Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Walker again using state resources, power for presidential positioning

Having already embarked on a wasteful and punitive, but politically purposeful plan to force public assistance recipients to undergo mandatory drug-testing, Scott Walker is continuing his preposterous presidential quest by pushing the state into costly litigation against President Obama's recent and completely lawful immigration orders.

Basically, we're all subsidizing his personal, partisan quest for right-wing publicity, fund-raising and eventually caucus and primary state voting as he uses his position and state programs of all kinds for career advancement.

I'd written several weeks ago that all Walker actions going forward have to be viewed through the distorted lens of his quest for recognition nationally, regardless of the cost to Wisconsin taxpayers:
Media report today...
Sources told Politco, for an article with the headline "Scott Walker plots 2016 rollout," that Walker intends to use the upcoming legislative session in Madison to shore up his national credentials, with an eye toward Republican voters.
As I said on Tuesday both here and at my Purple Wisconsin site:
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Let's be clear about why Scott Walker says and does anything from now on:
His audience is national, not local. How does the curb feel, Bucky, now that Walker's not that into you?
More to the point - - Walker's audience now - - and actually since the 2007 conservative summit meeting along the shores of Lake Michigan about which the media, other than Salon.com, refuses to report - - is the hardest, rightist core of activists and voters in the Republican and Tea Parties, and their loyalties for 2016.
Constituencies, money and people power also being sought by Walker presidential rivals, like Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul and others.
So when Walker talks about what is an illegal and wasteful plan to drug-test public assistance recipients whom he says are loafing around playing Xbox -- - and he was clever enough to steer that dog whistle clear of the more overtly-racist tone which forced Ryan to apologize to the Congressional Black Caucus for a similar attack on the allegedly-lazy inner city jobless - - he's talking to 2016 primary caucus voters in Waterloo, Iowa, not Waterloo, Wisconsin.
The same for Walker's attack on unions, Planned Parenthood, minority ballot access through reduced early voting days and unneeded voter ID.
It's all about Iowa, the state, not about Wisconsin's Iowa County anymore.

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