Best Lines By Walker & The Jesters

In their own words:

* Early in then-Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker's 2010 campaign for Governor, Walker had at-will County employee and political operative Tim Russell shut down overt campaigning that had taken place on public time. Walker emailed Russell:

"We cannot afford another story like this one," Walker wrote to Russell. "No one can give them any reason to do another story. That means no laptops, no websites, no time away during the work day, etc.

* Later during the 2010 gubernatorial campaign, then Milwaukee County Executive Walker told the Lakeland Times, on transparency:

"I don't just say that, I've lived it."

*  Isthmus reported that Walker said his union-busting bill contained "really, really modest requests."

*  Walker testified at a Congressional hearing that his union-busting plan was "truly progressive," and then told Fox's Greta Van Susteren:

 "I had fun with that."

Oh, too funny! But speaking of fun...

* The Walker campaign, on behalf of a boss who killed a federally-funded Amtrak line between Madison and Milwaukee, is bringing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to Wisconsin next week for appearances and fundraisers. Both governors also inflated the projects' estimated costs to justify short-circuiting the rail improvements.

Yet in its Christie announcement, the campaign said, with a straight face, that the Governors "have done more to put America back on track than anyone in a generation."

* DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp last week spun wildly away away from the impact of her public criticism of the agency's mishandling an infected deer carcass, yet managed to tell her entire workforce in an email "the buck stops with me."

* And who could forget Oconomowoc Republican State Rep. Joel Kleefisch's full-salivation news release in support of a new Wisconsin wolf hunting season, emphasis added?

A hunting season will allow for reasonable control of the population, while marinating viable and sustainable pack numbers for this majestic animal.

And we close with a few reminders of Walker's exaggerated sense of self-importance, in his own words.

* Walker's Awesome Arrogance:

"They want me dead. I don’t think that’s an exaggeration,” Mr. Walker said in an exclusive interview with The Washington Times after a roundtable discussion Thursday at the American Enterprise Institute.

* A week later, Walker's Awesome Arrogance 2.0:

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) gave a passionate speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference Friday, rallying against recall election efforts that he said could do lasting damage.

"Lord help us if we fail," Walker said. "I'm not planning on it, but if we were to fail, I think this sets aside any courageous act in American politics for at least a decade if not a generation."

*  And more recently:

Not because this job is that important to me, 'cuz frankly my wife in some ways would love it if I'd go back to the private sector and make some real money.