Walker's Reagan complex, and our need to punt

If the washed-up Rudy Giuliani hadn't stolen all the limelight at last week's Manhattan soiree intended to introduce Scott Walker to various monied power-brokers, the reporters allowed there inadvertently would have topped their stories with words from Walker that put him in the Ego Hall of Fame.

That's because Walker dropped a verbal bomb with a disclosure about his signature anti-union politicking in Wisconsin - - and remember, this was forty-eight hours before he dropped another bomb back home by promising to sign a so-called 'right-to-work' law he'd distanced himself from during his re-election campaign a few months ago.

What did Walker tell his audience that got lost in the Giuliani FUBAR?

Let Larry Kudlow, the conservative financial TV show host and co-founder of the group which invited Walker to New York tell the story in The National Review:

Noteworthy, Walker argued that when Reagan fired the PATCO air-traffic controllers over their illegal strike, he was sending a message of toughness to Democrats and unions at home as well as our Soviet enemies abroad. Similarly, Walker believes his stance against unions in Wisconsin would be a signal of toughness to Islamic jihadists and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. 

And you thought Walker was just sending simple anti-union messages to Iowa Tea Party caucus voters?

Hardly. Walker imagines himself the de-facto GOP nominee and Commander-in-Chief-in-waiting, so ISIS fighters and Vladimir Putin better get in line now,

For the record, this is not the first evidence of deluded Walkeropathy or his disclosure of an obsession with Ronald Reagan that could get the whole world into trouble.

Remember Walker's effort to impress David Koch - - only it turned out to be the fake David Koch - - during the infamous prank phone call with a self-aggrandizing Ronald Reagan comparison with which Walker wrapped up the conversation:

This is an exciting time. This is — you know, I told my cabinet, I had a dinner the Sunday, or excuse me, the Monday right after the 6th. Came home from the Super Bowl where the Packers won, and that Monday night I had all of my cabinet over to the residence for dinner. Talked about what we were gonna do, how we were gonna do it. We’d already kinda built plans up, but it was kind of the last hurrah before we dropped the bomb. 

And I stood up and I pulled out a picture of Ronald Reagan, and I said, you know, this may seem a little melodramatic, but 30 years ago, Ronald Reagan, whose 100th birthday we just celebrated the day before, had one of the most defining moments of his political career, not just his presidency, when he fired the air-traffic controllers. And, uh, I said, to me that moment was more important than just for labor relations or even the federal budget, that was the first crack in the Berlin Wall and the fall of Communism because from that point forward, the Soviets and the Communists knew that Ronald Reagan wasn’t a pushover. 

And, uh, I said this may not have as broad of world implications, but in Wisconsin’s history — little did I know how big it would be nationally — in Wisconsin’s history, I said this is our moment, this is our time to change the course of history. And this is why it’s so important that they were all there. I had a cabinet meeting this morning and I reminded them of that and I said for those of you who thought I was being melodramatic you now know it was purely putting it in the right context.

Walker may have shoved himself into the clown car driver seat on the road to Iowa, but there have to be people in that New York City audience, or in corporate board rooms, and in everyday living rooms who are beginning to realize that Walker doesn't have the right sense of balance, proportion and preparation to be anywhere near that "football" briefcase with the nuclear launch codes that is always within reach of the President.

Punt away from that.