With Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal at his side, Gov. Scott Walker Thursday blamed Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett for the city's high taxes, poverty, high unemployment and flawed crime statistics.
“I think it is time he focused on fixing Milwaukee, not trying to screw up the rest of the state,” Walker said while rallying Republican supporters in Waukesha.
Walker, who is opposing Barrett in the , said 94 percent of employers in the state are happy with the direction it is going and the “overwhelming majority” want to see more jobs in the state.
“But you know what the biggest concern for them is? It is the recalls. It is the recalls,” said Walker, which brought a mix of groans and laughs from the crowd at the Republican Party of Waukesha County headquarters. “And we understand why. We built a positive foundation to move the state forward, but their concern is that if something happens on June 5, we might go backward.”
Jindal said he told Walker during his last election in 2010 that he would be willing to campaign for the Wisconsin governor again.
“I didn’t think I was going to have to come back every single year,” said Jindal, whose name has been mentioned as a possible running mate for Republican Mitt Romney. “He has been a great leader for Wisconsin. He has been a great leader for America. … Scott has done more in his first year here than many people do in an entire career in office.”
Hopefully, hopefully, the recall will be successful and Walker will walk away from the Governor's office and into a Fox infotainment show (perhaps Glenn Beck's old spot) or professional speaker job. Hopefully.
Blame your leftie buddies on the county board and mayoral leadership if you don't like deficits. And if you blame the leadership from the state, at the time you grandfather Doyle was at the controls. See how this works? The blame Bush factor no longer works, it's not 2008 any more
Enough with recalls. This whole $20 million debacle was started because liberal Democrats lost in 2010. It's all about power.
Democrats have lost before and lived with Republican leadership if one looks at the record. Why is Walker different? Divide and conquer. Wisconsin is the test case for destabilizing one of the Democratic Party's largest funding streams, unions. Our government is based on a two-party political system. Think about having one party win virtually every election, always. That's what we face if this seditious agenda isn't stopped. One party in permanent control. We need balance for this country to succeed, not a slide so far to the right (or left, for that matter) that democracy becomes unrecognizable. At first I supported the recall because I knew the last thing Wisconsin needed was to have Walker and his budget shenanigans operating at the state level (and without the County Board of Supervisors to rein him in). But the situation has grown far, far beyond that. Voters will have an opportunity to vote for Walker/ALEC and a one-party system or vote for Barrett, Wisconsin, and a return to balance.
Again, I've had the dubious privilege of sitting in when county leaderships were trying to make sense of a Walker budget. We are fortunate to have had the buffer of the County Board to control the wackiest of his ideas (except when he went over their heads, as in the case of illegally firing county security guards under the guise of a manufactured crisis). If we had political balance at the state level, we likely wouldn't have a recall issue now (or the distraction of an out-of-state special interest agenda calling the shots in our state). Let's work on restoring balance through the recall election. Then let's all make sure to research future candidates.
If someone in your office had a 'private router' in their office, are you telling me that you would know that it wasn't put there by the IT department and was for a purpose other than the typical office LAN? Do you really expect our elected leaders to be networking experts and be able to identify the purpose of every piece of network hardware they see?
As an anti-conservative and anti-Walker commentator, I'm surprised to see you advocating that Wisconsin implement a law similar to Governor Snyder of Michigan's Emergency Manager Law, so that Walker would actually be legally able to "fix the city" of Milwaukee. But you're absolutely correct on this point - Walker and the state Republicans should enact such a law, as it's only right that state level leadership get to make the decisions if the state level funds are constantly expected to bail out and fix the bad decisions of local level (city in this case) leadership. Maybe there's some hope for you after all. As to 'messes' created by politicians, how were Doyle's illegal fund raids and massive budget deficits, which were the largest year-over-year increases experienced nation-wide by any state, despite having received and spent record federal stimulus dollars, not considered to be a mess in your honest opinion? Walker manages to turn that around in his first biennial budget, generating a surplus for the first time in state government budgeting history, without increasing state level taxes, and yet you call this situation a "mess Walker has put our great state in." REALLY???? I see that logic isn't exactly your strong suit, is it? Is it just me, or has the left become outrageously absurd during Hoffa's absence from Patch?
How on earth do you qualify Abele as a "competent County Executive" when even Politifact indicates that he has fallen short on a majority of his original campaign promises?!? And yet, you're constantly holding Walker accountable to his original campaign promises. Yet another instance of Bren's hypocrisy and double standards at play all in the name of partisanship. Way to go Bren!
If Walker is guilty of the wrong doing that you already have him tried and convicted of doing without even hearing a single piece of unbiased evidence or a legal defense to such, then why is it taking so long for the investigation to uncover this? Nixon's involvement in the Watergate incident was exposed in less than two years by amateur investigative journalists. And yet, here we are two plus years later into the course of a professional investigation, and there's been nothing that connects Walker to any wrong doing. And yet, you still have him tried and convicted of having done something wrong. AMAZING! So much for Bren's belief in our system of justice's innocent until proven guilty cornerstone. I guess that standard only applies to Democrats like John Edwards, right? If Walker's opponent was as morally and ethically sound as he, then why hasn't Barrett called for an official investigation into his wife using her public school email account to engage in illegal political/campaign activity?!? After all, how is this any different than Walker CE staffers blogging on the taxpayer's time and dime? And yet, I've seen no post from you deriding Barrett for not asking for such an investigation and commending Walker for having done so. What gives here Bren? Hypocrisy and double standards apply in the name of partisanship I guess, don't they?
Are you admitting that without public sector unions funneling money to them, the Democratic Party wouldn't receive the necessary funding to remain a solvent and major political force in our system of government? If that's honestly the case, then there's something seriously wrong with the Democratic Party's funding model to begin with, isn't there? Remember when unions actually supported and endorsed conservative candidates. Need I remind you again of how the IBT supported and endorsed Nixon, Reagan (even after he broke the air traffic controllers union), etc? I honestly can't recall a single private sector union that openly endorsed the Kennedys, can you?!? The only reason private sector unions have switched party allegiance is because of the poor and failed policies of today's union leadership that would rather embrace the manufactured class warfare rhetoric of the Obama campaign, rather than take personal responsibility and face and resolve the issues that they created for themselves and their respective memberships!
One tiny correction about Nixon's involvement in Watergate being exposed in two years by amateur journalists -- they had inside information help from a whistle-blower. That makes some difference. So far, I don't think there has been a Milwaukee version of Deep Throat setting up clandestine meetings in the O'Donnell parking structure late at night.
Thanks for the welcome back! I've been very busy and frequently out-of-state over this last month, hence the reason for my absence. Things are starting to get back to normal now though. From my understanding, those 'clandestine meetings' are taking place at the MacArthur Square parking structure, which is probably why you weren't aware of them ;-)
Mr. Hoffa, welcome back! I appreciate Chris Abele's fiscally conservative approach to the county budget, especially after the foolishness of his predecessor. Abele didn't make any grandiose campaign promises like Walker, so people's expectations are accordingly more reasonable. I am a little skeptical about the router, yes. I'd like to know where in the suite it was located, I'm also curious as to why Walker's CE and campaign offices were searched in November 2010. To use the Watergate term, "What did he know and when did he know it?" In your absence the comparison between the county employees campaigning on the clock and Mrs. Barrett's posting has been dissected several times. Mrs. Barrett wasn't under the same regulations as the county employees. A significant difference. You were missed Mr. Hoffa. There was a case of mistaken identity, vigorous discourse--very exciting.
I almost think Nixon and Reagan would be considered too moderate for the current crop of Tea/GOPrs.
Thanks for the warm welcome back and summary of what I missed while away. Nice to hear that no one was quite able to fill my shoes ;-) Going into June 5th should be a lot of fun and interesting for both of us!