Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Walker, WEDC, And "Transparency." Very Situational

Though he chairs the troubled cookie jar known as the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, where state auditors found that rules, laws and everyday spending, accounting and performance standards had been routinely ignored since the WEDC's inception, Walker somehow summoned up the chutzpah today to say that repairing the mess over which he has 'presided' is an opportunity for more transparency.

The situation also provides an opportunity to develop more transparency with "clear expectations, clear policies and clear follow-up," Walker said.
How does he get away with mocking true transparency by hiding his attack on labor during the 2010 campaign, then "drop[ing] the bomb" with what he called "a modest proposal" on citizen/public employees?

And by killing the Department of Commerce as a political, promise-fulfilling replacement for the WEDC, where  transparency has been turned into its opposite?

Walker has played fast and loose with the phrase and its implementation dating back to 'managing' the Milwaukee County Executive's Office with partisan fund-raising, Internet and organizing operatives hidden on his staff and payroll.

And Walker's campaign website had for more than a year carried a link to this piece in the Lakeland Times in which he endorsed "transparency" as a lifestyle:

When he says he believes in government transparency, it's not just a campaign slogan, Walker said.

"I don't just say that, I've lived it," he said.
And I'd copied the link to the campaign posting more than once - - examples from 2011 and 2012 are here and here - -  but this is where those campaign links take you now:

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5 comments:

Gareth said...

Does this mean that WEDC will set up a legal cooperation fund financed by loose change from billionaires?

Anonymous said...

he IS transparent, in that there's nothing inside.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

I am guessing that since they were created as an extra-governmental entity outside of oversight and public review, there will be a vast legal resource available to them without having to go through any pesky public financing hurdles.

Am I too cynical?

Jake formerly of the LP said...

As we've seen over the last 2 years, you can't be too cynical when it comes to WEDC. The lack of transparency and rules with this thing was a feature to the corporates, not a bug.

Anonymous said...

And the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel still remains silent . . .