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...