Ugly Team Walker Mindset Predated Emails Release

Journal Sentinel columnist James E. Causey put the right interpretation on the racist and otherwise ugly comments and 'jokes'  found in the court-ordered release of emails that had been received by, and in some cases circulated among various Scott Walker appointees or friends of the staff.

Wrote Causey:

People will look at these emails and draw their own conclusions of how much Walker did or did not know. One thing we can determine is that there was a culture in place where people felt free enough to share jokes about race, religion, the poor and disabled. 

And the cultural mindset starts at the top.

But the Walker staffers on these emails were not the first such aides to be linked to messages with crude, negative stereotypes.

Remember that there was the Walker campaign fundraiser fired in December who posted these tweets, according to the Wisconsin State Journal:

“I will choke that illegal mex cleaning in the library. Stop banging (expletive) chairs around and turn off your Walkman,” she wrote in a tweet from March 9, 2011, the Journal Sentinel reported. 

And in January of that year, she complained about her bus trip from California to Las Vegas after watching the University of Wisconsin play in the Rose Bowl. 

“This bus is my worst (expletive) nightmare Nobody speaks English & these ppl dont know how 2 control their kids #only3morehours #illegalaliens,” she tweeted.

And the number three official in the Wisconsin Department of Transportation was fired in August after posting a Facebook rant about his seeing Satan in illegal immigrants:

[Stephen] Krieser’s remarks were part of a Facebook discussion Thursday about a bumper sticker on sale at a Germantown gas station that read “Illegal Immigrant Hunting Permit … No Bag Limit – Tagging Not Required.” 

Responding to a comment that Jesus would be considered a non-English-speaking foreigner if he appeared in the United States, Krieser commented that the sticker “is probably over the top.” 

But he went on to call immigrants who have entered the country without permission criminals, saying they’ve crushed southern states’ social safety nets and education systems and skewed the service and agricultural sectors against natural-born Americans.

In fact, The Progressive found an email disclosing yet another anti-immigrant rant to which Walker said to the originator on his staff:

"Don't hold back."

So the questions for Walker - - though he won't entertain questions about the emails - - are:

Why are such people drawn to and hired by his administration and how in this day-and-age of viral communications and an Internet that does forget are they so unafraid of emailing, tweeting, Facebooking and circulating these sentiments.