ScottWalkerTalk Obscures

The Scott Walker Gang has been taking Rhetoric 101 and talking like they aced the class.

Remember how Walker characterized the budget-repair bill? "A modest proposal." That was deceitful on several levels. "Dropped the bomb" was more accurate, but that was supposed to be for David Koch's ears, not ours.

He went further at his deer-in-the-headlights performance on Capitol Hill - - where he finally had to admit his budget repair bill was about a lot more than repairing a budget - - when he bumped "modest proposal" to "truly progressive."

He's described the forced cuts to local public employees and other mandated controls handed down from the state as a helpful "tool-kit." Again, the label obscures the impact.

Now the buzzword to describe the momentous proposal to break apart the University of Wisconsin System, recreate the Madison campus as something closer to a private school, and help about substantial tuition hikes - - initially called "modest" in Walker's budget - - is "flexibility,"

The conclusion of today's lesson in Political Speak: when you hear warm and fuzzy terminology from this bunch, think the opposite.