Many already know the deep connection between the billionaire Koch brothers, their deep-pocketed conservative political organization and lawmakers like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker that are pursuing aggressively anti-union strategies in a number of GOP-controlled states.
In the case of Gov. Walker, Koch money helped him get elected and Koch money is also being funneled into conservative operations on the ground in Wisconsin to shore up support for Walker’s attempt to strip public employees of collective bargaining and smear the Democratic lawmakers and grassroots protesters opposing the governor.
Now, in a humorous and painfully embarrassing episode for Gov. Walker, that connection has been busted wide open for all to see.
A left-leaning independent journalist called the office of the Wisconsin governor, posed as billionaire conservative financier David Koch, and actually got through for a long conversation with Scott Walker, all in character.
Is that really Scott Walker? [Update: Yep.] A New York-based alt-news editor says he got through to the embattled Wisconsin governor on the phone Tuesday by posing as right-wing financier David Koch…then had a far-ranging 20-minute conversation about the collective bargaining protests. According to the audio, Walker told him:
That statehouse GOPers were plotting to hold Democratic senators’ pay until they returned to vote on the controversial union-busting bill.
That Walker was looking to nail Dems on ethics violations if they took meals or lodging from union supporters.
That he’d take “Koch” up on this offer: “[O]nce you crush these bastards I’ll fly you out to Cali and really show you a good time.”
Gov. Walker’s office has even confirmed that the incident happened.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s office confirms that the recording of a call between the governor and an alt-weekly writer posing as David Koch, one of the billionaire GOP financier brothers, is real and that it is actually Walker on the recording. The governor’s office has released a statement:
“The Governor takes many calls everyday,” Walkers spokesman, Cullen Werwie said in a statement. “Throughout this call the Governor maintained his appreciation for and commitment to civil discourse. He continued to say that the budget repair bill is about the budget. The phone call shows that the Governor says the same thing in private as he does in public and the lengths that others will go to disrupt the civil debate Wisconsin is having.”
Insert jokes here…
As Ezra Klein correctly points out, the real shock of a journalist cold-calling the governor’s office and immediately getting in touch with Scott Walker while posing as a powerful conservative money-man is that he won’t pick up the phone when the state’s Democratic lawmakers try to reach out for a compromise.
But if the transcript of the conversation is unexceptional, the fact of it is lethal. The state’s Democratic senators can’t get Walker on the phone, but someone can call the governor’s front desk, identify themselves as David Koch, and then speak with both the governor and his chief of staff? That’s where you see the access and power that major corporations and wealthy contributors will have in a Walker administration, and why so many in Wisconsin are reluctant to see the only major interest group representing workers taken out of the game.
Gov.Gadhaffi, your days are numbered. You hobnob with billionaires and trample the rights of working citizens. Soon you will join Joe McCarthy on the trash heap of history
Walker equates union busting to the fall of communism in the old Soviet Union. This guy is a clown. The sexist remarks and willingness to be bribed reaffirms my suspicions that he is a fast talking con artist.
Walker is what the people of Wisconsin gets when they are influenced by heavy expenditures on advertisement. Maybe next time they will think for themselves. I trust the “common man” seeks information and acts on it. We simply have to damned much money involved in campaigns.