Governance As If By Talk Radio; Wisconsin Republicans Play Out The Farce

The political scene in Madison since the January swearing-in of Scott Walker and his Republican legislative majorities is familiar if you listen to right-wing talk radio.

Not just the content of new law and plans, of course: You've got your union-bashing and voter suppression and tax cuts for the wealthy and favors for corporations and special interests, like the road-builders- - the typical ultra-conservative Charlie Sykes/Vicki McKenna talk radio agenda - - spiced up this go-round with concealed firearms carrying permissions and, courtesy of River Hills' State Senator Alberta Darling, the new Queen of Reaction, even the easing of child labor laws.

If fact, there was Darling on Sykes' show this morning, right on cue and perfectly coordinated, being led through the litany of all the good things in the budget and on the table - - and she thanked Charlie when she had to go do her damage for helping get her "message" out.

But when I say talk radio I'm also talking about the volume and tone of what's happening in the Legislature - - loud, demanding, bullying, authoritarian - - with gavels falling gleefully to close debate or kill amendments, or Senators, like Fred Risser, being cut off in mid-sentence.

You hear this basic talk radio practice routinely on Mark Belling's 1130 WISN-AM show as he talks, even shouts, over his callers - - even supporters.

Why? Because it's an uneven playing field. He has the power because he has the microphone.

That's how the Fitzgerald brothers are running the show; they have the power, so anything goes.

Assembly Majority Leader Jeff Fitzgerald is arranging the calendar beginning today so that Scott Walker's two-year budget - - billions in public funding, taxing and spending, on thousands of programs - - will be taken up in extraordinary session - - despite the absence of compelling need, or a true emergency.

The actual need is to nail down the loose ends for Walker and Corporate Wisconsin and the talk radio agenda - - wrap it up and go home and campaign through the self-generated recalls and, above all, try to disperse the crowds outside.

It's completely tactical and partisan and self-defeating - - but is also a total, in-your-face bastardization of the process into talk radio, where discussion is micro-managed, and anger is manufactured and the outcome is not in doubt. The host wins.

The Fitzgeralds can do this because they have the power; the budget will be sped to Walker's desk after limited, meaningless Kabuki debate - - not because it's the right or even a smart thing to do - - but because it's the ploy the game-players Fitzgeralds and Walker are choosing.

Brother Jeff threatens, if the State Supreme Court does not dance to his tune and hand him a gift-wrapped judicial victory, to include in the fast-tracked budget the union-busting measure his brother Scott Fitzgerald mishandled as a separate measure in the Senate when he trampled on the Open Meetings law and rammed through Walker's falsely-labeled budget-repair bill in which union-busting provisions and the end of collective bargaining were included.

But legislative bodies are not talk shows.

Leaders are not radio jocks.

Public policies aren't topics to be teed up and clobbered by hosts with microphones, selected callers, audio kill switches and seven-second delays.

Talk radio is twisted entertainment.

Legislating is life and death.

What the Wisconsin legislature is about to do this week is not legislating.

It's faux-legislating. And like the bogus Democrats that Republicans are running in the recall elections, it's fake governing - - sick, real-life farce, with a cringing statewide audience.

Walker and the Fitzgeralds they think they will rule forever, and that their bills and policies are are inherently meritorious and irreversible, but Republican leaders in Wisconsin will come to regret their extreme experiment suspending democracy and discounting the public.

Their contemptuous radicalism will be retired by the will of the people.

And history will treat them harshly; Walker and the Fitzgeralds and the other architects of the failed State of Fitzwalkerstan will be punchlines, footnotes.

Walker, His Team And The Games They Play

(Updated, Sunday, 11:00 a.m., updated Sunday, 10:38 p.m.) A long time ago when I was a twenty-something, and learning the ropes as Madison Mayor Paul Soglin's Administrative Assistant, an old-timer gave me the lay of the land:

"There are two kinds of people in this building," he explained. "Game players and policy people. The policy people want to use government to help people, and the game people just want to play the game."

Sure, it was a generalization, but it helped me over the years sort allies from obstructionists, and serious people from the superficial, in and around the Madison City-County Building.

I'll bet today it describes your office situation, too.

The veteran official's tip served me well in Milwaukee City Hall more than 20 years later when I worked in several positions in Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist's administration, including Chief of Staff.

And it continues as a good analytical tool in 2014, because in the Wisconsin Governor's Office we now have a leader who has gathered a like-minded-and-motivated team of game players  - - including some who got their start in or near the Milwaukee County Executive's Office in April, 2002 after Walker won a special election to replace the recalled, ousted Tom Ament.

Walker and his team are determined to bring their love of the political game-over-policy to the national field as the 2016 Presidential election looms.

My time in Milwaukee Mayor Norquist's office over-lapped less than two years of Walker's County Executive tenure, but it was time enough to see Team Walker's default to the inside, partisan and self-serving game over service to public policy. Some examples:

*  Norquist, Walker, and their Mayoral or County Executive counterparts from Racine and Kenosha met to discuss whether to support committing $91.5 million in available federal funds to the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter train proposal.

I was also at the meeting. It produced an agreement among six chief executives to back using the funding for the KRM. No one dissented. 

But after the meeting, Walker's staff told our office that under no circumstances were we to disclose if Walker was even at the meeting - - and that was a big problem because our office was always open to media contacts about rail and transportation policy, a Norquist priority.

The directive from Walker's office thus undermined the meeting's purpose, which was to create a unified regional position on the disposition of the funding to communicate to federal transportation officials. 

The goal was to simultaneously protect the funding - - earlier decision delays had reduced the original grant by about 15% - - and keep the KRM alive as an option in a region with major transportation deficits.

Walker's concern was less about starting a train system, or not, and more about pleasing right-wing, anti-urban talk radio ideologues who objected to spending public funds on any kind of passenger rail transportation.

Talk radio had helped Walker win the election and he did not want to disappoint the hosts.

In those days, there was still discussion of light rail for the City of Milwaukee, but our office was told by Walker's office on more than one occasion that if City Hall pushed hard for Milwaukee light rail - - a different kind of rail service than the KRM - -  Walker would then push hard against it.

As with the KRM, the more disagreement among local officials about rail spending, the more likely it was that federal or state officials would withhold the money.

The rail game was being run by talk radio. Walker was not the engineer, but he was an important passenger.

So everyone in local government had to walk on egg shells around Walker on rail issues because his top priority was to stay on the good side of his talk radio enablers.

And their out-of-city audiences, which supported Walker and which he would continue to cultivate.

The federal money never got moved to the KRM rail line, and Walker eventually helped sideline it. 

There was an eventual split of the $91.5 million lost to the KRM - - a division made by federal officials over Walker's objections - - that sent some of the funding to the County bus system and the lion's share to finance another City of Milwaukee-only rail project, the streetcar.

An excellent history of Walker and the rail projects he had opposed or blocked, here.

in 2010, Walker played the game again, running against, and blocking $810 million in pledged federal Amtrak-to-Madison expansion and train-manufacturing dollars. 

The money went to other states, principally California.

He was even willing to sacrifice the jobs it would have produced in Milwaukee and across southern Wisconsin, because the game trumps policy.

And Walker and his allies, not content with having killed both the KRM and the Amtrak activity, are keeping the anti-rail game going against the streetcar through conservative legal advocacy in front of the Walker-controlled Public Service Commission.

*  A few weeks after Walker's election to County Executive, and with budget-writing for the following year under way in both the Courthouse and City Hall, Mayor Norquist had our office propose to Walker's that to eliminate taxpayer-paid service duplication, the County could merge its tree-growing, nursery and greenhouses with an existing City operation.

Word came back from Walker's office: 'What do you really want?' 

When we said, 'Nothing: it's just to save the taxpayers some money' - - and that was the truth - - we were told, 'forget it.'

Why?

Because Walker and his crew were conditioned to look for a game - - even when policy people were not playing one. The Walker people were prisoners of their own assumptions and biases, and that is a reflection of how the boss thinks and acts.

Too bad. Team Walker's one-dimensionality cost local taxpayers some money.

Just as it cost Milwaukee workers building or maintaining Amtrak trains their jobs, and will cost even more work that would have run for several years installing a modern, higher-speed rail line between Milwaukee and Madison.

Here is a fully-documented history of Walker's hostility to the Amtrak option and the jobs it cost Wisconsin.

And taxpayers will pay again because Walker's cancellation of the Amtrak expansion including breaking a contract with Talgo, the train-manufacturer which had built an assembly plant in Milwaukee. 

Two Madison-Milwaukee train sets were built, but sit mothballed, and even if Michigan buys them as has been reported, it is still likely that a final settlement over the broken contract will require taxpayers to write Talgo a substantial check.

Which is what happens when public officials put gamesmanship over job-creation, and ideology over provision of non-partisan public service.

Here is how a rail industry publication explained it:

Wisconsin’s arch-conservative, Tea-Party-favorite governor, Scott Walker, may have gotten more than he bargained for (or didn’t bargain for) when he killed his state’s department of transportation plan to acquire new passenger trainsets and build a higher-speed line connecting Milwaukee to Madison shortly after taking office in 2011.

Talgo USA Inc. has filed a $65.9 million claim against the State of Wisconsin on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013, setting up a probable lawsuit and reviving contentious debate over Gov. Scott Walker’s rejection in 2011 of $810 million in federal stimulus money for a higher-speed rail passenger line. The claim is top of an existing lawsuit that Talgo filed in November 2012 to take possession of two trainsets it built for the state but have been idled due to Walker’s canceling of the planned Milwaukee to Madison line.

Walker's actions following talk radio's lead do shed light on why job creation in the state lags the nation's, ranks us 35th among the states - - and behind most Great Lakes states - - and certainly fast-growing Minnesota, and dooms Walker's pledge of 250,000 new jobs on his first-term watch.

You can also see the Team Walker preference for game-players over policy people - - and the consequences - - if you look look at how Walker hired publicly-paid county employees onto his Executive's staff where they used county time to politick and raise money for Walker's 2010 gubernatorial effort, and for the Lt. Governor campaign of Brett Davis, a GOP state legislator, which Walker was supporting.

This represented unprecedented chutzpah - - a game of personal and political advancement for Walker run through secret emails from laptops on a clandestine Internet router set up by and used by apparatchiks in Walker's office suite.

And when outside tragedies intervened in the life of the County and its government that jeopardized Walker's electability, and trashed his leadership, the game players grabbed the network's joysticks and took the controls.

*  When a teenage boy was crushed to death and his mother was maimed by falling concrete in the County-owned O'Donnell Park garage, Walker's campaign manager, Keith Gilkes swung into action. 

He issuing jaw-dropping orders to taxpayer-paid county employees, including then-Walker Deputy Staff Chief Kelly Rindfleisch, that surfaced in a subsequent probe of Walker's office:

Gilkes wrote to Walker aide Kelly Rindfleisch, advising her on the day of the O'Donnell death, June 24, 2010: "Keep on top of (parks director) Sue Black, (budget director Steve) Kreklow, (administration director Cindy) Archer and all staff to make sure there is not a paper anywhere that details a problem at all."

*  After a patient was raped at the County Mental Health Complex, Gilkes told Rindfleisch by email to get a County-paid lawyer more focused on protecting Walker from the political fallout, as the Journal Sentinel noted in this excellent summary story:

"Just do me a favor and tell him that we are getting the crap kicked out of us by the County Board," Gilkes wrote. "At some point I would like him to stop being a lawyer and think political for a change and let us fight back." 

* And after a patient had starved to death at the mental health complex, Gilkes and Rindfleisch - - remember, she was working on public time - - discussed in emails the need to keep the patient death settlement details out of the media until after the November, 2012 election.

"Buried" was the operative word.

Now flash forward to April, 2014. 

Walker is running for re-election as Governor, but will not say - - wink, wink - - if he will serve out his term if re-elected in November.

Like his book 'co-authorship,' and national fund-raising and speaking forays, the dodge is a signal that he's reaching for a new player level in The Higher Office Game.

It's reminiscent of his cat-and-mouse behavior when he ran for re-election as County Executive in 2008 and wouldn't commit to finishing that four-year term because everyone knew he was eyeing a run for the Governor's office.

And had been prepping for it all along.

In fact, he'd abandoned an earlier run for Governor while County Executive in which incumbent Democrat Jim Doyle went on to beat then-GOP US Rep. Mark Green in 2006.

Walker has been been playing the County Executive-to-higher-office-game since 2002, using an office in which he had no real nut-sand-bolts policy interests as a stepping stone from the get-go - - courting donors, kissing up to talk radio and assembling a county staff which would implement campaign operatives' orders to put Walker's image and advancement first.

Walker's game, following an undistinguished legislative career and an incomplete college education, is now more than a decade old.

And it's gotten more consequential - - Kelly Rindfleisch was convicted of felonious misuse of public time - - and several others brought in to serve Walker were swept up and into jail in the first of two John Doe prosecutorial probes after being convicted of crimes in office, too.

The game has winners and losers, doesn't it?

Now Team Walker is perhaps headed for the ultimate American political Zero-Sum Game of all - - the 2016 Presidential race.

Whom do you want there? A game-player or a policy person?

Wisconsin GOP Legislators Open To Amtrak Job Creation - - In Chicago

You want to know just how fouled-up Wisconsin's Republican legislative leadership has become because of anti-rail, talk-radio driven rhetoric?

Legislators cheered Scott Walker's dismissal of $810 million in federal Amtrak funds for an extension to Madison.

Remember's Walker's Stop The Train website?

Governor Doyle and Secretary La Hood say we can't stop the train. I say, just watch us.

Sincerely,

Scott Walker

Yes, everyone watched! Big success!

And then  - - D'Oh!...Oops...Jeez...they discovered that those same dollars for the train they just stopped were also to cover some needed Milwaukee station and service improvements - - on a line the Republican establishment in Milwaukee just loves - -  plus for maintenance and employment, too.

So Walker tried to get back on the rails and have that portion refunded, but the train had left the station, and off the funding went to other states, including...Illinois.

So now the Wisconsin legislature - - still with talk radio in their collective right ears - - is balking at fully-funding those Milwaukee-Chicago-upgrades and Milwaukee facility improvements because the money would have to come from just the state.

From the same taxpayers who got screwed out of the Amtrak extension so Mark Belling and Charlie Sykes could stay placated, and, in turn, lavish constant praise on everything with an (R) after it.

Being trapped in contradiction with illogical outcomes is precisely what happens when you turn down jobs and federal dollars to meet ideologically-based campaign promises and talk radio rating points, as Milwaukee developer Gary Granau said emphatically to The Shepherd:

"There's no better place for Milwaukee to be than to be linked to Chicago and linked to Madison," Grunau said. "When [high-speed rail] does get built, the people in Iowa are going to fight like hell for it to come from Chicago to Dubuque to Minneapolis. We're going to be sitting out at the end of the pier with nobody to talk to. And it scares the hell out of me..."

Grunau blamed talk radio's Charlie Sykes and Mark Belling for calling high-speed rail a "boondoggle," which Walker echoed during the 2010 gubernatorial campaign. But Grunau argued that Walker's embrace of the talk-radio-informed base and the governor's repeated criticism of Illinois would hurt Wisconsin's economic opportunities for generations.

Which has led the Joint Finance Committee to say it is open to letting some of that Milwaukee Amtrak work - - and remember, Amtrak that runs to and through Milwaukee is among the most successful service in the entire country - - go instead to an existing Amtrak facility in Chicago, or killing a maintenance facility always planned for Milwaukee, reports the Journal Sentinel.

But the Republican-dominated panel also ordered the department to study the costs of using Amtrak's current facilities in Chicago, or of scrapping the project, instead of spending $43 million to $62 million to build a new maintenance base in Milwaukee. 

So to sum up: first we in Wisconsin lose a federally-financed, money-in-hand rail extension to Madison, along with construction funds and jobs, to more rail-friendly, employment-savvy, common-sensical states, including Illinois - - and now the Wisconsin legislature is considering further short-changing state taxpayers and the highly successful and loyal Hiawatha line ridership by letting good, blue-collar Amtrak servicing jobs migrate to Chicago.

Just like the wind turbine business blocked in Wisconsin by Walker's early rule-dabbling that was made attractive to Illinois.

Is there some secret deal between Wisconsin's Republicans and Illinois job-creators to export manufacturing south of the state line?

My Vote For Chris Abele Is A Vote Against Talk Radio

I listen to a lot of Milwaukee-area talk radio.

The talkers want Jeff Stone for Milwaukee County Executive because he will carry the most water for Scott Walker, and for the Wisconsin Republican Party which has made clear the goal is denying Wisconsin to President Barack Obama in 2012.

If elected, Stone will not make a move, a speech, a decision or an interview remark without calculating, "how will this go over on talk radio?"

He will flip on talk radio first thing in the morning and listen throughout the day, absorbing his talking points over the air, and calling in to reassure the base that he's on the talkers' message.

Talk radio helped create Scott Walker as Milwaukee County Executive, then gave him an open microphone right through the 2010 gubernatorial campaign.

Do you want a Milwaukee County Executive who will follow in Walker's footsteps, defining that office foremost as an important part of the Republican election machinery?

I don't. Talk radio keeps the community on edge, riled up, fearful - - in other words, stuck.

We have a chance on election day to minimize talk radio's reach, to step out of the miasma it produces and spreads.

And that's why I have already voted for the more independent, innovative, tolerant, inclusive and energetic candidate - - Chris Abele.

AM radio wars next week. You want Walker, or Bob Uecker?

A few winners-and-losers' observations to the 'news' that Walker will fill in two days on Mark Belling's righty-AM talk show early next week while the talker recovers from a stroke.

Winner: AM 1130 WISN. It gets some free p.r. Maybe a few extra listeners, though Belling devotees probably prefer Belling.

Loser: Robin Vos: He's supposed to be the big Republican cheese now that Walker's gone, and here comes Walker again. How can you play Shadow Governor when another Shadow Governor pretender pops up, and custom says you call him "Governor Walker." 

You think Vos wants to hear that? 

Winner: Right-wing talk radio. Having helped create Walker, its prodigal son is back.

Loser: Right-wing talk radio. It takes Walker back, so is looking backwards. When does David Clarke show up?

Winner: Anyone who can predict how many times Walker says "we," "bold," "reforms," "legacy," and "Trump." Tiebreaker will be "Foxconn."

Loser. Anyone who actually keeps score.

Winner: Tony Evers. He's Governor. That's why he isn't sitting in an isolated studio fielding calls set up by a screener with all the spontaneity and drama of a fixed boxing match.

Loser: Scott Walker. Evers is Governor. Walker isn't. Every minute he's on the radio begs the question, 'how did you lose?' 

And radio is a horrible medium for Walker, with that grating nasal+ intonation where "Wisconsin" is "Wiscannsan," and "time" is "toiym."

Winner: AM 620 WTMJ. It's carrying live Brewer spring training game broadcasts Monday and Tuesday to baseball-hungry SE Wisconsin listeners. 

Loser: Scott Walker. "Mr Baseball" himself Bob Uecker will be broadcasting spring training games. You want Uecker, or you want Walker?

Play ball.
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We're excited to announce former Gov Scott Walker will be guest hosting The Mark Belling Show this coming Monday and Tuesday 3-6 pm. 

Scott Walker Is No Friend of Rail In Milwaukee

I remember working for Mayor John Norquist when there was a plan on the table to build an electric, guided bus system in Milwaukee.

Businessman and philanthropist Michael Cudahy was the main driver of the proposal, and he even flew a private planeload of people (I was not among them) to France to see a guided bus line - - which is not a train on a fixed set of rails) in operation.

The Bombardier corporation had built the line in France and was considering using Milwaukee as a platform in the US to demonstrate that it could be workable here. Bombardier officials from its Canadian arm were in Milwaukee more than once to make presentations, scout the city, etc.

Super Steel was mentioned as a possible contractor for the cars. The entire plan had a nice symmetry to it and Milwaukee could have been home to something new and productive in the US if the plan had gotten more traction.

I remember hearing Walker on the Sykes show one morning opposing the plan, and calling it just another form of light rail, which it was not.

But talk radio was served.

Cudahy could not bring Walker around on the guided bus. It was not built. Walker did not single-handedly kill it, but his opposition was part of the reason it died.

Walker could have supported the plan as a boon to Milwaukee and its workforce, and to corporations and suppliers for many components..

But he did not.

Here is another example of the distance Walker put between himself and the rail issue.

I attended a meeting with Norquist about commuter rail with all six regional elected leaders from here to the Illinois border.

In attendance were the Mayors of Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha, along with their County Executive counterparts.

I remember that the meeting was held in the office of the Racine County Executive, and was very cordial.

All agreed to support the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter train plan, the KRM - - but no one, if asked, was allowed to say that Walker was at the meeting.

This was not surprising.

Through the years that Walker and Norquists' terms overlapped, word was always coming back from people working on transit - - other than buses - - that you always needed to be careful not to paint Walker into a corner as even remotely pro-rail because he'd come out swinging to mollify his talk radio supporters.

So when the Journal Sentinel called to report on the executives' KRM meeting, and the question was about attendance and who supported or said what, and spefically about Walker - - I paused, tried to figure out how to respond, and said you'll have to call Walker's office about that.

Awkward!

My point is that Walker does not see urban or high-speed rail (if he's for Amtrak, well, fine, and who knows where he is on the KRM?) as vehicles to move people through congested areas, or stimulate investment along the corridors or at stations, or to employ people or offer transportation choices here or in a large regional economy.

Hence his long fight against the Milwaukee downtown streetcar - - a fight that ultimately cost the County $10 million in federal funds for buses that Walker likes.

To Walker and talk radio, trains are political vehicles only, and the faux outrage that Walker ginned up over Super Steel not getting the Talgo high-speed train vehicle assembly contract is pure politics.

And in the context of the guided bus that never was - - laughable.

It's no different than being against the stimulus plan, and then taking the money.

You're either on board or you're not.

Walker's Habitual Fact-Free Fibbing And The Talk Radio Effect

I'm still amazed that our Governor has had 37 statements vetted by PolitiFact, and 25 of them, or 68%, are rated "Mostly False," "False," or "Pants on Fire."

He got #25 on Nov. 15th:

Scott Walker

Fuzzy math turns reality on its head

Here's the complete scorecard, and he's had no ruling of "Mostly True," or "True" since May 8th.

Walker's statements by ruling

Click on the ruling to see all of Walker's statements for that ruling.

• True5(5)
• Mostly True3(3)
• Half True4(4)
• Mostly False7(7)
• False15(15)
• Pants on Fire3(3)

Even Huffington Post noted the core "False" rating about his collective bargaining plans - - the event that set the recall in motion and has roiled the state for nine months, and counting:

"I campaigned on (the proposals in the budget repair bill for Wisconsin) all throughout the election. Anybody who says they are shocked on this has been asleep for the past two years."

Scott Walker on Monday, February 21st, 2011 in a news conference

I've wondered why or how this could continue to play out this way, noting that just this Sunday Walker picked up his latest "False" rating, and I'm sticking with theory I wrote about a few months ago:

He's still in talk radio mode.

In the nearly eight years that he served as Milwaukee County Executive, Walker would often talk on local conservative talk radio air, particularly with AM 620 WTMJ host Charlie Sykes, and these appearances and the Q&A, such as it was, were basically Valentines during which Walker could just talk, talk, talk without any real challenge by the host.

And if there were mistakes, well, no harm, no foul.Here's a telling example:

The Name Of The MPS School Board President Is Not Barry Bonds

On Transit, Walker's Talk Radio Approach Sets Milwaukee Back 50 Years

Gov. Walker and state Republican legislative leaders who have a made a career out of sticking it to Milwaukee  have figured out a way to deny the city a streetcar line, the Journal Sentinel is reporting.

Republicans on the Legislature's budget committee intend to approve a measure Thursday that would bar utility ratepayers from having to bear any costs for a proposed streetcar in Milwaukee - a provision that likely would kill the project.

And Walker is willing to demagogue and mislead his core suburban, talk-radio driven audience to get his way:

"I'd spend my time and resources on economic development projects that put people to work instead of a streetcar that will affect a handful of people on the upper east side of Milwaukee," Walker said then.

Just as Walker obeyed city-fearing, suburban-focused talk radio and denied the two largest state cities a federally-funded Amtrak line - - and the state a spot in a regional rail network connecting cities with major university and research center employers - - Walker continues to marginalize Milwaukee over the street car plan.

It's the city he learned to hate when he had to come into to work as County Executive in its downtown  everyday - - and wants to keep it its urban job poll hemmed inside, and access in and out congested with endless freeway work, and the city wedded to an antiquated, cash-starved  (by Walker's budgets) and-shrinking bus transit system.

This is what the talkers and their suburban base want: a stultified city with no new fuel-efficient, clean-burning, greener and hipper transit alternatives.

The Walkerites talk a good game about attracting and nurturing entrepreneurship, and stimulating business creation, and accelerating corporate recruiting, but many younger creative people who might come to Milwaukee would be leaving modern cities where local rail and good train connections in-and-outbound are routine.

If the answer to "where's the train?" and "where is the light rail stop" is "nowhere," and expect fewer relocations, and fewer enthusiastic reviews about the lifestyle here via social media, too.

Walker & Co. are drunk with state power, and their drink of choice is $4/gal. gasoline.

About PolitiFact's In-Depth Piece On Walker At Marquette

First of all, read this exhaustively-investigated story by a Pulitzer Prize winner reported to the limits of sourcing and available documentation.

This will be just the first of many investigative pieces about Walker by various media if he really runs for President.

And while the piece strongly erases the claim that Walker was kicked out of school, it documents other nagging questions - - some also noted previously, here - - about related Walker circumstances and claims, as the PolitiFact piece says:

Today, he tells national interviewers he was just one semester short of completion, and left for a career opportunity in the private sector without thought to a potential career in politics -- a sort of reluctant warrior entering the public arena. 

"Not long after Tonette and I were married (in 1993), there was an opening in the state Assembly," Walker said in an expansive book-promotion interview at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia with talk radio host Chris Stigall on Nov. 21, 2013. "A number of my friends said, you talk about this stuff all the time, why don't you run?" 

But his account is incomplete and at odds with itself on several counts. 

Walker actually has about a year left in school, maybe more, based on Marquette records and available evidence -- considerably more than the 15 to 17 credits he mentions to interviewers. 

He earned 94 credits and had senior status, accumulating a 2.59 grade point average, the Walker campaign for governor said in 2010. 

His credit total is 34 short of the 128 minimum needed to graduate in one major, a total that requires an average of 16 per semester. 

Walker told the 1990 yearbook interviewer he was triple majoring in political science, philosophy and economics; that likely would have meant an even heavier load. 

Asked now about the apparent discrepancy, Walker told us he wasn’t sure exactly how many credits he needed because he hasn’t looked it up.

Also:

Walker, for his part, has emphasized how marriage and fatherhood strained his available time and finances.

Critics don’t argue that point, but they have cried foul at how he frames it. 

In January 2013, Walker said in his annual "state of the state" speech that, "I thought I would squeeze in a course here or there and finish things off in a year or two, but then Tonette and I got married." 

A story in Time made a similar point after its reporter interviewed Walker. After taking the Red Cross job in 1990, the story said, "at first he tried to be a part time student, but quickly the births of his children took that option off the table." 

In reality, Walker didn’t marry until 1993, and his first of two sons arrived in 1994.

Walker's supporters will argue that this is all ancient history, but I think the past is prologue because the discrepancies and the way Walker has failed to correct them reinforce Walker's ignorance or inability to speak truthfully, as also noted often by PolitiFact.

Walker will find that life as a national candidate is more than calling into local talk radio and saying whatever comes to mind without challenge by the host.

Here It Comes, Wisconsin: Governing By Villainification

Not, that's not a misspelling.

And I didn't mean "vilification." though we will hear plenty of that when Scott Walker takes office as Governor of Wisconsin in two weeks and the GOP moves into the post January 3rd phase of Operation Blame Game.

I said Villainification, because Walker and his legislative lieutenants will repeatedly run down their villains' roll call - - Gov. Jim Doyle, Democrats, unions, liberals, President Barack Obama, the UW system, the City of Madison, the UW System, graspy minorities, the entire federal guvmint, regulators and regulations of every imaginable type and stripe, etc., ad nauseum, et al - - to paper over and otherwise rationalize away setbacks, simple mistakes or basic powerlessness when unpredictable events produce unpleasant or unplanned consequences.

Walker was a villainophile par excellence during his eight-plus years as Milwaukee County Executive, serving up, when needed - - Tom Ament - - the gift that kept on giving - - along with Lee Holloway, County Government in toto, unions, John Norquist, Tom Barrett, Jim Doyle, faded-from-memory contractors, stimulus dollars too juicy to turn down, various campaign workers, and any other scapegoat to deflect responsibility for his bad budgets, failed appointments, revenue shortfalls, inter-governmental glitches, service scandals, acts of God, or God knows what.

Then after dabbing a little lipstick on the pigs he'd taken to market - - away he'd go, motorcycling, Twittering and evading any responsibility for snoozing at the switch and succumbing to disinterest while preferring to running for Governor.

And thereby leaving Milwaukee County in worse shape than he'd found it.

Did you ever hear him utter the equivalent of "my bad?"

After the facade collapse at O'Donnell Park this summer that killed a 15-year-old boy, it was revealed that Milwaukee County had no system in place to regularly inspect County facilities.

What was Walker's response, given that he had been County Executive for more than eight years?

He made it a two-fer (I'll highlight them so you don't miss 'em):

"Walker said Tuesday that his administration had inherited the current inspection system and had started to take steps to improve it even before the tragic accident at the O'Donnell Park parking facility last June. He also said he had suggested one change in a prior budget that was rejected by the County Board."

Full story here.

Hauling out the villains and shifting blame their way is an old conservative talk radio trick.

The talkers regularly tee up their usual suspects (I'll spare you the derogatory nicknames): Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid or John Norquist or the Clintons or Jim Doyle - - you hear the squawking on the AM dial all the live long day - - to gin up the audience...heat up the ratings...inflate the talkers' sense of self-importance - -  regardless of how synthetic or mythological or just plain false is the villain's connection to real world cause-and-effect.

Take the discredited allegations about "voter fraud" - - here the villains were ACORN and a few pathetic petty criminals who filled in fraudulent voter paperwork, got caught and were rightly punished, but who were not master-minding a grand conspiracy stealing elections.

Or consider the tiresome, talk-radio red herring that Wisconsin has lost jobs because it's a "tax hell, but compare that phony rhetoric, say, to the real job losses resulting from Walker's imperious cancellation - - he called it a "victory" - -  of the federally-funded Madison-Milwaukee train.

Talk about a hellish move: Walker cost Wisconsin a train assembly plant in Milwaukee, and at least 4,700 rail construction and additional white and blue-collar positions.

Or think about the Right's big lie about the "government's takeover of health care," an effective sound bite for sure - - and also an issue ironically relevant for Tea Party and other conservative office-takers who will soon delight in elite, taxpayer-subsidized-and-government-provided-public-employee health care plans.

Managing by blame-shifting was Walker's M.O around here, but it got old and explains why he got only 38% of the gubernatorial vote in Milwaukee County.

Some finger-pointing is inevitable after a tumultuous election, but Walker, his talk radio handlers and press release driven legislator allies have little subtlety in their playbooks and probably won't want to toss the villainification template.

Without it, the work would get harder and the finger of responsibility point only to you.

Walker On Downtown Streetcars: Blind, Perhaps, But No Way Blindsided

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker and some of his talk radio GOP water-carriers have said that they were blindsided by the Congressional agreement to allocate legislatively $91.5 million in languishing federal transit funding.

[Some history here.]

The division cut the money 60-40, with Milwaukee getting the lion's share ($55 million) for a downtown trolley system and the county getting the lesser share ($36) for bus purchases.

Walker and the gang's-blame-someone-else response is wrong, inaccurate and disproven by the record, so if Walker and the talkers felt blindsided, maybe they need to start reading the newspaper and perhaps remembering, photocopying or bookmarking its contents.

Twenty-one months ago, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, frustrated with Walker's refusal to accept a 50-50 split of the funding - - note that Walker and talk radio's self-defeating, city dissing position was and is 'not-one-dime-for-rail' - - told the Journal Sentinel he might independently seek to finance the trolley system if Walker declined the compromise.

Story here.

The headline writer didn't miss the point of the story:

Barrett explores bypassing county on transit plans

Then about two months ago, Barrett told the Journal Sentinel that he was pursuing a permanent resolution of the deadlock with both the incoming Obama administration and the state's congressional delegation.

"Barrett, meanwhile, said he was in talks with President-elect Barack Obama's staff and the Wisconsin congressional delegation "to end this stalemate once and for all." He declined to elaborate but said he remained committed to rail transit."

In the real world - - "end this stalemate once and for all...committed to rail transit... that indicated that Barrett was serious, and with Democrats running both the Congress and White House, a solution was very likely.

It was a trial balloon as big as the Goodyear blimp.

If Walker really missed it, whose fault is that?

I say: celebrate that a decision has finally been made, that there will be jobs in construction and operations, that Milwaukee is getting an upgrade to its bus fleet (unless Walker turns down the money because there are recurring operating costs attached, which he has said made stimulus funding toxic), and the beginning of a modern rail system to boost the downtown and the entire city and county.

Walker needs to start leading the community, and stop following talk radio.

Anti-transit ideology, fantasy still rule region, Walker budgets

[Updated] I want to add one more item to nearly two weeks' blogging that tries to expand the context in which citizens and opinion-makers and officials discuss the recent violence in and reporting about Milwaukee, including these blog items:

* A summary post about the many intentional state and regional financial, policy and legal decisions over decades which kept the City of Milwaukee land-locked and its predominantly-minority residents segregated by race and income from regional housing, business development, job opportunities and transit in the wealthier, whiter surrounding suburban counties;

* A followup post focusing on then-Milwaukee County Executive and now Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's long disinterest in Milwaukee employment and hostility to the city and Milwaukee County's transit deficits and solutions.

Then a blog reader reminder me of a post I'd written in February, 2007 about Walker and transit. 

I was grateful for the reminder, as I sometimes forget what I've posted here - - there are more than 17,000 posts just since June, 2010, when Google began keeping score - -  but shame on me for not going back further in the archives to find something relevant.

And relevant to more than the discriminatory disconnects and disregards and damage done to Milwaukee through public policy choices and spending that marginalize the state's biggest city.

The story told in the posting sheds more light on the mindset - - a term used advisedly, and generously - - of Scott Walker which he'd tipped us to nearly ten years ago, and a good three years before he was elected Governor.

A Governor who is willing to starve state transit, borrow to the hilt, ram through, despite denials and double-talk even more highway expansion on the west side where residents don't want it and please the road-builders with a blank check because he told us in 2007 he wants everyone in Milwaukee to own and drive a car.

Even though before the Great Recession deepened, data showed that 23% of City of Milwaukee households were without access to a vehicle.

As ludicrous is the poor en masse magically getting flush enough to buy cars - - does Walker - - he with the private transit taxpayers r\give him 24/7 since January, 2011 via state-paid cars, drivers, airplanes, pilots - - see the contradiction and his cause-and-effect responsibilities as he keeps the minimum wage frozen at a poverty-enforcing $7.25/hr? - -  given the upfront purchase, licensing and registration costs to owners, plus operating and maintenance expenses, the greatly expanded car ownership Walker fantasizes about does underscore his hostility to transit and 'justify' the added highway expansion he supports that would reward his road-building pals. 

Talk about a win-win for ideologically-blinded free marketers.

So if you still need a "Eureka Moment" to grasp who Walker is and to explain, shall we say, his 'philosophy' - - if his audible dog whistles about the poor, or his warning to upper-income exurban Waukesha County exurbanites about letting Wisconsin 'become another Milwaukee,' or his presence at a secretive and under-reported right-wing summit anointing him for leadership didn't already supply that nugget you needed to grasp who Walker really is, I give you the 2/24/2007 posting, in full below (and if I can get a link to the Journal Sentinel roundtable cited, I will pass that on, too):

------------------------------------------------------------

Scott Walker: County Executive of Fantasy Island 

Politicians say the dumbest things when the spin machine is making too much noise in their heads.

Case in point: Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, who trashed Mayor Tom Barrett's recently-announced bus-and-trolley transit improvement proposal.

In a County with a declining transit system organized around outmoded buses, why would the County Exec. dump on a plan that would benefit the system and the county, too?

Here's what the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Walker told the paper's editorial writers Tuesday about why he opposed transit improvements in the county he purportedly leads:

"...Walker said he would like to grow the local economy enough so lower-income people don't have to rely on transit and could instead afford to buy cars if they chose."

As a friend quipped to me Friday night, right - - so they can drive their cars to jobs in Waukesha?

Walker even invoked the ghost of light rail, killed in Milwaukee by talk radio and the Thompson administration nearly a decade ago, to demagogue against Barrett's proposal - - which is not a light rail plan.

I know Walker knows the difference, but when have the facts ever driven the local debate about transit?

In Milwaukee County politics, talk radio sets the agenda, then Walker, knowing his lines, reacts with rigidity, fantasy and spin.

There's a slogan you can write down and put on your refrigerator [echoing Walker's 2002 campaign mantra].

Talk Radio Has Role In Transportation Mess

The Public Policy Forum's Rob Henken wrote a column in the Journal Sentinel's Sunday Crossroads section about the region's political gridlock on transportation finance.

Henken has been involved and consistent on this since matter the mid-90's, as this news story shows - - a story that also shows how deeply entrenched is Tea Party mentality on the Right when it comes to transportation solutions.

Though, as always, the Right exempts road building and its tax-supported billions from the perils of Big Government.

But my point today is to provide reminder of the damaging role that talk radio has played in getting us to where we are today - - a one-dimensional, congested, rail-free zone, as I wrote about for Crossroads a couple of years ago - - even though local conservative talk radio hosts en masse hypocritically and predictably jumped on the Zoo Interchange problems and pointed fingers everywhere except at themselves.

And I'm not overstating conservative talk radio influence in SE Wisconsin when it comes to whipping up fears about light rail among core suburban listeners, and in downright panicking office-holders who might stray from the anti-rail template.

Some history:

Gov. Tommy Thompson and his state DOT at the time crafted a regional East-West Corridor transportation plan that called for more than a billion dollars of spending and improvements - - most for highways in Milwaukee and Waukesha Counties, and also for a starter light rail system.

Both the Milwaukee County and Waukesha County Boards approved the plan conceptually, though with differing priorities and caveats to be reconciled, but Henken is right when he says that there was movement towards a compromise and comprehensive fix that included both highways and transit.

I sat in as a mayoral staffer on Tommy's presentation of the plan in Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist's office; Tommy brought along a brace of high-ranking officials and their time-line boards and their optimism. They left with an agreement from Norquist that while the Mayor wasn't happy with all elements of the plan, he would not attack it.

But talk radio went nuts over light rail.

They pressured legislators in Madison to block it - - at one point, then Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen (R-Town of Brookfield) followed up and inserted language in the state budget outlawing any state spending on light rail consideration in Milwaukee County - - and pressed Waukesha County officials to kill the line.

Tommy quickly abandoned his own plan.

I remember Larry Sandler, the Journal Sentinel's transportation reporter, calling me for my reaction to a statement that Tommy's people were sandbagging the plan by pledging that not a nickel of state money would finance the plan's light rail piece.

I was dumbfounded, as I had heard Tommy just a few days earlier selling, touting it as he held court in Norquist's office.

Even efforts to the rescue Tommy's plan by removing Waukesha County soil from the light rail route wasn't enough to prevent its demise.

Finley put another stake into regional cooperation by vetoing the Waukesha County Board's approval; an override motion failed, and I remember hearing Finley calling into the Mark Belling show to give the 1130 WISN-AM talker the news.

And that was that: the region has gone all-highways, all-the-time-since - - enabled by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission acceptance of a $1 million planning grant from, who else? - - the state DOT - - to craft what became a $6.4 billion regional freeway reconstruction and expansion plan - - with no contemporaneous transit component to offer a modern transportation choice or to mitigate the congestion impacts from rebuilding 270 miles of freeways and adding 127 miles of new lanes over 25-30 years.

And, as Henken observes, without proper funding in place to pay for all the work.

It's an ongoing and flawed procedure, and one, by the way, to which Norquist forced SEWRPC to pay some attention in its final freeway plan recommendations.

Read the minutes of the final SEWRPC freeway advisory committee meeting: Norquist, not Scott Walker or the other so-called fiscal conservatives on the committee, led the fight to limit the plan's costs, and to force some recognition on the state to mesh road-building with strategic financing.

I was at the meeting. If not for Norquist, the entire idea of whether to urge the state to have a financing plan in place before it acquired property and fired up the bulldozers wouldn't have happened.

I'm amazed at the continuing participation of so many of these anti-compromise, big-road spenders in the region's transportation politics, as if their responsibility-free roles in planning and politics around here never happened.

Walker, of course, is running for the Republican party's 2010 nomination for Governor, and led the recent opportunistic, partisan, talk-radio fueled hissy fit over the Zoo Interchange troubles.

He must have forgotten his role in expanding the SEWRPC staff recommendations for the number of new mile lanes to be built, though he did not take the lead to help ensure that the legislature made sure there was money on hand to build them.

Thompson is mulling a run for US Senate. He presided as Governor over a massive increase in statewide road spending, but neither he or his party when it controlled the Legislature provided the money up front to pay all the bills.

Yes, yes - - Tommy was a big booster of Amtrak, but he cherry-picked an existing and successful Milwaukee-to-Chicago service while abandoning balanced transportation, running from light rail and kneeling before talk radio.

Finley quit the Waukesha County Executive position and took over the Milwaukee Public Museum.

I often wonder if he regrets not being able to ride a train into the downtown from the Waukesha County - - a downtown, with the Museum as an anchor destination, that would have benefited from a light rail line that would have connected the convention center, Miller Park, and the Milwaukee County Zoo, and Medical complex, among others.

Waukesha County Board Chairman James Dwyer is still there, having caved in on the Finley veto override.

He's a power also on the board and the committee structure in the Southeastern Regional Planning Commission - - a body which continues to endorse freeway expansion (recommending a fast-tracked $23.1 million Interstate interchange to service a stalled mall at the stalled, transit-free Pabst Farm development in a stalled economy in Waukesha County), and goose along more sprawl development through Great Lakes water diversion recommendations to please the political and business establishment in City of Waukesha - - but which has little authentic stature on transit and rail.

Here's an idea: Get serious about balanced transportation in this region, which means turning off talk radio.

Walker Wants An Obama Bailout

Scott Walker's Post-election ChutzpaFest rolls along.

After forcing Gov. Doyle to cancel the high-speed rail connection between Madison and Milwaukee - - Doyle stopped the project to limit the state's losses and reimbursement to the feds - - Walker wants President Barack Obama to let him off the hook for the project's lost jobs by agreeing to let our  get the impulsive Republican governor-elect spend the $810 million rail grant on highway projects.

Why should Obama give Walker the time of day?

Walker has misrepresented the process by which such reprogramming had happened in the past, misrepresented the projected cost of the system's annual operation (it is $750,000, not $7.5-$10 million as Walker continues to claim) and spent the last year bashing Obama's health care reform and other domestic items.

More nerviness on Walker's part: his letter to the feds asking for authorization to spend the rail money on roads attacks the entire rail program and suggests it be scrapped nationally. Does Walker not understand that the rail plan is a key Obama goal?

So Walker wants a favor from Obama and goes into attack move when asking for what is clearly a political bailout request?

If the money is lost to rail in Wisconsin, it will go to another rail project, probably in Illinois, New York or Florida.

And if Walker is facing a road budget too bloated and unaffordable, he can bit the bullet and downsize or cancel projects, and tell the road-builders their donations were in vain.

Walker's game is so blatantly transparent: He's killed the train - - so Tea Partiers and talk radio hosts are elated - -  so now what, as the money disappears? Ask the feds, those evil Washington DC politicians, to shift the money to some other non-rail purposes that Walker knows is not going to happen.

When the request is denied, then it's the feds who have denied Wisconsin money for road projects that Walker has endorsed - - $3.7 billion remaining on the SE Wisconsin freeway expansion, one billion for I-39/90 expansion from the Dells to Illinois, and others - - but for which there is no money.

And Walker can stay on message: Obama bad, Walker good.

Rhetoric and reckless actions have consequences and Scott Walker's is that he has ruined his post-election honeymoon by trashing a fine project, killing jobs and making Wisconsin a poor partner with the federal government.

Let Walker be consoled by talk radio as he works his way through a problem completely of his own creation.

Documenting Walker's hostility to Milwaukee jobs, development

In the wake of GOP Gov. Scott Walker's pledge of $4.5 million in aid to Milwaukee's job-depressed north side after violence there two weeks ago, I noted on this blog that Walker in 2010 campaigned against and helped forfeit federally-funded Amtrak rail line expansion work worth more than $800 million which included train assembly and maintenance work underway and targeted at low-income north side Milwaukee residents.

I also wrote several posts - - one summary, here - - pointing out that Walker has long been a champion of spending more than $6 billion on the freeway system in the Milwaukee area which keeps the region heavily segregated by race and income by routinely omitting transit upgrades that could help Milwaukee workers in a city land-locked by state law connect with jobs and other opportunities in the suburbs.

I also want to remind readers of Walker's disinterest in and outright hostility to  Milwaukee job creation when he was a GOP state legislator representing suburban Wauwatosa and, later, as Milwaukee County Executive:

* From his legislative perch, Walker sided with other suburban politicians and killed and helped kill a light rail system in Milwaukee that would have provided construction work, plus housing and business development at stations and along the rail corridors - - a job-creating phenomenon which has occurred in other cities when light rail was built and expanded.

In 2008, I wrote:

Years ago, Walker promised his handlers on local right-wing talk radio programs that he would stand rigid with them against rail - - in an anti-urban stance that earned him the nickname "Scott Waukesha."

Walker told The Milwaukee Journal in a 1999 story that it would be OK with him if multiple, major transportation projects in a package that might include Milwaukee rail had to die together to keep light rail from being built...

That transportation package did not produce urban rail of any kind, thanks to the stonewalling by Walker and his talk radio lieutenants - - but did lead to the rebuilding of the Sixth St. Bridge, the removal of the Park East Freeway spur, the construction of the Lakeshore State Park just off the Summerfest grounds, and the provision of seed money that jump-started the Marquette Interchange project.

Here is the story [the link is now dead, but the quote is accurate] and the key quote is:

"Building a limited light rail system could cost as much as $180 million. Diehard light-rail opponents, such as Waukesha County Executive Daniel Finley and state Rep. Scott Walker (R-Wauwatosa), immediately objected to spending any of the money on a rail transit system. Walker said he would be willing to sacrifice everything else in the package to stop light rail, because he fears the system would be expanded at taxpayers' expense."

* The County had an economic development office into which Walker inserted Tim Russell, a long-time campaign gofer and and county staff aide, as the $83,000-a-year assistant manager.

Walker tried to get the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors to appoint Russell as the top economic development office administrator, but supervisors balked, so Walker created yet another job for Russell - - managing, against county ethics officials' advice - - a non-profit veterans organization embedded into county government.

Russell later pleaded guilty to stealing from that organization and went to jail in the so-called John Doe I prosecution which used evidence seized from a secret email system Russell helped to install in Walker's county executive office suite.

See this outstanding summary by David Umhoefer, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter. 

* When asked twice during a 2010 gubernatorial debate with challenger and Milwaukee Mayor Barrett, Walker could not name a single job he had created in Milwaukee's central city.

Obviously, it was not his priority. Getting elected Governor was.

But ad the question been asked a little more broadly, Walker could have answered:

I did find work for Tim Russell.