Scott Walker's Successful Week

By Jeff Simpson 

Scott Walker did not have a very good start to the week, when the Guardian came out with the a massive drop of emails from the John Doe case.  The day they dropped, Scott Walker, who is perpetually intimidated, went immediately into hiding:

 

Greg Neumann‏@gneumann_wkow

Spox for @ScottWalker indicates he will not make himself available to the media about the @guardian story today. #WKOW

While Mr. Walker was in hiding, he was able to do one of his favorite things, send taxpayer money to his donors.  This time though he was able to send $3 Million taxpayer dollars to his good friend(William Gardner) who has been convicted for giving thousands of dollars illegally to (drum roll please) Scott Walker!  

Then after a day in hiding, and presumably working with Frank Luntz on how to spin it, met with the Wisconsin Media who were typically toothless and played right into his hands.   

According to Appleton Post-Crescent reporter Madeleine Behr, Walker said a few hours later at a stop in Fox Crossing that he is not raising money for Wisconsin Club for Growth.

The governor argued voters should not be concerned by anything in the leaked documents. 

He said voters should judge elected officials by whether they do what they said they would do.

"If I did something different than what I said I was going to do, then voters would have a right to question," he said.

How Scott Walker could say that without a barrage of questions from the media assembled is beyond me.   (Edit Note to WI Media: You could start here, here, here, here, here, here or here.

I know it was along time ago, but the same guy that said that also said this:

It did not just stop at handing millions of our dollars to a friend and getting let off the hook by a toothless media, he heard the news that was the icing on the cake for him.

WEAC will be selling their corporate Headquarters!

The state’s largest teachers union, which has experienced a big drop in membership after lawmakers curtailed public-sector collective bargaining, is selling its Madison headquarters.
The Wisconsin Education Association Council is asking $6.9 million for its 51,000-square-foot building and nearly 40 acres as the union seeks to stem the tide of diminishing funding since Republicans in 2011 passed Act 10.

What could make the WISGOP and Scott Walker happier than WEAC selling their HQ.   In what should be one of the worst weeks for one of the worst Governors in our history, has turned into a win for Scott Walker.   Thanks to a lack of opposing party and a generic, toothless media that worries more about maintaining relationships than digging into a story.  

John Doe Lives!

As the gentle reader surely remembers, Scott Walker was the subject of not just one, but two, John Doe investigations.

The first investigation was into illegal campaign donations and illegal campaigning while Walker was running for governor the first time. It resulted in six felony convictions of Walker's closest friends, allies and staffers.

The second investigation, which was born of the first one, delved into the illegal collaboration between Walker's campaign and various dark money groups.

The Walker, the other state Republicans and the dark money group, led by the Wisconsin Club for Growth (WCfG) have tried anything and everything they could to kill the John Doe investigation, including a coordinated series of lawsuits against the prosecutors. Eventually, the Wisconsin Supreme Court, being as corrupt and beholden to the dark money groups as Walker, ruled against John Doe. They ordered the investigation stopped and that the prosecutors should turn over all their evidence and destroy all the copies thereof.

But one thing that the right wing dark money groups didn't count on was their own greed and overreach.

In another case, former top Walker aide Cindy Archer filed a frivolous lawsuit in federal court against Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm and the other prosecutors, claiming they violated her civil rights by investigation the commission of a crime to which she was a party. In what was surely pure coincidence, the lawsuit was funded by WCfG and had the same lawyers as the other anti-John Doe suits.

It was obvious early on that the lawsuit was bogus. Not only were the facts in the case incorrect, but an audio tape of the actual investigation showed that almost every claim she made in her lawsuit was a flat out lie.

On Thursday, The Honorable Lynn Adelman ruled against Archer and her dark money supporters, as he should have:

In his decision, Adelman struck down several charges of Archer and her attorney, including that the warrant executed in her home was improper. He outlined a timeline for the development of both John Doe investigations and noted how conservative advocacy groups launched a "full blown campaign against the investigations and against the defendants," led by Eric O'Keefe at the Wisconsin Club for Growth.

“The plaintiff’s allegation of a lack of probable cause for the search of her home is contradicted by the warrant,” Adelman wrote.

He said the warrant was properly executed and issued by Judge Neal Nettesheim, who concluded investigators had probable cause to search Archer’s home.

Good news indeed. But there's more. There's always more.

Adelman went a step further and really foiled the dark money groups by reversing the Wisconsin Supreme Court in regards to destroying the evidence:

On Thursday, Adelman rejected those claims, and allowed for some of the evidence in the John Doe probes to be preserved with his court. Archer's attorneys had asked for the court to bar Chisholm's investigators from having access to evidence in the John Doe probes. Adelman rejected that request in part, allowing the investigators to file evidence from the second John Doe probe with his court clerk, but said the evidence will remain under seal and not be docketed.

He noted that the order does not violate Wisconsin's Supreme Court order calling for the evidence to be collected and destroyed.

"My order does no more than permit the defendants to provide copies of the relevant materials to the clerk of this court. It does not address the issue of access to the materials or whether the state Supreme Court or this court should decide that issue. Thus, the order does not in any way weaken the state court’s determination that the records should remain secret."

That odor you smell is Walker and his buddies soiling themselves.

Then it just keeps getting better when the reporter, Katelyn Ferral of The Cap Times, listed some of the things Adelman cited in his ruling, which shows just how corrupt things have gotten:

The evidence included:

– emails from Walker’s staff advising him to “[s]tress that donations to WiCFG are not disclosed” and to tell donors “that you can accept corporate donations and it is not reported;”

– a $1 million deposit into WiCFG from Stephen Cohen, founder of SAC Capital Advisers, shortly after Walker was scheduled to meet with an SAC representative;

– a March 2012 email from Walker to his fundraiser stating that “Bruce and Susie Kovner said that they want to give more” and 10 days later a $50,000 check from Bruce Kovner arrived in WiCFG’s account. The check’s memo line read “501c4-Walker;” and

– a 2012 email from Walker’s fundraiser to Walker regarding “meetings to make happen while in Sea Island . . . Paul Singer: Grab him.” A few months later, $250,000 was deposited into WiCFG’s account from Singer.

In the meantime, we are still waiting to see if the Supreme Court of the United States will hear a petition filed by Chisholm, asking them to vacate the state's supreme court's decision. They should since at least two of the justices had benefited greatly from WCfG in their own races.

Folks, make sure you keep a lot of popcorn in stock. This could get real interesting.

Chris Wiken, The Dark MoneyCandidate

From left to right: Ex-con Jeff Pawlinski, Craig Peterson, Chris Wiken,
Mark Borkowski and Todd Reardon

I was warned long before this election cycle kicked in that the dark money groups - think Koch Boyz, Bradley Foundation and the such - were going to try to run a candidate in every race at every level, from school boards to city seats to county seats and beyond.

Even as the warning came out, Eric O'Keefe, the head of the Wisconsin Club for Growth and one of the main co-conspirators for the collaboration between Scott Walker and these dark money groups, has been bouncing around Milwaukee trying to draft candidates for various races.  To aid him in this endeavor, he enlisted Craig Peterson, a Republican operative in the Milwaukee area.

And in Milwaukee, they have a number of candidates running for various seats in the city, including Bathroom Bob Donovan running for mayor and against any city alderman that voted for the streetcar.

Unfortunately for them, they were either very desperate for candidates and took anyone willing to sell out to them or just did a very poor job at vetting them.

Take Chris Wiken for example.

Wiken is the guy that O'Keefe and Peterson picked to run against Alderman Terry Witkowski.

However, they had to fix a few things before he could run, like moving him out of Waukesha County and into the district.  When he announced his candidacy, he went to great pains to make sure everyone know that he was moving just because of the streetcar issue.

I don't know, maybe it's just me, but that seems like a pretty dramatic move to deal with just one issue that wouldn't have impacted him anyway.

Then there was the issue of three drunk driving charges that they apparently did not know about or did not care about:

Local businessman Chris Wiken, who is challenging Milwaukee Ald. Terry Witkowski, has an explanation for each of the three times he was charged with drunken driving.

The first time, Wiken said, he was young and stupid. He was found guilty, and his license suspended.

The second time, Wiken said, he was mistakenly charged with driving while highly intoxicated. The charge was later dropped.

The third time, Wiken said, the message finally sank in. He was found guilty, his license was suspended and he said he has since tried to turn his life around. His race against Witkowski is one of the most highly contested Milwaukee races.

[...]

In August 2010, he was arrested again for drunken driving in Milwaukee County. It was treated as a first-offense violation, and his license was suspended for six months. Subsequently, he also was cited in 2011 for failing to install an ignition interlock device in his car and paid an $883 fine.

Wiken said the latest OWI offense has been a life-changing experience. He said he has changed his drinking habits, and he and his family have returned to their Catholic faith.

"I respect the law," Wiken said. "It was a bad mistake, bad judgment on my part."

There are a couple of issues regarding his accounting of the events in Hawaii and his second charge in Wisconsin.

Per Hawaiian court records, there were actually two cases, both for drunk driving, filed against him on the same day. There was the case that he told about that was dismissed because of repeated hearings in which the officer failed to appear or the state was not ready to proceed. In the second case, it was finally dropped by the prosecutors four years later, most likely due to the fact that Wiken was no longer in Hawaii. He was busy getting arrested and convicted in Milwaukee for DWI.

Which leads to the other curiosity.  His DWI case had appeared on CCAP, but then suddenly disappeared off website.

Wiken claims that he turned his life around after the third or fourth arrest.  But apparently that only holds true, if he is to be believed, to his drinking.

From all accounts, Wiken still has a vast lack of interpersonal skills and is generally not liked by many people that know him, including his own family.

Like I said, the dark money people backing Wiken were either very desperate or just did a very poor job vetting their candidate.

As someone who is not thrilled with the whole streetcar proposal myself, I can see no reason why the voters shouldn't continue to support Terry Witkowski, who has shown himself to be a very good representative of his constituents and has consistently done what is in his district's best interest.

Esenberg Knows Better

By Jeff Simpson 

As we have documented numerous times, JSonline keeps allowing the Bradley funded mouthpieces to push propaganda.  From Christian Schneider never making a salient point to Rick Esenberg trying to.  
The latest assault on the truth comes from Mr. Esenberg.  In a piece entitled "Free Speech for Me But Not For Thee". he attempts to make a correlation between campaigns being allowed to coordinate secretely with dark money donors and the press being allowed to keep theur sources secret.

But why should the media - corporations who already have a great big soap box - have greater rights than those who must rent that soap box? Again, it is necessary to balance the risk of corruption against the rights of persons to freely associate and speak. The strong presumption should be in favor of free expression, but, however that cashes out, it is not clear why some people called the "media" should have greater freedom than others who are not.
But even if you dispute my view of the matter, a sixty second "phony issue" ad pointing out another view would seem as relevant to the public's right to know and as much a contribution to our public discourse as anything in the pages of the Washington Post or seen during the nightly news.
Nor can we assume that the media is not a "special interest." Just about anyone - including people with a variety of interests - can own a media company. In any event, what the New York Times wants is not intrinsically of greater value than what George Soros or David Koch want. It should have no greater First Amendment rights.

 Because there is no one left (except for Rowan) on the left side of the aisle in the JSonline to dispute this ridiculousness, lets take a minute to do so.

Does anyone really think the New York Times, the supposed paper of record, has the same interests in getting a story out as Soros or Koch?  

The media's value is in their ability to give us the "news".   In order to have real value, we have to trust that what the media is giving us is true and timely(Fox News being the obvious exception).  Not only do these news organizations have to be true and timely, their reporters, have to give us true and timely news as part of their brand also.

A 60 second phony issue ad, usually has one goal in mind, to smear an opponent of the person they want to get elected.   Truth actually works against the idea of a dark money ad.   The fact that the issues are at best skewed and more likely flat out lies is why the people who fund the dark money ads do not want to be ackowledged.   It is much easier to lie and smear when no one knows who is behind it.  

Let's look at a couple examples.

In the lead up to the Iraq war, the Bush administration realized how important the NY Times was as a paper of record.  They then found a reporter, Judy Miller, who they would feed false stories too, and she would print without verification because she trusted her sources.   These stories of doom and gloom and WMD's in Iraq were blatantly false, but helped sell the public on starting the war of choice.  
We know now, that he stories were false, her informants were lying and she is now a disgraced reporter who will never write for a news organization again and the New York Times credibility took a huge hit.

Now let's compare that to a phone issue ad.

While we know WMC paid for the ad, we do not know everyone involved or who is spending the most money there.  We also know that the "information" inside this ad is as phony as any story that Judith Miller wrote.  

Yet while Judy Miller was disgraced for life, ads like this help get Scott Walker elected.  

To compare the media with WI Club for Growth, or  Wisconsin Manufacturing and Commerce is not only laughable, Mr. Esenberg knows better.  

Now for solutions.  While I do not think we should stop people from spending money on ads, as human beings, I do believe when we have a forum, we should at least make an attempt at the truth.

Simply by signing names and disclosing donors to these issue ads would make sure that happens.   When you have to sign your name to something then you need to take responsibility for the contents.  

The irony is not lost on me that the self proclaimed "party of personal responsibility" never wants to actually take any.  

The retaliation argument also falls on deaf ears, after the current Republican party has spent six years trying to punish anyone who signed the recall petition against Governor Walker.  

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.

Shut That Guy Up!

By Jeff Simpson

Eric O'Keefe, the head of Wisconsin Club For Growth and one of the targets in the John Doe probe, sounds more and more like the Brittney fan of you tube fame, everyday!  He obviously has no advisors and why Scott Walker would want to coordinate or even be associated with him is beyond my understanding.

Someone needs to tell this guy to shut up!  

Calling a subpoena issued to him a "death warrant" and "kill shot" for his organization, a leader of the conservative Wisconsin Club for Growth said Tuesday he would seek to have a federal appeals court reconsider his lawsuit against prosecutors.

"This eight-page subpoena was not an investigatory document. This is a death warrant," he said.

Umm Eric:

Please just be thankful that you truly dont have a "death warrant" and pray for those who do!!    

How Much Collaboration Do You Want?

By Jeff Simpson - Cross Posted from Purple WI! 

The Misaptly named "Citizens for Responsible Government(CRG)" has jumped on the right wing bandwagon of filing frivolous lawsuits and are now suing to be able to collaborate with candidates and other dark money groups.  
Wisconsin's Club For Growth(WICFG) and their "leader" Eric O'Keefe has already filed a frivolous lawsuit, asking for the investigation(he is one of the people being investigated) to end.   Mr. O'Keefe, has the sound of desperation wherever he goes to tell his story:
"We have in Wisconsin a taxpayer-funded domestic spying operation of over three years' duration conducted by the Milwaukee County DA, John Chisholm, and now in concert with Kevin Kennedy at the Government Accountability Board, which is corrupt and so is Kennedy," said Eric O'Keefe, one of the directors of the Wisconsin Club for Growth.
While it does not surprise me that Governor Scott Walker has no problem Mr. O'Keefe slandering a solid public servant like Mr. Chisholm, it does surprise me that the Governor has not distanced himself from groups with such questionable pasts as WICFG & CRG.  
Then CRG stepped, in maybe because they have been left out of all investigations so far, or it could be that when cases get in front of Judge Randa, they are confident in knowing the end result will favor the Republicans.  In that case, why not ask for the moon.   It also does not hurt that Scott Walker's lawyer's wife, works for Judge Randa. 
Either way, Club For Growth, funded by another org that Mr. O'Keefe sits on the board of, wanted to help muddy the waters.  Or as CFG president  Chris Kliesmet puts it:
"My rights to speak out are being violated and they're being violated in a violent way,"
The reality is, that Mr. Kliesmet should be thankful that his right to speak have actually not been taken away in a "violent way".   We have a history of doing that in America and it can be lethal! !   
In case you need a quick reminder of what is going on here, Wisconsin elected & public officials, have a history of breaking election laws.  Then earlier in Governor Scott Walker's term, there was a John Doe investigation that actually netted 6 convictions! 
Anyone who has watched an episode of CSI, or even Starsky and Hutch, realize that in order to get convictions, you need to gather evidence and investigate.  That is what the prosecutors were doing when they confiscated some computers from key figures in the case(some of who were given immunity).  This allowed investigators to get 5 felons and one convict, out of our government, so everyone benefitted.  
Mr. O'Keefe felt the need to speak up on that issue also, and really should not have(emphasis mine):  
He alleged "synchronized paramilitary raids" had been conducted in September 2011 and October 2013 that were aimed at intimidating their targets. Those whose homes had been raided are suffering reactions "similar to rape victims," he said.
Yes Mr. O'Keefe really did compare having your taxpayer supplied laptop confiscated to being raped.   While I am sure every Rape Victims would disagree, the real question here is -  why is our Governor taking counsel from someone who would hold such disgusting beliefs?   
Instead of allegedly coordinating in private,  Mr. Kliesmet comes right out and tells us his plans:
CRG told the court it wants to collaborate with Vilas County Supervisor Kim Simac, Waukesha County Board Supervisor Carl Pettis and state Senate candidate Jason "Red" Arnold. But it has not started working with the candidates because the accountability board and Chisholm have said such collaboration can be illegal, even if a group does not urge people to vote for a particular candidate, the group said in its suit.
Everytime the words, "can" or "may" be illegal are spoken or written, Chuck Chvala's Google alerts go crazy!   Plus, if the Republicans did not think this was illegal, they would not have tried to pass a bill to make it legal. 
It will be interesting to see where the courts take this and where it finally lands as illegal or we completely change the election landscape.
With such hyperbole and the flurry of lawsuits being filed, one would almost think that these people have something to hide.   However, as we wait for the courts to decide how much collaboration is allowed, there is something that can be done that is 100% legal.
That is to work bipartisanly to fix our state's messes. 
I hope these same people who are working so hard to collaborate, make sure and let the republican elected officials know that they expect the same out of them during session.   The people of Wisconsin will be watching next session to make sure that both sides amendments and arguments will be listened to and considered.     No more stunts like Robin Vos telling the Democratic Caucus not to waste any time on amendments because everyone would fail.   
If they find collaboration to be such an important function for success, let's make sure and live by that example.   
Let's swear off the divide and conquer philosophy, that Scott Walker brought to the state in 2010 and start working together.  
Finally, as Mr. O'Keefe complains about his speech being stifled, you should know that his speech is so stifled, that he only has a website, a facebook page, linked in, unlimited access to right wing radio, the ability to talk to any of his friends and neighbors, most right wing politicians will take his call, and he can write a letter to the editor in any paper he wants(among other venues).   
Some people in Wisconsin would love, if their biggest problem was, that their speech was "stifled" to this extent!  

Walkergate: John Doe's Roller Coaster

Now that the unofficial start of summer is here, amusement parks are advertising their latest attractions, including the latest in roller coasters.  But no matter how many twists, turns, loops or steep drops the roller coaster might have, it pales in comparison to the events of the John Doe investigations into Scott Walker and his campaign, known as Walkergate.

There was the initial short climb of hope as Walker's cronies and lackeys, such as Darlene Wink, Kelly
Rindfleisch and Tim Russell were arrested and charged.  There were small spins and dips as, one by one, each of Walker's cronies took a plea deal, hoping that this was the one that make that big turn on Walker and rat him out.

But it appeared that this particular ride was not going to live up to expectation when the cases ended and it looked like Walker was going to walk.

In the first major corkscrew, just when it looked like the ride was over, we learned of a new John Doe - or more accurate, the Sons of Doe, which was spread over five counties and could be targeting as many as 30 separate conservative front groups, campaigns and individuals.

Whee!

Oh, but there's more.

The conservatives at the heart of the investigation tried to turn the tables on the good guys.  They through everything but the kitchen sink at the prosecutors.  They tried to stop the investigation, they sued the prosecutors, they took their case to the court of public opinion.

It looked like the bottom fell off the ride and it was over again.

But then the prosecutors added a few more twists and turns to the ride, turning the tables on Walker and company.  They said OK, let's put all the cards on the table.  In a surprise twist, they even put the original emails and other documents out as public documents, if Chris Abele ever decides to stop providing cover for his hero and mentor, Scott Walker.

Now, the Koch front groups seem to have the upper hand again.

Eric O'Keefe, head of the misnamed Wisconsin Club for Growth, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the prosecutors.  Federal Judge Rudolph Randa, who had gotten slapped around by the appellate court for overreaching his authority, is still trying to wreak havoc on the investigation.

I would advise the gentle reader not to fret too much.  Keep in mind that O'Keefe's complaint is so riddled with falsehoods and irrelevancies that it wouldn't hold up in any other court.  Also keep in mind that Randa is looking to be as corrupt as the rest of them, having heard the case even though the wife of Scott Walker's attorney works for him, or that Randa's wife is a big time donor to Scott Walker or that Randa himself has gone on junkets paid for by the same people that pay O'Keefe and these other front groups.

As I said, it looks like the conservatives have the upper hand.  Appearances can be deceiving.

In a bit of block buster news, providing a blind turn on this roller coaster, the conservatives have leaked that it appears that Walker has been working behind the scenes to reach a plea deal with the prosecutors per accusations made in a Wall Street Journal editorial:

Until now, the newspaper's editorial page has defended Walker against what it says is an unconstitutional violation by prosecutors of his campaign's free speech rights. In Wednesday's editorial, the newspaper attacked Walker, alleging that his attorney was negotiating with prosecutors at a time when they are facing legal setbacks.

"Sounds like Mr. Walker has to decide whose side he's on — his own, or the larger principles he claims to represent," the editorial reads.

A source with knowledge of the probe confirmed to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Wednesday that other conservatives caught up in the probe are worried that the attorney for the Walker campaign, Steven Biskupic, is not being aggressive enough with prosecutors and not acting in their best interests.

[...]

"While the Club fights for its First Amendment rights to speak out on the issue, the Walker campaign apparently seeks to negotiate a settlement with the prosecutors that will keep the issue out of the spotlight," Rivkin said. "This shouldn't be surprising: The business of political campaigns is to elect candidates, but the business of issue advocacy groups is to advance policy beliefs, plain and simple. The John Doe prosecutors still don't understand this fact, even when proof of it is staring them in the face from across the negotiating table."

[...]

The Wall Street Journal urged Walker not to engage in any possible settlement talks with prosecutors who "need a face-saving legal exit."

"Mr. Walker is facing a rough re-election fight this year, and perhaps he and his lawyers want to remove any chance of a September or October legal surprise," the editorial reads. "Mr. Walker might think he can help himself with a settlement, but he'd be letting down his allies if he did so in a way that lets the bogus theory of illegal coordination survive....Mr. Walker is a hero to many for his fight against public unions, but he will tarnish that image if he sells out the cause for some short-term re-election reassurance."

I hope that the gentle reader is susceptible to motion sickness.  This is one helluva ride!

Now, there is no saying whether Walker is or isn't involved in a plea deal.  But it would fit his modus operandi.  Remember how he was more than willing to throw Tim Russell under the bus when he became more of a liability than an asset to his political aspirations.

Undoubtedly, Walker is feeling a lot of pressure right now.  He's tied with a relatively unknown candidate, despite all of the political stunts he's pulled and the millions of dark money that's already pouring into the state to support him.  On top of that, he's facing the potential release of the original Walkergate emails and documents.  No amount of spin is going to put lipstick on that pig for Walker.

This could not only blow his gubernatorial reelection but shatter his hope for any kind of presidential bid.  And judging by his pathetic book sales numbers, it's not very likely he could successfully emulate his friend Sarah Palin by doing book tours through Teapublican states.

But the one thing that is crystal clear is that the big money groups behind dark money groups like Wisconsin Club for Growth is that they will not tolerate any backstabbing or double dealing from Walker.  The implied threat is undeniable.  Apparently they felt a horse head in Walker's bed might have been too subtle.

But the dark money groups should not be surprised that Walker would be capable of doing what he felt necessary and his own best interest.  We on the left has known Walker was a weasel for years.

It's pretty safe to say that the gentle reader should stock up on popcorn. There is surely more to come.  There is always more.

And keep your hands and feet inside the car at all times.

ADDENDUM: Walker came back firing from the him with this succinct press release:

The Friends of Scott Walker campaign today released the following statement:

Neither Governor Walker nor his campaign committee are parties to the federal lawsuit. This means they have no legal standing to reach a settlement or deal in their lawsuit.

What a very typical non-answer from Walker. But it does mean he's going to try to sell his benefactors out to save his own pelt.

In other words, the weasel wants to become a rat!

Walkergate: Everything But The Kitchen Sink

Monday was quite the day in the World of Walkergate and none of it was good for Scott Walker.

Over the weekend, I had speculated that Kelly Rindfleisch was going to appeal the appellate court decision to unseal the emails and other documents that were related to her trial and subsequent conviction.

As it turns out, I was way off the mark and she and her attorney have decided to give up that fight.  Reports indicated that the documents will be released on February 19, meaning half the state will be burrowed in with their copies for the next several days.

In other developments, the list of subjects of the ongoing investigations were revealed.

We had already known that Walker's campaign was one of the subjects, as were the dark money front groups like Wisconsin Club for Growth and Americans for Prosperity.

Through the response filed by Special Prosecutor Frances Schmitz, it was confirmed that one of the individual subjects was Eric O'Keefe, head of Wisconsin Club for Growth and an unbearable boor who has been leaking information like an old dog with a weak bladder and seeking attention at every turn.

The other subject was none other that - insert dramatic music here - Kelly Rindfleisch. Again.  For the third time. Rindfleisch was a subject in the first caucus scandal.  Then again in Walkergate, in which she was convicted.  She can say goodbye to her friends for a while if she is charged and convicted in a third incident.

And as all this was going on, O'Keefe and his attorneys from Washington, D.C. have filed a lawsuit in federal court to stop the Sons of Doe investigations into the possible collaboration between groups such as his and campaigns such as Walker's.

Even a precursory review of the petition shows the gentle reader that these are not serious people.  Even though half the petition is redacted, it is still so full of misspellings, typos, inflammatory rhetoric, half truths, flat out lies and baseless accusations that one might have thought one of the hacks from Media Trackers or Wisconsin Reporter had penned the document.   I mean, they're throwing everything but the kitchen sink in hopes that something just might stick.

The gist of the filing is that the criminal investigation is a violation of O'Keefe's civil rights. That is akin to a burglar who breaks into a house and suffers a lifelong injury, then sues the homeowner for loss of work in his chosen career of burglary.

In his article about the filing, Patrick Marley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel addressed a couple of the issues that makes the lawsuit so frivolous:

The Wisconsin Club for Growth "has been sidelined entirely and has ceased all First Amendment protected activity" because of the investigation, according to the lawsuit.

The club nonetheless continues to maintain a website and publish a weekly newsletter critical of President Barack Obama.

The suit notes the club is focused on issue advocacy and does not specifically urge the public to vote for or against particular candidates. That distinction is important in matters of campaign finance law because groups that make such pleas are subject to greater regulation.

But the lawsuit also contends "conservative independent social welfare organizations" like the club contributed to the success of Republicans who took over state government with the November 2010 elections.

Also worth noting, although Marley chose not to mention it, is that Wisconsin Club for Growth is also bankrolling Charlie Sykes' White Wisconsin to help get their message out via the Journal's radio station.  In other words, Journal Broadcasting could be just as culpable as the rest of the propagandists.

Among the falsities that are rampant throughout the document is smears regarding the protesters, the recalls, the unions and various people including Representative Sandy Pasch and Kathleen Falk.  Oh, and I'm in there as well, at the bottom of page 42:

142. In spring 2010, the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute a county employee named Christopher Liebenthal, who was caught engaging in “excessive political blogging” for liberals from his taxpayer-funded computer. The District Attorney’s Office recognized that “Mr. Liebenthal’s actions constitute an extreme example,” but stated that it would prefer to see the situation handled as a personnel matter rather than a criminal matter. The decision by Defendants Chisholm and Landgraf to treat this conduct as a personnel matter is completely different from how they treated indistinguishable conduct by Wink and Rindfleisch. Each was charged criminally on multiple counts, and Rindfleisch was sentenced to jail time for similar conduct treated as a “personnel” matter in Liebenthal’s case.

Actually, there was quite a bit of difference.

Another one of these dark money groups, the utterly misnamed Citizens for a Responsible Government, had filed a criminal charge against me in an effort to distract from the heat of Darlene Wink and Tim Russell getting caught campaigning on county time. The charge was quickly dropped when it was seen that not only was I not seeking political contributions or doing campaign work like Wink, Russell and Rindfleisch, but I wasn't even blogging as I was accused of. A quick review of the dates that CRG was accusing me off were furlough days, vacation days and even major holidays like Memorial Day and Labor Day.

So no, the issues are not anywhere near to similar.  This accusation is as false as the rest of the petition.

As a final note, a lawyerly type of friend pointed out to me that signing off on a knowingly false petition or continuing with a knowingly false lawsuit is - in itself - a crime.

It is without doubt that this is a frivolous lawsuit.  The only thing in question is whether this is a feeble attempt to delay the Sons of Doe investigations in order to buy time for Walker's campaign before fall's election or if it simply a fundraising scheme by WCfG and an elaborate sympathy ploy by O'Keefe.

Walkergate Two: John Dough

It's been almost a month since Dan Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel broke the story of a second Walkergate investigation.

A couple of weeks later, Matt Kittle of the propagandist group Wisconsin Reporter hit the panic button and started blabbing about how this second Walkergate was targeting right wing front groups like Americans for Prosperity, Club for Growth and the Republican Governor's Association.

The links between these groups were fleshed out by Lisa Kaiser of the Shepherd Express.  I added to Kaiser's work, pointing out the complaint of collusion and collaboration between WISGOP, Walker's campaign and all of these right wing groups.  I also pointed out the news that similar groups in California just got walloped in court for breaking campaign laws with the illegal laundering of their dark money.

In the subsequent weeks, Kaiser has published two more must read articles on this matter.

In the first article, Kaiser goes further into the incestuous relationships between all of these sinister groups, and adds a few more, including the scandalous United Sportsmen of Wisconsin.

In her second article, Kaiser blows the doors off the story by showing that the same money laundering groups caught in California was siphoning money to their counterparts in Wisconsin.  She also shows that several of these right wing groups who donated to the Wisconsin Club for Growth.  Included in her article is this:

According to multiple reports, the committees are part of a national right-wing network of groups—some or most of them connected to the Koch brothers—that exist solely to funnel money from faceless group to faceless group, money-shuffling that grants enhanced anonymity to donors.

“It seems like this goal of this is to help disguise donors, to blow some smoke around the dark-money groups,” said Brendan Fischer, staff counsel for the Madison-based Center for Media and Democracy, which has investigated dark-money groups in Wisconsin and nationwide. “These conduit groups basically provide donors with extra protection and allow them an extra layer of anonymity. Instead of the donors being listed as David Koch or Charles Koch, the donor will be the Center to Protect Patient Rights.”

These tax-exempt nonprofit “social welfare” groups must only report to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) which organizations they send money to; they aren’t required to report their donors.

In addition to giving big to the California campaigns, the Center to Protect Patient Rights channeled money into a major supporter of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

The IRS documents of the Phoenix-based, Koch-connected CPPR show that it donated $225,000 to the Wisconsin Club for Growth, one of the major opponents of the recalls of Walker and a handful of Republican state senators.

Wisconsin Club for Growth, run by Walker’s former top campaign aide R.J. Johnson, was the first group to run pro-Walker ads in 2011, after the new governor announced his plan to gut collective bargaining rights of public employees.

The group reported raising $12.5 million in 2011, its most recent tax filing on record.

Just this weekend, the story picked up even more speed.

Jud Lounsbury at Uppity Wisconsin reminds us of not only Scott Walker's infamous telephone conversation with the phony David Koch, but also of the real David Koch bragging about helping Walker win the recall election:

Perhaps, had the story ended there, prosecutors could turn a blind eye. However, in early 2012, David Koch bragged to Palm Beach Post reporter Stacey Singer that he not only intended to help Walker win the recall election, but that his group had, in fact, successfully won senate recall elections:

JL: Did he explicitly say that his group, Americans for Prosperity, was supporting Walker or wanted Walker to win the recall election?
SS: Yes, in fact, he took credit, via Americans for Prosperity, for the failure of the previous recall to unseat enough state senators to undo the majority, and he indicated he was going to do whatever it took to prevent Walker from losing his seat, lest the recall energize Union Power into the presidential election. (He had enjoyed a glass of wine or two before I brought up Wisconsin.)

These statements are very problematic for David Koch because groups like his Americans for Prosperity cannot act with an intent of helping a candidate win or lose. They are supposed to do a Kabuki dance—just happening to run issue advocacy ads around election time in swing areas—without coordination with the campaign. In his interview with the Palm Beach Post, however, Koch stepped out from behind the curtain and bluntly said that he was spending corporate money via his Americans for Prosperity for or against a candidate—and that's illegal.

Lounsbury then goes on to offer even more examples of the complicity of right wing money machines and Walker and his Teapublicans during the elections.

But to get an idea of how big of a sh*tstorm this might be for the Republicans, there is an anonymously authored opinion piece in  the Wall Street Journal, in which they heavily play the victim card.  It is hard to say how much of this to believe, given that the source is an anonymous author or authors and from a right wing corporate media source.  With that caveat being made, some of the highlights we can glean from this article include:

• The investigation includes "dozens" of these right wing fake front groups.
• Said groups include Walker's campaign, WISGOP, the League of American Voters, Wisconsin Family Action, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, Americans for Prosperity—Wisconsin, and American Crossroads. (I can guarantee that this is not the complete list.)
• The investigation appears to be focused on the money laundering activities.
• Eric O'Keefe, director for the Wisconsin Club for Growth, confirmed being served a subpoena.  Keep in mind that this does not necessarily implicate him of wrong doing.  He could be called as a witness to the wrong doing of others.  
• O'Keefe said he got his subpoena in October. Given the apparent scope of the investigation, it could be months or even years before we see any arrests or charges.

O'Keefe also claimed there were at least three homes raided as part of this deal, but I wonder if he means in relations to his new investigation or if he is referring to the ones from the original Walkergate.

I should also note that O'Keefe saying that he was subpoenaed is not against John Doe rules, as far as I can tell.  He can say he was subpoenaed, but he can't say what or who it was about.  That said, if he did tell whomever wrote the article what was in the subpoena, that might be a whole different story.

There are a couple, three other things that should give one cause to wonder:

• There's been nothing from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel from Bice's first report to a cover article of the Wall Street Journal article.  Are they stifling the story for some reason?
• I haven't seen any other corporate media source cover this story.  Why not?
• Where is the outrage from Charlie Sykes, Mark Belling, Media Trackers or MacIver Institute about the leaks?  First they squawk like wet hens when there were no leaks, now nothing.  Then again, people like Sykes were the fake leaks they squawked about, so odds are good they are the leakers again.

There is something to be said about this story, regardless of all else. It might have leveled the playing field a little:

Perhaps the probe will turn up some nefarious activity that warrants this subpoena monsoon and home raids. But in the meantime the effect is to limit political speech by intimidating these groups from participating in the 2014 campaign. Stifling allies of Mr. Walker would be an enormous in-kind contribution to Democrats. Even if no charges are filed, the subpoenas will have served as a form of speech suppression.

Mr. O'Keefe told us that the flurry of subpoenas "froze my communications and frightened many allies and vendors of the pro-taxpayer political movement in Wisconsin and across the country." Even if no one is ever convicted of a crime, he says, "the process is the punishment."

Now O'Keefe knows what it feels like to be in a union in Fitzwalkerstan under Act 10.

Corporate Special Interests Step Into Local Court Race

Wisconsin Club for Growth has dropped $167,000 to buy ad time for their candidate of choice, Rebecca Bradley. The ads call Bradley "thoughtful, compassionate, fair."

Janet Protasiewicz

It's not surprising that this group, funded by the Koch Brothers and the Bradley Foundation would back Bradley, since their definition of "thoughtful, compassionate, fair" matches hers, in that they both support voter suppression and anti-minority right stances.

Janet Proasiewicz' campaign has rightfully called foul on the corporate special interests trying to buy the election for Milwaukee Circuit Court Branch 45. From their press release:

Today, the right-wing extreme group Wisconsin Club for Growth entered the Milwaukee County Circuit Court race with a $167,000 television ad buy, attempting to buy the seat for the right-wing darling and hand-picked Governor Walker appointee Rebecca Bradley.

“Outside special interest groups have no place in our courtrooms or judicial campaigns,” said campaign manager Marshall Cohen. “The Wisconsin Club for Growth is a shady, right-wing group supported by secretive money that is trying to buy a judicial seat in Milwaukee County. It’s no wonder extreme political groups are supporting their political darling Rebecca Bradley after her track record working with organizations who make it harder to vote and giving large donations to help elect Scott Walker. The question is: what are these groups expecting in return? Instead of putting the campaign-funding special interests first, Janet Protasiewicz will always put the law first and protect Milwaukee families.”

Worth noting is Bradley's reaction to the support from the corporate special interests:

The group purchased radio spots supporting Bradley prior to the the primary election in Februay. At a candidates' forum earlier this month, Bradley said she had no knowledge of the ads or control or influence over how outside groups speak out about the election.

Her campaign did not immediately return email seeking comment on the latest ad or the Protasiewicz campaign's characterizations. The Wisconsin Club for Growth had no comment.

You know, if she was true to her campaign statements of leaving politics out of the courtroom and adhering to the law and not her own political viewpoints, she would have come out immediately denouncing this involvement by the special interests and asking them to stop.

The fact that she hasn't shows where her true intent is, which is not with the law or the people.

Besides the fact that Protasiewicz is simply the much more experienced and qualified candidate, this is just another reason that I will be voting for her on April 2 and I urge you to do the same.

Learn more about Protasiewicz and how to support her from her website and her Facebook page.

Sykes Prepares To Fleece The Herd

On Monday, Charlie Sykes is going to take his aggregate web site, Right Wisconsin, sponsored by the Wisconsin Club for Growth,  behind the pay wall.

The whole thing is rather hilarious and shows what gullible sheeple the right can be.

As I wrote before about this wannabe power site:

After following the site for several weeks, I have ascertained that it serves two main purposes.

The secondary reason they created this site is an effort to control the message. It will be a great resource for right wingers that are afraid of the real world and only want information that supports and reinforces their own skewed sense of reality. You know the type. The ones that think American for Preposterousness is really a grass roots movement or that President Barack Obama is a communist, socialist, Marxist, socialist, Nazi, space alien, baby-eating Kenyan.

The primary reason for this site is the same one that any conservative organization does anything - to make money.

Now think about this for a minute.

Sykes and the Club for Growth have joined up to build a website that aggregates the posts from places like MacIver, Wisconsin Reporter, Media Trackkkers and the rest of the special interest propaganda sites. They also scrape the right wing echo chamber parrots like James Wigderson, Owen Robinson and the like.

All of which is free for a mouse click.

Now they expect people to pay five bucks a month for what they could have for free. They'll even through in Sykes' Twitter feed and Facebook feed, both of which, again, are free. (Unless he blocks you like he did to me.)

So they're hoping that people will be willing to pay for lies and propaganda, written by Grade Z hacks, which they could have gotten for free all along.

Sad to say, I think they will get a surprisingly large number of sheeples to bite. If they are foolish enough to believe this nonsense in the first place, they're foolish enough to pay someone to lie to them.

But even Sykes and his sponsors at the Club for Growth are lefty weenies when compared to the conservatives' conservatives at Far Right Wisconsin, which by the way is absolutely free.

The People of Wisconsin vs. Corporate Media Broadcasters

This evening, I attended the Milwaukee stop of the Broadcast Blues Tour with Sue "Blues" Wilson.

And like the saying goes, you learn something new every day.  Although today it was several somethings

One thing I learned was that when it comes to political ads on the TV or radio, there is a mandatory carriage rule.  That means that if a politician has an ad to run during an election cycle, the TV or radio station has to carry it, even if the ad is chock full of lies.

For example, next year, after Scott Walker is recalled, he could run an ad saying how the state has a $3 billion dollar deficit, even though that has been found to be a ridiculous lie.  Likewise, his Democratic opponent could run an ad saying Walker wants to eat your children, which would be another ridiculous lie.  Walker doesn't eat children, he sells them as corporate serfs.

I also learned that even though the Fairness Doctrine is dead, there are still other factors, like the Zapple Doctrine, which still requires equal time be given to the different sides of an issue:

What remains unknown about yesterday's announcement from the Chairman is just how far this repeal goes. While certain corollaries of the Doctrine - including the political editorializing and personal attack rules - have been specifically mentioned in press reports as being repealed, the one vestige of the doctrine that potentially has some vitality - the Zapple Doctrine compelling a station to provide time to the supporters of one candidate if the station provides time to the supporters of another candidate in a political race, has never specifically been abolished, and is not mentioned in the Chairman's statement. Zapple, also known as "quasi-equal opportunities", has been argued in in various recent controversies, including in connection with the Swift Boat attacks on John Kerry, when Kerry supporters claimed that they should get equal time to respond should certain television stations air the anti-Kerry Swift Boat "documentary." We have written about Zapple many times (see, for instance, here, in connection with the Citizens United decision). What would be beneficial to broadcasters would be a determination as to whether Zapple has any remaining vitality, as some have felt that this doctrine is justified independent of the Fairness Doctrine. Perhaps that clarification will come when the full text of the FCC action is released.

Likewise, from the same article, I learned that TV and radio stations are required to uphold the standard of whatever they air has to be in the public interest:

While this action has been greeted by some as confirmation that we will not see the Fairness Doctrine revived by the Commission, that jubilation seems a little unwarranted. If there was a future FCC that decided that they wanted to impose some degree of Fairness obligations on broadcasters, they still would have ways of doing so. After all, broadcasters are subject to an overall obligation to operate in the public interest, a standard that has, over the years, changed as Commissions change their interpretation of what it means. As we've written before, some would like to put more teeth into the standard, which could include some Fairness-like requirements. Section 315 of the Communications Act, dealing with equal opportunities for political candidates, itself has language that implies that there is some sort of Fairness obligation of broadcasters, at least in connection with their news coverage:

Nothing in the foregoing sentence shall be construed as relieving broadcasters, in connection with the presentation of newscasts, news interviews, news documentaries, and on-the-spot coverage of news events, from the obligation imposed upon them under this chapter to operate in the public interest and to afford reasonable opportunity for the discussion of conflicting views on issues of public importance.

Thus, just because the Fairness Doctrine has been repealed, one cannot conclude that the FCC will never meddle in the speech of broadcasters. These debates over what is permiited and what should be restricted on the air have gone on as long as there have been broadcasters, and they will not end with yesterday's announcement.

In other words, it means that it is inherent on the TV and radio stations to provide equal time to opposing sides on an issues, whether it is political or not.

I also learned tonight that while media stations are required to run a politician's ad, no matter what, they are not under the same constraints for third-party ads. In fact, it is inherent on the station to determine if the ad is true or not and not run ads that are false, because that would be against thepublic interest. This was recently demonstrated when KOI-TV refused to air an ad for Stephen Colburt ad for Rick Parry, the parody of Rick Perry. They felt the ad was not in the public's interest for whatever reason. At the end of the article is the money quote:

... In fact, third party ads put more responsibility on stations to review the content of these ads as they are theoretically liable for the content of third party ads (see our articles here and here). So WOI was perfectly within its rights to reject an ad by the Colbert Super PAC – no doubt a disappointment to the Colbert fans in Iowa who wanted a first look at the commercial, but legally an appropriate action nevertheless.

If the station runs an ad that is false, they could get sued for simply airing the ad.

And now comes the fun part.

Anyone who has been paying attention during the summer of the recalls noticed that there were two major obstacles to reclaiming the state for the People of Wisconsin:

1. The unfair and biased nature of the corporate media in the state, most notably stations like WTMJ-620 here in Southeastern Wisconsin.
2. The falsehoods and misrepresentations in ads run by the Koch Brothers-sponsored front groups, like the misnamed Wisconsin Club for Growth.

The Wisconsin Club for Growth bought tons of air time all across the state, including her in the Milwaukee area, running ads to defend the Republicans facing recall.

However, the ads that they ran were demonstratively false:

• When they said that the unions had not previously had to make sacrifices, that was found to be "mostly false" by PolitiFact.
• When they said that Sand Pasch, the challenger to Alberta Darling, had done nothing to stop fraud in the child care system, that too was found to be "mostly false."
• When CfG said that the Democrats had voted for all sorts of pork in 2009, including a $5 million scoreboard for the Milwaukee Bucks, this earned them a full "False" rating from PolitiFact.

I bet it wouldn't take long to find other ads and other lies as well.

Yet the radio and TV stations aired these ads anyway.  By doing so, they have opened themselves up for the People of Wisconsin to sue them for violating their solemn duty to uphold the public interest.

Let that sink in for a minute.

We can use the Kochs' own false ads to sue their friends, the corporate media stations which unquestioningly aired them.  And we can use the reporting of the corporate media's own newspapers to support the People's arguments regarding the falseness of the ads..

That is what I would call some really sweet poetic justice.

And I could not think of a better way to start reclaiming our airwaves.