This is fantastic….and by fantastic I mean “incredibly unbelievable” and “not based in reality.”
Gov. Scott Walker said Tuesday that his top campaign staffers began advising and directing his Milwaukee County aides on their response to the 2010 O’Donnell Park tragedy because Walker’s political foes were trying to hijack the issue.
“Literally, within moments — I think even that day in your paper’s story — there were comments from people involved in other campaigns,” Walker said during a Tuesday press briefing. “So it involved the campaign not by virtue of us but by others who brought it up.”
Some of his aides’ emails suggest Walker’s team was doing more than responding to other candidates.
Instead, they were focused primarily on fending off any negative publicity during the 2010 governor’s race. For instance, Keith Gilkes — Walker’s campaign manager — told a Walker county staffer in a June 24, 2010, email “to make sure there is not a paper anywhere that details a problem at all.”
The newly released emails show Walker was at the center of this small circle of campaign staff and county aides who decided how to respond to news stories, media inquiries and records requests after a concrete panel fell from the O’Donnell parking structure, killing a 15-year-old boy on June 24, 2010.
While I’d love to believe the fiction Scott Walker is spinning that his campaign staff absolutely, positively only got involved in the tragedy at O’Donnell Park because other campaigns made comments, I’m more inclined to think Walker’s gubernatorial campaign staff absolutely, positively felt compelled to coordinate with Walker’s County Executive staff to protect Walker’s campaign from blowback over Walker’s failure to act on the deferred maintenance that led to the O’Donnell Park tragedy.
Anyone who’s spent any time paying attention to Scott Walker over the past decade or so understands all too well that there’s little that goes on in Walker’s universe that isn’t politically motivated, whether to protect Walker or to advance his ambitions.
Zach, completely agree. The emails are a hoot and would encourage everyone who has the time to read them. A real glimpse into the “job” of managing the media.
In the days following the Kellner’s death, the Supervisors kept saying Walker had cut inspections and deferred maintenance. That worked. In the minds of low information voters, the story was set in stone. It wasn’t Walker’s fault.
Two months later (12 August 2010), Cindy Archer copies Walker on an email where she clearly states that he’d like the O’Donnell reports to come out after the voting for Governor in November 2010. 100% politicization.
Lots of great stuff, “Skunk the Journal,” on 5 August 2010, meaning give stuff to the local tv stations to let them scoop Umhoefer, Schultze and others at the JS.
Emails between Rindfleisch and Keith Gilkes on Tuesday July 27 simply confirm that Charlie Sykes and the other AM radio hosts are nothing but free advertising for the wingnuts. They spoon feed Sykes, Weber… whatever they want said.
Here’s the pdf http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/large/130729donnel.pdf
Now’s a good time to bring up the question again:
Why are the state’s news organizations so completely uninterested in pursuing the release of the shadow emails? The John Doe probe is over, no need to keep the shadow emails under lock and key. The contents of those emails would seem to be the kind of thing that would set a curious journalist’s heart racing.
They’ve gone to court to get access to much less than this in government investigations.