Walker wants to focus on the horrors of Out Sourcing Overseas? Look in the mirror.

There's something fishing about Scott Walker's Hail Mary attack over offshoring jobs. He must know he's got a record a mile long supporting out sourcing and backing businesses that do. And yet, he seems confident none of that will stick to him.

It's also a case of "Swift boating" Mary Burke for her greatest strength, actual business experience at a very successful global company known for it's philanthropy and community involvement. It's a world most career politicians are completely unfamiliar with, like you know who, Scott Walker.

Just as surprisingly, the media is actually pointing out Walker's hypocrisy. Like WKOW's Greg Neumann:

WKOW: Gov. Scott Walker's most recent campaign finance report shows he received money, a total of $68,500 to Gov. Walker over the last six months, from at least 11 corporations that have outsourced jobs to other countries.

Here's a list of outsourcing companies Walker should be attacking next...yea, right:

WellPoint, one of the nation's largest health insurance companies, gave $15,000 to Gov. Walker's campaign.  Three other corporations gave $10,000 each, including Caterpillar, 3M - a multifaceted manufacturing company based in Minnesota, and Deloitte - a national tax consulting firm. Other corporations that donated to Gov. Walker through their PACs were Coca-Cola ($2,500), Pfizer ($5,000), PepsiCo ($2,000), J.P. Morgan Chase ($1,000), Hewlett-Packard ($3,000), General Motors ($6,000) and CenturyLink ($4,000).

U.S. Department of Labor records show those companies have had successful claims filed against them for Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) … awarded to workers who can prove they are unemployed because their jobs were outsourced overseas.

No Company Outsourcers from PAC's supporting Mary Burke: Really, not one?

The campaign finance report for Democratic Challenger Mary Burke shows she raked in over $351,000 in PAC donations, but none from corporations that outsourced jobs.  The majority of PAC donations to Burke came from national and state unions.

The Burke campaign has criticized Walker, because his Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) has awarded tax credits to at least two companies that have shipped Wisconsin jobs overseas.

Free Market Offshoring by Global Businesses is now Bad, says clueless Scott Walker.

Boy, if you're a global corporation, with manufacturing all over the world, you might want to steer clear of Wisconsin as a place to locate your business.

Scott Walker doesn't like you,  and will go out of his way to vilify your very existence.

It's not enough for Trek Bicycle to manufacture their product here in Wisconsin as well as in the other foreign markets they serve (business 101), after all, its a global company now.

As a career politician, living and raising a family on the government dole, running an international business is not a Scott Walker strength after all.

Remember, Walker says he's is not actually attacking a successful business in our state, he's just pointing out how bad they are because the owners sister is trying to take his job.

The worst part of the ad below is how ignorant Scott Walker looks regarding the function of global businesses setting up shop in the markets they serve. Oddly, this "terrible" policy is something Republicans love and have been pushing for the last 30 years. Chairman Walker's own WEDC gave money to companies that fired Wisconsin workers for offshoring as well. Is all this just a distraction?



What I like about this is the free press and media coverage Walker is giving Burke, all the while bashing Wisconsin business. It's a twofer and I hope a game changer for this little man.

Trek, the world's second-largest bicycle maker, does not employ children at its overseas plants, John Burke said. Trek's manufacturing plants in China, Germany and Holland all follow local labor laws and pay prevailing wages, he said.

WISGOP attacks Trek Bike's free speech rights to defend itself against Walker's political Smear Campaign

Warning to out-of-state businesses, don't get on the bad side of Gov. Scott Walker. 

For a party that hates frivolous lawsuits, using courts, and supports Citizens United, they sure hate it when the tables are turned.

Trek CEO John Burke featured a full page ad in local newspapers defending his company from political attacks by Mr. “Open for Business” Scott Walker. Apparently, free speech and the money that pays for newspaper ads is now illegal for businesses that have a blood tie to a political candidate.

WISGOP’s Joe Fadness continues to highlight the party’s hypocrisy and willingness to flip flop at a moments notice to maintain power. The ends do justify the means for these pirates, even if it means bashing successful state businesses. LaCrosse Tribune:

The Wisconsin Republican Party has filed a complaint with the state elections board over a full-page newspaper ad by Trek Bicycle Corp., saying it amounts to an illegal contribution to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke. She is the sister of Trek president John Burke. 

That wasn't all:

The company had broken the law by responding to criticism from the Walker campaign about outsourcing by Trek. "Trek's advertisement uses corporate funds to aid the campaign of Mary Burke and uses language mirroring Mary Burke's talking points," the complaint reads.

Trek spokeswoman Marina Marich said in a statement: "The governor's television ad clearly attacked Trek, and Trek is entitled to defend itself under the First Amendment by running its own advertisements containing the true facts. We are confident that our letter published in newspaper advertisements is constitutionally protected free speech that fully complies with Wisconsin law."  

For those who don't check the comments, here one that nailed it:

Anonymous said...Sounds like the Republican Party is alleging coordination between Trek and Mary Burke's campaign. Haven't they been claiming (incorrectly) that coordination is allowed under Wisconsin law -- or at least should be following the latest US Supreme Court rulings favoring "corporate free speech"? So what's their position? That collaboration is legal for Scott Walker, but illegal for Mary Burke's campaign?

Mark Belling accused poor defenseless Mary Burke of recruiting her Brother to Fight her campaign battles.

My conservative friend in Milwaukee called to tell me how WISN's Mark Belling was about to trash Mary Burke for offshoring jobs at Trek. He even held the phone up to the radio so I hear Belling's commentary. He accused Burke of being a weak defenseless woman for getting her brother John to bash Walker for lying.

Belling: Says women like Burke are weak,
need men to defend them.

Belling accused Burke of not having the leadership to responded to Scott Walker's accusations that she ordered Trek to out source jobs to China.

Burke didn't respond? Even after running ads that RESPONDED to Walker's clueless misguided claims about offshoring jobs. Even the papers covered this one. Like this supposed "non-response" in the Journal Sentinel:

Mary Burke said that if Walker knew more about business he would understand that Wisconsin companies such as Trek, Kohler or Harley-Davidson need to manufacture around the world.

"That ad says more about him than it does about me, or for Trek," Burke said during an interview with the Journal Sentinel. "It shows that he puts politics in front of what's good for the state, and for the people. For him to drag a great Wisconsin company through the mud is bad for business. It's all about politics with him."

Burke is right, Walker is a career politician who thinks of himself as a "small businessman" managing the states economy. The state is "small?" Walker made that claim after becoming governor.

War on Women continued...: Belling then accused Burke of enlisting her brother to fight her battles for her, because you know, women are weak and depend on men for everything. Belling knew what he was doing, getting as much mileage out of his misogynistic, demeaning and completely fabricated attack on Burke.

Check out the audio clip below, which features Belling reading from John Burke's newspaper ad that offered up a few things you may not have known, like the fact that Trek helped fund the Madison bike sharing service. Gee, a business that cares about, and funds, social services. Walker can't have that:

Belling: "Mary Burke doesn't have guts to respond to a political attack ad on her by responding herself. She's got to trot out her brother...do the responding for her. Just in and of itself, it gives you an indication of her leadership skills, or lack there of."

What's just as strange is Belling's willingness to support Walker's deceptive twisting of the facts to make his case for reelection. Twisting the truth upside down is apparently fair game.

Unrelated but important: Walker's claim Trek didn't pay any corporate income tax is another fine example of lying while still telling the "truth." This factoid goes out to the guy who Tweeted he still trusts Walker more than Burke or any Democrat. Walkerites love being duped?

jsonline: Gov. Scott Walker stepped up his attack on Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke and her family's bicycle business Monday by accusing the company of not paying state corporate income tax.

Burke's campaign fired back and said Walker is either "ignorant or outright lying" about how Trek Bicycle pays taxes in Wisconsin. Like many other businesses, Trek's owners pay taxes on the company's profits as individuals rather than through corporate taxes. Trek files taxes under "Subchapter S" of the Internal Revenue Service Code. In an S-corporation, the tax obligation is passed on to a company's shareholders.

Oddly, Walker doesn't have a problem with his blatant misdirection play to his supporters. Not much to brag about Scott?

Mary Burke ad takes on Business Bashing Gov. Walker, who has his own big Off Shoring Problem.

Here's the latest ad and response to our business bashing governor, Scott Walker, the guy who says he's open for businesses...willing to pay into his campaign chest. The "fairy tale" Walker told about off shored jobs at Trek ran into the wall of reality with the revelation WEDC Chairman Walker off shored business himself:

WKOW News: At least two companies that received financial awards from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) later outsourced jobs to foreign countries, with one of those companies receiving a second WEDC award after the fact.

Here's Mary Burke's ad:



WKOW's Greg Neumann detailed Walker's problem with Trek, and how he pulled the company from a WEDC ad campaign that touted Trek as one of five world class companies. Petty and small: