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 Caught In Another Lie

By Jeff Simpson

Capper covered the initial leak of the new #Walkerdocs very well, but I wanted to point your attention
to something else buried in there.

First let us take a trip down memory lane where Gov Walker was asked about the Milwaukee Brewers Ryan Braun:

 Walker said he and his two sons, Matt and Alex, all big Brewers' fans, were disappointed and angry "that he lied to us as fans."
In a telephone interview Tuesday, the GOP governor said that "it was bad enough that he broke the rules, but the fact that he didn't immediately fess up to it, that he dragged it all out...It's not just what he did, it's that he strung us out for so long."
The governor said forgiveness from fans wouldn't come quickly for Braun.
"I think it'll be a long time," Walker said.

Speaking of "not immediately fessing up to it".  In August of 2014, Scott Walker was asked outright if he helped Club for Growth raise any money:

Gov. Scott Walker said Saturday that he played no role in soliciting cash from a mining company for the Wisconsin Club for Growth during the 2011 and 2012 recall elections, adding that no one should be surprised that the pro-business governor backed legislation helpful to the firm.
 Asked whether he was aware that Gogebic Taconite secretly donated $700,000 to Wisconsin Club for Growth — a pro-business advocacy group directed by the governor's campaign adviser — Walker said, "Not to my knowledge."
 When asked if the previously undisclosed funds and subsequent legislation were part of some pay-to-play scheme, Walker said, "That's a ridiculous argument."

Now, thanks to the Guardian article, we know that he was absolutely lying and he "strung us out for so long".



All the positive and negative ads running were due to Scott Walker raising money through "the club".

I wonder how long it will be before the fans forgive Scott Walker for lying?

PS:  In case you are wondering you did read that email correctly.  R J Johnson sent it to Keith Gilkes to tell Scott Fitzgerald to stop whining about the recall and how much money they were giving him.   It is not cheap trying to keep many people happy and win your election.

Walker Throws Another Long Time Aide Under The Campaign Bus

David Catanese wrote about how Scott Walker had thrown long time friend and top political strategist, RJ Johnson, under the campaign bus:

Now, three years later, on the verge of a presidential announcement and status as a tenuous front-runner for the GOP, Johnson is on the outs, multiple sources tell U.S. News, sidelined by a new raft of national advisers that Walker has tapped to navigate the gargantuan task of reaching the White House.

Seizing the reins now as expected campaign manager is Rick Wiley, the bald, goateed RNC veteran from Illinois who resembles a cross between professional wrestler Steve Austin and Mr. Clean.

Johnson just a few months ago had indicated his role was still unclear but seemed prepared to sign on for the endeavor in some form.

“What [my] capacity will be when things progress is not completely defined at this point,” he told U.S. News in March. “Things will be more apparent when things progress. I’ll imagine I’m always going to be involved in some capacity.”

But two Republican sources tell U.S. News that Wiley’s emergence as Walker’s new top aide essentially pushed Johnson out of the mix this spring, leaving the governor without the trusted political jedi who waged his biggest battles.

“He’s a casual observer now,” says one Walker supporter outside of the campaign. “R.J.’s always in the governor’s orbit. I just think R.J.’s focused on other things currently.”

Another Wisconsin Republican who has worked for Walker and knows Johnson frames it more harshly: “There’s been internal challenges, not uncommon of a growing organization. And R.J. is out. I’m surprised they couldn’t find a place for R.J. But I think a scenario where Rick and R.J. were going to coexist was always a fantasy.”

Catanese attributes Walker's abandonment of Johnson as turf wars between Johnson and Walker's new top guy, Rick Wiley. Catanese also said that Johnson's dismissal "is just a piece of the growing pains Walker is experiencing as he attempts to transform himself from a battle-tested governor with a close-knit circle to a national leader who can pull together a broad coalition and maintain his image under an unforgiving national spotlight."

These factors might have played in a role of Johnson finding Walker's campaign bus' tire tracks on his back, but they are probably not the only reason.

Walker has a long history of dogging out old friends and new the moment they become a liability or an embarrassment.

Walker threw John Hiller, his campaign treasurer of 18 years, under the bus when it came out that Hiller was part of the John Doe investigation known as Walkergate.

When Walker's lifelong friend and top campaign aide, Tim Russell, was arrested and charged in the Walkergate investigation, Walker turned his back on Rusell, not lifting a finger to help his old chum.

A couple of years ago, after I broke the story about Walker's infamous Black Friday fundraising email, he scapegoated his deputy finance director for it, although he claimed it was for some racist tweets she sent out years before she joined his campaign. It was just coincidence that he only learned of them when the fundraiser story went international.

Most recently, he canned Liz Mair before she even got settled in, just because some Iowan Republicans didn't like her.

And Johnson definitely has the potential to be a big liability.

After Walker officially announces his presidential campaign next week (unless he changes his mind about the date again), the national media will (hopefully) start taking a closer look at Walker and his history - not just the fantasies that Walker tells them, but his actual history, including the Walkergate investigations.

And Johnson's name is rampant throughout the investigations and the tens of thousands of emails, as I have reported here, here and here. It also appears that Johnson might have been part of the current - albeit temporarily suspended - second investigation into Walker's illegal collaboration with the dark money groups that had been supporting him.

While Walker might have thrown another old crony under his campaign bus due to "growing pains," it's just as likely that he is trying to cut loose some baggage that will only hinder his presidential aspirations.

Campaigns should not be coordinating with dark money donors

By Jeff Simpson 

Cross Posted from JSonline:

Gov. Scott Walker was correct when he called the rash of news stories about the latest John Doe investigation a "media frenzy." The first John Doe resulted in six criminal prosecutions, and in the midst of the second John Doe, Appeals Court Judge Frank Easterbrook ordered the release of a small batch of documents related to the latest investigation.

The highlight of the document release was part of an email Walker had sent to Karl Rove, former top adviser to President George W. Bush. In the email, Walker tells Rove that his longtime campaign strategist, R.J. Johnson, would be coordinating between an unlimited number of right-wing groups to help make sure that they were going to be successful in the recall elections. There is not much question whether the Walker campaign coordinated with these different groups. However, there is doubt as to the legality of such coordination.

Do we as a society, in our constitutionally limited democratic republic, just wait until a current lifetime-appointed judge gives us his all-too-predictable ruling on the matter, or do we demand more out of our public servants?

There are two kinds of people who believe that money in politics is not a problem: the people receiving the money and the people who are not paying attention. The two major parties and their respective supporters spent as much as $60 million on the gubernatorial recall election in addition to spending almost $40 million in the 2010 gubernatorial election. Two men spent $100 million to battle for a job that pays $140,000 a year plus benefits. And we are supposed to trust these people with our state budget?

Do we continue to look the other way, while politicians spend massive amounts of money on ads (Walker is currently spending $245,000 on a TV ad campaign to run for over a week) while our children go hungry? In Wisconsin, the number of children on free and reduced-cost lunch has more than doubled in the last 10 years.

Our politicians understand the importance of keeping money out of politics, as they wrote it into our state statutes: "When the true source of support or extent of support is not fully disclosed, or when a candidate becomes overly dependent upon large private contributors, the democratic process is subjected to a potential corrupting influence."

Abraham Lincoln warned us that if we enthrone corporations, "an era of corruption in high places will follow." There is no higher place than our statehouse.

We also need to look at the silly claims that Johnson and Eric O'Keefe, head of Wisconsin Club For Growth, among others, have made. They assert that their First Amendment rights were violated due to the John Doe investigation. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The First Amendment tells us that Congress shall make no law "abridging the freedom of speech." At no time have Johnson or O'Keefe lost their rights to free speech. They have the same rights that you and I do. What they have lost is the ability to collect unlimited amounts of anonymous money to use, with the collaboration of elected officials, to work together in coordination to get as many members of one party elected.

The question we have to ask is not whether Walker will face criminal charges. The question we need to ask as a society is: Do we want to outsource our elections and our politicians to a handful of multimillionaires? As Thomas Paine said, "a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right."

No matter what the outcome of the second John Doe, it is wrong to have politicians collaborating with outside dark money groups. We need to start holding our elected representatives to a higher standard of ethics and personal responsibility.

Jeff Simpson of Cottage Grove is a small business owner, member of the Monona Grove School Board and Progressive blogger.

Walkergate: The Unnamed Intervenors

As the gentle reader is aware, there is an ongoing and perpetual legal roller coaster going on regarding the Walkergate investigation.  The Dark Money special interest groups are throwing everything they can at the investigation to slow it down if not stop it completely.

In a nifty bit of legal judo, the Walkergate investigators were able to get the courts to order that some of the legal documents be released.  Immediately, two unnamed parties filed petitions to stop the release of the documents because REASONS:

Also on Wednesday, two unidentified people asked Randa to allow them to intervene in the case so they can make arguments to keep their identities and information about them secret.

In a joint filing, they noted they had not been charged with any crimes but that sealed documents had been filed in the case that include personal and political information about them. That included their names, addresses, political opinions, political associates, personal and business financial information, personal correspondence and allegations by prosecutors they had violated state laws.

The sealed information may also include their Social Security numbers and medical information, they wrote.

"Unnamed intervenors have not themselves disclosed publicly any of that information voluntarily in connection with this civil action or with a related John Doe investigation. To the contrary, these two unnamed intervenors have taken every reasonable step possible to maintain the privacy of (their) information ... and their rightful anonymity," their attorneys wrote. "Unnamed intervenors seek to preserve their privacy, enjoy their First Amendment freedoms of core political speech and association without unintended and unwarranted public scrutiny, and avoid damage to their families, their reputations, and their businesses."

Well, I believe that if they are tied up in the Walkergate investigations, we can guess that they aren't liberal.

On Monday, the federal appellate court that is handling the case ordered another batch of documents related to the investigation be released.  Again, the same two unnamed intervenors filed more petitions asking that the documents be released because "once the documents are released to the public it will be too late ...."

The obvious question is who are these unnamed intervenors?

Sadly, the answers aren't as obvious.

What can be deduced from their reasoning for wanting to maintain their anonymity is that they are fairly involved with the ongoing investigation into the collaboration between the dark money groups and political groups.  It's also pretty safe to assume that the intervenors either have a lot of money or access to a lot of money, presumably through the dark money groups and their funding sources.

It could be any of Walker's wealthy campaign donors or any of the leaders of the scads of front groups like Americans for Prosperity or Club for Growth.  But there are some names that would stand out as likely suspects: Scott Walker, R.J. and Valerie Johnson, Deb Jordal, John Connors and Judith Rhodes Engels.

The most obvious guess would be Scott Walker.

But I don't think so.

Everyone knows who Walker is and to whom he is beholden.  And he really can't claim anonymity in relation to the investigation, although he assuredly wishes like hell he could.  It seems unlikely that Walker is one of the petitioners although it is extremely probable that he helped encourage the petitioners to act.

R.J. Johnson is a more likely possibility.  He is up to his neck with the Wisconsin Club for Growth as well as was working for the Walker campaign (which he may or may not have been paid for).  Johnson is also involved with a consulting group with his partner, former Fox Valley blogger Deb Jordal.

It would be very conceivable that either one or both Johnson and Jordal could be the petitioners.  Given how tied up that Johnson is with both the dark money groups and Walker's campaign, he would be a natural suspect.  If exactly how tied up into all of the Walkergate activities Johnson is, it could easily make him expendable to the dark money groups and he would get cut off in a heart beat.

For the same reason, it would not be unfeasible for his partner, Jordal, to step up and defend her partner and thus her seat on the dark money gravy train.

For much the same reasons as her husband, Valerie Johnson must be considered.  She is the treasurer for the dark money group called Citizens for a Strong America.

Also worth mentioning is John Connors, who is the director of the same group.  And Connors was involved with the under-reported Sportsmen United scandal, in which Scott Sudor had set up a scheme where millions of taxpayer dollars would have been sent to a sham group which would have turned around and used it to help Teapublicans win elections.

Another very likely suspect would be Judith Rhodes Engels, Scott Fitzgerald's main fundraiser and proprietor of the Cross Rhodes consultation agency.  Not only is Rhodes Engels involved with a lot of political stunts and fundraisers, least of which is her relationship with Walkergate star Kelly Rindfleisch, she was ratted out by Mike Ellis as someone who could set up a Super PAC to go after political opponents.  I'm sure she can't think of millions of dollars reasons why she wouldn't want her business put out in the public.

These are just a few of the more likely names of the unnamed intervenors.  As I mentioned earlier, the list could go on for quite a while.  It could be any of the other highly placed operatives that so far have escaped much public attention.  It could be any of the corporate special interests that saw what happened to William E. Gardner, the railroad tycoon who got busted making illegal donations to Walker and don't want to lose their prestige like he did.  It could even be some low level stooges that were told to put their names to the petitions in order to protect their corporate masters.

While we don't know who the unnamed intervenors are, we do know that these would be master of the New World Horror are feeling very vulnerable and are running scared.  Not only is their personal gravy trains in peril but they really don't want to be tied to the fall of the Weasel Empire.

Then they might have to go get real jobs and they know how crappy the job market they created is.

Scott Walker's Priorities

By Jeff Simpson

Wild Bill Kramer, republican leader from Waukesha, was in court yesterday and pleaded "not guilty".   His Lawyer also let it be known that he would be attacking the victim publicly.  

We also know, thanks to police reports, that the republican leadership and our own US Senator Ron Johnson knew that Bill Kramer was a menace to women and their response was to keep quiet and tell no one.   This, of course, led to more women becoming victims and Bill Kramer becoming a rising star in the republican party!  

While not in the best interests of the people of WI, it was in the best interest of the republican party so they did nothing, even though they had an alleged predator in their midst! 

Now let's compare the scenario from the other side.  

While Milwaukee County Executive, Scott Walker and his county staff, freely shared names and details of a developmentally disabled sexual assault victim with his campaign staff.  

While Scott Walker was Milwaukee County executive, his staff freely shared the name of a sexual assault victim and details about her case with political operatives, recently released emails show.

The revelation comes as the governor has authorized a probe to determine whether a state disability rights organization violated patient confidentiality rules in its report on four deaths at the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex.

Kelly Rindfleisch, Walker's deputy chief of staff at the county, sent copies of an Aug. 19, 2010, email to Walker and his chief political consultants, RJ Johnson and Keith Gilke.

The email included the name of a developmentally disabled woman who became pregnant after having sex with another patient at the complex. She included a second email from a lawyer representing the county marked: "Confidential Attorney Client Information."

The gubernatorial election was less than three months away, and the problems at the complex were proving problematic to Walker's candidacy.

When JSonline asked for specifics of the case, they were shut down(emphasis mine):

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had written an email the day before to administrators at the Behavioral Health Division and to Mark Cameli, a private lawyer hired to defend the county. The email sought comment for a story about the case, noting that the woman would not be named.

The man who had sex with her had been charged with sexual assault, and the woman's guardians had told the Journal Sentinel that they had not been informed of the pregnancy for weeks after it was confirmed. The guardians complained of other errors with the woman's case, including that she continued taking heavily sedating psychotropic drugs found to be harmful to developing fetuses.

Cameli wrote a draft of a reply to the reporters' request and sent a copy to John Chianeli, then the director of the Behavioral Health Division, and Geri Lyday and Joan Hansen, county administrators, for their input. In the draft, Cameli explained to the reporters that the county could not reply to specifics of the case.

"They and I are bound by laws and regulations governing, among other things, the confidentiality of certain information," Cameli said. "What should we do? Should we disregard the rights of patients? The legal and ethical obligations imposed upon us?"

Then something interesting happened(emphasis mine):

Lyday then sent Cameli's reply to Rindfleisch, who forwarded it to her personal email account. From there, Rindfleisch sent the email — including the patient's name — to Walker and his political advisers to see if the lawyer's reply met with their approval.

"I wanted you to give it the OK to sign off on it," Rindfleisch wrote to Walker and his campaign advisers.

The next day, Cameli sent his response to the Journal Sentinel.

"Please — please consult with someone familiar with the laws and regulations governing the disclosure of the information you seek," Cameli wrote then.

 Does anyone read the employee handbook anymore?  I guess ethics and morals get thrown out the window when there is an election to win.  


 

We know the priorities of Scott Walker and his party.

 Win the election at all costs! 

Thank You Lord

By Jeff Simpson

While Capper continues to cover the Walker corruption and the never ending John Doe probes, I wanted to focus on something else that was passed over! 

Club For Growth head RJ Johnson was on facebook thanking the Lord over apparently using a procedural mistake to be clear of part of John Doe 2!

RJ Johnson

January 10 via mobile

To those who know the hell we have gone through over the last three months -- we have been completely and utterly vindicated. Thank you Lord!

Yes RJ Johnson and Club for Growth should be Thanking our Lord.  However, I want RJ to thank Jesus(I am assuming that is who RJ is thanking)for his many Blessing in life.   Let me help! 

1. RJ should "Thank the Lord" that despite rules against it(and of course the unethical nature of it) he is able to run a far right shadow propaganda machine AND work on the Scott Walker campaign.  

Congregation - Thank You Lord! 

2.  Thank you Lord for allowing RJ to have $9.1 MILLION dollars in shadow money and the laws that allow him to form a shadow group to spend lying about the Governor and the recall on our public teleivision airwaves!  

C:  Thank You Lord! 

3.  Thank you Lord for allowing RJ Johnson to know about ACT10 before anyone else in Wisconsin, including democratically elected Democratic politicians, so he could spend millions running ads demonizing state workers! 

C:  Thank You Lord! 

4.  Thank you Lord for laws that allow people to give millions of dollars to RJ to help sway elections and buy politicians and we never know where the money comes from.  It's not up to people to question the Government or who is buying our politicians, all we need to know is that your child's teacher is a leech on society!

C:  Thank You Lord! 

5.   Thank you Lord for allowing RJ Johnson and his group Club For Growth to have enough money to give Julainne Appling, Wisconsin Family Action(very misnamed) 90% of their budget money to continue the good fight of hating gays!   

C:  Thank You Lord!

6.  Thank you Lord for allowing RJ Johnson to help get a law written by your disciple Scott Suder that would give over $500,000 to his old staff members just for being good soldiers!  

 C;  Thank You Lord!

7.   Thank you Lord for allowing RJ Johnson and his extremist at Club For Growth to have enough extra money left over to give formerly convicted felon Scott Jensen tens of thousands of dollars to help destroy our children's public education!

C:  Thank You Lord! 

Thank you Lord for allowing RJ Johnson to be free of this investigation and continue on Your Work of demonizing public workers, cutting food stamps, stopping unemployment compensation, shutting down the Government, and keeping Americans from receiving Health Care. 

Pontius Pilate is proud of you!