GOP controlled assembly passes bill to limit recall

The bill passed, with the vote stuck in the rut that has deepened with each passing wheel through the partisan convoy of agenda items that have seeped away at the firm base of Wisconsin’s foundation of ethics and fair play – the bill passed along party lines 60-37. Surprise, surprise! The bill seeks to specify new limits on the “types” of behavior an elected official must exhibit, like “malfeasance in office”, before a recall can be initiated.

The definition of the word “malfeasance” suggests that any recall effort would only serve to pour money into the pockets of lawyers in an costly effort to initiate a recall – as GOP legislatures have want to do, judging from the hundreds of thousands of dollars poured into Michael Best Law firm for drawing vote district maps and litigating the voter ID law.

WIKI
Malfeasance has been defined by appellate courts in other jurisdictions as a wrongful act which the actor has no legal right to do; as any wrongful conduct which affects, interrupts or interferes with the performance of official duty; as an act for which there is no authority or warrant of law; as an act which a person ought not to do; as an act which is wholly wrongful and unlawful; as that which an officer has no authority to do and is positively wrong or unlawful; and as the unjust performance of some act which the party performing it has no right, or has contracted not, to do.

High Stakes Poker Game – Betting Against Trust of the People

What do many of the legislative initiatives of the GOP hold in common? What protections are sought through the voter Id law, limiting collective bargaining, drawing gerrymandered district maps and, now, redefining the recall statutes? Oh, and here is another recent example of the same:

MADISON (WSAU) Wisconsinites will no longer get to see their Supreme Court justices discuss the way they set their policies. The court’s four-member conservative majority voted yesterday to move its public administrative sessions behind closed doors. That’s after the open sessions exposed some of the bitter disagreements the justices have had on various issues in recent years, which culminated in a brief shoving match last summer between justices David Prosser and Ann Walsh Bradley.

The court also rejected Bradley’s request for a public hearing on the change.

The GOP seems to be playing poker with the Wisconsin long held tradition of trusting the voice of the people by limiting access to the polls (voter ID), ending the threat of people joining together to lobby for salary and benefits (Budget Repair Law) shifting vote districts for political advantage (Vote district law), adding a nebulous “malfeasance” requirement to the recall statutes (Recall law), and moving administrative sessions of Supreme Court back into the closet. All this, from a party who is hell bent a eliminating government intervention in matters of individual rights? Yet, every legislative move they make seems to be a direct intervention limiting individual rights, by reducing access to government, denying organized lobbying of workers, limiting transparency in the conduct of the courts, and, now, adding blurry barriers to the recall process.

Time to Call and Up the Stakes

Recall efforts have been myopically focused on the prime targets of the Wisconsin Senate and Governor. The stakes could well be raised to the congressional, and Senate representatives of the State with prime focus on Ron Johnson.

Who Can be Recalled?
Any elected officeholder who has served one year of the term for which he or she was most
recently elected, as of the date the recall petition is offered for filing, can be recalled.
§9.10(2)(s), Wis. Stats.
After one recall petition and recall election, no further recall petition may be filed against the same official during the term for which he or she was elected. §9.1 0(6), Wis. Stats.
If the regular term of an elected officeholder’s position is scheduled for re-election at the fall election to be held within six weeks of the date the recall petition is filed, a recall election may not be held.

Recall of Congressional Officals

You want malfeasance?

Wisconsin has been so focused on its back door step, that little light has been shed on freshman Senator Johnson.

Is it surprising that this tea party favorite has already shown his manipulative, self serving, Ayn Rand, behavior of bending the rules and dumping ethics to further the agenda of the Koch Bros, ALEC, and the greedy money holders?

Senator Ron Johnson gave himself a 10 million dollar loan from his own company, Pacur, shortly after he spent 9 million on his “self financed” 2010 election campaign.
Aside from election law violations, Johnson’s $10 million payday also may violate the Internal Revenue Code’s requirements that any deferred compensation agreement must be in writing – even if it’s between the top executive and the company he owns.

Johnson, who ran on his ability as an accountant and business man, demonstrates how he has mastered the ability to cook the books, manipulate figures, and fool the IRS under a hidden cloak, in a back room tax scam.

Read more about Johnson’s Accounting Tricks

Ron Johnson is an embarrassment as he stands up, again and again, with fringe right wing comments at hearings like the one below.

Take a breath – and recall Johnson

A Tri-fecta of Shame

The GOP scores a perfect tri-fecta of misogyny with Foster Friess, Dave Alba, and Rush Limbaugh coming in one, two, three, crossing the finishing line of a neck and neck race to the bottom of locker room humor.

Foster Friess, (pictured on etch-a-sketch below) the main donor to the Super PAC backing Rick Santorum’s presidential bid, made an embarrassing jab at humor when he unearthed a joke from the Joe McCarthy era, stating that an inexpensive pill for birth control is a Bayer Aspirin, which works when the “gal” holds it between her knees. I mean, where has he been for the past fifty years, watching news reels in his underground bunker.

Next in line, Dave Alba who co- authored a bill in Virginia to require trans-vaginal ultra sound for any woman seeking to terminate a pregnancy. Alba upstaged the tastelessness of Foster Friess when he rose on the floor of the legislature to deliver, what I am sure he thought was, a humorous monologue about he and is wife viewing his face on a big screen TV later that night, with the result of Dave being denied sex.

The winner that takes all for tasteless and despicable comment, came from, who else, but Rush Limbaugh. Sandra Fluke is a law student from Georgetown who was denied testimony before a Senate Committee on the contraceptive mandate, who later was provided a special committee composed of democrats to hear her testimony. Her testimony (which you can watch in full at the bottom of the post) drew harsh reaction from the right wing media, but no one could hope to top Rush Limnbaugh, when he called her a “slut”. His attack drew sharp attack from nearly anyone with a sense of fairness, and has caused him to shed many of the major sponsors to his talk radio show.

Working an etch-a-sketch in an iPhone world.

The comments and attacks carried most people back in time, since they seemed to come from a state of consciousness from the age of the etch-a-sketch, yet were being delivered in a IPhone world. The brand of humor and good-old-boy chicanery harkened memories of a child being introduced by a parent who has had a bit too much to drink, and speaks in slurred words as the son or daughter stands there squirming and red-faced. All three instances of old world misogyny were out of sync with the times, and spoke to the undeniable truth that those who call themselves social conservatives are little more than unsocial archeologists.

Annie Oakley Shot Balls

The uproar caused by the three men and their remarks, that fell so out of touch with the mainstream, brought to mind a strong woman of American History, Annie Oakley. Most know of her from the Broadway musical “Annie Get Your Gun”, but she demonstrated a strength of character late in her life that many know little of. She was slandered by the Hearst press for having fallen into seedy and drunken behavior in a lead story with a bold headlines that thousands of people read nationwide. It was not true. There was a woman named Annie Oakley who was arrested in such a drunken state, but it was not her. She spent years crossing the country to clear her name, suing individual Hearst newspapers one at a time.

It is the image of spirit of a brave woman, who shot balls out of the air, that lead to the video – “Annie Shoots Balls”

Sandra Fluke testimony at special hearing of democrats

“Last night I had the strangest dream…”

Ever since Scott Walker and the Fitzgerald Brothers took hold of power in Wisconsin nothing is as it appears. The shell game began when Walker “dropped the bomb” to curtail collective bargaining rights without ever mentioning the plan during his campaign; each announcement of policy must dissected and tested like a contaminated frog for the DNA chain, in order to
reveal the real truth.

The most recent surprising announcement, that’s left the press scratching its head and pondering the true meaning of “Scotology”, is the decision not to question the validity of the signatures on the governor’s recall petitions, after months of “Mickey Mouse” accusations and the formation of check groups promising to overturn enough fraudulent signatures to curtail collective recalling rights, Walker suddenly announces that he will not challenge the petitions with a very suspicious reason; “Not enough time”. Suddenly, after requests for extensions, law suites, and allegations, it is all over in a few simple words?

Like many other reporters and bloggers, I don’t buy it.

Walker drops another bomb?

If the collective bargaining bomb was the earthquake the wave that follows might well be the tsunami. Unfortunately, it is so aligned with Walker’s sociopathic profile that it has all the traction of a monster car. It would be very Walker-like to dismiss the signature verification process while planning his next self-serving tactic in the midst of his impending recall and/or indictment.

Here is the scenario:

Let us assume, and this is far beyond a leap of fate, that Walker is indicted. Following the indictment we might expect a martyr’s press release or speech, loosely fashioned from the text of Nixon’s announcement to resign the presidency, including the line where he passes the power to his most trustworthy and awe inspiring Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch. But the Nixon analogy does not stop here. Now Governor Kleefisch follows the lead of Gerald Ford and uses her new found power to pardon Walker, and quite possibly Timothy Russel, Kelly Rindfleish and the whole cadre felonious conspirators.

The governor has the power to pardon or commute sentences or grant reprieves thereto, except in cases of treason or impeachment; it is required that notifications of these be submitted to the Wisconsin State Legislature each year, along with the reason for them. Wiki Gubernatorial Pardon

The power of the gubernatorial pardon has frequent precedent

Doyle has granted 85 pardons between Aug. 17, 2009, when he announced he would not seek re-election, and early August of this year, according to records obtained by The Associated Press under the state open records law.

What’s a guy, without scruples, got to lose?

Walker ends his tenure as governor of Wisconsin the way it began while escaping from a net of lies, half truths, manipulation, and power grabbing. He vacates Wisconsin with some portion of his accumulated fund raising treasure, following the lead of Sarah Palin who raised millions for a never executed run for president. Scott Walker is ordained as poster boy, who suffered the pangs and arrows of the outrageous fortunes dealt him by the looney left, (Ann Coulter is working on the book?) and transverses the country netting millions from speaking engagements before assembled zealots of Americans for Prosperity, the Tea Party, ALEC, McIver Institute, and is chosen as the vice presidential candidate in the 2016 presidential election.

“Last night I had the strangest dream…”

Extracurricular sports will not survive Walker’s cuts

The high school basketball or football game is one of the most exciting community events in all of the small towns and villages that dot the State of Wisconsin. When the team is going on to a sectional or state competition, the highways and byways are marked with home made signs that read go Trojans, Beavers, Wildcats and just about every other animal or warrior mascot representing the thousands of students in our public schools. The levels of creativity and innovation in the mounting of signs of support for the team would put the Superbowl ad makers to shame. “GO MASCOT” written across the length of a white feed tube stretched along the road, or on a banner supported by balloons over main street with more displays of streamers and flashing lights strung across the windows of every business and office on Main Street. Above all this signage and decoration is the spirit of the town or village itself as people in the street or the local cafe cheer and pat the backs of the staff and players that have put the town on the map and plans are made to have the police or fire truck escort the bus of heroic players into town at the end of the game.

All this is on the wane and will end

The first signs of the demise of high school extracurricular sport events is already as evident as dry rot on the foundation. Towns, villages, and communities have been given free admission to the house of political smoke and mirrors that have framed villages, schools, and children as pawns in a political process. The mirrors reflect distorted images of unions, teachers, benefits with huge billowing puffs of collective bargaining and benefits. The very elegant display leaves the people walking away with shaking heads and rumblings how teachers are over paid and under worked villains. That, somehow, the very community members who attended the high school and hung the banners and beat the drums, were part of some conspiracy to over reward the coaches and teachers who rode the bus, chaperoned the dance, and took tickets at the wrestling match. They had not realized that they had been victims of big union bosses and money grabbing coaches and teachers, when they carried home the two foot conference trophy amid cheer and the honking of horns, just a few years ago.

What has changed the school or the politics?

Before people buy into the smoke and mirrors of the talking heads making claims as large as any given TV screen that “It is working”, look at the first rumblings of the end of high school basketball, wrestling, and football games. Turn off the TV and go to the next game. Look at the faces of the kids on the court, mat or field. Look at the spirit of the fans from both teams rising to their feet to cheer a score or question a bad call. When you leave, understand that all of this is in jeopardy and do something about it before it’s too late.

Report of WEAU TV Eau Claire

Did you know that, under Walker’s cuts, many teachers are forced to take second jobs to make ends meet?

And that leads us to Oakwood Mall. By day Mary teaches middle school phy-ed, by night she works at Scheels customer service center to help pay all her bills and have a little extra at the end of each month.

And Mary says she’s not alone,”One gentleman is toward the end of his teaching career, he needed a second job so he could pay for his kids college. And other people are to the point now they are struggling to make their house payment, or they’ve really had to cut back on extras,” she says.
Extracurricular Activities

This the beginning of the end. Enjoy the last high school basketball game.

A Cinderella Story for America

The Presidential election cycle has erupted into the perfect storm of political attacks, dueling slurs, and debates and speeches that suggest that the only means to rise up is to pull opponents down, and climb to victory on the spoils. Some of the first outbreaks of this perfect storm of attack and climb, struck the State of Wisconsin in the 2010 election that produced Scott Walker, Jeff and Scott Fitzgerald, while Ron Johnson climbed to power over the debased reputation of Russ Feingold as he was slurred beyond recognition by a litany of attack ads. When the dust had settled, Walker was Governor and the Fitzgerald Brothers held the top seats of power in the state. The first reaction of the victims of the storm was to come out from shelters, survey the damage, and admit that they had not been prepared, they had not been vigilant, they were asleep. Only in retrospect, after a year of protest and activism, did the truth arise. They had not been asleep. They had been fooled. They had been hoodwinked.

The storm was not the work of nature, but the orchestration of clouds seeded with the money of extreme right wing forces like the Koch Brothers, Americans for Prosperity, the Bradley Foundation and a national secret consortium, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) that actually wrote much of the legislation that would be rammed through the Wisconsin legislature over the next year in the form of the budget repair, voter ID, and even the boundaries that declare the districts where people vote!

At the same time, the low pressure system that moved through the Milwaukee County Executive’s Office forced the ethics of running for office off the map. After 20 months of the John Doe investigation, we learn that the closest aides and appointees of then County Executive Scott Walker, like Timothy Russel and Kelly Rindflisch, broke the law to make him Governor. They were finally indicted for steeling money from the families of fallen veterans, and running a secret email network for fund raising activities for Scott Walker, right under his nose.

The silver lining

Yes, behind every cloud there is a silver lining. Often, the best of fortunes arise out of the mystic coincidence of chance, luck, or the will of a higher angel. Just such a twist of fate appeared as a rainbow in the aftermath of political perfect storm. This stuff cannot be made up. It is not the result of an orchestrated strategy evolved from the political agenda of a think tank, or Americans for Prosperity, the McIver Institute or even the Democratic Party. The intervention of coincidence cannot be bought or sold, nor can it be predicted or devised. It just happens as it did in Wisconsin, and to add irony to coincidence, it came in the name of an instrument that offers true direction: a compass.

Lori Compas

Little did the Democratic party know that the woman who walked into the office to seek support to circulate petitions to trigger a recall election for Scott Fitzgerald. would be the very woman who would announce her candidacy for his office in just a few weeks. After all, she was just an ordinary citizen, a photographer from Fort Atkinson. Lori was told that the war chest for the recall effort was stretched thin, and that funds and manpower could only be allocated to those districts where the sitting legislator was most vulnerable, and Scott Fitzgerald was not one of them. Senator Fitzgerald was a veteran from a strong Republican district, and it was unlikely that enough signatures could be collected to trigger a recall. So, Lori Compas, like the instrument of her namesake, took a bold direction forward. Against all odds, and the advice of paid political operatives, she set up her living room as the office to recall Senator Scott Fitzgerald.

Lori Campas, chair of the Committee to Recall Scott Fitzgerald, announced Friday, Jan. 13, 2012, that petition circulators have collected enough signatures to recall the Senate majority leader.

This IS what Democracy look like

So it was. Right in the middle of the one of the most negative presidential primary seasons in history and at a time when Wisconsin is caught in one of the most divisive climates in recent times, a moment arrives to be celebrated. One woman expresses and unites the determination of many to accomplish the impossible through a good, old fashioned grass roots effort to prove all of the money, strategy, and crony confabulation is nothing. It is nothing at all compared to the voice of common, ordinary people exercising their will under the constitution.

This is one of the most important political events in recent memory and should be shouted from the mountain top to demonstrate that Democracy and politics do not need to be about money, or party, or secret email networks, or negative advertising, or any of the methods most politicians have come to expect. Lori gave us a “compass” to remind us of the true way forward. Be kind, be honest, work hard, and trust in those you love.

The announcement of Lori Compas as a candidate for Senator of 13th District

Lee Nerison marches in step to pass the Mining Bill

Nerison, Rep. Lee (96th A.Dist.; Rep. pictured below/right)

The bill provides a clear pathway and slippery advantage for the development of a high capacity well, such the Hi Cap well proposed by Dr. Long on Copper Creek in Crawford County. Even though the bill is written in the context of the mining industry, the language regarding wet lands, and ground water pave the way to provide precedent to stack the deck in favor of Dr. Long’s plan to pump hundreds of thousands of gallons of water within a few feet of a Class A trout stream.

In fact, if Dr. Long (pictured right – lower left) were to describe his venture as a mining operation, he would hold all the cards, and any opposition from the local community, township, or county would be trumped by the long and tedious language that would the tie the hands of opposition in the shackles of regulatory language, time lines, and a regulatory soup of obstruction.

Ironically, the bill provides the model of over-regulation and obstruction toward the side of environmentalists, that the GOP is so vigilant in emphasizing when it inhibits “job creators” like Gogebic Taconite of Hurley.

Make no mistake about the bill’s implications for Hi Cap wells

The 183 page bill is filled with language that makes the building code look like a pamphlet. Below is on excerpt of the language that goes on and on. Even though the words suggest any number of procedures to challenge a “job creator”, what follows is a jig-saw puzzle of hoops to jump through in order to oppose the action. In nearly every case it disguises the forest with whole tracts of trees that can be summed up in a few words:

If the “job creators” want it, they will get it.

From LRB−3520/1 -Assembly Mining Bill approved by Nerison

The bill further provides that if the applicant
cannot meet the general requirements by implementing conservation measures,
DNR shall nevertheless issue the mining water withdrawal permit if DNR
determines that the public benefits resulting from the iron mining operation exceed
any injury to public rights in a body of water that is affected by the mining operation

Full text of Mining Bill

Nerison Elected to Assembly 2004; reelected since 2006 – Long enough.

Lee Nerison either fails to understand the implication of the mining bill or he is deaf to his constituents who cannot be heard over the threats and demands of Jeff Fitzgerald. Jeff and his brother Scott have invested there political wheel of fortune on the weighted ethics of Scott Walker, and it is turning off center with the wobble that is shaking the foundations of Democracy.

Tom Johnson is out to set things straight

Tom Johnson (D-Viroqua), 42, announced Wednesday, Sept. 7, that he was a candidate for the 96th Assembly District for the November 2012 election.

Vernon County Broadcaster

“Johnson attended college and enlisted in the Air Force, where he was injured and became a amputee – but that does not stop him. Mr. Johnson has been a small business manager and an active political volunteers for years. Mr. Johnson is a member of the Viroqua Area Rotary Club (President Elect), The Viroqua Community Theater and the Eagles Club.”

Tom Johnson
Johnson for Assembly
210 South Main Street
Viroqua, WI 54665
PHONE. (608) 606-3320
EMAIL: tom-johnson-for-Assembly@hotmail.com

More than a year of confusion, misinformation, flip flopping, and scooter crashing.

Now, in what promises to be the end days of the schizophrenic carnival ride on the tilt-o-walker, the people are left with more of the endless recalculation of where we are headed. Will Walker be indicted before a recall election is triggered? If he is indicted will he resign? If and when he resigns who would be governor? Welcome to the world of the most ineffective leader in the history of Wisconsin. What is most surprising and frightening is that a large percentage of folks still stand by him.

Since the very nature of a John Doe investigation is directionless and secretive, the stage is set with all the mystery, and who-done-it questions and possibilities of Agatha Cristie on steroids.

Here is a scenario if Walker is indicted and resigns

Here’s how it could play out, according to Mike Haas, staff attorney with the Government Accountability Board, which oversees election matters:

If Walker resigned within 10 days of the recall petitions being certified by the GAB, he would not be on the ballot and other Republicans would be able to vie for the nomination in a primary. Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch would become acting governor and could appoint a new lieutenant governor. Nothing, however, would stop the recall election from going forward.

The winner of the gubernatorial election would assume the office, replacing Kleefisch. Facing her own recall election, Kleefisch would return to the lieutenant governor’s post if she wins.

However, if Walker were to resign more than 10 days after the recall petitions are certified, his name would still appear on the ballot. Assuming voters would not favor an indicted, resigned governor, Republicans would likely be forced to mount some type of write-in campaign to try to prevent the Democratic nominee from being elected.

However, because the statutes are unclear, the GAB’s interpretation of the law would likely be litigated endlessly in court, with the losers crying foul, possibly until the next regularly scheduled governor’s election in 2014 If Walker Should Resign – Scenario

So, it is possible that the Walker legacy will be to leave Wisconsin right where it began when he took the oath of office – recalculating…recalculating.

It is this writer’s belief that Walker will be indicted and soon

This is from the “word on the street” and sheer speculation gathered from observation. The only connection for the undoing of Walker is that he had knowledge of the illegal campaign activities that were being orchestrated on a daily basis just 25 feet from his office door; not a very long distance from innocence to felony. If just one of those, already indicted facing years of jail time and fines, is ready to give up information of Walker’s knowledge for a reduced sentence, out come the handcuffs.

It is safe to assume that the meeting between District Attorney John Chisholm and Walker must have occurred. What might have happened at this meeting? D.A. Chisholm seems to be a fair and honest person, and as such, would take into consideration the far reaching political implications of indicting a sitting governor. It is my speculation that Chisholm may have given Walker a window of time to get his affairs in order, and allowed him to pick a time when the formal indictment would take place – like after the Winter National Governor’s Conference?

The conference ends today. We will see.

If not tomorrow….recalculating…recalculating.

Too Connected to Fail

The John Doe Investigation has netted the first of its big fish of its haul. All of the felonious fish traveled in a school off the reef of Scott Walker’s Milwaukee County Executives office – and the net has been recast into ever deeper waters. The word on the street is that “Scooter is going down within the week”.

How will the catch be processed as it is hauled into the courts? Will the prize trophies of the day, be thrown back after experiencing the pain of oxygen deprivation during the sorting process? Will the penalties match the offense or are we to expect the kind of hand slapping that the GAB and Tim Verhoff imposed on Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus?

The Kathy Nickolaus verdict does little to offer much hope for a sentencing outcome that matches the offense. If she were a South Side Milwaukee black woman selling pot, she would have been in a correctional facility for years, instead of continuing to keep her job while continuing to count the votes in Waukesha County.

Let’s not fool ourselves. Our system of justice has a miserable lack of empathy for non-white street criminals, and the soft hand of a angelic proctologist when it comes to the white, well connected felons who steal, entice, and manipulate votes, funds and money.

Case in point. Just days ago, Republican Secretary of State in Indiana, Charlie White was finally sentenced. Did he get jail time for 6 felony counts of vote fraud. No he did not, anymore than Kathy Nickolaus, anymore than any and all of the fish in the John Doe net are likely to expect. After all, they are all white, politically elite, former officials who “lost their way”. It is easy for a judge of the bent of Prosser or Gableman to see themselves in the suits of the convicted, and will look at the indicted and convicted through the rose colored glasses issued to wealthy and powerful. They are likely to issue the same kind Charmin wrapped sentencing as Charlie White got in Indiana.

Below are two examples of sentencing, that point up the divide, or shall we say the disconnect of the reflection of the empathy of a mob to the victim of a hanging.

Big Fish One Year Home Detention Republican Charlie White, Secretary of State of Indiana was sentenced to one year of home detention, a $1,000 fine and 30 hours of community service for 6 felony convictions. Indiana Home Detention Prosecutors contend that White voted in last May’s Republican primary after moving out of his ex-wife’s home in Fishers and the town council district he represented. White has previously acknowledged the voting error, chalking it up to his busy schedule and new marriage. He is charged with theft for allegedly continuing to collect a salary from the town council after he was no longer eligible to serve on it. The financial fraud charge pertains to White’s allegedly lying under oath about his address on loan documents, Dowd said. Dowd said the grand jury wasn’t sure where White had actually resided, “but the grand jury didn’t believe it was where he claimed.”Huffington – Charlie White

Little Fish Indiana’s Acknowledgment The final policy recommendation was in the area of public safety. Research showed that community-based substance use treatment programs are not available to many offenders under supervision and responses to probation violations are slow and ineffective, making re-offense more likely. Indiana Sentencing

Just a Rumor….BUT

The question of the week – WHO hired Kelly Rindfleish?

Walker’s words in response to this question have been dissected and analyzed like a suspect Mona Liza.

Who hired Kelly Rindfleisch to work in Scott Walker’s County Executive office?

Among the revelations that came out of the multiple felony charges filed against former Scott Walker aide Kelly Rindfleisch was the assertion by Tom Nardelli, then-Milwaukee County Executive Walker’s chief of staff, that he didn’t even know Rindfleisch was hired to work in Walker’s office or for what reason she was hired until she showed up for work.

So if Tom Nardelli, who in his role as chief of staff would have been County Executive Scott Walker’s right hand man, didn’t hire Kelly Rindfleisch and wasn’t aware she was hired to work for Walker, then who the h-e-double hockeysticks hired Kelly Rindfleisch?
Blogging Blue

If Tom Nardelli didn’t hire Rindfleisch, and Tim Russell did not know she was hired. Then who hired Kelly Rindfleisch, and more important – WHY?

Walker’s response to the question brings back memories of former President Clinton’s response to Kenneth Star’s question about having sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky. Here’s what Bill Clinton said to the grand jury about why he wasn’t lying when he said to his top aides that with respect to Monica Lewinsky, “there’s nothing going on between us.” How can this be? Here’s what Clinton told the grand jury…

“That depends on what “is” is.”

Walker has been using the same word game when it comes to the “Who hired Rindfleish?” question, substituting the word “we” for “I”.

When asked who originally hired Kelly Rindfleisch, one of the staffers charged last week, Walker avoided answering the question but said about her:

“We would have treated that individual the same way that we asked for the resignation of Darlene Wink. Daily Kos

It is clear Walker has been skirting the issue of being the “one” responsible for adding Kelly Rindfleisch to his staff as Milwaukee County Executive. Walker had full knowledge of her past experience in the 2006 caucus scandals and, he put her in an office with a secret email network, within 25 feet of his own.

Now, the word on the street suggests “he is goin down – within the week”.

It may be a rumor, but it only has 25 feet to go to put the governor in an orange jump suite.

Another unconfirmed rumor is that Tonette was seen at Woodman’s collecting moving boxes.