Walker’s Denial of Wrongdoing Far From Actual Denial
Wisconsin Republican governor Scott Walker is facing some tough times lately. His regressive legislative agenda has resulted in a very likely recall from office, meaning he will have to run again just to keep his job. And the FBI has been conducting an extensive investigation into the campaign practices of Walker’s aides when he was county executive of Milwaukee. The most recent action in this investigation has been the arrest of Darlene Wink and Kelly Rindfleisch who have now been charged with campaigning on state time. In other words, while being paid by taxpayers to do county work, prosecutors allege that these former employees were actually working for Mr. Walker’s campaign for governor.
A reasonable person might conclude that, while these employees may be guilty, Mr. Walker has done nothing wrong. After all, it is unlikely that he himself was directly supervising how each of these employees spent their time. As long as they got their work done, he should have no reason to think twice about their work. This logical conclusion and response to the allegations is actually what makes Mr. Walker’s campaign’s official response so troubling. They told Wisconsin Public Radio that “the Milwaukee County executive’s office expressed policy was that county employees were not permitted to use county time or resources to conduct any political activity.”
Isn’t that kind of like former president Richard Nixon saying he shouldn’t be implicated in the burglary at the Watergate Hotel because it is against the law to commit burglaries? Or a mob boss saying a hit on a rival wasn’t his doing because everyone knows murder is illegal? The whole reason the FBI is investigating in the first place is because the expressed policy and the law forbid the kind of actions that prosecutors allege Mr. Walker’s employees engaged in. The question now is whether or not Mr. Walker told them to do so or was aware of their behavior.
So why doesn’t the campaign just say that Mr. Walker never told someone to do campaign work while the taxpayers were paying their salary? Or even better, why don’t they say that Mr. Walker expressly forbade that kind of action, because, you know, he’s not stupid enough to think he could get away with it? Those types of responses might actually be reassuring. Simply stating that there was a policy is like saying a homeowner isn’t liable for accidents on her icy sidewalks because she put up a “Careful!” sign.
Maybe Mr. Walker’s campaign is just run by a bunch of idiots. Or maybe, just maybe, they know that this scandal has some real legs. The collection of emails that investigators now hold is likely extensive. It won’t take many correspondence trails to suggest Mr. Walker had knowledge of the ongoing illegal activities. Heck, if he responds to an email in which someone says that they are working half on county business and half on campaign work (as some emails specifically say), then he has knowledge of how employees were spending their time. If he doesn’t stop the action then and there, he’s already done enough to warrant further investigation.
Will Mr. Walker eventually be charged? If his guilt is as plain as his lack-of-denial makes it seem, then I hope he will be. But even if he isn’t, his close connection with some real sleazy behavior should be enough to make Wisconsin voters realize we can’t trust Scott Walker as our governor.
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