Editorials & Other Articles

hue

(4,949 posts) Tue Nov 20, 2012, 06:21 PM Nov 2012

Scott Walker's Not-So-Little Legal Snag

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/scott-walker-aid-convicted-14759848#ixzz2CnqKtaW1

Ever since the Republican National Convention, where he was received as rapturously as any speaker was, I have made Scott Walker, the goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to run their Midwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin, no worse than 3-1 to be the Republican nominee for president in 2016. To me, he had everything going for him, including the right corporate connections, and he had one thing all the other possible contenders didn't have. He beat, in a relatively fair fight, after they'd spent millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours trying to recall him, almost every liberal group — unions, public school teachers, minorities, public employees — loathed by the Republican base. That gave him street-fightin' cred on the right unmatched by the likes of Marco Rubio or "Bobby" Jindal.

My opinion did not change over the next few months. I watched him outdraw, and vastly out-enthuse, his cheesehead homeboy, Paul Ryan, at the New Hampshire state Republican convention about a month before the election. Over the past couple of weeks, he's been the point man among the Republican governors in the effort to derail the Affordable Care Act out in the states. Only a few days ago, he was waxing profound at the Reagan library. However, there always was one thing out there laying for him in the dangerous dark.
And that would be this.

Gov. Scott Walker and his top campaign and Milwaukee County aides were named Monday as part of a team that routinely commingled political and official county business. The disclosures came during the sentencing of a former aide to Walker during his last year as Milwaukee County executive. Kelly M. Rindfleisch, 44, was sentenced by Milwaukee County Circuit Judge David Hansher to six months in jail and three years of probation on a single felony count of misconduct in office. The judge stayed the sentence pending Rindfleisch's appeal to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals or the state Supreme Court. In a lengthy presentation during Rindfleisch's sentencing, Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf displayed numerous emails between Rindfleisch and key members of Walker's campaign staff in which they discussed how to manage county government in 2010, while Walker was a candidate for governor. Repeatedly, Landgraf argued that Rindfleisch knowingly broke the law by doing campaign work at the courthouse. In a new development, the prosecutor made clear — without saying it was illegal — that top Walker campaign officials influenced, even directed, county strategy.