Saturday, April 8, 2017

The Mighty Text Battle Of 2017

By Jeff Simpson

JSonline recently broke a story of a text message battle between Governor Scott Walker and Republican Assembly speaker Robin Vos.

The tension took on a bitter tone in text messages between the two last week that were released Friday under the state's open records law. The raw private exchange between the governor and Assembly speaker — in which both men blamed the other for infighting over the state budget — underscores how the top Republicans have been at odds in recent actions.

Blind ambition can do strange things to people.  Both career politicians have started to believe their own hype.   The fight stems from both wanting more.  Vos and Walker, based on their winning previous elections (massive amount of dark money and unethically gerrymandered lines not withstanding) the two evil twins had an agenda.  

Scott Walker was certain to be President now and Robin Vos would be getting ready to unseat Rebecca Kleefisch as Governor of Wisconsin.   With Reince playing a major role in GOP politics and Paul Ryan Speaker of the House, the Four Horsemen would ride again.  

A huge wrench was thrown into those plans though when Scott Walker, after running for President for four straight years was soundly and thoroughly rejected by the base of the Republican party for an overweight, bad haired, TV reality "star".  

That left Walker without a path forward and since he has done nothing but suck off the public teat, he has no intentions of going anywhere.   While Scott holds the Governor's office, Robin can not run for it.   It is not looked upon very well if someone within a party challenges an incumbent(See Nehlen, Paul) without express consent of the party leaders(See Marklein , Howard).  

At the moment Walker can not be President and Vos can not be Governor.   That means there is conflict between the two and it boiled over in a series of text messages.  You would think that since they both are paid full time wages to work, they could just have sat down together in the Capitol and ironed it out.   That would of course mean that they would have to actually be working and in the Capitol.  Which we know is a rarity.

Now that we have the background out of the way, there was a text that was given some attention but not in context and not enough.

Robin Vos asked Scott Walker :
"do you think it's responsible not to make any interest or debt service payments (on) transportation over the next couple of years?"
Anyone who knows and has followed Scott Walkers career, knows that he is absolutely ok with it.  When your plan is to move on quickly, then he can blame his predecessor on all problems.   The problem is while Walker might have assumed it to be a Democrat, Robin Vos is certain he is that predecessor.   That is the ONLY reason Robin Vos would ask that question.  

The most telling text though, that has been completely ignored in all news stories is Scott Walkers answer:

Scott Walker: I believe we will have decent growth in the future. 

500 bonus points to anyone who can say where they have heard that one before:

  4/30/2012: Once June 5 hits and Gov. Scott Walker is securely re-elected, “our economy is going to take off like a rocket,” state Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said Monday during a meeting with The Journal Times Editorial Board.
Ouch,  he actually had people believing that and now we have dropped to 37th in the nation in job creation and are carrying more long term debt than we ever have.  

Dueling Legislators who are hoping for pie in the sky economics, while legislating from a position of ignorance and personal ambition.

Heaven help us!  

**PS:  We at CogDis have confirmed that no pocket protectors were injured in this battle!  





2 comments:

  1. "When your plan is to move on quickly, then he can blame his predecessor on all problems. The problem is while Walker might have assumed it to be a Democrat, Robin Vos is certain he is that predecessor."

    I think you mean:

    "When your plan is to move on quickly, then you can blame all problems on your successor. The problem is while Walker might have assumed it to be a Democrat, Robin Vos is certain he is that successor."

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  2. Agree with this call. The fact that the notoriously secretive Walker Administration got this open records request turned around in a week seems like a tell to me.

    And yes, a lot of this also stems from Walker throwing a lot of gimmicky garbage against the wall in this budget, and expecting the Legislature to clean up the mess and resemble responsibility. So cynical

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