Scott Walker 'Reformed' Politics Back To Tricky Dick

The revelations about Scott Walker's misuse of taxpayer-financed Milwaukee County government remind me of those stories about 'Good Samaritans' who stop alongside stranded motorists just to steal their wallets.

Or financial advisers who siphon off Grandma's long-term care investments to jet off to Vegas

In fact, Scott Walker is just a higher-level version of protege Tim Russell - - the long-time Walker go-fer and repeat job holder - - to whom Walker entrusted a Veteran's fund which Russell feloniously looted.

Remember that Walker was elected after incumbent Milwaukee County Executive Tom Ament was run out of office for overseeing changes in the County pension system that let people walk away with unconscionable gobs of public money.

What Milwaukee County taxpayers got instead was just another kind of stealing - - not as brazen as Russell's, or with old-fashioned fountain pens or stick-up guns - - with white-collar patina.

What took place on Walker's watch was the integration of the public assets of the office he held in trust for the taxpayers to serve partisan, personal political advancement.

And also for other GOP candidates and their operatives who were plugged into the operation through a secret electronic Internet gateway used routinely and repeatedly for GOP fund-raising, strategizing, event planning, and media manipulating.

All humming along just a few feet down the hall from Walker's office, operated and accessed by people on Walker's public staff and the County payroll - - even in offices running public housing programs or general government administration.

It all added up a public subsidy kept secret for Walker and other GOP campaigns - - arranged by Team Walker itself.

Like a boxer putting weights inside his gloves, the hidden apparatus gave the Walkerites unfair advantages because more campaign focus, time and privately-raised resources could be used to beat up select GOP primary challengers and Democratic opponent Tom Barrett.

Remember, when the pension scandal was breaking, Ament appeared clueless.

Now that the post-Ament Walker scandal resurfaced through the email dump, Walker wants you to believe that he was clueless, too.

You can believe that if you want - - though isn't it odd that Walker now chooses to emulate the leader he said had to go - - but the context for assessing Walker is still the reformer's mantle that he claimed.

Truth is, Walker is as old school as it gets, an ambition-driven, second-tier throwback to Tricky Dick Nixon.

One difference: we have secret emails this time, not secret tapes.

Granted, Walker didn't send his operatives breaking into private offices to install electronic devices and tap phones.

He simply invited them into government jobs and public offices where they brought their own electronic devices on which they ran their dirty tricks.