More Scott Walker scuzzy behavior revealed

It turns out that in the office of Wisconsin Governor and secretive policy-maker Scott Walker, the Wisconsin Idea - - his Wisconsin Idea - - is more about deniability and authoritarian policy-making than open government which the UW System's public service Wisconsin Idea mission statement has nurtured and applied statewide for generations.

You may remember that Walker got caught last year trying to sneak through a rewrite of the iconic Wisconsin Idea mission statement as part of his plan to diminish the UW system, faculty tenure and especially the appeal and impact of the system's flagship campus in liberal Madison:

Walker is still parsing, spinning and not coming completely clean about what he knew, and when, about gutting the UW mission statement on his way to gutting the UW's budget and purpose. 

And since we all know this FUBAR is not Walker's first trip to The Fact-Free Rodeo - - nor his sole finger-pointing relapse - - or his only high-profile failure to own up to behind-the-scenes activities... 

But did you know that the Walker administration had refused since throwing out the "drafting error" chaff to release official emails about the mission statement rewrite, thus flouting the Open Records law and trying to create administratively for Walker and his allies a new records withholding privilege - - the executive equivalent of 'activist legislating' from the bench which the right-wing yells about with the same vigor as 'Benghazi,' or "Transgender bathroom crisis," etc.

So look at what happened earlier in a Wisconsin District Court today after a judge had enough of withheld emails and truths, and improper, closed governmental, too:

Records released Friday by Gov. Scott Walker’s office in response to a judge’s order make clear he sought controversial changes in 2015 to the University of Wisconsin System’s mission statement, known as the Wisconsin Idea...

The Walker administration later backed down from proposed changes to the mission statement, calling them a “drafting error,” and they were not included in the 2015-17 budget.

The judge also rejected an effort by the Walker administration to keep the emails secret under an exemption "which has not been recognized in Wisconsin and flies in the face of long-held policies underlying Wisconsin’s Open Records Law,” {Dane County Circuit Court Judge Amy] Smith said.

Here is a link to the withheld emails released under a court order. Talk about The Wisconsin Idea, undermined.

And don't you feel you've repeatedly seen this unseemly pattern involving Walker, emails and bad governance?

* Remember when it was revealed that a Milwaukee County staffer in Walker's Milwaukee County Executive suite was misusing the Internet for partisan purposes on County time - - which led to the disclosure that Walker's staffers had set up a secret Internet system a few few feet from the boss' door to do campaign work on county time? 

* Look who was at the center of it all, according to this February, 2014 story:

Thousands of documents unsealed Wednesday link Gov. Scott Walker to a secret email system used in his office that would avoid public scrutiny when he was Milwaukee County executive.

* As a later story further explained: 

Scott Walker’s Milwaukee County staff had a code name for his gubernatorial campaign with which they secretly coordinated strategy and messaging nearly every day: “the dark side...”

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MueCounty staff also used private emails to conduct campaign business and communicate with Walker and his campaign staff, sometimes during regular working hours...County staff also used private emails to conduct campaign business and communicate with Walker and his campaign staff, sometimes during regular working hours.

* Some of those staffers enjoyed exchanging racist emails.

* Then there were the emails among Walker campaign and county staffers about keeping information "buried" about a female patient who had starved to death in a county facility until after the Nov. 2, 2010 gubernatorial election.

* And emails which showed Walker involved in sanitizing media and public reaction to the death of a boy killed by falling concrete at a Milwaukee County parking garage:

Gov. Scott Walker worked simultaneously with his campaign staff and county aides in coordinating responses to media inquiries, open records requests and news stories about the 2010 O'Donnell Park tragedy, according to newly released emails. 

The records show that Walker was integrally involved in the efforts to challenge any negative publicity after a concrete panel fell from the Milwaukee County-owned O'Donnell parking structure, killing a 15-year-old boy on June 24, 2010, on his way to Summerfest. The incident occurred in the middle of the 2010 gubernatorial campaign.

So back to the Friday-before-a-long-holiday-weekend news dump today about a judge's order to release the withheld Wisconsin Idea emails that proved Walker - - and not "a drafting error' - - were at the core of the mission statement rewriting scheme?

Say you are not surprised, Bucky.