Republicans celebrating incompetence by supporting Scott Walker

By supporting Scott Walker’s campaign, the Republican Party is advocating a level of incompetence that could severely cripple the state. This could be by design, or ignorance.

The right-wing’s hatred of government is vast and complicated. Limited government is claimed as a basic tenet of the Republican Party’s platform, until they find the world around them needs morality legislated in the right-wing vision.

Scott Walker has proven himself incompetent time and time again. If Walker is allowed to do to Wisconsin what he has done to Milwaukee County the mentally ill will be neglected, on the street making you uncomfortable (you know it’s true) every time you walk past. Between overtime paid and income lost, furlough days will cost taxpayers. Buildings will be crumbling across the state.

The only aspect of Walker’s failures that doesn’t fit in this theory is the chunk of concrete that fell off the Courthouse. Despite the “limited government” rhetoric Republicans take the lock-em-all-up approach to criminal justice. But that’s the paradox of “conservative Republicans.”

Does this hypocritical political party want a failure of government on the state level? Scott Walker is certainly up for the job.

Ron Johnson: Indecisive

Senate candidate Ron Johnson is wavering over his decision to sell the stock he owns in BP, the company responsible for the millions of barrels of oil in the Gulf of Mexico right now.

The Chief has headlines from the papers.

Cognitive Dissidence went ahead with the caption contest.

How well does flip-flopping play with the voting public?

Ron Johnson takes shot at Feingold’s gun record — fails miserably

After reading a recent Ron Johnson press release disparaging Russ Feingold’s record protecting the Second Amendment I was inspired to write a post, until I read one from Illusory Tenant;

“If candidate for Senate Ron Johnson really is as devoted to “freedoms” as he claims he is, his attentions should be in perfect consonance with Senator Feingold’s principled defense of individual constitutional protections as against any broadening of executive branch power over the liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.”

The entire post is an equally brilliant defense of Senator Feingold’s work defending our right to bear arms, and unlike RoJo’s researchers, Illy T uses relevant facts when making his argument. Read the whole thing.

Ron Johnson screws up again

Blogging Blue has a take on Ron Johnson distorting Russ Feingold’s record, attacking him as being the only Great Lakes Senator to vote against an energy bill;

However, while Ron Johnson really really wants voters to believe Sen. Feingold was the only Great Lakes Senator to vote against the bill, Sen. Feingold was actually joined in opposition to the bill by then-Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Chuck Schumer, both of whom represented New York in the United States Senate. For those of you not versed in geography, New York also happens to have plenty of Lake Erie Lake Ontario andcoastline, which by my definition places it among the “Great Lakes” states.

I’ve got nothing that xoff, Illy T and The Sconz haven’t already added except…we’re supposed to believe the Rasmussen polls showing Johnson leading? Yeah right.

Scott Walker always puts cuts ahead of public safety

When Scott Walker announced a plan to cut 4,000 jobs that are currently unfilled from the state budget, it was dismissed as a gimmick by AFSCME, bloggers and both the Neumann and Barrett campaigns, because cutting positions that do not exist won’t save money.

Not yet mentioned is Walker’s stated exemption of “public safety positions” from cuts. As Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker has proven that public safety personnel are not exempt from his perennial quest for privatization, no matter the cost to county coffers or public safety.

Earlier this year Walker canned 76 courthouse security guards, replacing them with private employees from the security firm Wackenhut. Several years ago Milwaukee County hired Wackenhut to provide bus security, and Wackenhut failed miserably. Worse, after Wackenhut employees took over courthouse security duties it was discovered their supervisor spent three months in jail because as chief of police in Manawa, WI he made;

“repeated unwanted sexual advances towards on-duty male officers after pressuring them to drink beer and watch pornography at his home.”

When Walker senses a politically advantageous cut, he makes it with no consideration of the consequences. Scott Walker did not put public safety first when firing courthouse security, when a chunk of the courthouse crashed to the ground, or at O’Donnell Park garage. He won’t put public safety first as governor either.

Ron Johnson and Dave Westlake — Clueless on the Constitution, one owns lots of BP!

Both Republican candidates for Senate, Ron Johnson and Dave Westlake, are in the midst of a stumble over the Constitution, among other issues. Westlake recently penned an article for Red State laying out a “plan” to address illegal immigration. Westlake calls to “end the anchor baby program” then within a few paragraphs states the country needs “Constitutionally-based leadership.”

The “anchor baby program” (glossing over the derogatory nature of the term) is rooted in the right to citizenship presented in the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. A “Constitutionally-based” leader would understand this concept.

Ron Johnson, who has read the Constitution “probably three, probably about five to six time” could be a subject of the recent Onion article “Area Man Passionate Defender Of What He Imagines Constitution To Be” says the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, touting their hilarious Caption This Article Contest. Johnson deserves this treatment when he says a whole lot of dumb things, and then nothing at all.

Mr. Johnson finally released his personal financial disclosure last Friday, originally due June 10th. Speaking of hilarious, the day before the disclosure was released the campaign found the time to release Johnson’s charitable contributions. The hilarious part was buried at the bottom of that press release;

“The Johnson family plans to submit personal financial disclosure documents in accordance with rules of the United State Senate tomorrow.”

The rules say the documents were due last month, but Johnson needed an extension. The disclosure showed massive amounts of stock in BP held by Mr. Johnson, who earlier claimed the $20 billion escrow fund for victims of the spill was “not good for America.” The ordeal goes to show the America that Ron Johnson lives in is a much different America from that of the rest of us.

When the right-wingers who recently discovered the document start another ill-informed rant, remember Senator Feingold chairs the Subcommittee on the Constitution. He also didn’t have so much money to count he couldn’t file personal financial disclosures on time.

Republican Party of Wisconsin accidentaly laments politics trumping more stimulus

The Republican Party of Wisconsin should read articles before tweeting them. If they had, this Politico article about political concerns overcoming the consensus from economists for more stimulus wouldn’t have made the cut.

Reince Priebus and his crew clearly didn’t make it past the headline of “Politics trumps economics on deficit” before sensing an opportunity to take a shot at President Obama.

The author wasn’t supportive of Obama’s economic policy, the WISGOP got that part right. What clashes with the RPW’s thoughtless talking points was the author was lamenting the influence of political concerns getting in the way of more stimulus.

The RPW seized on a few lines in the piece on the tea party “scaring the bejesus out of politicians” and bailouts being “massively unpopular.” If the reader had made it to the second page they would see the author decrying austerity measures, claiming “many economists see a real danger of the world slipping into a double-dip recession.”

The article ends;

“Congress is now opting to shred the safety net for millions of unemployed Americans…Why are they doing this? Not because of economic necessity. Because of political fear.”

But maybe the WISGOP crew didn’t err in posting the article. Before the line above, the author discusses what happened when Franklin Roosevelt cut spending just when the country started coming out of the Great Depression, and unemployment went from 5 million to 12 million;

“Going into the 1938 election, Republicans held 88 House seats. They gained 81 more.”

That would be the Republican Party of Wisconsin I know. Willing to put the outcome of the next election above the jobs and prosperity of citizens.

Will Pro-Life Wisconsin rescind Scott Walker endorsement after condom comments?

Today Scott Walker delivered his nomination papers to the Government Accountability Board. A reporter asked about his endorsement by Pro-Life Wisconsin (who also endorsed Walker challenger Mark Neumann), a group whose anti-choice position extends so far right as to oppose all forms of contraception.

Walker refused to comment on Pro-Life Wisconsin’s platform, referring to his legislative record as “pro-life” but when the reporter asked him if he opposed condoms (as PLW does) Walker said, “To me that’s not a position of the government.”

Bravo to Walker for actually taking a limited government position after all his rhetoric, but how will this bode for Pro-Life Wisconsin’s endorsement of Walker? Among the group’s extreme positions;

“We urge our elected officials to ban surgical abortion without exceptions for rape, incest, or the life and health of the mother.”

Walker’s statement that the government has no business intervening in condom use seems completely sane to most people, but when your policy is against terminating a pregnancy when the life of the mother is on the line?

Hypocrisy has always been rampant among the conservative base — limited government, except when the government should legislate morality — so I’m not holding my breath for the endorsement to be rescinded, but there is the chance Walker could “clarify” (retract) his statement.

Curiously, Wisconsin Right to Life’s Google ad calls its group “The most effective pro-life organization in Wisconsin,” perhaps an acknowledgement that Pro-Life Wisconsin’s extreme policy positions are counter-productive within the anti-choice movement.