Walker administration personal emails used for government business!!!

A story that's just bubbling up now looks like it could be big, finally exposing Scott Walker's inability to tell the truth to the media and voters alike. How much more is he trying to hide?

WKOW's Greg Nuemann: Governor Scott Walker (R-Wisconsin) has been extremely critical of Hillary Clinton's use of personal email … despite the fact that two former aides in his Milwaukee County Executive's office were convicted of crimes for using personal email to campaign on county time. But a 27 News investigation into the use and disclosure of personal emails by the Governor's office is raising questions about just how those records are handled. On May 28, 27 News asked Gov. Walker if he knew whether former Chief of Staff Keith Gilkes, former Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch or other members of his administration had used personal email for government business.

"I don't know," said Gov. Walker. "I mean, not that I'm aware of."

But we now know the Governor was aware of it at the time that exchange took place … in the first year of the Walker administration, state business was conducted through more than 300 personal emails. Some of the emails were sent to or from Governor Walker's own personal address.

But dozens of the emails 27 News received were never sent to an official state account until they were forwarded to the government email address of Gov. Walker's Chief Legal Counsel Brian Hagedorn on July 31, 2015. That date comes four years after the emails were originally written and two months after our open records request.

"Yeah, I think it's an issue to be sure and apparently and potentially a serious one," said Bob Drechsel, director of the UW-Madison Center for Journalism Ethics, who believes that delay and lag time raises questions about whether 27 News even got all of the personal emails that ever existed, or if some were permanently deleted from personal accounts long ago.

Over at Cognitive Dissidence, I thought this amazing fact stood out, high lighted in red above:

The reason that the emphasized section should raise a red flag for the gentle reader is that on the very same date that Hagedorn had received these emails is the same day that Walker announced that he was politically appointing Hagedorn to an appellate court seat despite that Hagedorn had no experience or qualifications for that position.

Was that appointment made to reward Hagedorn for his political operations, as a form of hush money to buy Hagedorn's silence or both?

Really, no mention of Scott Walker's Secret Wireless Router?

I seemed to remember...

Walker used a private email system when he was county executive … Walker aides set up a secret wireless router they used to conduct campaign business while on county time. 

But the media spin on Hillary Clinton is brutal.

“Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign is trying to turn the tables in the controversy over her handling of classified information on her chief Republican investigator.”

She’s not so much turning the table than pointing out how vacuous the email controversy really is. And yet unmentioned...

Walker used a private email system when he was county executive … Walker aides set up a secret wireless router they used to conduct campaign business while on county time.

Hers was a legal server, with yet unclassified emails:

Their point: South Carolina Representative Trey Gowdy and the panel he chairs that is investigating Clinton have dealt similarly with information that was later found to be classified.

"Trey Gowdy treated e-mails in this case the same way Hillary Clinton did, considering them unclassified and storing them on unclassified systems. We don't see what legs Trey Gowdy has to stand on in his criticisms of Secretary Clinton."

And yet where's the badgering...:

Walker used a private email system when he was county executive … Walker aides set up a secret wireless router they used to conduct campaign business while on county time.

But the trumped up email controversy continues....

The Clinton campaign says none of the emails she sent or received on that server were marked classified at the time, and that rules at the time allowed her to use a private account. Some of the information that moved on Clinton's private e-mail account later was determined to warrant a classified designation.  The Friday afternoon defenses highlight a rhetorical problem facing the Clinton campaign. 

Where are the questions? 

Walker used a private email system when he was county executive … Walker aides set up a secret wireless router they used to conduct campaign business while on county time. 

Scott Walker hates Poor People!!! He Proved it in Milwaukee.

This is a story that barely got mentioned during Scott Walker's first run for governor, and apparently, still isn't that important despite the racist email that finally tells the rest of the story. Thank god MSNBC's Chris Hayes picked on Joan Walsh's Salon story about Walker's total disregard for Milwaukee's poor. Why aren't these stories even more important today in our local news casts? 

Salon's Joan Walsh tells the whole story too:

Scott Walker’s little-known scandal. When he treated welfare recipients like dogs:
When Scott Walker was county executive, how he handled programs for Milwaukee’s poor will shock and amaze you. A “joke” about a woman trying to sign up her dogs for welfare, because “my Dogs are mixed in color, unemployed, lazy, can’t speak English and have no frigging clue who the r Daddys are. They expect me to feed them, provide them with housing and medical care, and feel guilty.” The punchline: “My Dogs get their first checks Friday.” Walker’s deputy chief of staff Kelly Rindfleisch replied: “That is hilarious. And so true.”

It’s also worth noting: back when Walker was Milwaukee county executive, and Rindfleisch was a top aide, he managed the county’s welfare programs so abysmally that after lawsuits by local clients, the state was forced to take them over. “They didn't just call people dogs, they treated them like dogs,” one Milwaukee elected official recalled angrily.

“Milwaukee County has demonstrated a sustained inability to successfully provide services to its (poor) customers,” state health services director director Karen Timberlake wrote in a February 2009 letter to Walker announcing the state takeover. Milwaukee became the only one of 72 Wisconsin counties to wind up with its programs for poor people under state control ... to many in Milwaukee, his staff’s racist jokes aren't funny.

Roughly 95 percent of calls to the county’s client-intake call center went unanswered in 2008, a state probe later found. The social services department budget funded 25 positions at the intake center, but a Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reporter found only seven staffers working among empty cubicles ... Walker began arguing for privatizing the social services intake unit. “He was managing it to fail,” charges AFSCME contract administrator Dave Eisner. But the problems weren’t just at the call center. In 2008, one out of five food stamp recipients dropped for ineligibility were in fact eligible, and wrongly cut from the program. In 2007, 60 percent of county decisions to cut food or other aid were overturned on appeal within two months. 

Wisconsin GOP Ugly #1: Walker Emails Joke and Ruthlessly Dismiss Teen Death; Ignore Gun Problems at Clinic, Blame Unions Instead!

It’s hard to imagine any voter tolerating the following incredibly bizarre, insensitive, ruthless email exchanges below, but we'll see election day when Wisconsinites cast their votes. Maybe they won’t mind being lumped in with the ghouls Scott Walker felt comfortable with in his administration.

Add these email exchanges to the many, including the callous disregard for a family trying to settle with the county over their daughters tragic starvation death.

This isn't just about the loathsome people Scott Walker surrounded himself with, but a prevailing conservative mindset that’s okay with cutting food stamps, veterans benefits, public safety, unemployment, minimum wages, gay bashing, veiled racism etc.. From WSJ's On the Capitol: 

Example 1: While discussing a fatal Milwaukee parking garage collapse, ex-Walker aide Kelly Rindfleisch joked with a friend — who had complained about the headlines after the tragedy … “You mean Scott didn't push that slab on top of the kid so he could play Guilliani? (sic)” Rindfleisch wrote.

In another exchange, Rindfleisch told her friend Kelly Teelin, a Madison paralegal, that she was looking forward to a social event. To which Teelin responded, “Why, what happened yesterday besides the parking lot falling on some kid.”

Example 2: After Milwaukee County Board member Lynne DeBruin wrote a letter to Walker calling for more security at the county behavioral health department’s walk-in clinic because of incidents in which patients brought in weapons, Walker’s staff discussed ways to defuse the problem.

Tim Russell, the county’s housing director and part of Walker’s inner circle, responded by email: “Lynne is a wholly owned (subsidiary of the) nurses union. These complaints are their agitating, either for more staff or something else. Cindys suggestion to have (county lawyer Tim) schoewe put the fear of god into her and remind her (of her policy) making role would be good. Or a large truck.” 

Walker is in on this bit of union bashing at the expense of clinic safety:

Walker, who was copied on the email, responded: “Yes. Tim S should talk to her.”

Even though a recent poll found overwhelmingly support for Democratic issues, voters still favored Republicans candidates in the November elections.

Uh oh, Walker dodges question about staff using private emails!!!

I edited together the following outtake reel from WKOW’s website today, and found the opening question and Scott Walker answer very interesting, because it goes beyond even what the Journal Sentinel wrote about today.

While reporter Jason Stein talked to a few aides, the video shows Walker dodging the same question; does his current staff use personal emails for any reason during work hours.

Reporter: "Have you given any instructions to your current office...those who work in your office right now about whether or not they can use personal email to do any business, whether it be campaign or state business." 

Walker: "We haven't done that recently, we've had a policy in place since I became governor...we have a very elaborate ethics and code of conduct policy, I know my staff the last few days talked about."

See that and more of his odd reactions: 

Here's what Jason Stein uncovered:

Aide won't say if Walker staff uses private email for state business … Gov. Scott Walker's office never had its own hidden Internet system as his office in Milwaukee County did, aides said.

But spokesman Tom Evenson didn't directly answer whether aides in the governor's office frequently used private email accounts to communicate on sensitive political topics outside of the state official system. "From day one, establishing and maintaining ethical standards has been a priority for Gov. Walker and his administration.

The emails have shown a widespread use of private email accounts in the Milwaukee County office

The Journal Sentinel has requested copies of the signed ethics policies.

What Winning Really Means to Scott Walker....

I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around this one.

Confirmed finally: Republican run governments don't work, their ideology is all that matters to them, and they must win no matter what the cost.

Sociopathic Eyes

Walker's brutally insensitive desire to take the governors office is spelled out right here:

Instructions from Scott Walker's campaign manager were explicit: Delay settlement of a long-standing legal case over the starvation-related death of 26-year-old Cindy Anczak at the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex. "Could care less what it is on," Walker campaign manager Keith Gilkes wrote in an Oct. 22, 2010, email exchange with a Walker aide at the county, referring to the claim's legal basis.

"Keep it buried until Nov. 2nd and then hopefully they'll settle," Gilkes wrote. Walker went on to win his term as governor that same day.

Anczak's parents, Jean and Myron Anczak of Greendale, would wait another full year before the county approved a $125,000 settlement. Jean Anczak said the email comments about her daughter's case were insensitive and a sad reminder. Rock Pledl, the Anczaks' lawyer, said Gilkes' comment was "the most calloused thing I've ever heard.

But Walker won, and isn't that what it's all about?

Scott Walker's well rehearsed monotone answers irking press.

I've got to hand it to WISC reporter Jessica Arp for asking a question that seemed to take Scott Walker by surprise.

"You understand why people would want to know as a manager whether or not you were aware of the emails and the wireless email system that was happening in your office?"  

Isn't anyone else a little outraged by Walker's sudden admiration of those vilified Democratic investigators conducting their "witch hunt?" That's not what we heard during and after the first John Doe probe.



WKOW's Greg Neumann nailed Walker for staying on "script," and wondered if former campaign manager and editorial "ghost writer" Keith Gilkes still had any influence with his staff:

WSJ's Chris Rickert: "Walker's brand of workaday corruption...(is) 'exactly what's wrong with the political process.'"

Wisconsin State Journal columnist Chris Rickert finally got one right.

In fact, I’m sorry that the Democratic Party didn't come out with the following statement first. Every word should be repeated over and over throughout the entire campaign season.

“…Walker’s brand of workaday corruption seems to attract dull-witted politicos and thinly veiled racism, classism and other -isms that pander to our worst natures and discourage the renewal of an American democracy beset by low voter turnout and negative campaigning.

Hearing Walker criticize the reaction to the emails as “exactly what’s wrong with the political process” is funny because his 2010 campaign appears to be a textbook case of exactly what’s wrong with the political process.”

Rickert wasn't done:

Here’s Rindfleisch and a paralegal with a Republican law firm chuckling over minority recipients of public assistance, and another Walker aide on how awful it would be to be black, disabled, gay and — horrors! — a Democrat.

Not sufficiently sexy or succinct for a 30-second attack ad seems to be the verdict of the national punditry. State politics-watchers don’t think there’s enough there to change the kinds of love-him-or-hate-him responses Walker tends to inspire.

Maybe so. And yet in the long run, Walker’s brand of politics is more corrosive to representative democracy than a whole closet full of blue dresses.

Former DA's rip critics of John Doe Investigations.

This is a must see regarding the Scott Walker John Doe investigation.

On Upfront with Mike Gousha, former (Republican) Waukesha Co. DA Paul Bucher, and former (Democratic) Kenosha Co. DA Bob Jambois put to rest the idea that these John Doe probes were simply witch hunts. From Bucher's (who represented clients in the first John Doe) and Jambois' perspective, these are serious investigations that should not be reformed like some Republican lawmakers are proposing.

Big Mistake; Walker stumbles, avoids answering questions about what he knew!!!

It's becoming even more obvious to me that Scott Walker is showing signs of...bold face lying. Sadly, loyal aides won't snitch on each other because of the Republican Party's craven desire for power. Who knows when any one of these aides will show up pushing school choice, like every other former felon and Assembly Majority Leader.

Walker didn't even get a break from the Journal Sentinel, who piled on after the disappointing "none answer" on Fox News Sunday:

Host Chris Wallace pressed Walker on whether he knew there was a private email account.

Walker responded, "Again, it's one of those where I point out the district attorney looked into every single one of those issues."

Wallace interjected: "But sir, you're not answering my question."

Walker said, "No, because I'm not going to get into 27,000 different pieces of information. The bottom line is a Democrat who led the district attorneys office, looked at all this, decided not to charge anything other than the individuals you mentioned, who were people who had worked for the county in the past but don't work for me today. 

It's funny how Walker now suddenly loves liberal investigators and their legal judgments. So let's set the record straight, from The Progressive's Ruth Conniff:

Editor Ruth Conniff reminded the liberal network’s (MSNBC) viewers … “The judge in Milwaukee, in the first John Doe, is a Republican. So, that just doesn’t hold water. The second John Doe investigation, which is still underway as you mentioned, is led by a rock-ribbed Republican who sought to be a Bush appointee,” Conniff added.

Here's what Walker said under intense questioning from Chris Wallace:

Walker won't deny it. But it doesn't matter says Walker, because voters are still concerned about jobs after three and a half years under his jobs plan? Hmm, that kind of says a lot about Walker's failing record, doesn't it? 

Right Wing Denial over Walker Email Disaster Laughable.

The cliched partisans whining of conservative public radio pundit Steve Prestegard knows no bounds.

As a former radio guy myself, I never could understand how Prestegard became the go to guy for analysis. While getting factual details wrong, Prestegard takes the easy way out by bashing liberal caricatures doing fictional things that conveniently help make his case.

He even blames Hillary Clinton for their interest in the emails and...Walker's misdeeds and 6 arrests?

Oh yea, it's also unfair for "the court of public opinion" to know just who their governor really is. And never-mind about the probable behind the scenes conversations, office talk, backroom discussions exemplified in those racist trash talking emails. It just doesn't happen?

Rationalization: In full panic mode, Prestegard spins, dodges and rambles on about how Scott Walker never broke the law, leaving out the general disdain Walker's office had for everyone else.

Short and sweet, this edited audio from WPR's Joy Cardin Show, is embarrassing stuff, but also a funny example of "bubble talk:"

Walker chose Homophobic and Racist Staff then and Now!!!

MSNBC's Chris Hayes hit on the real revelation of the newly released stack of emails. Hayes points out "the shear jaw dropping offensiveness" of a few of those emails.

Hayes: "What kind of work environment exactly would it be all okay to get this in your inbox and then forward it to an unspecified amount of coworkers and subordinates...but think about the kind of work environment in which a chief of staff sends this kind of email to his subordinates. An email that is explicitly homophobic, racist, antisemitic and offensive in every way possible? ... These are the thoughts people who are in charge of things like, oh I don't know, running the states welfare system." 

He nailed it. But the press here is about to move on because, as they claim, the state is already firmly divided, so no one wins, no one loses. Really? Or are they just a little too lazy to ask Walker why he likes these people?



Cap Times reporter Jack Craver said this about his current staff on WKOW's Capitol City Sunday (9 am):

Walker's National Image Changed Overnight, thanks to Actual Critical Coverage.

Well, it looks like Scott Walker's claims ignorance isn't even convincing enough now for one of his big supporters:

CapTimes- Steven Elbow: Two former prosecutors, one a Republican and one a Democrat, agree on one thing: there wasn't enough evidence to charge the governor with a crime. Paul Bucher, a Republican who served nearly two decades as Waukesha County district attorney, agreed. "I don’t think there was sufficient evidence to show the governor was involved in that," he said. Bucher may not be the most objective observer. His clientele includes defendants in the John Doe investigation that led to Wednesday's release of more than 28,000 pages of emails 

Bucher said the email shows that Walker knew about the secret email system, put in place by employees to skirt public records laws. But it doesn't prove that he knew about the system all along. "I think he knew something because of the articles," Bucher said. 

National Coverage Continues: Ed Schultz talked with The Progressive's Ruth Conniff, who had a treasure trove of information for viewers across the country:



I thought I'd highlight Schultz' interview with State Sen. Jon Erpenbach. Not only did Erpenbach frame the situation in Wisconsin nicely, but Ed went into one of his great and very passionate rants.


For great email dump coverage, check out The Progressive.

Walker saw himself in his hand picked staff, Part 2: Backstabbing!

Who knows how many more emails will finally paint this Dorian Gray like portrait of Scott Walker. 

From the Wisconsin State Journal:

Kelly Rindfleisch

1. An email from Kelly Teelin, a paralegal at GOP go-to law firm Michael Best & Friedrich, forwarded a joke email picturing four dogs the writer said were set to receive public assistance because they “are mixed in color, unemployed, lazy, can’t speak English and have no frigging clue who their Daddys are.” “That is hilarious. And so true!” Rindfleisch replied.

2. A supporter of lieutenant governor candidate Brett Davis scorned fellow Republican Rebecca Kleefisch, also vying for the job, after attempting to sneak a look at one of her fundraisers. “Rebecca was at the door inside greeting,” wrote Kathleen Kiernan … “She (Kleefisch) said, well maybe I can win you over. (YUK!...don’t hold your breath)… I cannot see how anyone can take this woman seriously.”

3. Rindfleisch wrote an email to Walker campaign manager Keith Gilkes calling Kleefisch “the bane of your existance,” adding, “I’m REALLY beginning to dislike her.”

4. Walker suggested that the county fire a doctor who was hired at the county mental health center without officials knowing she was a former thong model. “Apparently she’s competent, but even the Medical Director is dismayed that she has a varied life,” Nardelli said, who worried the “suggestive” photos meant the doctor had “a checkered past.” Walker replied, “Get rid of the MD asap.”

5. Walker’s staffers had harsh words for Mark Neumann, his rival in the GOP

gubernatorial primary.“This is so ridiculous that the only person talking about it is mark neumann,” McLaughlin wrote of one proposal. “There should be mandatory drug testing for people who want to run for governor and you can quote me on that.”

6. In another email, top adviser Jim Villa responded to an email about Neumann delivering signatures against the health care bill, “Is someone going to explain to knucklehead that governor is a state position?”

7. Rindfleisch emailed Gilkes about jokingly wanting to take out Mike Tate, chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. “How do you not blow a nut with all the lies that the democrats put out,” Rindfleisch wrote. “It makes me wanna get Villa’s uncle mike to make mike tate disappear.”

Walker saw himself in his Hand Picked Staff, emails reveal.

Scott Walker will insist there's nothing in the emails that could get him arrested, but that doesn't discount the ugly disregard he had for the people he served or the kind of staff he chose that reflected his values. After all, these emails do show us what they talked about behind closed doors, and how they talked about it.

Walker surrounded himself with petty thugs and thieves back then, and still does. So can you imagine Walker putting together a White House staff?

Surprise, Walker didn't expect any media attention. This says so much:

Blind Obedience to her Leader

Gov. Scott Walker won't be taking media questions Thursday about the tens of thousands of pages of documents unsealed in a criminal appeal made by a former aide. "The governor doesn't have any media availability ," spokesman Tom Evenson said … he was confident there wouldn't be anything damaging in them beyond what had already led to criminal charges.

Nothing damaging? Really? I suppose Walker still doesn't see anything harmful in the following:

Top aides for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) made a habit of forwarding off-color emails. Case in point: one email from former Walker chief of staff Thomas Nardelli featured a photoshopped picture of President Barack Obama with a giant acorn cap for a hat. The text: "New fall hat… Acorn cap with the nut still attached," a clear reference to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), which conservatives in Congress defunded in 2009 ... Congress has voted to defund the organization several times after it has folded.

TPM has already noted that Nardelli forwarded a racist and bizarre email where the narrator describes a nightmare of waking up black, gay, drug-addicted, disabled and HIV positive.

 How about playing the media, like the Journal Sentinel:

Respect for mental health patients? Not much: Emails show Scott Walker's role in managing mental health complex crisis … (while) running for governor … "We need to continue to keep me out of the story as this is a process issue and not a policy matter,"

And Walker suggested reaching out to Journal Sentinel editorial writers, noting: "The next problem will be editorials and this can nip it in the butt." Rindfliesch wrote … a Journal Sentinel reporter "doesn't get any traction if he can't get anyone to say anything," she said.

Or Walker's contempt for the mentally ill, with staff reactions like this: 

Rindfleisch was sarcastic about the Mental Health Complex issue, in a Sept. 2, 2010, "Last week was a nightmare. A bad story every day on our looney bin. Doctors having sex with patients, patients getting knocked up. So, it's been crazy (pun intended.)" … she expected Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett to make the issue "the center of his campaign … "Yep," Rindfleisch replied, "No one cares about crazy people."