Saturday, August 4, 2007

Charlie Sykes Rips County Officials in Pension Scandal, Overlooks The County Executive

Charlie Sykes, the lead conservative AM radio talker at 620 WTMJ - - and, not coincidentally, also the major media creator and protector of County Executive Scott Walker - - has managed to scold all the parties involved in the ongoing county pension scandals - - except Scott Walker, county exec since 2002.

How convenient.

Imagine the coordinated GOP/rightwing radio and blog blitz that would have been launched against Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett - - a Democrat - - if a potential $50 million liability were discovered having festered on his watch.

Nothing could have contained the outrage.

But Walker is a Republican, and the Right does not hold its own accountable, whether it's Scott Walker on the local level, or George Bush nationally.

The Right only has one standard of judgement - - the double standard: Democrats can do nothing right and Republicans can do nothing wrong.

4 comments:

Other Side said...

Heck, even when they've been found to have broken the law, they don't do the time ... Scott Jensen ring a bell?

Douglas McCloud said...

Nice article in the MJS. Your analysis of the issue ain't on target, however. Almost every incident cited in the July 31 article highlighting the abuse occured prior to 2000 so I'm not certain how you connect this all to Scott Walker. Policies passes in 1991, 1996 and 1998 connect to Walker who took office in 2003. How exactly? I confess I'm perplexed.

xoff said...

Does anyone recall that County Exec Dave Schultz had a top aide by the name of Charlie Sykes?

James Rowen said...

Douglas:
Walker took over in '02, not '03. He did not lift a finger as the pension board approved continuing buy-backs through January of this year. Did not investigate the IRS angle either. Did not use the bully pulpit to blast the buy-back provision. Didn't get backdrop waivers from all his appointees, as he promised he would.
This is not leadership.