Caller Posing As Major GOP Contributor Dupes Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker

By on February 23, 2011 in News 18

Scott Walker is Mini-Mubarak!Well, we knew Wisconsin governor Scott Walker was morally and intellectually challenged, but a recent phonecall, as discussed in this expose in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel provides some dramatic new details …

Madison — Gov. Scott Walker, believing he was talking to prominent financial backer David Koch, revealed to a Buffalo, N.Y., blogger Tuesday his strategies to deal with public-sector unions and to lure Democrats boycotting the Senate back to Wisconsin.

In the 20-minute talk, he also likened his tough stance to take away most bargaining rights from public workers to former President Ronald Reagan successfully combating the air-traffic controllers union three decades ago.

“That was the first crack in the Berlin Wall in the fall of Communism because from that point forward the Soviets and the Communists knew that Ronald Reagan wasn’t a pushover,” according to the recording.

He said he told his cabinet, “This is our moment. This is our time to change the course of history.”

Walker also discussed a plan to get his bill on union rights passed without Democrats who have boycotted the Senate. Separately, he said he talked to Sen. Tim Cullen (D-Janesville) for 45 minutes Saturday, and he saw him as someone who could get the Democrats to return, even though “he’s not one of us.”

See the rest of the story at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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  • MoralDrift

    The biggest piece of news(not really news but confirmation of news) to come out of this is that Walker sees Koch as his boss, it is evident in how he speaks with “Koch”

  • Anonymous

    The biggest piece of news(not really news but confirmation of news) to come out of this is that Walker sees Koch as his boss, it is evident in how he speaks with “Koch”

  • http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

    This…is such a thing of beauty. I’m a very jaded, deeply cynical person…and I’m pretty sure it isn’t healthy…that I take such great pleasure from watching epic fail unfold. Maybe it was all those Greek myths about hubris I read as a kid. Watching them unfold in real life…priceless.

    • Liam_McGonagle

      Yes, things like this are one of the few real pleasures left to us in this world.

      Which has lead me to some private musings about the particular flavours of dissent we’ve been witnessing around the world as of late: relatively peaceful street marches in Egypt, outright tribal chaos in Lybia, etc., etc. I don’t quite know how to classify what’s going on in Madison yet. I’m headed there shortly, so here’s to hoping I find out.

      But looking back to the filthy unwashed ’60s hippies that Walker dismisses so flippantly here, I do have to look for comparisons to my own reaction. Am I making too light of this? If so, what is an appropriately ‘serious’ response? I do the marching, canvassing, letter writing, blogging thing, and I do try to mix in some serious information and moral condemnation with the Thompson-inspired quips, but is it enough? Or does the very inclusion of the quips have a corrosive, undermining effect?

      My current conclusion is ‘No’. Vicious satire, even if it appears occasionally self-indulgent, is entirely justified. Maybe even necessary. The key seems to be getting people out on the streets and off their seats. And that requires energy. In context, I think a certain about of vicious satire is just what the doctor ordered.

      The street type actions of Egypt require a combination of utter desperation and youthful confidence that I fear is not too ginnable in the U.S. Least of all states which are relatively old and somewhat sparsely populated (i.e., not overwhelmingly concentrated in urban centers), like Wisconsin.

      Lybia, well . . . What the fuck do you make of that? That’s a whole different kettle of fish. They never had a state apparatus that even pretended to be anything OTHER than a sectarian grab bag. I consider their primary significance to be a warning of what Wisconsin could become if we let asshats like Walker go away unimpeached.

  • http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

    This…is such a thing of beauty. I’m a very jaded, deeply cynical person…and I’m pretty sure it isn’t healthy…that I take such great pleasure from watching epic fail unfold. Maybe it was all those Greek myths about hubris I read as a kid. Watching them unfold in real life…priceless.

  • Andrew

    Recall.

    • Liam_McGonagle

      Desafortunadamente, seems like that procedure is not available to us until Walker’s been in office for at least 1 year.

      However, people are actively investigating serious campaign violations. See my discussion w/ Honu above.

  • Andrew

    Recall.

  • Honu

    Listening to Walker being punked impressed on me two things…one is that he actually seems well spoken and fairly intelligent in that he has decent faculties, something I don’t expect from a fairly far right wing politician…the second is that he is completely morally bankrupt. Maybe he doesn’t come right out and say he’s all for gutting the middle class and fully supportive of the will of the plutocracy but he certainly seems eager to please his rich overlord Koch. He’s an opportunistic extremist douchebag. He’s dug a hole and I don’t see a way for him not to fall into it.

    This is probably the most interesting national American phenomenoa I’ve ever experienced. I hope these demonstrations continue and spread.

    • quartz99

      Here’s someone trying to create a popular protest across the country on Saturday:

      http://www.huffingtonpost.com/van-jones/american-dream-movement_b_826477.html

      And I was just reading a story about there being major labor protests in 17 states now. That doesn’t count the other protests going on in DC over other things, or the protests in other states in support of those 17. Looks like you may get your hope.

    • Liam_McGonagle

      Agree on most points. But hold the phone on the intelligence thing. Having a well-modulated speaking voice does not equate with intelligence. (Remember ‘The Simpsons’ and Troy McClure?):

      “11.36(2)
      (2) No person may solicit or receive from any officer or employee of a political subdivision of this state any contribution or service for any political purpose during established hours of employment or while the officer or employee is engaged in his or her official duties.”

      This is a quote from just one of the many Wisconsin State Statutes which may mean serious trouble for Walker. There are professional groups seriously investigating whether these recordings, which Walker himself admitted were accurate accounts of his discussion, constitue an indictable offense, Walker bargaining public policy for services or de facto contributions (e.g., the trips to California, political ads favorable to Walker, etc.).

      http://campaignmoney.org/press-room/2011/02/23/watchdog-exploring-law-breaking-walker

      Now I’m not so green as to say that Walker definitely won’t get away with this. In fact, cynical as I’ve become over recent years, I’d have to say it’s pretty damned likely. Wisconsin’s Supreme Court is famous for being mobbed up and bought by corporate interests. But if Walker does escape the noose, it SURE won’t be by any dint of cleverness.

  • Honu

    Listening to Walker being punked impressed on me two things…one is that he actually seems well spoken and fairly intelligent in that he has decent faculties, something I don’t expect from a fairly far right wing politician…the second is that he is completely morally bankrupt. Maybe he doesn’t come right out and say he’s all for gutting the middle class and fully supportive of the will of the plutocracy but he certainly seems eager to please his rich overlord Koch. He’s an opportunistic extremist douchebag. He’s dug a hole and I don’t see a way for him not to fall into it.

    This is probably the most interesting national American phenomenoa I’ve ever experienced. I hope these demonstrations continue and spread.

  • Anonymous

    Here’s someone trying to create a popular protest across the country on Saturday:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/van-jones/american-dream-movement_b_826477.html

    And I was just reading a story about there being major labor protests in 17 states now. That doesn’t count the other protests going on in DC over other things, or the protests in other states in support of those 17. Looks like you may get your hope.

  • Liam_McGonagle

    Yes, things like this are one of the few real pleasures left to us in this world.

    Which has lead me to some private musings about the particular flavours of dissent we’ve been witnessing around the world as of late: relatively peaceful street marches in Egypt, outright tribal chaos in Lybia, etc., etc. I don’t quite know how to classify what’s going on in Madison yet. I’m headed there shortly, so here’s to hoping I find out.

    But looking back to the filthy unwashed ’60s hippies that Walker dismisses so flippantly here, I do have to look for comparisons to my own reaction. Am I making too light of this? If so, what is an appropriately ‘serious’ response? I do the marching, canvassing, letter writing, blogging thing, and I do try to mix in some serious information and moral condemnation with the Thompson-inspired quips, but is it enough? Or does the very inclusion of the quips have a corrosive, undermining effect?

    My current conclusion is ‘No’. Vicious satire, even if it appears occasionally self-indulgent, is entirely justified. Maybe even necessary. The key seems to be getting people out on the streets and off their seats. And that requires energy. In context, I think a certain about of vicious satire is just what the doctor ordered.

    The street type actions of Egypt require a combination of utter desperation and youthful confidence that I fear is not too ginnable in the U.S. Least of all states which are relatively old and somewhat sparsely populated (i.e., not overwhelmingly concentrated in urban centers), like Wisconsin.

    Lybia, well . . . What the fuck do you make of that? That’s a whole different kettle of fish. They never had a state apparatus that even pretended to be anything OTHER than a sectarian grab bag. I consider their primary significance to be a warning of what Wisconsin could become if we let asshats like Walker go away unimpeached.

  • Anonymous

    Agree on most points. But hold the phone on the intelligence thing. Having a well-modulated speaking voice does not equate with intelligence. (Remember ‘The Simpsons’ and Troy McClure?):

    “11.36(2)
    (2) No person may solicit or receive from any officer or employee of a political subdivision of this state any contribution or service for any political purpose during established hours of employment or while the officer or employee is engaged in his or her official duties.”

    This is a quote from just one of the many Wisconsin State Statutes which may mean serious trouble for Walker. There are professional groups seriously investigating whether these recordings, which Walker himself admitted were accurate accounts of his discussion, constitue an indictable offense, Walker bargaining public policy for services or de facto contributions (e.g., the trips to California, political ads favorable to Walker, etc.).

    http://campaignmoney.org/press-room/2011/02/23/watchdog-exploring-law-breaking-walker

    Now I’m not so green as to say that Walker definitely won’t get away with this. In fact, cynical as I’ve become over recent years, I’d have to say it’s pretty damned likely. Wisconsin’s Supreme Court is famous for being mobbed up and bought by corporate interests. But if Walker does escape the noose, it SURE won’t be by any dint of cleverness.

  • Anonymous

    Desafortunadamente, seems like that procedure is not available to us until Walker’s been in office for at least 1 year.

    However, people are actively investigating serious campaign violations. See my discussion w/ Honu above.

  • Liam_McGonagle

    Awesome pickie, Disinfo! I can only hope the artist knows how much joy he’s brought into all our lives!

  • Anonymous

    Awesome pickie, Disinfo! I can only hope the artist knows how much joy he’s brought into all our lives!