Lost in the completely contrived controversy surrounding Democratic State Rep. Christine Sinicki’s Facebook comment that Gov. Walker’s State of the State speech was “full of shit” was an inconvenient truth about Christopher Barber, the welder Walker applauded as an example of the improving economy in Wisconsin. That inconvenient truth? Christopher Barber is a registered sex offender who was thrice convicted of Operating While Intoxicated.
Emphasizing his role as a job creator, Gov. Scott Walker praised Christopher Barber’s moxie during the governor’s annual “state of the state” speech.
Barber, 32, left the ranks of the unemployed to land a seasonal job as welder at Ariens Co. in Brillion in late 2012, eventually turning that into a full-time post, according to a press release from Walker’s office. Newspapers around the state ran a photo of Barber giving a big wave to the crowd as he exited the Assembly podium to a round of applause during Walker’s televised address.
“These are the faces of an improving economy in our state,” Walker said Wednesday of Barber and others. “Wisconsin is going back to work.”
But there is a reason that Barber — a resident of Two Rivers — has had trouble finding steady work in the past.
Records show that he is a registered sex offender with two felonies and three drunken-driving offenses. Because of his checkered past, Barber has been in and out of jail and prison for much of the past decade, with his probation having been revoked at least twice.
So remind me again which elected official should be apologizing, because in my opinion it’s not Christine Sinicki.
The sentiments she shared last night regarding Gov. Walker’s State of the State address are sentiments shared by a lot of folks here in Wisconsin, and the folks who are so “outraged” by her comments are the very same folks who are ruining our state.
What we see is the real face of the, “compassionate,” conservatives in the state. Instead of accepting Barber and claiming him as an example of what they desire, “hard working,” people to do, to better themselves and take a productive place in society, they rush to make apologies for having associated with the now determined to be despicable low-life who, had they known the history, they would have rejected his appearance on the dais. Who should apologize, not Chris Sinicki. Who will never realize their public idiocy on full display, having missed a golden opportunity to actually do what they preach, for once?
Too funny.
I wonder who Walker will fire.
As far as I can tell the people who were in back of Scott Walker are exactly the people who need to be voting Democratic. I do not recall anytime in recent memory a Democrat went after the “Joe the Plummer” voter walker has throughout his campaigns and in his State of the State. Its good that Christopher Barber has a job given his record because far to many people with that record in our society are not given an opportunity to have a full time good paying job.
Was hinted at in a radio interview yesterday that Barber could have begun his current work situation as a sub-standard wage, State corrections job placement, initially even replacing a higher wage regular employee, saving the company the difference, the state picking up Workers Comp costs, etc. I don’t know how to begin researching that possibility.
I do agree with your comment. Well said.