Sunday, March 18, 2012

That Sound In Wisconsin's Spring Air? The Walker Stall

There's that moment when you're driving on fumes, and the needle is below empty - -  that sickening moment when you realize you'd been stupidly pushing it and the  engine coughs up that tell-tale sickening sputter and you coast to the shoulder (if you're lucky) and shut off the engine as the traffic rolls by - - and you sit there aware that whatever you had planned isn't going to happen.

And you know its your own fault. You try to restart the engine, though you know it won't. "Oh, if I'd only..."

Team Walker and the rest of us heard that tell-tale sputter in the Walker machine last week and even more loudly on Friday.

*  The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin's largest daily, ran a long, chart-filled page-one story above the fold headlined "State sees worst job loss in U.S."

 Not good news for the recall-challenged, self-proclaimed 'job-creator' politician who conned his way to a 52% finish-line squeaker in November, 2010 with a pledge to create 250,000 private sector jobs by 2015.

*  Pam Galloway's resignation in the State Senate cost the GOP its majority there, and deducted another Republican vote for Walker's must-have/can't get/industry-written mining bill.

*  A second Dane County Circuit judge blocked implementation of the Voter ID law  - - the blatantly partisan and unneeded measure by which Walker and his legislative allies aimed to suppress the vote in Democratic-leaning districts and ensure an embedded GOP majority.

*  The Wisconsin Judicial Commission filed ethics charges against Supreme Court Justice David Prosser - - lead author of the controversial collective-bargaining decision that a split Court had issued to serve GOP legislators' partisan and political agendas.

*  Recall election timetables were firmed up for Walker, Lt. Gov. Kleefisch and four Senate seats held by Republicans in which the basic issue is whether Walker's reckless driving - -  aided by key GOP legislators and given validation by the Prosser wing of the Court - - can be stopped and the keys taken away.

*  And where was Waldo Walker mid-week as his house of cards took to wobbling? In Palm Beach FL, raking in more than $200,000+ in recall cash and pledges -- but revealing for all to see the phoniness of his repeated claims that outside money is rolling against him.

Funniest part about that PR debacle: Walker's has only his arrogance and the political amateurism on the part of his hosts in Palm Beach to blame.

They had Walker saunter into the Palm Beach town hall - - The Great Walker Has Come From Afar To Save Us - - to interrupt their council meeting and pop off with some self-serving advice about how to cut their public employee's benefits.

And the local weekly newspaper with a fine online presence was there to record this event on Walker's private national fund-raising tour,  and thus provide the upcoming campaign against Walker with his true, Emperor-Got-No-Clothes identity identity - - an image as hand-maiden to the 1% that is impervious to spin and knockdown because it is completely his own creation:

From the Palm Beach Daily News:

Embattled Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker strode into the Town Hall council chambers Wednesday afternoon, briefly interrupting a coastal protection discussion, said basically hello, and was on his way...

He also left Palm Beach $200,000 richer in contributions, with more to come from pledges following a luncheon Wednesday organized by Town Council President David Rosow and Lee Hanley, who hosted the event at his Palm Beach home.

“This is the ATM of American politics,” said Councilman Bill Diamond, who spends much of his time raising money for Republican candidates.
And then...



13 comments:

Say What? said...

OUTSTANDING!

Thanks James!

James Rowen said...

Thanks for being a reader here, Paul.

Thos E said...

Nice Post!

Anonymous said...

This list, looking back over the last week to pull it all together for us, also made my day. We remember when other media used to do that for us, don't we? Thanks!

Boxer said...

A silent spring, of sorts, is the missing negativity and arrogance emanating from Reagan's Disciple, Ron R and their right-wing chorus of Anonymouses (Anonymii?).

I hate to bring it up, lest they return in full throat, but it IS pleasant not to hear for a while.

Maybe they're huddled in an underground bunker with Dick Cheney, plotting the next war or shooting each other in the face. Or, they feel that if they can't gloat, there's no reason in posting at all. I hope it has a lot to do with evidence of a turning tide, as listed in this post.

I'm really hoping it has something to do with a phone call I received a few weeks back: it was the Republican party of Wisconsin asking 3 questions only--all related to the Walker recall. We haven't heard in the media about the results from this poll, probably because the results weren't favorable to Walker. (Because you know we'd have heard about it ad nauseum if polls results were favorable.)

The sounds of THIS silent spring can go on into summer. . . . and beyond.

Gareth said...

Walker's quote about yearning for a return to the private sector to make some "real money" --$144K for trashing the state not being sufficient for his wife's tastes--is a piece of political gold. Having it on tape is priceless.

I'm getting the feeling that the extremists who have purged the sane people from the Republican party have run out of anything resembling a salable idea.

All the public receives now is the rinse-and-repeat of tired, abrasive rhetoric being spit-out by petulant bully-boys, driven to near hysteria by their failure to silence the enemy. Now they are falling back onto a crude appeal to racism, which must churn the stomaches of sane Conservatives.

Nearly every putchist scheme has blown-up. It turns out that laws really do matter after all. Who knew? Now even some of the fiercest Tea Party Jihadists prefer resigning from office rather than facing the voters again. They didn't expect the people to resist in the hundreds of thousands. Major fail.

To quote Bob Dylan: "A hard rain is going to fall".

Say What? said...

Love the link to the car trying to start. The next
car sound we will hear is that of dead starter. Click click,click....

And then nothing. The sweat sound of a silenced right wing extremist.


You're right Boxer. Where is Reagan?
I hope he didn't feel bullied.

JB said...

"A hard rain is going to fall".
********************************

Only if enough people are registered and get to the polls.

James Rowen said...

I tried to find a sound effect for the sputtering engine, but couldn't and end to the dying battery instead. Hope people found it.

Anonymous said...

JB- WAUKESHA will not control this election. It will be the City of Milwaukee where minorities are mad as hell at Walker and are energized to vote. There was plenty registered in 2010. The energy was lacking.

Anonymous said...

The sound effect you provided is just fine. A click click of a dead starter is too obscure.

How creative. Sound effects combined with extremely creative blogging does indeed soothe the souls of those beaten down by the right wing extremists.

Betsy said...

Listening to Fox News this morning (it was playing in the diner) we heard Walker explain his voter ID rationale. According to Walker, his 17-year-old-son's best friend explained it best when he noted that if a person in Wisconsin can't get an ID, then that person is *incompetent* to vote! And Walker agrees! Common sense all around. We left rather than listen to more. Thank you Jim Rowen for all the work you do. We need more of you and a whole lot less of Walker.

James Rowen said...

Thank you, Betsy. It is depressing when Fox is on in diners and motel breakfast areas, for example. There have been times when we have asked that the channel be changed, or did ourselves, but leaving is a good tact, too.

The State Constitution declares voting to be a right, which, oddly, the Right cannot grasp.

@JB - - A big turnout in the central city would bury Walker, which is why the Voter ID bill was aimed directly at those voters.