd one for $8.50. I bet there's a strange story behind that one.

In sum, we have a WISGOP operative, who lives in Cottage Grove, WI and specializes in fund raising for Senator Scott Fitzgerald, going on the Harley Davidson tour and we're really supposed to believe that this was to promote tourism in Milwaukee County and had absolutely nothing to do with Walker's campaign? Really? Really?

I think it would be very interesting to know what Scott Fitzgerald has to say about this.  Not to mention Reince Priebus, who was the head of WISGOP at the time.

I'm also wondering if Ms. Rhodes Engels had something more to do with the bike ride than just being a tag along.

I'm also wondering if Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisolm is aware of all of this.

And isn't this picture of Ms. Rhodes Engels just so symbolic of the Walker/Fitzgerald regime?

Want To Save Taxpayer Money? Look At Walker's Travel Budget

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting that Scott Walker, who prides himself on supposedly being a frugal manager of taxpayer dollars, was going to be in Milwaukee this morning for a Martin Luther Kind Day breakfast and back in Madison for a noon event in the Capitol.

In between these events, he jetted up to Superior to make some sort of job announcement that will cost the taxpayers even more money in corporate giveaways.

Maybe someone should look at his travel budget and cut it in half to save money.  The make Walker's campaign pay for the remainder, since he's doing nothing more than campaigning on the taxpayers' dime anyway.