Monday, October 10, 2011

Walkergate: Was It Worth It?

One of the things that I hope someone will eventually ask the players involved in the ongoing Walkergate scandal is if it was worth it?

Dan Bice is reporting on some of the cost tax payer-borne costs related to Walkergate.   As we pointed out at Milwaukee County First, this is only a partial reporting and does not included the cost of the deputies (from at least two counties), the FBI, computer forensics specialists, and who knows what else.

And those are just the public costs.

We know that Scott Walker has dropped at least $60,000 already on his favorite law firm to retain the services of former US Attorney Steve Biskupic.  The other people that got entangles in Walker's weaselly ways have also hired on some high-profile, high-fee attorneys like Michael Maistelman, Frank Gimbel and, if rumor is true, Paul Bucher.

There are also human costs to consider.

The one conviction so far, that of William Gardner, were for two felonies.  Many people feel that he got a slap on the wrist as part of a plea deal.  His company, not him personally, has to pay a $166,900 fine.  And his company got millions of dollars in grants and loans from the state.

Gardner himself received two years probation, based in a large part by his self-reporting to the GAB and for cooperating with investigators.  But he is also a felon for life.  He can't vote, he can't carry a firearm and a myriad of other things that may or may not be important to him.

And like I said, he's the only one so far.  I feel confident that there will be more that will be indicted.  If they are found guilty as well, some of them might very well possibly fail jail time as well as fines and the other things that come with being a convicted felon.

Some of the others, like Tim Russell and Cindy Archer, if convicted, could lose their pensions. Tom Nardelli, if involved and if convicted, could lose three pensions.  That is on top of the other stuff.

As I stated at the beginning of the post, I wonder if they feel that it was all worth it.  Yes, their alleged misdeeds got Walker elected and gave him the capability to implement his maleficent and destructive agenda - at least for a short while.

As people start to learn more of the corruption, they are being turned off by him.  And this is not Walker's only problem.  As people realize that not only did he not lower their taxes, but raised their fees, they will become angrier.  And as people keep seeing that Walker's policies are actually destroying the good paying jobs instead of creating them, it could very well be enough to set off the biggest recall of them all.

As the Republicans continue to lose power and their damaged is reversed, I wonder if these people will think it was worth it.  Or are they angry beyond words for having paid so much of their personal money and sacrificed their personal freedoms and stained their won names, just so some rich out-of-state so-and-so could reap even more profit. And even then, their gain is only for a little while before the people take our state back and reverse the damages they caused.

Then again, squandering resources and disrespecting the little people does tend to be a Republican strong suit, so they might not even see anything wrong with all of this.

4 comments:

  1. Please be right, please be right, please be right...from a person who is struggling thanks to Walker's policies...trying to hold onto my house and feed my family....not sure how much longer I can go or harder I can be squeezed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hopefully you will be able to post a picture of Skippy in an orange jump suit and shackles in the near future.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I must have missed were there was a scandal.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Selective perception is no way to go through life.

    ReplyDelete