If politicians had to resign for taking calls from potential campaign donors, there would be no elected officials left in this country above dog catcher.
I’m sure you’d be happy as a clam if Obama was recorded talking to Soros about how he considered seeding agent provocateurs in at C-PAC, but decided against it because it might backfire.
You really have no trouble at all with a politico talking about how he was mulling seeding troublemakers into an opposing crowd? That sounds fine to you? I am in constant awe of your conservative values.
Signing Posts is Lame,
Lobohan
You’re welcome to try to peddle the idea that governors should be recalled for evil thoughts, but it seems rather petty and, dare I say, desperate.
Regards,
Shodan
Politically everybody can see what he is now, though. A conniving, dishonest, criminally minded, corrupt piece of shit. At best, he’s already a lame duck.
Wow, I’m very disappointed by the almost total lack of dirt in these tapes. I suppose it speaks to an abstractly chummy relationship between the governor and the Koch brothers, which may be less than ideal, but if you didn’t know that wealthy donors could wrangle a friendly conversation from elected officials then Welcome to the big city, Bambi.
Otherwise, the whole call is “Koch” making suggestions and Walker turning them down. Lets plant troublemakers in the crowd – No. I think I’ll call this Democratic legislator to exert some pressure – Don’t do that. And then at the end Walker actually goes on about how this is the right thing to do for Wisconsin and the U.S., at which point the caller suggests that they also have “vested interests” in the fight, but instead of going along with that or laughing Walker blows off the idea and goes to back to their fight being a righteous one. He actually comes off very well in these tapes, I’m sorry to say.
The only gotcha moment here is when Walker talks about maybe tricking the Democrats into coming back to the capital so they can get a quorum. If that really bothers you, ok, but it mostly seems like standard parliamentary maneuvering to me.
The top 6 revelations from the Fake Call, according to Huffington Post:
- Walker and the Senate Republicans are conspiring to withhold Democratic lawmakers’ paychecks.
- Walker sees billionaire David Koch as “one of us.”
- Walker is planning to threaten state workers with layoffs.
- Walker has a plan to lie to Senate Democrats and pass the bill while they are not aware of the vote.
- Walker considered planting fake protesters to cause trouble among the real protesters.
- Walker is corrupt.
There’s only 1 paragraph supporting each of the 6 revelations, so it’s worth reading the linked article since the ‘headlines’ don’t all make sense without clarification (especially 6)
- I never advocated that he be recalled.
- Evil thoughts? They are no longer only thoughts once they leave the mouth.
Yes, which is why I was surprised to hear he was governor of Wisconsin and not Illinois, where such riff-raff are more commonly found in high office.
Yes, Illinois produces politicians who are conniving, dishonest, criminally minded, corrupt pieces of shit, but at least they’re honest about it.
Oh, and probably the worst part of the call for the “Walker is working for the Koch brothers” argument: the caller asks Walker what else they can do for him, and Walker says that they should call lawmakers to tell them they support the bill, and to keep on getting the message out about why the bill is a good thing for the economy and the state. Call your Congressman and support your views in public – how undemocratic!
Really not seeing the outrage here.
Wondered about that too. So, we may fairly assume that he has never directly spoken to Ernst Stavro Koch. Perhaps a mere governor is too lowly a minion to rate a direct conversation?
- This was reported on the news before the call came out. Why should the lawmakers get paid for not doing their jobs? Try leaving your job for a week with no notice and see if you still get paid for not working.
- Koch and Walker are both conservative republicans, the legislator referenced as “not one of us” is a moderate democrats who has joined his colleagues in fleeing the state.
- Walker has said over and over again that unless state workers agree to contribute more to their pensions and medical insurance the state will have to lay off workers.
4.This seems pretty sneaky, but people who flee the state to subvert democracy, should not be complaining about unconventional tactics. - Walker says he considered sending people to the protests but did not want to cause any conflict. The notion of fake protestors is something the other guy suggests. Besides what would the fake protestors do that the real protestors have not? Compare Walker to Hitler, call for his death, harass GOP lawmakers at their houses. These have already been done.
- Koch invites him to his ranch and says they would show him a good time. Politicians are routinely invited to supporter’s houses and eat meals there. There is nothing corrupt about it.
Out of 6 “revelations”, only one can actually be called one, and it is about something he thought about doing but never happened. One for six is good considering the source, but it just shows the level of dishonesty critics of Walker have to use.
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The Dems ARE doing their job, and doing exactly what they were elected to do instead of rushing to the phone to wrap their lips around some sugar daddy’s cock like Walker.
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The public workers have already agreed to pay more in pensions and give up salary. This has nothing to do with cutting the deficit (a deficit that Walker himself enlarged by giving away tax money to rich people), and everything to do with trying to bust the unions.
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Walker said he considered planting stooges in the protests to cause trouble, but decided not to because it might backfire if his paid thugs got too out of hand.
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a clear majority of Wisconsin voters OPPOSE Walker’s bill. He’s declared war on the working class and it’s going to kick him right in the nuts.
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It’s funny that he has no time to talk to his constituents on the phone, or to the working people of Wisconsin, but he has time to run to the phone and bend over goatse style for (what he stupidly thought was) one of his big money pimps.
If can we really declare Walker’s fate sealed at this juncture, it’s because he’s insisting he needs to crush the union even if they give him everything else he wants - and because voters strongly oppose that. The phone call doesn’t matter. It does make him look dumb and somewhat sneaky, but it’s not something that’ll tip the scales in a recall election or his next campaign.
They are working. They are in communication with their staff, they are responding to constituents , they are studying an maybe drafting bills. The only thing they are not doing is being on the floor, and I could argue that they are best representing the interests of the people of Wisconsin by doing exactly that - especially considering the poll results.
Koch is neither elected not appointed to any role in Wisconsin government. He is not even an official lobbyist. Contributors are not supposed to get special access and consulting for their money.
They are. The controversy is not about money now, it is about collective bargaining rights. I have a hard time seeing how the status of these rights affects the budget now. I’m not a labor lawyer, but I think that firing workers because of support of a union is illegal in the private sector. I don’t know about the public sector.
The Democrats left openly. If you think these situations are equivalent, I think you need to take an ethics course.
An ethical person would have said that this method was wrong, even to a billionaire. Instead he clearly thought it was ethically okay, just not effective. As to what they would do, perhaps come with provocative signs that Fox News would eat up? Perhaps pick a fight with the cops? And a right winger complaining about comparing someone to Hitler is hilarious. A kid who lived on the next block is now a comic and was on Conan a bit back. One of his gags was about how pissed Hitler would be at being compared to this black dude.
When I was working with a government Lab, I took a course on dealing with the government - and the rules are a lot stricter than you would think. I don’t know what they are in Wisconsin, but at the Federal level this would be a big no-no. In Maryland the lobbyists brought food, but it was put out in the open and could be eaten by anyone, not just members. My daughter was an intern last year, and she ate lunches off of lobbyists pretty much the entire term.
Nope, all are very valid. I can certainly see why they’d be considered no big deal to the party that supported torture, though.
It is not about money. The unions have made givebacks. They made it clear they would agree to talks to help the “created deficits”. but they will not give up their rights to collective bargaining. Walker refused. Why would he refuse if it were just about money? Nope, it is about destroying the union. Why would a union agree to talks if the starting premise as" we will talk to you after you agree to let us kill the power of the union".
The talk with the reporter from the "Buffalo Beast ", was revealing because it showed union busting is the whole point.
First rule of labor negotiations: All strikes are about money. Everything else is window dressing.
Regards,
Shodan
They’ve already agreed to everything the governor wanted except giving up collective bargaining. If this were about money then the governor could give in on that one point because he’s already won all of the financial concessions.
The telephone call was also informative in showing how Walker planned to deal with the Democrats. He planned to invite them back for “discussions” while clearly stating that he did not intend to listen to them and that his only goal was to get them back so that the Republicans could vote behind their backs while the Democrats were in these “discussions” with him. He flat out says that he could put up with listening to them complain for an hour or so if it would trick them into coming back. While not technically illegal, it’s certainly at least as unethical as them leaving the state to avoid a vote.
What I find most telling is that Walker is willing to talk with “Koch” but unwilling to talk with the Democrats or with the unions. It’s all about breaking the unions.
Oh, I don’t know about that. George Johnson’s workers seemed pretty happy with their 40 hour work weeks.