The one thing I didn't expect to be a factor in the upcoming midterm gubernatorial election was Scott Walker's Achilles heel: Lying.
Not only is Walker going to have to defend his policy failures and horrific jobs performance, but now he's got to scramble trying to justify outright lying in his new novel, "Unintimidated." As a work of fiction, the book might be more successful. Heck, that's how the legend of Davy Crockett grew, from wildly imagined stories of heroism and courage,
But the media has changed since then, or maybe Walker hasn't noticed. From WKOW's Greg Neumann, a little bit of real world fact checking:
WKOW: Governor Scott Walker (R-Wisconsin) says he cannot yet comment on alleged discrepancies between what is reportedly published in his upcoming book and the recording of a phone conversation he had with a blogger posing as billionaire Republican donor David Koch on February 22, 2011.
During that conversation, Ian Murphy of the Daily Beast, who was posing as Koch, told Gov. Walker he was thinking about possibly planting some troublemakers into the crowd of thousands protesting Act 10 at the State Capitol.
"You know, the, well, the only problem with that — because we thought about that," replied Gov. Walker. He went on to say, "My only fear would be is if there was a ruckus caused is that that would scare the public into thinking maybe the Governor has gotta settle to avoid all these problems."
Gov. Walker held a news conference on February 23rd … “as you heard on the tape we dismissed it and said it was not a good idea," Gov. Walker said.
But according to an article that appeared in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel on Sunday, Gov. Walker tells a different version of the events in his new … "we never — never — considered putting 'troublemakers' in the crowd to discredit the protesters."
The Journal-Sentinel also reports that Walker writes he resisted taking the call, but did so because Koch's firm owns Georgia Pacific Corp., which has mills in Green Bay. He accepted the call "after a week or more of insistent pleas" from his staff.
But Ian Murphy told the Journal-Sentinel that isn't possible, because he made his initial call to Walker's office around 11:30 a.m. and by 2 p.m. that day was talking to Walker. "That's so insane, the buck-passing," Murphy told the Journal-Sentinel.
Walker: "Actually, per the publisher I can't comment on the book til the 19th (of November) when it comes out, but, it’s clear each of those, we can spell out where the details are," said Gov. Walker.
I'm guessing his answer will shake down into some version of "well, as you know I couldn't have known about this because I wasn't there'.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, he's going to eventually blame everything on his ghostwriter.
I don't understand why "I didn't know/wasn't involved/wasn't informed' keeps being accepted as a viable excuse from the guy who's supposed to be in charge.
Sue -- it isn't the people that accept the bogus scott walker answers -- its the media.
ReplyDeleteAnd most people are not looking outside of their own circles for information even if they are increasingly using online sources.
The problem in Wisconsin is a tightly controlled media echo-chamber that enables nad empowers "divide and conquer" politicians -- embodied by our very own "divide and conquer" governor.
While I understand what you are saying -- respectfully -- this is all about a massive media failure that screeches walker's disinformation across the state.
This isn't about walker -- folks like him are a dime-a-dozen. This is about the propaganda network that he rode into the governor's office.
And don't kid yourself -- the national rightwing media echo-chamber could catapult him into the white house if they choose.