Ament, Walker - - What's The Difference?

Former Milwaukee County Executive F. Thomas Ament, a Democrat, left office in 2002 following a pension scandal and a recall election.

He left the County's finances and reputation is shambles.

Enter Scott Walker, a Republican legislator from Wauwatosa and a so-called reformer, but with no real interest in the workings of local government.

To Walker, the office of County Executive was a stepping stone to the Governor's office, which Walker sought in 2006, then quit in favor of Cong. Mark Green - - but Walker's campaign for the next election cycle never stopped and today is is believed to have a lead against fellow conservative Republican Mark Neumann.

Were Walker to win, he'd leave behind his own mess, starting with a pension system that he was slow to repair and is still drains Milwaukee County of resources.

There also has been a fatal collapse at O'Donnell Park (and, apparently, years of problems that inspections somehow missed during both Walker and Ament's regimes), a gruesome sexual assault and supervisory scandal at the County Mental Health complex occurring on Walker's watch, and a host of budget, social service delivery and more structural problems at other county facilities, including the airport, the courthouse and transit center.

Ament was an old-fashioned courthouse politician.

Walker is an old-fashioned opportunist.

Neither really cared cares about the primacy of the public interest.

Ament was retired (and I have criticized him before, or here, or here... so please, no comments about this being something new).

Walker should not be promoted.

Indifference, regardless of party or personality, should not be rewarded.