Monday, September 14, 2009

Walker Supporter In A Tizzy About Pro-Milwaukee County Group

I would think that by now, everyone knows that Scott Walker is the self-proclaimed front runner for the Republican nominee for governor. He has been campaigning for the past seven years, and made this run official in the spring of this year, even though he has been fund raising for well over two years now.

I would also think that by now, almost everyone realizes that Walker is running a one-trick pony of a campaign, which is dealing with taxes. Walker follows the Grover Norquist philosophy of governing, as did his hero, President George W. Bush. We all know how well Bush did or didn't do, as we still try to dig out of the deep recession Bush had led us into.

Walker's management of the county has not been any better, and in some ways, much worse, than what Bush did to the country. Apparently, it is this poor track record that has some of his most sycophantic followers besides themselves in sheer desperation.

The best example of this would be Aaron Rodriguez. He blogs at The Hispanic Conservative and at Fairly Conservative. It seems that I, and by extension, Milwaukee County First, has become a favorite target of his of late.

Rodriguez, who apparently has too much time on his hands, actually counted the number of posts I did about Walker and his mismanagement of the county. He tried to portray it as some kind of obsession on my part. I readily admit that the majority of my posts are on county-related issues, but that does stand to reason, considering that I am a county employee and active in my union. My concern is even more understandable when one considers the fact that Walker has threatened my job repeatedly, either directly or indirectly, for no other reason than he wants to be governor. Walker didn't even lighten up during the holidays, when the news that our jobs were again on the line, due to his incompetence, on the very morning of Christmas Day.

The attacks started out last week, when Rodriguez called MCF a "partisan sham." In this post, he cites Cindy Kilkenny who predicted that MCF was a front group for a recall attempt. Of course, she has been predicting that for almost a year. I still haven't heard of anything happening about that yet. Worth noting is that in the comment thread of that post, Rodriguez is the one that predicted we wouldn't even get off the ground. Gee, for a group that was sure to fail, he seems pretty obsessed with us.

Rodriguez then goes on to try to prove his point by citing a number of quotes from MCF. The problem is, he doesn't give the source for each quote. This is because, if the quote selected was put into context, the reader would easily note that Rodriguez is stretching the truth to the point of telling outright falsehoods.

Rodriguez also then goes to lament the fact that MCF is doing a petition drive to get Governor Doyle and the state legislature to pass the sales tax that voters approved of last November. Yes, you read that correctly. Rodriguez is upset because we want Governor Doyle and the state legislature to honor the will of the people. Scott Walker is mentioned nowhere in our post announcing the petition drive, or in the petition itself.

Despite this, Rodriguez considers this a threat to Walker. Perhaps this is because Rodriguez does really recognize the fact that Walker has not done a good job for the majority of the people in Milwaukee County. Maybe it is just because Rodriguez does not want the citizens of Milwaukee County to have a decent transit system, beautiful and safe parks, the ability to receive emergency medical care from paramedics, or to have some much needed property tax relief.

Rodriguez continues with the laughable position that there is nothing wrong with our transit system, our parks or the EMS. Even though the commenters on his post go to great pains to point out where he is wrong, Rodriguez refuses to acknowledge the truth.

Apparently, Rodriguez also disagrees with the Public Policy Forum, who had been warning us of the pending disaster in our transit system for a year and a half. He must also think that there is nothing wrong with having part of our parks system being the hottest spot for toxic PCBs in the state. He also fails to note that the funding for the emergency medical system has been put in jeopardy year after year as the state continues to underfund its mandates on Milwaukee County.

This year, it was only the public and private pressure put on him by groups like MCF that got Walker to reject the foolish thought of cutting all funding for the EMS. But instead of acknowledging the need to maintain such a valuable service like , Rodriguez is the one that tries, and fails, to somehow make it look like a short-coming on our part. In this post, Rodriguez claims to be a paramedic. I am sure he is a fine paramedic. But he should really speak to his municipal leaders or his union leaders on what would happen if the County were to cease all funding before he embarrasses himself further.

Rodriguez then starts going downhill at a faster pace. In a post personally attacking me for not having the public speaking skills of a career politician, he makes this very telling statement (emphasis mine):
Chris Liebenthal, founder of Milwaukee County First, is wrong because he employs "absolute" verbiage in his statement; and absolute verbiage is easy to dismantle. For instance, it's not always important to listen to taxpayers. If it were always important to listen to taxpayers, then nobody would be working at the Milwaukee County Office because they would be holding listening sessions 7 days a week. Always listening to taxpayers is no more true than always listening to your boss. It just depends on what the situation is. If Liebenthal had said that it was sometimes or very important to listen to taxpayers, then he would be correct.
Huh? It's not important to listen to the taxpayers? If this is why he backs Walker's campaign so strongly, it says a lot about what type of politician Walker is. And isn't the allegation of not listening to the taxpayers the reason why we are seeing all of the tea parties around the country? Rodriguez apparently thinks that all of those people are fools and should just shut up.

In summary, it appears that Rodriguez, and other Walker supporters, are so nervous about Walker's chances of getting to the governor's seat, that they are seeing bogeymen everywhere they go. Even a group that is simply trying to advocate for Milwaukee County and its citizens is perceived as such a dire threat that they need to continuously attack it.

Perhaps it is because they recognize the fact that now that Doyle is not going to be running, Walker will be forced to run on his own track record, which includes a failing transit system, a terribly reduced park system, support programs having to be taken away due to mismanagement, a refusal to accept stimulus dollars that are helping everyone, a refusal to take any sort of responsibility for the consequences of his actions and choices, and a long, long trail of hypocrisy.

However, if they are so concerned that our advocating for Milwaukee County and its people is such a threat, they should also urge Walker to start making better choices, putting Milwaukee County before his personal and political aspirations. Then we wouldn't have anything to complain about, would we?

ADDENDUM: He still doesn't get it, does he?

2 comments:

  1. I believe that Aaron Rodriguez would not have cause to follow your blog or for his expressions of concern about you or MCF if he did not see MCF was moving forward sucessfully within the community. If your group was failing to get the message out to the general public, he and all of the others who are on the attack would have nothing to say, They do so only because the message is being heard loud and clear by people who vote and vote regularily not just when there is a Presidential election.
    If Rodriguez sees Walker as the "savior" of the EMS program, I invite him to look at who has put the program in jeopardy year after year in his budget and who has advocated successfully to have it returned. County Board Supervisor Mark Borkowski is the true champion of that program and if Rodriguez is employed as an EMS through Milwaukee Co, it is Borkowski he can thank for still having a job. Had it not been for him, Rodriguez and his coworkers would have found out, as so many other County Employees have, what the word unemployment feels like.
    As to his comment on not listening to tax payers, I dare any politician to tell them they are not taking their calls and intend to ignore what they have to say when they speak. They too will learn what the word unemployed means. THAT IS THEIR JOB and when they fail to do it whether they are a Democrat or Republican, they need to be replaced and the sooner the better. I for one, and I know many others who feel the same, do not need a mother or father. I have parents. I have never voted for someone who thinks they should simply dictate to me because somehow they feel they know what I need better than I do. That would be facism and if that's the system Mr. Rodriguez wants, I can suggest several places to which he can pack his bags and move to immediately. Personally, I prefer a place where my vote counts and my voice can be heard without fear of retribution.
    I would also suggest that some County Board Supervisors who have stated they will not take calls from County workers during budget discussions remember that County workers are tax payers, voters and constiuants and that without County workers and the services they provide, there is no reason for their job either. Anyone who calls and does not receive a response from their County Supervisor, either directly or from an aide, should be screaming loud enough to be heard through their whole District and should be spearheading the drive to replace them in the next election. You can only be ignored if you allow it! How dare any elected official make such a statement!
    Keep on shining a light Capper! Eventually, people will see where the light is pointing and follow you out of the darkness of ignorance.
    (Please get another sgnature option. I hate signing as anonymous! :)

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  2. Thank you for the kind words.

    As for the signature option, it has been a while since I've used it, but I do believe that if you pick the name option, you can put in your real name or the pseudonym of your choice.

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