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Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Scott Walker wants something better than a board of impartial judges overseeing elections.

You can bet elections in Wisconsin will take on a new conservative glow after Scott Walker and his plundering pirates get done with it. Don’t forget, they won, so get over it.

First, the highly regarded Government Accountability Board had the kind of name only a Republican could hate. "Accountability?" Not if they can help it.

The board inflicted a lot of legal pain for Walker, and now it was their time to pay. A Walker warning shot over the bow. No one steps out of line.
Gov. Scott Walker said on Monday he wants the board dismantled and replaced with something new … "something completely new that is truly accountable to the people of the state of Wisconsin," the Associated Press reported.

Jay Heck, director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, said "Walker's call for the elimination of the GAB is simply revenge and retribution for the GAB approving of an investigation of what was clearly a violation of Wisconsin campaign finance law in 2011-12. The elimination or evisceration of the GAB will only raise further questions about whether or not Walker and his campaign were involved in illegal activity. And it will be viewed by citizens as an attempt to simply eliminate any entity that puts adherence to the law above partisan fealty."
Of course with super majorities and sure bet electoral districts, who care’s.

Guilt by association? The Republicans got a lucky break when they found out the GAB had been in contact with the IRS...gee, another government agency. It was an opportunity to make something up that appealed to the paranoids they call voters. Despite no actual documentable involvement, Republicans made it sound like the Watergate break-in:
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Rep. Dean Knudson called for "necessary reforms" after a Wall Street Journal editorial reported the agency had been in contact with the Internal Revenue Service when it investigated conservative groups.

Joint Finance Committee co-chairs Sen. Alberta Darling and Rep. John Nygren called for GAB director Kevin Kennedy's resignation, calling the GAB a "rogue agency that ignores state law and operates against its founding principles." 
Yea, they’re rotten to the core alright. Meanwhile, reality struggled to get a word in edgewise:
Kennedy issued the following statement: "I am not going to dignify the Wall Street Journal’s opinion column with any comment, except to state that it contains no facts showing that I or the Government Accountability Board did anything inappropriate or out of the ordinary given the agency’s statutory responsibilities. I think any discussion about the structure or mission of the G.A.B. should be done through the legislative process. 

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