[Updated, Friday, 11:35 p.m.] Despite the attention paid to hidden coordination among Scott Walker, his campaign and outside organizations and funders in 2011-'12, I have yet to see any follow-up by Wisconsin media to the open, boastful disclosure by conservative leaders in March that Scott Walker was among 15 activists who met in Milwaukee in 2007 to plan the capture of the State of Wisconsin.
Again, I ask: Who was there?
I have twice posted the story - - first time, here - - with its citations and unabashed quotations from Republican National Chairman Reince Priebus and a conservative activist who has been the point person in Wisconsin for the Koch-funded group Americans for Prosperity.
Salon.com did its job, but where is the Milwaukee and statewide pursuit?
From my most recent posting, in July:
Again, I ask: Who was there?
I have twice posted the story - - first time, here - - with its citations and unabashed quotations from Republican National Chairman Reince Priebus and a conservative activist who has been the point person in Wisconsin for the Koch-funded group Americans for Prosperity.
Salon.com did its job, but where is the Milwaukee and statewide pursuit?
From my most recent posting, in July:
Leading national right-wing strategists proudly disclosed at their annual gathering last week that coordinated work with and for Scott Walker had begun in 2007 -- or three years before his election:.
[National GOP chair Reince] Priebus made his comments on a Saturday morning CPAC panel addressing how conservatives could fight and defeat organized labor state by state...
“How did we do it in Wisconsin?” RNC Chair Reince Priebus asked Saturday morning. “The simplest way I can tell you is we had total and complete unity between the state party, quite frankly, Americans for Prosperity, the Tea Party groups, the Grandsons of Liberty. The [Glenn Beck-instigated] 9/12ers were involved...
Panelist Luke Hilgemann, the current Americans for Prosperity COO who formerly led the Koch-backed group’s Wisconsin efforts, told the crowd that the 2011 victory “started back in 2007 on the shores of Lake Michigan,” at a meeting of fifteen intrepid activists who’d “had enough of government overreach,” including then-Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker. Priebus, a former Wisconsin GOP head, credited the ability to pass Walker’s reforms in part to the party and Tea Party activists unifying well before the 2010 primary...So since a few chosen people apparently did know and helped craft the Wisconsin/Walker/union-busting blueprint, let's ask:
Who was there at the pivotal meeting disclosed at CPAC?
I think that unity occurred because the public sector unions poked the bear one to many times. As County Executive, I remember Scott Walker's job being made impossible to do by county union leadership. Then they took it personally to Walker. What goes around, comes around.
ReplyDeleteAnon@12:33, I am not that familiar with Milwaukee County politics, I assume the police and fire unions were two public sector unions that refused to poke the bear, and therefore did not have to deal with any 'come around'?
ReplyDeleteWhat a public-serving, Pulitzer-worthy investigative report this story would make!
ReplyDeleteIn his testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in April 2011, didn't Scott Walker testify that he hadn't begun to develop his plan for anti-union restrictions until after the 2010 Gubernatorial election?
ReplyDelete@ October 2, 2014 at 12:33 PM
ReplyDeleteNice revision. When SKW was elected the citizens had been whipped into a fury over the pension backdrop which weakened their bargaining power. To suggest that the unions were poking SKW is laughable. No, what happened is that the rank and file members got shat on since the pension scandal and continues today. One thing that you said is right. What goes around, comes around.
I'm all for criticizing Walker. He is corrupt and is harming the state economy greatly. However, you really have to support your statements better. I know that takes more time, but stub posts are not a service to the reader. Even knowledgeable folks may wonder how the assertions here are connected to each other and why some connections are altogether missing.
ReplyDeleteDisproves some of the mythology about how the Tea Party started if it was meeting with the Wisconsin GOP big shots in 2007.
ReplyDelete