Washington Post Editorial: Scott Walker’s spineless silence
By Editorial Board February 20 at 2:38 PM
A NOTABLE moment of the 2008 presidential campaign came when Republican nominee John McCain faced down at a rally some of the more vitriolic haters of Barack Obama, who were shouting that the Democrat was a “terrorist” and an “Arab.”
“No, ma’am,” Mr. McCain said. “He’s a decent family man [and] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues, and that’s what this campaign’s all about .?.?.
“We want to fight, and I will fight,” the candidate continued. “But I will be respectful. I admire Senator Obama and his accomplishments, and I will respect him.”
You might hope that such lessons in character wouldn’t need to be relearned, but if so you would be disappointed. At a private dinner Wednesday for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a likely candidate for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani said: “I do not believe that the president loves America. He doesn’t love you. And he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up, and I was brought up through love of this country.”
The former mayor has dived off the deep end before, so there was nothing all that surprising in his latest poison. But as Post columnist Dana Milbank points out, his remarks presented an early test of character for Mr. Walker, and Mr. Walker failed spectacularly. At the dinner, the governor said nothing. Even the next morning, having had a night to ponder, Mr. Walker chose not to lift himself out of the Giuliani sewer. “The mayor can speak for himself. I’m not going to comment on what the president thinks or not. He can speak for himself as well,” Mr. Walker said on CNBC. “I’ll tell you, I love America, and I think there are plenty of people, Democrat and Republican and independent and everyone in between who love this country.”
more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/gov-scott-walkers-spineless-silence/2015/02/20/ebf9f626-b91c-11e4-a200-c008a01a6692_story.html?
--------------------------------------------
