The Myth of School Chaos

By Jeff Simpson

In 2011, President Obama's Administration wrote what is known as a "Dear Colleague" letter.  This letter was by no means a guideline but was a well thought out and researched memo to help America's public schools address the opportunity gap and work on ending systemic racism. 

The U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice (Departments) are issuing this guidance to assist public elementary and secondary schools in meeting their obligations under Federal law to administer student discipline without discriminating on the basis of race, color, or national origin. The Departments recognize the commitment and effort of educators across the United States to provide their students with an excellent education. The Departments believe that guidance on how to identify, avoid, and remedy discriminatory discipline will assist schools in providing all students with equal educational opportunities.1
The Departments strongly support schools in their efforts to create and maintain safe and orderly educational environments that allow our nation’s students to learn and thrive. Many schools have adopted comprehensive, appropriate, and effective programs demonstrated to: (1) reduce disruption and misconduct; (2) support and reinforce positive behavior and character development; and (3) help students succeed. Successful programs may incorporate a wide range of strategies to reduce misbehavior and maintain a safe learning environment, including conflict resolution, restorative practices, counseling, and structured systems of positive interventions. The Departments recognize that schools may use disciplinary measures as part of a program to promote safe and orderly educational environments.

This was a letter that was jointly drafted by the US Department of Education and the US Department of Justice.  It was a well documented, and well thought out response for a very real problem in America....a huge racial disparity and opportunity gap in our schools. 

There is a problem with the letter though, it came from President Obama(we are in an era where the number one priority of the Donald and the hard core far right, is erasing anything that President Obama might have done to create a legacy).  Secondly, this guideline, is meant to help address racial disparities, another taboo issue for what passes as conservatives these days.  In their mind, there is no problem and people of color get in more trouble and have lower grades because they get the grades and punishment they deserve.

See it is important to trust the teachers and the schools when punishing kids of colors, but if they have any other complaints or questions about their working conditions - they need to "shut up and teach" and " stop indoctrinating " our children.

Now that we have established what our friends on the right are so upset about, and the pure hypocrisy of it, lets dig a little deeper into their complaints.

Recently, a group of people on the far right drafted a letter and sent it to Secretary of Education Betsy "Amway" DeVos.   The main signator on this letter, was Rick Esenberg, the face of the Bradley Foundation's Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty(WILL). 

There were others who signed, but it really is just a formality.   The group think of worker drones for the monied interests of the far right, is as indistinguishable as a harem of seals on the shore. 

Let's take a quick peek at the letter:

The baseless demands of the Dear Colleague letter are having real world consequences throughout the nation. Milwaukee is a case in point. The Resolution Agreement requires MPS to “assess whether [it] is implementing its student discipline policies, practices and procedures in a non-discriminatory manner” by collecting “data regarding referrals for student discipline and the imposition of disciplinary sanctions at all District schools” and evaluating, among other things, “whether black students are receiving more removals, referrals or discipline than students of other races,” “whether black students are receiving more expulsions than students of other races,” “whether certain teachers and administrators refer disproportionately high numbers of students of a particular race for discipline,” and “whether black students are disproportionately referred for offenses in which subjective judgment is exercised.”  MPS must provide these evaluations to OCR along with “a description of actions it proposes to take in response to these evaluations.”21 If the data “suggests . . . disproportion,” in other words, MPS must “explore possible causes for the disproportion and consider steps that can be taken to eliminate the disproportion to the maximum extent possible.”22 

Esenberg, is arguing here that it puts a burden on the school systems to try and figure out why, and eliminate the disproportionality in discipline for the students of color. 

Esenberg and friends understand why the kids of color have more discipline problems and lower GPA's, etc... They are not white.   They are telling Ms. DeVos, that the problem is solved, there is no fixing it and it is time to focus on the white kids. 

Of course the red polo/khaki crowd eats this stuff up.  To perpetuate the myth that our public schools are failing, that the inner city (larger population of minorities) are out of control and they are interfering with the white kids who want to learn. 

It does not take a field full of tiki torches to see it!

Just check out some of the bit players in the right wing echo chamber:

Dave Blaska for instance:

The greater irony is that it was President Barack Obama’s administration that forced districts to set what amounts to racial quotas in school discipline. Thankfully, a Wisconsin-based conservative action group is moving to restore order in the classroom so that children of all colors can succeed.

The National Review weighed in:

As a policy matter, there is overwhelming evidence that Obama-era policies culminating in this “Dear Colleague” letter pushed schools to avoid disciplining students who needed to be disciplined. It made avoiding politically incorrect numbers more important than maintaining school safety.

Actually that is ridiculous, there is zero evidence that the "guidelines" (not regulations), pushed anyone into anything and in no place in America have they "avoided disciplining students who need disciplining"(that distinction is aimed for the Walker Admin who thanks to the far right activist judges, have made sure there is no disciplining of people who need it - but that is another post).

The Moonie publication Washington Times even weighed in via Marco Rubio:

Mr. Rubio said the guidance should be revised “to ensure that schools appropriately report violence and dangerous actions to local law enforcement,” while others have encouraged Mrs. DeVos to repeal it outright.   In the tragic aftermath of the murders in Florida, which were preventable, we simply cannot take the chance that other school districts, in response to a Dear Colleague letter issued in 2014 by the Obama administration, will continue to enforce or will implement the disastrous race-based, discipline-free program put in place in December of 2013 by Broward County,” William Perry Pendley, president of the Mountain States Legal Foundation, said Friday in a letter to Mrs. DeVos.  

Now that we see how shallow the echo chamber is in Wisconsin, let us take a quick look at actual reality.

1.  The Dear Colleague letter was a guideline, not a regulation.   There as no - do this or else attached. 

2.    Yes there is an imperative to look at discipline in our schools along with the opportunity gap.  It does not make logical sense, that children of color are the ones causing disruptions or are incredibly more of a discipline problem, than the white kids.  Anymore than it makes logical sense that there are more unarmed black men who get shot by police than any other race.  Yet the results speak for themselves. 

Should we accept institutional racism?  Or should we just not be surprised that a subsection of people who have waged a war on science would also have no interest in logic?

3.  The only people in Wisconsin who have been advocating for a "consequence-free environment" are the people knee deep in Walkergate and the John Doe investigation, and while that turned into a consequence free work place for our Governor and it only cost $1,000,000,000 in legal fees for Mr. Walker.   

4.   Unfortunately, the students in Wisconsin face consequences every single day.   When Scott Walker and his crew in Fitzwalkerstan, cut almost $2 Billion dollars from public education, the children have faced daily consequences.   The consequences from a massive teacher exodus of veteran teachers, who took not only years and years of institutional knowledge with them but also the ability to mentor younger teachers on the finer points of the job that they do not get in college.   

Our children have faced the consequences of a poorly funded public education system that hurts children in terms of higher class sizes, less Educational Assistants, less professional development, fewer of our best and brightest college students majoring in education, crumbling buildings and longer bus rides, among other things.   

Our children also have had to suffer the consequences of less needed services in the community, their parents being forced to work more than one job and spending less time with the kids, the increased cost of and lack of healthcare causing more stress and worse sickness and disease amongst families.   

5. I am not blind, I understand when our friends on the right talk about children needing "discipline" they mean punish the kids of color.   However, for most of us, "discipline" means -

: training that corrects, molds, or perfects the mental faculties or moral character

Training, not punitive punishment, is how you make long term change.   It is why the recidivism rate in our prisons is almost 70%.    The days of the old wild west are gone for a reason.

6.  Finally, and this is the biggest, is that ACT10 absolutely plays a big part on the chaos in the schools now.  As Dave Zweifel says, it absolutely IS the issue.   

The far right Walkerites, first order of business when they were elected was to make sure that their biggest opposition, the public workers unions, and more specifically the teacher's unions.  So they had to be punished. 

Act10 was secretly forced upon us as a way to make sure that the teachers had no say in their workplace.   If they made less money, they would have less money to send to the Democrats running for election, which would in turn help the Republicans stay in office. 

However, the biggest problem is that Republicans have no idea what unions actually do.  Whole they for sure do help their members to have a fair wage, they also advocate for better working conditions, safer classrooms, well being and safety of members, the rights of students, especially individual students and those who need more advocacy, because they spend every day with the kids. 

When Scott Walker forced a pay cut on the teachers, he also silenced their voice in every aspect of the school system. 

Now it is more than ironic that they are trying to tell everyone that we should listen to the teachers, they know what is best in the classrooms. 

#7 - Extra Credit - There will be talk that restorative justice was the reason a teenager was killed in a school in New York, based on a "report" by some right wing extremist group T74.   There is no more casual relationship between this death and Restorative Justice as there is between this death and algebra. 

I am not here to say that our public school system is perfect with no room for improvement.   That is not realistic, nor is it a prevailing thought anywhere. 

However, our public school system is the best thing we have, is the one equalizer in our society and has proven it not only works, but it works well. 

It just needs to be fully funded and tweeked. 

The best first step for that would be to realize that the WILL's, Blaska's, National Review's, Betsy DeVos's of the world have no interest in anything but their own bank account and ruining public education. 

They are on the wrong side of America and the wrong side of history. 

Vote PUBLIC EDUCATION in November! 

WISGOP Fires Ethics, Election Heads Weeks Before Election

In Wisconsin, the spring primary elections are on February 20th, less than a month away. The fact that these elections are just around the corner didn't slow Wisconsin Republicans from blowing them up by firing the heads of the ethics commission and the elections commission for no reasons other than retaliation and pure pettiness:

.The Wisconsin Senate voted Tuesday to oust leaders of the bipartisan state agencies charged with running elections and overseeing ethics laws, the latest move by Republicans to exact revenge on anyone connected with a now-closed investigation into Gov. Scott Walker and other conservatives.

The highly unusual Senate vote was designed to force out two former employees of the now-shuttered agency that approved the Walker probe who were later selected to head the newly created bipartisan Elections and Ethics commissions.

And when I say retaliation and pure pettiness, I wasn't kidding:

Fitzgerald said he could never support Bell or Haas because of their work for the GAB, which conservatives believe unfairly investigated Walker and other Republicans for alleged illegal campaign coordination. The Wisconsin Supreme Court ended the secret investigation, known as a John Doe, in 2015 and no one was charged.

The vote, which was taken without a public hearing beforehand, as is the norm, was also without merit:

The Ethics Commission on Monday night, just hours before the vote, released findings of its own internal investigation conducted by a former federal prosecutor, Patrick Fiedler, and his law firm. Their investigation determined “there is not a scintilla of evidence that Brian Bell has ever performed any of his governmental duties in a partisan manner.”

[...]

Haas did not work directly on the John Doe investigation, but did review legal filings made in lawsuits over the probe. Bell did not work on the investigation and publicly criticized the former GAB last week, saying he left it because he thought it was mismanaged and unfairly enforcing the law.

As if it wasn't clear before, the dark money syndicate is in charge of the State of Wisconsin and they don't even care about hiding their misdeeds anymore.

I'm sure the Republicans also see the added bonus of making it easier to commit election fraud in an effort to stem the Blue Wave that's already hit the state once in a special election last week.

Cindy Archer Loses Again!

By Jeff Simpson

For those that do not remember her, Cindy Archer, was one of Scott Walker's cronies.   Archer was one of the people in Scott Walker's inner circle who was in on the private server that Scott Walker set up in his County Executive office. so the taxpayers of Milwaukee County could pay his campaign staff!  

Archer was also one of the minor minds behind ACT10, but did her best to perpetually play the victim.  However, while she was keeping quiet and covering for her boss - John Doe - Scott Walker, her boss was doing a quid pro quo and kept moving her around, with monster raises, to different Wisconsin Government jobs.  She had to keep moving because she was never qualified for any of them, too long in one place would show her incompetence.

One morning, the police knocked on her door, served a search warrant and seized some of her personal items.   The problem is the main millionaire Eric O'Keefe, is apparently a relative of Doug and Wendy Whiner.  

While O'Keefe was using his money to whine about his treatment all over the country, his gophers like Matt Kittle was repeating the BS.  While the "reporters" who called the John Doe probe a political witch hunt, set back journalism and the truth a millennium, but is the best way to stay employed in the Wisconsin right wing.

Cindy Archer, never one of the brightest bulbs on the tree, actually believed the Kittle propaganda and filed suit against DA John Chisholm and others.    Frivolous lawsuits are like an initiation ritual on the right.

Like frivolous lawsuits do, her suit got tossed out quicker than a doggy bag from Ground Round.

With unlimited cash reserves to take their best shot at punishing anyone who would dare question the WisGop, Archer appealed the dropping of the lawsuit to the 7th Circuit Court,

After a good laugh they also dropped the lawsuit.  However there was one difference here than the lower courts ruling.

   The appeals court on Tuesday agreed with that decision in a ruling that said there was no evidence suggesting Archer's support for Walker played a role in the investigation. The court similarly disagreed with her claims that she was subjected to an illegal search."Unpleasant as the events undoubtedly were, we see nothing objectively unreasonable in what occurred," Wood wrote of the early-morning raid of Archer's home.
Joining Wood in Tuesday's ruling were Judges William Bauer and Ilana Rovner.
Wood was appointed by Democratic President Bill Clinton; Bauer by Republican President Gerald Ford; and Rovner by Republican President George H.W. Bush.
The judges also sided with a part of Adelman's ruling that allowed the federal court to hang onto documents investigators gathered as part of a probe of Walker's campaign known as John Doe II.
That probe was conducted under the John Doe law that at the time allowed prosecutors to operate in secret and compel targets and witnesses to turn over their records. The state Supreme Court shut down that investigation in 2015, saying nothing illegal had occurred.

Two courts both said we need to keep all of the records of John Doe just in case.   The Bought and Purchased five on the Wisconsin Supreme Court tried to get them to destroy all of the evidence of Scott Walkers criminal wrongdoings.  

Luckily, outside of Wi, there is an actual independent judiciary.

The question is now what is next for CIndy Archer?     WIll she be appointed to another state job, with another raise?   Will she file yet another lawsuit?   Will she retire with her partner off the State Pension she has accrued??    Hopefully she uses her Government supplied healthcare to get her delusions of grandeur taken care of!


PS:  A blast from the past.  It was Cindy Archer that sent an email to Scott Walker and convicted felon Kelly Rindfleisch to fire our very own Capper!   If we could mine irony, we would be the richest state in the Universe.  

Federal Judge Tosses Frivolous John Doe Lawsuit

As the gentle reader might remember, Scott Walker was investigated twice for political corruption. The first investigation netted six arrests and convictions.

The second investigation found that prosecutors believed Walker to be the center of a "criminal scheme."

The investigators must have been getting close because the right wing,m dark money groups which were in collusion with Walker started throwing everything they could to hinder and even kill the investigation. These efforts included a myriad of frivolous lawsuits to slow prosecutors down enough for the bought and paid for Wisconsin Supreme (Kangaroo) Court to declare the corruption to be legal and closed the case.

One of these front groups for the dark money special interests that filed a lawsuit to stop the investigation was the misnamed MacIver Institute. The MacIver Institute is a collection of who's who of Wisconsin's dirtiest Republicans and is funded by the Koch Brothers and the Bradley Foundation. In other words, they are the Injustice League of Wisconsin.

MacIver claimed that prosecutors violated the law by illegally seizing evidence by not notifying the subjects that their emails were being confiscated.

On Wednesday, this lawsuit, like all the others filed in a real court of law, was summarily tossed out like the garbage it is.:

A federal judge Wednesday threw out a lawsuit that a conservative group brought against prosecutors over how they conducted their investigation of Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign.

The MacIver Institute alleged in its lawsuit that Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm and others violated a federal law by seizing records without alerting their owners that they had taken them.

But U.S. District Judge William Conley ruled that prosecutors had acted properly because they took the records after getting a warrant. What's more, the prosecutors and investigators are immune from litigation, Conley ruled.

MacIver has vowed to appeal the ruling. Why not? It's not like they're wasting taxpayer dollars on these frivolous lawsuits.

Meanwhile, Walker must be less than thrilled. The last thing he wants as he gears up for yet another reelection campaign are his fellow cohorts in this criminal syndicate reminding the voters just how corrupt he really is.

Rience Priebus: Email Scandals? IOKIYAR!

While Reince Priebus was on ABC News “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” when he wasn't trying to raise the latest Trumped up rumors about Hillary Clinton's alleged email scandal, he said something that was so thick with hypocrisy that it made my hair hurt:

STEPHANOPOULOS: -- the only conclusion we've had from the FBI director so far is that no reasonable person would have prosecuted.

PRIEBUS: Right. That -- that's their conclusion so far. But they're also actively reviewing 650,000 emails. And I can assure you, that we already know that some of them are not duplicative. Six hundred and fifty thousand emails on Anthony Weiner's laptop suddenly show up about a month ago. The investigation is continuing. And, look, I think the American people have serious concerns about it. I would. And I take most people do. And they think that, obviously, this is going to be a big liability for her.

Y'know, it's kind of funny that Priebus is suddenly so seriously concerned about Clinton's alleged email scandal when he didn't bat an eye when his decades long friend, Scott Walker, was declared to be at the heart of a criminal scheme.

Then again, maybe Priebus wasn't concerned since he already already knew about it. After all, he was part of it.

At least now I can understand how Priebus can be such a tool for Trump and the Republicans. He sold his sold and his pride long ago.

Cross posted from Crooks and Liars.

Walker Might Still Face Charges From John Doe Investigation

When The Guardian released previously unseen emails stemming from the John Doe investigation into Scott Walker, it revealed just how corrupted the system in Wisconsin really is.

While it looked like Walker might have gotten off the hook, thanks to the flood of money coming in from his dark money masters, he might still be facing charges.

Via our friends at the Center for Media and Democracy's PR Watch, we learn that Wisconsin Democrats have sent a seven-page letter to Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, asking him to investigate Walker again for possible charges such as soliciting and accepting corporate monies, ethics laws and misconduct in public office.

While this is enough to cause one to hope against all hope that Walker might finally be held accountable for some of his egregious misdeeds and crimes, I am concerned that the Democrats made a serious miscalculation.

Even if Ozanne finds sufficient cause to file charges and even if Walker and company are found guilty, Walker and his dark money masters would only continue to appeal the case all the way to the state supreme court, which we already know to be as corrupt as corporately-controlled as Walker and the other Republicans. This kangaroo court would only summarily overturn the case without even a most rudimentary glance at the mountain of evidence, as they have doe before.

The Democrats would be smart to hedge their bets by sending another letter to the US Attorney's office, asking them to also investigate Walker for violations of federal laws. After all, the feds were the ones that finally indicted and convicted Blago for similar crimes.

But either way, Walker might just want to set up another legal defense, err, legal cooperation fund before he goes even deeper in debt.

And who knows, we might still get to see the image many Wisconsinites have been waiting many long years for...Walker in handcuff:

Robin Vos Explains Why Scott Walker Broke The Law

By Jeff Simpson

Robin Vos (R-Adulterer) in 2014, told us exactly why Scott Walker is and was guilty in the John Doe case.

Vos also took issue with allegations that Walker's campaign coordinated efforts with outside conservative groups like Wisconsin Club for Growth. He said neither the governor nor his campaign committee violated any state law.
 "An elected official has the ability to help raise money for the campaign or to appear in events that do," Vos said. "They can't have any direct efforts or their campaign staff can't have direct efforts in how the money is spent.
 "If my campaign committee coordinated with someone on how the money is spent to elect me, that crosses the line," Vos said. "And that never happens."

While Robin Vos being clueless to his surroundings is not news, the fact is, with the latest Guardian email release, we know that it did happen and it happened right under Robin's nose.

co·or·di·na·tionkōˌôrdnˈāSH(ə)n/noun1.
the organization of the different elements of a complex body or activity so as to enable them to work together effectively.

I would consider Scott Walker having to approve all ads, as coordination.   Thanks Robin for defining that for us.

Walker Answers Every Which Way But Honestly To Walkergate Release

On Wednesday, the Guardian reported about previously unreleased emails from the John Doe investigation into Scott Walker. The emails confirmed and expanded the news that Walker was illegally collaborating with dark money groups and that he and the Republicans were running an expansive pay-for-play operation in the State of Wisconsin.

On Thursday, the press finally got a chance to question Walker on this news (as much as the corporate media ever questions Walker anyway).

True to form, Walker responded every which way - but honestly - to the questions:

In a stop in Dane County Thursday, Walker initially avoided a question about whether he had raised money for the club but at a second stop in Fox Crossing he said he isn't doing it now.

"I don't right now," Walker said. "And the bottom line with the story that came out yesterday is you’ve got folks who have apparently failed in the court of law multiple times trying to put out selected information in the court of public opinion."

But then the Republicans finally settled on one strategy.

Some of the top, and most corrupt, Republicans in the legislature sent a letter to Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel, asking him to start an investigation into this. Schimel, who already showed himself to be a good and faithful servant to his corporate overlords, eagerly started looking into it.

Oh, of course not the pay for play or illegal campaigning, of which almost every Republican is guilty of, but into who leaked the John Doe documents, which were ordered sealed and locked away by the Wisconsin's Supreme(ly corporate) Court.

Walker jumped all over that, stating that he was no in favor of letting justice take its course (see video).

Speaking at another event in Plover, Walker said he wouldn't weigh in on whether there should be an investigation.

"I’ll leave that up to the legal authorities. But it’s clear that somebody violated the law," the governor said.

That alone is so hypocritical that it is mind-blowing. Walker and his dark money overlords have spent millions and millions of dollars to thwart justice and interfere with the John Doe investigation into them. Now that the judicial system has been just as corrupted, he is perfectly fine with letting it work its course.

On Friday, Democratic State Representative Peter Barca is to have a press conference calling for an investigation into the crimes indicated in the emails. However, unless that investigation is conducted by the feds, it is a moot point. The Republicans in Wisconsin are so corrupt that they would never investigate one of their own, much less hold them responsible. And if they did do an investigation, you just know that it would be so tainted as to be worthless.

"Because Scott Walker asked"

Two years ago, prosecutors investigating Scott Walker for illegal campaigning, alleged that he was the center of a "criminal scheme":

Prosecutors allege that Gov. Scott Walker was at the center of an effort to illegally coordinate fundraising among conservative groups to help his campaign and those of Republican senators fend off recall elections during 2011 and '12, according to documents unsealed Thursday.

In the documents, prosecutors lay out what they call a "criminal scheme" to bypass state election laws by Walker, his campaign and two top deputies — R.J. Johnson and Deborah Jordahl.

The governor and his close confidants helped raise money and control spending through 12 conservative groups during the recall elections, according to the prosecutors' filings.
The documents include an email in which Walker tells Karl Rove, former top adviser to President George W. Bush, that Johnson would lead the coordination campaign. Johnson is also chief adviser to Wisconsin Club for Growth, a conservative group active in the recall elections.

"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.

But if we know nothing else, it is that with all things Walker and Walkergate, there is more. There is always more.

On Wednesday, The Guardian published a blockbuster and comprehensive report that included never seen before emails that from the Walkergate investigation that had not been released before.

While the general gist is the same and some of the details have been previously released, the article is still chock full of new emails and new information, including names of donors (including Donald Trump) and the amounts they gave to Walker's money laundering scheme. The article also goes into more detail of how the scheme got started and how it worked:

What particularly caught the attention of the prosecutors was that when the money came in it did not go directly to Walker's personal campaign committee, Friends of Scott Walker. To do so would have been problematic, as any campaign committee directly linked to a candidate is limited in Wisconsin to accepting contributions of up to $43,000 that have to be fully disclosed.

The prosecutors alleged in court filings published here for the first time that Walker's campaign found a way around these restrictions by banking the corporate cash through the third-party group, Wisconsin Club for Growth. WCfG describes itself as a “pro-liberty, pro-fiscal restraint” organisation, sharing the same small government and anti-union ideology as Walker. It is a tax-exempt group, or 501 (c) (4), that is supposed to be primarily concerned with “social welfare” rather than partisan politics and as such is not obliged to reveal its donors.

In court submissions, the prosecutors alleged that Walker's campaign used WCfG as a shadow committee that allowed him to solicit large sums of corporate cash without scrutiny or accountability. “Contributions were personally solicited by Governor Scott Walker to WCfG ... in order to circumvent the reporting and contributions provisions of Wisconsin statutes,” an investigator working for the prosecutors in the John Doe investigation, Robert Stelter, alleged.

To help illustrate how much collaboration there was between Walker, his campaign and the dark money group Wisconsin Club for Growth (WICfG), the article highlighted this check:

The check is from one C. Fredrerick Kasten, Jr.. It is made out for the amount of $10,000 payable to WICfG. But the most telling part is in the memo section where Kasten wrote "Because Scott Walker asked."

Because Scott Walker asked.

It's no wonder why Walker and the dark money groups are so desperate to kill off the investigation.

Yet Another Long Time Walker Crony Implicated In John Doe

Just when Scott Walker thought his no good, rotten, absolutely horrible, miserable week couldn't get any worse, it does.

In a Friday afternoon news drop, it was revealed that another one of Walker's long time political/governmental aides and crony was being investigated in the John Doe investigation commonly referred to as Walkergate:

No charges were filed against Jim Villa, the UW System’s vice president of university relations. But sworn statements released this week show investigators sought a search warrant for Villa’s home and office. At the time, he was president of the Commercial Association of Realtors Wisconsin, and he was previously Walker’s chief of staff.

To justify the warrants, investigators wrote that they suspected Villa had broken several laws, including misconduct in public office and solicitation of public employees to commit misconduct. They presented evidence of Villa’s involvement in both an alleged bid-rigging scheme and a political action committee that Walker aide Tim Russell was suspected of doing work for while on county time.

Russell was convicted of embezzling money from a veterans fund. Kelly Rindfleisch, a Walker aide convicted of campaigning on taxpayer time, was staying at Villa’s home and previously disclosed that it had been searched. The records released don’t include warrants or the results of any search that was conducted of Villa’s property.

The September 2011 affidavit were previously sealed under a John Doe secrecy order but were released with the permission of John Doe Judge Neal Nettesheim by the defendants in a lawsuit brought by Cindy Archer, another former Walker aide who was also under investigation but never charged.

The alleged bid-rigging that the article refers to involves an incident that happened while Walker was still Milwaukee County Executive. There were some shenanigans going on between Villa, then Walker campaign treasurer John Hiller and Walker regarding a bidding process for where the county's Department of Aging was going to be housed (emphasis mine):

The Reuss building had been taken over in late 2004 by its lender, Philadelphia-based RAIT Investment Trust, which hired Boerke Co. as the local leasing agent.

Walker campaign adviser Hiller lobbied on the 2005 deal, according to Dennik, who said at the time he viewed Hiller as speaking for Boerke.

Hiller, one of Walker's closest confidantes, served as treasurer of Walker's county and gubernatorial campaigns, a position he left in May 2011. He also led Walker's transition team after his 2010 election. He was familiar with Dennik, who had served as director of Walker's 2002 campaign for county executive.

Hiller, himself a real estate broker and developer, said he "probably" pointed the Reuss owners to the county opportunity, and discussed the situation with Dennik. Hiller told the newspaper in 2005 he was hired by the Reuss owners to develop strategies to fill empty offices there.

Hiller at the time downplayed his own role, but said he advised Boerke Co. on which county supervisors to approach to prompt a rebidding of the deal. Hiller said he called Rice, another of Walker's close allies, to urge him to talk to Boerke Co. about doing a "best and final offer" round.

Records show Jensen wrote a letter to key supervisors, including Rice, who later made the motion to reopen the bidding, citing potential savings.

Meanwhile, the Markesan Group - a lobbying firm set up by former Walker chief of staff Jim Villa - lobbied on the 2005 deal, according to Dennik. It couldn't be determined if Villa personally lobbied for it.

Villa left the firm in December 2003 to do Walker campaign work, but in August 2005 - in the midst of the Aging Department bid process - returned to the county executive's office.

Hiller said he did not talk to Villa about the process at that point; Villa felt that ethically he should stay out of it, Hiller said. Villa declined to comment for this story.

The Markesan Group was the main consultant behind Walker's 2004 county re-election effort and helped him launch his 2006 gubernatorial bid. Records show it was paid $126,000 in 2005 by Walker's campaign fund. Hiller said he used to work for Markesan Group, but not in this case.

And if the gentle reader was wondering, Walker has continued to be good friends and tight cronies with Villa, making sure Villa was rewarded for his loyalty to Walker by giving him a cushy, good paying job - at taxpayers' expense of course:

Jim Villa is leaving his post as president of the Commercial Association of Realtors Wisconsin after landing a job as vice president for university relations at the University of Wisconsin System.

Villa will earn $178,000 in his new position and will start May 5, according to a UW announcement.

They say crime doesn't pay but that's not necessarily true in Walker's Wisconsin.

Confirmed: Scott Walker Is John Doe!

Wisconsinites knew for years that Scott Walker was John Doe - or to be more precise, that he was the subject of the John Doe investigations.

We knew that, despite of his protestations to the contrary, for of a number of reasons.

One, the emails showed that Walker was in the thick of things. Two, he was caught stonewalling the investigation. Three, Walker created a legal defense cooperation fund, which he could only have done if he was under investigation.

Investigators had a number of options that they could pursue with Walker. There was the illegal politicking of having his county staff coordinating with his campaign staff. There was using county time, equipment and personnel for campaigning and fundraising. Then there were allegations that Walker and others, including his then campaign finance director, John Hiller, doing bid rigging for a lease to house county staff.

It was the last crime that prosecutors were pursuing when they executed search warrants on the homes of his aides, including Cindy Archer. We know this because of the search warrant request the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office filed in response to Archer's frivolous lawsuit.

From the Wisconsin State Journal:

Prosecutors, including Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, a Democrat, and assistant district attorneys Bruce Landgraf and David Robles, were looking into signs of misconduct and bid-rigging regarding competition to house the Department of Aging in private office space.
Hiller, a real estate broker who at the time was Walker’s longtime campaign treasurer, was quietly working for one of three bidders seeking to provide office space and purchase an aging building known as City Campus owned by Milwaukee County.

Stelter argued in the warrant request that Walker committed a felony when in June of 2010 he used a personal email account to ask Hiller for a letter that rejected Department of Transportation and Public Works director Jack Takarian’s request for a six-month extension for the county’s Department on Aging office lease in the Ruess Federal Plaza in Milwaukee. That rejection set up the need for a later deal “against the interests of Milwaukee County,” the warrant said.

Hiller then forwarded the email to Jensen, according to the search warrant request, who then with Hiller wrote the letter rejecting the extension.
The State Journal reported in 2014 that Hiller got detailed financial information from Archer when she was county director of the Department of Administration around the time he was bidding on the deal, according to emails released in the John Doe investigation. The probe, which began when Walker was Milwaukee County executive, showed Hiller lobbied for the county to sell its City Campus building and then got information around the time bids were being evaluated to provide office space for workers to be displaced by the sale.
The county never followed through with the deal for the building and no charges were filed.

Hiller, in one email to Archer on Aug. 20, 2010, said he thought officials involved with the request for proposals were unaware of his involvement. “I am very sensitive to the situation and I work pretty hard not to leave finger prints,” wrote Hiller, who resigned as Walker’s campaign treasurer in May 2011.

Now, as the media has never failed to report, Walker was never charged for these crimes.

What the media never fails not to report is that this is because Walker had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on high-priced private attorneys that specialize in corruption cases like this. Walker also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in defense of his campaign. And this does not include the money he spent out of pocket before he established his legal defense cooperation fund or the money he spent to buy the silence of his former aides like Archer and Kelly Rindfleisch.

Nearly a million dollars can buy a lot of "innocence", I guess.

How Scott Walker Caused The John Doe Investigation

As I recently wrote, Cindy Archer, a long time aide and friend to Scott Walker, had filed a frivolous lawsuit regarding the John Doe investigation into Walker and his gang of crooks.

Walker is probably really wishing that Archer never filed that lawsuit because not only did she get burned by it, but Walker is being dragged down with her.

But first a little backstory.

When Walker was Milwaukee County Executive, he started a thinly-veiled campaign stunt he called "Operation Freedom." "Operation Freedom" was supposed to be a charity fund that Walker used to honor veterans by giving them and their families a free day at the Milwaukee County Zoo. Despite it supposedly being for the veterans, Walker used the opportunity to tell people how great he was.

In 2008, a Walker aide noticed that there was money missing from the fund. Walker sent his then Chief of Staff, Tom Nardelli, to the District Attorney's office to file a complaint and ask for an investigation.

Eventually, two Walker aides, Kevin Kavanaugh and Tim Russell, were charged, tried and convicted for embezzling money from the fund. (Some of the money Russell stole from the fund went to pay for Walker's campaign websites.)

During Russell's trial, an interesting tidbit came up. The John Doe investigation was originally started when Walker started stonewalling the investigation that he originally asked for:

Milwaukee County prosecutors opened the secret John Doe criminal investigation more than two years ago after being stonewalled by Gov. Scott Walker's office when he was county executive, according to a newly released record.

The document appears to cast doubt on some of Walker's claims about his role in launching and cooperating with the investigation.

On May 5, 2010, Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf filed a petition with court officials asking if his office could initiate a secret investigation into what happened with $11,000 in donations intended for Operation Freedom, an annual event honoring veterans.

By making it a secret John Doe investigation, Landgraf wrote that prosecutors might get better cooperation from Walker's office, which had been "unwilling or unable" to turn over records and information needed in the investigation. He said he would need to subpoena county records and officials.

"It may be the County Executive's Office is reluctant to provide information to investigators due to a fear of political embarrassment," Landgraf wrote, noting that Walker was then running for governor.

Well, it might be. Or it might be they were getting awfully nervous about what the DA's office was looking for.

Which brings up to Archer's lawsuit.

In their response to Archer's lawsuit, the John Doe investigators confirmed that Walker was indeed trying to obstruct the investigation that he had asked for:

On Friday, two of the defendants, chief investigator David Budde and investigator Robert Stelter, filed a response. In it, they reaffirmed that the John Doe investigation began after one of Walker’s top staff reported funds missing from “Operation Freedom,” an annual event held by Walker’s office to thank veterans for their military service.

They said the secret probe was necessary only because Walker’s office “was uncooperative and obstructed the District Attorney’s Office’s efforts to obtain documentation of the County’s receipt and disbursement of donations from Operation Freedom.”

“As a consequence, the District Attorney’s Office was forced to petition a John Doe proceeding in order to have legal mechanisms to obtain relevant documentation from the County Executive’s Office,” they argued.

While the John Doe investigation known as Walkergate was originally started to investigation into the theft from the veterans/campaign fund, it quickly expanded as investigators found evidence of illegal politicking, illegal donations and bid rigging.

Investigators also found evidence of the illegal collaboration between Walker and dark money groups like Wisconsin Club for Growth and Americans for Prosperity.

Is it any wonder why Walker and his dark money masters went all out to kill the investigation?

Fortunatley, while they might have stopped the investigation - at least on the state level - but they cannot conceal the depth of their corruption.

Former Walker Aide Gets Slammed In Her Own Lawsuit

Leading into the week of the first GOP presidential debate, Scott Walker had a visit from an old friend he hoped to never see again - John Doe.

At the beginning of July, Walker's long time aide and right hand woman, Cindy Archer, filed a frivolous lawsuit against the Milwaukee County District Attorney, claiming her rights were being violated by being investigated for the illegal politicking she took part of during Walker's stint as Milwaukee County Executive.

Archer claimed in her lawsuit that she was the victim of District Attorney John Chisholm's alleged vendetta against Walker for his passage of Act 10, which stripped public sector workers of their rights and pay. She also claimed that the investigation had cost her a high level job in the Walker administration.

The lawsuit and Archer's claims are ridiculous. For one thing, the lawsuit started long before Walker was even elected much less dropped is fiscal bomb on the state. Secondly, the emails released from the investigation showed that Archer's hands were as dirty as anyone's. The most notable one is where she welcomed fellow Walker aide, Kelly Rindfleisch, to the secret email system and to Walker's "inner circle."

On Friday, the investigators from the DA's office filed their response to the lawsuit, much to Archer's and Walker's chagrin.

In their response, they point out that Archer was indeed under criminal investigation for illegal politicking and for trying to arrange a sweetheart deal where the county would rent some property being represented by John Hiller, Walker's then campaign treasurer. That pretty much wipes out Archer's claims of innocence. Just because she wasn't charged doesn't mean she didn't do it.

Archer's claims that the investigation caused her to lose her job might have a twisted sense of merit to it. Her being a target of the investigation probably didn't cost her high level position, per se. It was more likely that it was that she was trying to strike a deal with the DA's office to rat Walker and her fellow henchmen out.

Walker is probably starting to drink Pepto Bismal by the gallon by now. Not only is he down in the polls, but to have people reminded of his corruption leading into the first GOP presidential debate will make him ripe as a target.

On top of all that, as well know, when it comes to all things Walker, there's more. There's always more.

Scott Walker's Selective Memory

Trying to build excitement - any excitement at all - about is soon to be official presidential bid, Scott Walker launched the above video*. Unable to tout his record on job creation, a healthy business environment, lower taxes or much of anything else, Walker decided to make shit up, like how he "stood his ground" and was "unintimidated" by his own constituents and the workers of Wisconsin. Walker also bragged about winning the recall election (look for this to be a common theme from him).

Of course, by standing his ground, he means scurrying around in the tunnels below the state Capitol, like the rat he is:

My brother-in-blog, Jeff Simpson, also recalled something else about the recalls - how Walker got a lot of help from the dark money group Coalition for American Values, which spent $400,000 in ads to help Walker win.

Jeff's post made me recall another thing about the recall. It was Walker's illegal politicking during the recalls that put him the middle of another John Doe investigation, one in which prosecutors said that Walker was at the center of a "criminal scheme":

Prosecutors allege that Gov. Scott Walker was at the center of an effort to illegally coordinate fundraising among conservative groups to help his campaign and those of Republican senators fend off recall elections during 2011 and '12, according to documents unsealed Thursday.

In the documents, prosecutors lay out what they call a "criminal scheme" to bypass state election laws by Walker, his campaign and two top deputies — R.J. Johnson and Deborah Jordahl.

The governor and his close confidants helped raise money and control spending through 12 conservative groups during the recall elections, according to the prosecutors' filings.

The documents include an email in which Walker tells Karl Rove, former top adviser to President George W. Bush, that Johnson would lead the coordination campaign. Johnson is also chief adviser to Wisconsin Club for Growth, a conservative group active in the recall elections.

"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.

I reckon that Walker is telling us to recall that the only way he can win is by cheating, as if that was something we'd forget.

*Gotta love the CGI snowflakes at the beginning of the video.  I think he picked that up from Faux News.

Gableman Backs Down

On Tuesday morning, I wrote at Cog Dis and Crooks & Liars about how Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman wanted to revisit an appeal by former Walker aide Kelly Rindfliesch. Rindfleisch was convicted of doing illegal politicking while working for Scott Walker when he was Milwaukee County Executive.

I also pointed out that Gableman's unprecedented request was a huge conflict of interest.

In what I am sure is pure coincidence, Gableman rescinded his request on Tuesday afternoon:

Justice Michael Gableman last week took the unusual step of asking his colleagues to reconsider that decision and take up her appeal. But on Tuesday, Gableman withdrew his request.

[...]

In a letter to attorneys in the case, Gableman noted that Rindfleisch still had that other avenue of appeal. He didn't address the question of whether he also lacked support among his fellow state justices for his request.

"Her appeal is now pending before the United States Supreme Court where, among other things, she will have the benefit of review by the entire court," Gableman wrote of Rindfleisch. "I believe that is the better course of action at this time, and therefore withdraw my motion."

Now Scott Walker and his dark money supporters are going to have to find a new way to kill off the John Doe investigation if they don't want it raising its ugly head while Walker is running for president. Because, let's face it, if they can't do their illegal collaboration and buy elections, what chance do these fools stand in a fair election?

A Supreme Conflict Of Interest

As previously reported, Kelly Rindfleisch, a former aide to Scott Walker when he was Milwaukee County Executive, was charged and convicted of illegal politicking during government time and using government equipment. She appealed the proceedings and subsequent conviction numerous times to no avail. One of her latest appeal attempts went to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which declined to hear her case on a 6-0 vote (Justice David "Choke hold" Prosser recused himself.) Rindfleisch is now almost halfway through "serving her sentence." (More on that later.)

Rindfleisch has since made an appeal to the United Supreme Court, continuing her argument that the subpoenas were too broad and too vague and thus unconstitutional. She hasn't won on that argument yet, but what they hey?

Following that, Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, one of the four corporate-controlled conservative justices, in an unprecedented move, asked his fellow justices to consider revisiting the Rindfleisch appeal:

On Thursday, a memo was filed from Gableman asking that the high court revisit the issue when it next meets in private. He did not explain why he wants to take the issue up in his one-paragraph memo.

Such a move is highly unusual, if not unprecedented. The original decision not to take the case was agreed to by all the justices except David Prosser, who did not participate in the case.

At first glance, the gentle reader might suspect that Gableman's unusual and questionable request came as a favor to one of his main benefactors, Wisconsin Club for Growth (WCfG). WCfG has a number of cases pending before the Wisconsin Supreme Court regarding the John Doe investigation into the illegal collaboration between them and Scott Walker.

If WCfG could pull some money strings and get the Supreme Court to overturn Rindfleisch's conviction, this would set a precedent and give strength to their own cases.

To strengthen one's suspicions, one of the dark money propaganda groups, which has written over 200 articles about Rindlfeisch and labels her a "political prisoner," has revealed that Rindfleisch, who was given work release privileges from her home confinement (talk about doing hard time!), is working for Eric O'Keefe, the head of WCfG:

A deputy in Sauk County’s Huber, or work release, division, confirms that Rindfleisch is being monitored with an ankle bracelet and living with her sister in Sauk County. She is confined to the home, but has Huber privileges, including the right to work.

Rindfleisch is working for none other than Eric O’Keefe, the long-time conservative activist who has filed multiple lawsuits against Chisholm and two of his assistants alleging prosecutors trampled conservatives’ First Amendment rights with their politically charged John Doe investigations.

Wisconsin Watchdog has confirmed that Rindfleisch works for O’Keefe’s E&L Corp., a Spring Green-based company that O’Keefe has operated since 1993.

Rindfleisch, according to the Huber division, is picking up the cost of the monitoring device, at $17 a day.

O’Keefe, director of the limited-government group Wisconsin Club for Growth, has come to the defense of Rindfleisch, who was convicted in 2012 on a nebulous charged of misconduct in office. Rindfleisch served as deputy chief of staff for Walker when Walker was Milwaukee County Executive.

So, the former Walker aide who was convicted of illegal politicking ends up working for a Walker ally who is under investigation for illegal collaboration with Walker. And now, a Supreme Court Justice, who has ethical issues that he is still under investigation for and who has received financial support from WCfG, wants to reopen a case he originally voted not to hear.

Yeah, nothing to see here, right?

The real kicker is that if these four conservative justices, including Gableman, had even a modicum of ethics themselves, they would have already recused themselves from all of these cases due to their own conflicts of interest, as the Supreme Court of the United States had already ruled.

Walkergate Prosecutors To Walker: Put Up Or Shut Up

Over the weekend, Scott Walker was once again in Iowa, peddling the false pretense that he is a good Christian, when he went after the Walkergate prosecutors, echoing the fabricated narratives that has been bouncing around the right wing echo chambers. This time, though, the prosecutors aren't just standing by. They issued a challenge to Walker to walk the walk and to go big and go bold by agreeing to release all of the John Doe documents which are currently sealed:

Prosecutors have largely been mum publicly about their probe of Walker's campaign, and Walker recently has largely refrained from discussing the matter.

That changed Saturday after Walker on Friday spoke to WHO-AM in Des Moines about a recent report in the National Review detailing a 2011 police raid on the home of Walker aide Cindy Archer and ones in 2013 on those working for groups supporting him.

"I said even if you're a liberal Democrat, you should look at (the raids) and be frightened to think that if the government can do that against people of one political persuasion, they can do it against anybody, and more often than not we need protection against the government itself," Walker told the radio station.

"As (the National Review) pointed out, there were real questions about the constitutionality of much of what they did, but it was really about people trying to intimidate people..." Walker said.

"They were looking for just about anything. As I pointed out at the time, it was largely a political witch hunt."

The raids were conducted as part of a pair of investigations led by Chisholm, a Democrat. On the second investigation, Chisholm was assisted by district attorneys from both parties and special prosecutor Francis Schmitz, a self-described Republican.

"As to defamatory remarks, I strongly suspect the Iowa criminal code, like Wisconsin's, has provisions for intentionally making false statements intended to harm the reputation of others," Chisholm said in a statement Saturday responding to Walker's comments.

In a separate statement, Schmitz said he was surprised Walker would "speak publicly about specific issues which are now before the Wisconsin Supreme Court for a decision."

"His description of the investigation as a 'political witch hunt' is offensive when he knows that the investigation was authorized by a bipartisan group of judges and is directed by a Republican special prosecutor appointed at the request of a bipartisan group of district attorneys," Schmitz's statement said.

He called Walker's comments inaccurate but didn't detail why.

"I invite the governor to join me in seeking judicial approval to lawfully release information now under seal which would be responsive to the allegations that have been made," his statement said. "Such information, when lawfully released, will show that these recent allegations are patently false."

Chisholm said he agreed with Schmitz's statement.

"Stripped of niceties, Mr. Schmitz is saying the governor is deliberately not telling the truth," Chisholm's statement said.

"The truth is always a defense, so let's get the truth out in a legal manner, not through lies, distortions and misrepresentations."

As one might expect, Walker dodged this challenge and refused to answer questions about releasing the sealed documents.

In other words, Walker has neatly painted himself into a corner.

He can either release the documents and hope his presidential bid can survive. Given the weak-kneed corporate media and America's terribly short attention span, there is a good chance he could survive the release of the documents. But I wouldn't hold my breath for him to do that, because he would have to give up his portrayal of the Tea Party Martyr.

If Walker refuses to allow the release of the documents, it would be nice if a reporter or three practiced a rare act of flagrant journalism and ask him what he is trying to hide - and to persist on this questioning until he finally answers.

Walkergate: How Partisan Is John Doe?

As noted earlier, Scott Walker and his right wing apologists are scared witless about an upcoming decision by the Wisconsin Supreme Court about the ongoing John Doe investigations into Walker's illegal collaboration with dark money groups like Wisconsin Club for Growth.

In an effort to stem the bad press that will come with the court's rulings, win or lose, the right wing has gone on the offensive to start the damage control and trying to control the spin. Among these propagandists is David French, who wrote some horrible dreck for the National Review. Besides the over the top melodrama and flights of imagination, French included another utterly false talking point from Team Walker - that the investigation and subsequent criminal convictions are the result of a partisan witch hunt:

t all began innocently enough. In 2009, officials from the office of the Milwaukee County executive contacted the office of the Milwaukee district attorney, headed by John Chisholm, to investigate the disappearance of $11,242.24 from the Milwaukee chapter of the Order of the Purple Heart. The matter was routine, with witnesses willing and able to testify against the principal suspect, a man named Kevin Kavanaugh.

What followed, however, was anything but routine. Chisholm failed to act promptly on the report, and when he did act, he refused to conduct a conventional criminal investigation but instead petitioned, in May 2010, to open a “John Doe” investigation, a proceeding under Wisconsin law that permits Wisconsin officials to conduct extensive investigations while keeping the target’s identity secret (hence the designation “John Doe”).

[...]

At the same time that the public protests were raging, so were private — but important — protests in the Chisholm home and workplace. As a former prosecutor told journalist Stuart Taylor, Chisholm’s wife was a teachers’-union shop steward who was distraught over Act 10’s union reforms. He said Chisholm “felt it was his personal duty” to stop them.

Meanwhile, according to this whistleblower, the district attorney’s offices were festooned with the “blue fist” poster of the labor-union movement, indicating that Chisholm’s employees were very much invested in the political fight.

Unfortunately, French is just repeating misinformation that has been utterly debunked.

The John Doe did not begin with Walker asking District Attorney John Chisholm to look into the theft of money from a veterans fund. The investigation started when Walker started to stonewall the investigation by refusing to release requested emails and documents.

As far as the myth that the investigation and prosecutions were due to unionism, eye witnesses thoroughly discredited those allegations. On top of that, the supposed "whistleblower" whom French refers to was a disgruntled former employee who was suffering from PTSD and alcoholism and who had made death threats against Chisholm and his family.

It later turned out that these accusations were nothing but a campaign gimmick to promote Walker's name and set up the story line they are now using.

As for the mewling that John Doe is partisan, that couldn't be any further from the truth. The fact is that three of the five district attorneys working on the John Doe are Democrats while the other two are Republicans. The special prosecutor that the DAs hired to handle the case is a Republican who openly states he voted for Walker in the recall.

Furthermore, all of the judges that authorized the John Doe investigations are Republican, including James Daley, the Republican candidate who lost his bid for the state supreme court earlier this month. In addition, all of the members of the Government Accountability Board, which oversaw the investigations, are Republicans.

The only way that this could be a partisan witch hunt is if Walker turned out to be a partisan witch, which at this point, wouldn't surprise me in the least.

National Review Waxes Melodramatic Over Walkergate

The Wisconsin Supreme Court is soon due to make a ruling regarding the John Doe investigation into Scott Walker and his illegal collaboration with third party dark money groups, such as the Wisconsin Club for Growth. Even though four of the seven justices are obliged to recuse themselves due to the large amount of support they received from WCoG and other such dark money groups, they have shown no indication that they will be doing the proper thing.

The possibility of this going south for Walker and the dark money groups have them scared to death. If all of Walker's misdeeds come to the light of day, it will sink his presidential bid just as fast as if he was caught deflowering a virgin goat. Even if their Machiavellian scheme to bury the John Doe works, the fact that the Supreme Court is so tainted will raise doubt in people capable of independent thought.

In preparation for whatever the results, the right wing is doing preemptive strikes to gain sympathy for Walker and his fellow scofflaws. The right wing has decided that the best course of action is to clutch their pearls and swoon back on their fainting couches.

One of the most notorious of these strikes is the God-awrful dreck penned by David French at the National Review.

After giving one anecdotal - and highly embellished - account after another, French ends up with this melodramatic prose:

For some of the families, the trauma of the raids, combined with the stress and anxiety of lengthy criminal investigations, has led to serious emotional repercussions. “Devastating” is how Anne describes the impact on her family. “Life-changing,” she says. “All in terrible ways.”

O’Keefe, who has been in contact with multiple targeted families, says, “Every family I know of that endured a home raid has been shaken to its core, and the fate of marriages and families still hangs in the balance in some cases.”

Anne also describes a new fear of the police: “I used to support the police, to believe they were here to protect us. Now, when I see an officer, I’ll cross the street. I’m afraid of them. I know what they’re capable of.”

Cindy says, “I lock my doors and I close my shades. I don’t answer the door unless I am expecting someone. My heart races when I see a police car sitting in front of my house or following me in the car. The raid was so public. I’ve been harassed. My house has been vandalized. [She did not identify suspects.] I no longer feel safe, and I don’t think I ever will.”

Rachel talks about the effect on her children. “I tried to create a home where the kids always feel safe. Now they know they’re not. They know men with guns can come in their house, and there’s nothing we can do.” Every knock on the door brings anxiety. Every call to the house is screened. In the back of her mind is a single, unsettling thought: These people will never stop.

Victims of trauma — and every person I spoke with described the armed raids as traumatic — often need to talk, to share their experiences and seek solace in the company of a loving family and supportive friends. The investigators denied them that privilege, and it compounded their pain and fear.

Keep in mind that none of these people were beaten, tasered or shot to death like so many, unarmed, innocent black people - whom this group loves to mock.

Also keep in mind that the Walkergate proceedings have led to six convictions and revealed a vast criminal scheme of illegal politicking with Scott Walker at the center of it.

Not only does French lay it on thick with the hysteria and melodramatics, but he plays loose and fancy free with the facts.

For example, take the first story French regales us with regarding Cindy Archer, who was then Walker's top aide as Director of the Department of Administration for Milwaukee County. After telling us of the horrors that this criminal was treated like a criminal, he writes:

“I told him this was my house and I could do what I wanted.” Wrong thing to say. “This made the agent in charge furious. He towered over me with his finger in my face and yelled like a drill sergeant that I either do it his way or he would handcuff me.”

They wouldn’t let her speak to a lawyer. She looked outside and saw a person who appeared to be a reporter. Someone had tipped him off.

The neighbors started to come outside, curious at the commotion, and all the while the police searched her house, making a mess, and — according to Cindy — leaving her “dead mother’s belongings strewn across the basement floor in a most disrespectful way.”

Then they left, carrying with them only a cellphone and a laptop.

Now the truth of the matter is that the raid was conducted by sheriff's deputies and FBI agents. And they took boxes full of stuff from her home and the stuff she tried to pawn off on her neighbors:

Archer's neighbors said about a dozen law enforcement officers arrived Wednesday sometime before 7 a.m. One agent took photos of the house, and others wore jackets that said they were responsible for gathering evidence.

Around 9 a.m., a reporter saw four FBI agents - two of them wearing latex gloves - talking in Archer's backyard before going into her house. Later, one removed a large box and put it in the trunk of an FBI car. They left about 10 a.m.

The FBI also seized the hard drive from a computer that a neighbor had bought from Archer six to eight weeks ago at a garage sale.

Next-door neighbor Dale Riechers said he had never turned on the computer because he was planning to work on it later in the fall. He told the agents about the hard drive and they asked to take it, Riechers said.

If one was wondering why the law enforcement officials were interested in the electronics, part of the reason is that a large number of computers and files came up missing when Walker left for Madison.

Another reason is that Archer was up to her armpits in the illegal politicking, as evidence by her email to Kelly Rindfleisch, one of those convicted, welcoming her to the "inner circle":

Included in more than 27,000 pages of emails and other documents unsealed Wednesday are the closest links yet between Gov. Scott Walker and a secret email system used in his office when he was Milwaukee County executive.

"Consider yourself now in the 'inner circle,'" Walker's administration director, Cynthia Archer, wrote to Walker aide Kelly Rindfleisch just after the two exchanged a test message.

"I use this private account quite a bit to communicate with SKW and Nardelli. You should be sure you check it throughout the day," she wrote, referring to Walker by his initials and to Walker's then-chief of staff, Tom Nardelli.

Court documents have previously showed Walker's aides set up a secret wireless router in the county executive's office and traded emails that mixed county and campaign business on Gmail and Yahoo accounts. The email from Archer made public Wednesday is the closest link yet between that system and Walker.

Contrary to the arguments that the Walker apologists are using, the Walkergate investigations have nothing to do with Free Speech. They are all about their role in the theft of our democracy.