Walker Hits The Fan

This Journal Sentinel blockbuster can't make for happy reading in the Walker camp.

And it's hard to overlook the political environment, this blog's namesake):

Madison - At least four FBI agents are at the home of a former top aide to Gov. Scott Walker.

Deputies from the Dane County Sheriff's Department are also present at the home at 502 Dunning St. on Madison's East Side.

City of Madison property records identify the home as belonging to Cynthia A. Archer, the former deputy administration secretary to the Republican governor.

"We're doing a law enforcement action," one of the FBI agents told a reporter.

He didn't identify himself or provide further comment but confirmed that he and three others were with the FBI and that Dane County sheriff's deputies were also involved.

One of the agents had a large camera and two of them were wearing latex gloves. They spent time in the backyard and then went into the house. One also removed a large banker's box and put it in the truck of a car....

Archer, 52, followed Walker to Madison from Milwaukee County after the former county executive won the governor's race in November. She had held the county's top staff position under Walker...

Before she abruptly quit on Aug. 19, she was making $124,000 as deputy secretary in the state Department of Administration, the agency that oversees state contracts, the state budget, the state workforce and other key government functions. At the time, state officials said only that Archer had taken a personal leave of absence, giving no details on reasons for the leave, how soon she'd come back or what her duties would be...

Archer's departure coincides with a growing John Doe investigation in Milwaukee County, started last year after the disclosure that a Walker staffer at the county had posted political commentary on websites while on her job in the county executive's office.

In her email Friday, Archer said she was "not involved in any way in the John Doe investigation."

A John Doe is an investigation in which witnesses give testimony in a closed proceeding before a judge to determine if any laws were broken.

Tom Nardelli, another former county employee who took a state job with Walker, quit his state job as administrator for the Division of Environmental and Regulatory Services in July. That was three days after he had accepted the job, a transfer from another state administrative position. Nardelli was Walker's chief of staff in the county executive's office.