Scott Walker: Clearly Unclear On Certain Concepts

Scott Walker must be having a very bad week, and he is obviously starting to crack under the strain of it.

The first thing and the most obvious thing that is bothering Walker is the groundswell of progressiveness. Barack Obama wins the presidency in a decisive manner. Democrats take over both houses of the Congress. They also take over both houses of the state legislature.

That must make it hard for him to gain any traction for the next installment of his perpetual run for governor.

To add to the pressure is that he is trying to bully the County Board during the budget process, and they have been quite resistant to his aggressive approach. So much for his promise of working with the Board. Of course, Walker has already been known to leave a trail of broken promises where ever he goes.

To add to his distress regarding his gubernatorial crusade is the fact that the citizens of Milwaukee County also voted in favor of lowering their property taxes and for saving the parks and the transit system. The citizens realized that this was a necessary, if not necessarily pleasant, insurance policy to prevent the further decline of the county. Without the transit system, Milwaukee County would be facing serious economic disaster in a year when the Transit System would begin to fail.

But voting to increase the sales tax goes against his one trick act of not raising taxes, regardless of the consequences. That, of course, would be unacceptable to his dwindling chances for any kind of run.

I'm not the only one to notice Walker's inability to grasp the concept regarding this. My friend, Greg Kowalski puts it very well:

Scott Walker doesn't want his suburban supporters to realize and truly understand that an effective transit network will encourage businesses and further growth within Milwaukee County. Instead, he takes aim at suburban voters' pocketbooks and yells out loud, "IT'S TAXES, YOU KNOW!" and puts them in a panic. The "t" word has been used and abused so many times that it's almost numbing to the sense these days. Sadly, even with the numbness suburban voters have again and again voted the Walker ticket and the Walker way because of it.

Kudos to Milwaukee and 3 suburbs (Glendale, Shorewood, and West Milwaukee) for standing up against the rest and making them go through a reality check. There are people who live in Milwaukee that do take advantage of things like parks and buses. While you might see many suburban parks void of human life, those living in the inner city of Milwaukee rely on those facilities during the warm days and months to play and cool off. They can't afford the up-to $14,000 for a play set like many suburban households (like mine) put up for their children.

No wonder Walker has been trying repeatedly to keep the voice of the people from being heard. And then when they finally get to exercise their voice, instead of graciously accepting that this is what the people want, he insults them, saying they don't understand, that they're confused. Jim McGuigan points out the fact that this isn't the first time Walker's gone around insulting the same voters that elected him into the office he enjoys for the moment.

Another example of Walker being unclear on the concept is his incessant insistence on privatizing everything in sight. This is popular among his conservative base to be sure, but it is far from being fiscally conservative. A little bit of research would have shown that privatization usually ends up wasting lots of taxpayer dollars that could have been used more productively. Say on something silly like actually providing services or saving money instead of throwing it away.

Continuing to show his lack of fiscal sensibility is that he considers pursuing a risky borrowing scheme is good management. Heck, even the conservative Dad29 can see the folly in doing such a thing.

To compile his foolishness, Walker is still persisting on trying to convince people that it is wiser to get rid of the building and property that you have, to enter into a no bid contract on a building that is older and more unsafe than the one you say we have to get rid of because it is too old and unsafe. Just trying to understand that sort of rationale can give a person migraines.

Yup, Walker must really be feeling the strain. But instead of admitting to any stress, or stopping to take a rational look at the situation and admitting he is wrong, Walker instead chooses to put up a facade of machismo to hide the fear and angst he must be feeling:

You can't say Scott Walker's not looking ahead.

The Milwaukee County Executive opined today that Barack Obama's presidential victory likely means Gov. Jim Doyle gets a federal judgeship. And that means Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton inherits the governor's office and will be the Democrats' likely candidate for governor in 2010.

Which just happens to coincide with Walker's possible GOP bid for governor.

Running against Lawton "would be like Lena Taylor, Part Two," Walker said today.

Walker trounced Taylor, a state senator, in his April re-election bid.

What Walker fails to acknowledge is that in his last run for governor, he couldn't make it through the primaries before having to drop out. From what I've seen and heard so far of the other Republicans who are also eying up a run for governor, it doesn't seem likely that Walker would make it any farther in the next election.

Then again, upon further reflection, perhaps I have the same problem that Scott Walker has: Maybe we are both expecting too much from him.

Regardless if we are both having delusions of his capability, or if Walker is alone with his struggle to get a grasp of reality, one thing is certain. It is imperative that you call your County Board Supervisor and urge him or her to prevent Scooter from doing even more damage to Milwaukee County than he has already done. You can find the contact information for the County Board by clicking to this page.

But call today, for on Monday, November 10, the County Board will do their final meeting and adopt the budget. If you wait, it will be too late.