The Many Faces of Scott Walker

In the wake of losing two of his most staunch supporters, now Governor Walker is calling for cooperation and bipartisanship in Madison.

Voters “want us to do more working together,” he said Wednesday in an interview in his Capitol office. “I’m not pretending that everything is going to automatically be perfect at the snap of a finger, but I think the best thing we can do is start with small things and keep working.”

Democrats said Walker showed little interest in bipartisanship before his poll numbers started to drop and the Senate recalls picked up steam.

“The governor has indicated he wants to meet with (Senate Minority Leader) Mark Miller and myself, and I welcome that,” Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) said in a statement. “But what the people want is bipartisan action. To date, it appears they are only willing to talk about bipartisanship.”

Maybe Governor Walker has seen the light and wants to join the Cullen/Schultz BiPartisan Tour. However Governor Walker\'s history suggests ulterior motives.

Walker: If you’re doing the right thing, you stay firm and, in this case, you know, we say we’ll wait it out. If they want to start sacrificing thousands of public workers who’ll be laid off, sooner or later there’s gonna be pressure on these senators to come back. We’re not compromising, we’re not gonna —

Murphy: Beautiful.

Walker: The other thing we may do, ’cause the senator I mentioned thinks that these guys — you’ve got a few of the radical ones, who, unfortunately, one of them is the minority leader, but most of the rest of them are just looking for a way to get out of this. They’re scared out of their mind, they don’t know what it means. There’s a bunch of recalls up against them. They’d really like to just get back here and get it over with. So the paycheck thing, some of the other things threaten them. I think, collectively, there’s enough going on and as long as they don’t think I’m gonna cave — which, again, we have no interest in — an interesting idea that was brought up to me this morning by my chief of staff, we won’t do it until tomorrow, is putting out an appeal to the Democrat leader that I would be willing to sit down and talk to him, the assembly Democrat leader, plus the other two Republican leaders — talk, not negotiate — and listen to what they have to say if they will in turn — but I’ll only do it if all 14 of them come back and sit down in the state Assembly. They can recess it, to come back if we’re talking, but they all have to be back there. The reason for that is, we’re verifying it this afternoon, but legally, we believe, once they’ve gone into session, they don’t physically have to be there. If they’re actually in session for that day and they take a recess, the 19 Senate Republicans could then go into action and they’d have a quorum because they started out that way. Um, so we’re double checking that. But that would be the only, if you heard that I was going to talk to them, that would be the only reason why. We’d only do it if they came back to the capital with all 14 of them. And my sense is, hell, I’ll talk to them. If they want to yell at me for an hour, you know, I’m used to that, I can deal with that. But I’m not negotiating.

Murphy: Bring a baseball bat. That’s what I’d do.

Walker: I have one in my office; you’d be happy with that. I got a Slugger with my name on it.

At least the Governor is loyal to his friends….Umm not so much!

But no one ever has, and no one ever will, accuse the governor of being “loyal to a fault.”

Just ask state Sens. Dan Kapanke and Randy Hopper. They put their careers on the line to back Walker’s anti-labor agenda — and they lost those careers Tuesday, when they were recalled.

What was the governor’s response to those losses?

Walker did a round of right-wing talk radio shows to dub the recall election results a total victory for his agenda.

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10 thoughts on “The Many Faces of Scott Walker

  1. Damage control *gack*

    Lie to me once, shame on you. Lie to me twice, shame on me. Lie to me a third, fourth, fifth and sixth time…WTF, are you kididing me? Why would anyone believe one flippin thing you have to say? You’ve shown us your true colors over and over and OVER.

    Please don’t ask us to believe you now, you corrupt, double-dealing, under-handed, amoral, perfidious, unethical party drone.

    The ONLY way you can garner any trace of faith or respect is to restore collective bargaining rights to union workers. The collective bargaining rights that you touted as a vital component in balancing the state budget.

    Let me remind you about your testimony before the House Oversight and Goverment Reform Committee.

    “How much money does it save Gov. Walker?” Kucinich demanded. “Just answer the question.”
    “It doesn’t save any,” Walker said.
    “That’s right. It obviously had no effect on the state budget,” Kucinich replied.

    We have not forgotten your dirty tricks. Not for one stinkin’ second.

    Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.

    1. Someone like Kucinich is obviously very qualified to judge budget work of an executive in a different state.

      Collective bargaining is more expansive in Wisconsin than it is for federal employees. Did Kucinich mention that?

    2. This isn’t the first time I’ve had to point this out to a poster on this site.

      Kucinich asked specifically about the provision in the bill requiring unions to recertify annually, to which Walker responded “That particular part, it doesn’t save any.”

      So not only did you leave out the first part of the exchange, you misquoted Walker. It had nothing to do with the collective bargaining provision. What was that about “dirty tricks?”

  2. As long as we’re on the subject of Scott Walker, I strongly urge you to listen once again to the phone call from the faux David Koch, posted above. Keep in mind that Walker has admitted that he wasn’t honest with Wisconsin voters during his campaign. He wasn’t honest with you.

    But all the faux Koch has to do is introduce himself and then ask, ” what’s the latest” and Walker goes into a detailed report like he’s speaking to his supervisor.

    Scott Walker didn’t tell you what he had planned as he campaigned for Governor of Wisconsin, but he’ll tell an out of state mega billionaire everything he wants to know with no more than a ” what’s the latest”.

    This guy, Walker, has got to go. November 2012 or sooner, it’s gotta be recall.

  3. Unfortunately, Walker’s policies are working here in WI. 40,000 jobs created, more money for the classrooms (well at least for those that used the flexibility he gave them), mass layoffs avoided (well except for Milwaukee Schools that felt having Viagra was more important than jobs), and a property tax freeze.

    Maybe we need George Soros and company to pony up more cash.

    1. Gymrat,
      Walker’s policies are at best a one trick pony. Sure he got money from the teachers and other public unions. What about next year? The police and fire with good reason consider themselves next. The have only so much money to give. The levy limits on all units local governments and counties are very unrealistic. One steep rise in a necessary expense and there goes the budget. You couple that with a possible decline in the assessed value of property and you are looking at a serious potential problem. I would never want him managing one of my stores. Scott Walker’s management skills and judgement are frankly ill considered, ignorant and inane.

  4. Cameron asked- “Collective bargaining is more expansive in Wisconsin than it is for federal employees. Did Kucinich mention that?”

    No he didn’t. Why would he? The topic was state and municipal debt.
    He asked Walker how much money would be saved. Walker said it would not save any.

    I’m not exactly sure what your point is.

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