Walker, Aping The Imperious, Appears Completely Hapless

It is hard to know where to begin getting a grip on Scott Walker's lack of same - - from his inability to be honest to his tendency towards braggadocio - - but closing the Capitol on the eve of his budget speech that he now seems bent on delivering to the equivalent of a selected studio audience as police keep the public away suggests a definite tendency towards self-destruction.

While there are obvious qualitative differences between Madison, Cairo and Tripoli, it is Walker's miscalculations and overt behaviors - - quashing freedoms, issuing ultimatums, trying to force protesters to go home, manipulating his appearances - - that give him more in common with foreign dictators than the Wisconsin Governors he is following and the office he and they have held.

Only a profoundly tone-deaf chief executive - - or one on a serious power trip - - would fail to see the self-destructive image he is cementing in the minds of a public that can throw him out of office in ten months.

And some of his legislative allies even faster.