What Part Of ‘Being Governor’ Does Scott Walker Not Understand?

I know there are often confusing statements by elected officials and politicians which can be over analyzed and commented on by the press and bloggers.  If every word you and I uttered were recorded and played back there would he blunders to fill a stadium.

But then there are statements by politicians like Scott Walker which are so rich that they demand to be talked about, and in the case below followed up on by the press.

At issue is the search for an answer as to why Scott Walker has been allowed to set up a legal defense fund to pay expenses related to an ongoing investigation.  What is so confusing about the matter, and why some answer needs to be forthcoming is that state law is rather specific about when defense funds can be established by an elected official.

Officeholders, such as Walker, may only set up such a fund if they’ve been charged with a crime, or are under investigation for violations connected to campaign finance or election laws.

Few answers are flowing from the East Wing, but one illuminating comment was released to the press.

It is utterly amazing.

Walker earlier told reporters after an unrelated news conference that he’s simply relying on his defense team to deal with administrative issues that he doesn’t have time to handle.

“I don’t think the voters of Wisconsin want me to spend hours and hours and hours looking through tens of thousands of emails and documents. I think they want me to be the governor,” he said.

Here is the problem with the comment.

If Scott Walker is so concerned about ‘being governor’ then why isn’t he home creating the jobs he promised, instead of running around the country raising campaign cash and defense money?  Why is Walker more interested in speaking to conservatives around the nation than speaking to the state legislature about venture capital, and state mining?  What makes the folks af the NRA national convention more exciting than dealing with unemployment in Wausau?

What part of ‘being governor’ does Walker not understand?

One has to ask the question given the glaring opening that Walker created by his own statement to the press.

Protesters At GOP Convention In Tampa Can Carry Guns

Republicans make me laugh.

Take the case of  the request by Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn to allow the city to ban guns during the Republican convention. Seems like a very forward-thinking idea.

But can you image the cramping this idea caused the three-thumb crowd?

Conservatives can be thankful that Florida’s Republican governor, Rick Scott, turned down such an appeal for the city, and the protestors who wish to show up and demonstrate their justifiable anger towards the GOP will be allowed to carry guns.

But inside the convention hall there is a ban on guns.

Say what?

I think that unfair, and from the statements that these candidates for the nomination have made over and over during the past year, such a restriction is a constitutional infringement on the rights of man.  (If that sentence does not indicate I have been really listening to the debates…)

So consider this.

What would a grand ole party be like without some firing of pistols and showing off your weapon in the men’s room during intermission between the speeches of Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann?   I am most confident that if Sarah Palin knew such a show was underway she would order Todd to hold the restroom door and then show all her arsenal as well.  She seems to me just that type of woman.

I really think there should be guns allowed on the GOP convention floor.  After  all, what is a little gun powder on your hand compared to the slime of getting cozy on the floor with the Koch brothers?

Mitt Romney And Conservative Anti-Gay Action In Full View For America To Witness

It did not take long for Mitt Romney to bend over and play lap dog to the conservatives in his party when they expressed dismay and anger over the hiring of  an openly gay political strategist.  One might think that given how Romney has not been allowed to be his own man yet in the campaign, as he always needed to spin everything to win conservative voters in the nominating process, that he might break free and be himself.

Instead the timid Mormon blinked.

As such that allows for the true side of the Republican Party to again be on full display for America to view.

So let me get this straight.

A gay man can serve his nation openly in the U.S. Army, but needs to hide his sexual identification if applying for a job with Mitt Romney.

I can assure my readers after having worked a decade at the Wisconsin Statehouse that if every gay man were fired the building would need to close.  From top staffers to mail delivery in the (then) basement, and on both sides of the aisle it was impossible not to work with gay men.

The constituents back home did not care as long as their problems were resolved, and the issues they championed were pressed under the dome.

Mitt Romney, however, proved that instead of the best person being in a job position he would rather some Bible-thumping idiot without any real knowledge of the issues mandate who is, and who is not hired. 

Let us not forget Romney, if elected, would be the leader of the free world, and yet is not able to even hire his internal staff without some blowhards telling him who is allowed to do a job.  Maybe my Websters Dictionary is out of date, but Romney is not meeting the definition of leadership.

American is again getting to see the Republican Party in full view, and it is not a pretty thing!

It is a shocking display of how removed conservatives are from the real world.

It was the biggest moment yet for Mitt Romney’s foreign policy team: a conference call last Thursday, dialed into by dozens of news outlets from around the globe, to dissect and denounce President Obama’s record on national security.

But Richard Grenell, the political strategist who helped organize the call and was specifically hired to oversee such communications, was conspicuously absent, or so everyone thought.

It turned out he was at home in Los Angeles, listening in, but stone silent and seething. A few minutes earlier, a senior Romney aide had delivered an unexpected directive, according to several people involved in the call.

“Ric,” said Alex Wong, a policy aide, “the campaign has requested that you not speak on this call.” Mr. Wong added, “It’s best to lay low for now.”

For Mr. Grenell, the message was clear: he had become radioactive.

It was the climax of an unexpectedly messy and public dispute over the role and reputation of Mr. Grenell, a foreign policy expert who is gay and known for his support of same-sex marriage, his testy relationship with the news media and his acerbic Twitter postings on everything from Rachel Maddow’s femininity to how Callista Gingrich “snaps on” her hair.

From Mr. Grenell’s hiring three weeks ago, which prompted an outcry from some Christian conservatives, it became clear that the appointment of the former Bush administration official with pristine Republican credentials had become entangled in the unforgiving churn of election-year politics, leading to his resignation on Tuesday and the Republican candidate’s first public misstep since effectively clinching the nomination.

The Pain Felt By Elizabeth Edwards

There is no way that anyone can read this and not feel pain, and also the desire to de-nut John Edwards.

In the fall of 2007, after the National Enquirer published an article about the affair, Elizabeth Edwards, according to the testimony of Reynolds and Matthew Nelson, another staffer who was on the stand Wednesday, became enraged.

She pawed at her husband in a car ride to Raleigh-Durham airport while others were present, asking him if that’s what he and his mistress did in New York.

John Edwards, according to testimony, got out of the car before the couple got to the airport, got in a car that had been trailing them with other staffers and sent someone to take his seat by his wife.

At the airport, an emotional Elizabeth Edwards crumbled to the ground in the parking lot. Reynolds and Hargrove McElroy, a longtime friend, rushed to the distraught woman’s side, helped her up, got her into a restroom and tried to calm her down.

Elizabeth Edwards, Reynolds said, became “understandably upset” again. Elizabeth Edwards, who had been through extensive treatments for breast cancer, took off her bra, exposed her chest and stormed out in front of her husband and said: “You don’t see me any more,” Reynolds recalled.

The Edwards’ eldest child, Cate Edwards, a 30-year-old lawyer who has sat stoically through her father’s trial, became visibly upset during a break in Reynolds’ testimony.

Her father leaned over and mentioned to her during the break when the jury was out of the room that he did not know what was coming next.

Defense attorney Abbe Lowell had just objected to what prosecutor David Harbach was asking Reynolds. Judge Catherine Eagles sent the jury out of the courtroom for a brief break.

Cate Edwards said something inaudible to her father, then left the courtroom in tears as her father quietly called after her, “Cate, Cate.”

Kathleen Falk’s Son Has Something To Say

From Eric Falk Phillips, Kathleen Falk’s son, comes the following message

I grew up in a house where my first ‘political’ experiences weren’t fundraisers or election night parties. They were the quiet acts of people like her who will always care more about those who have nothing than those who have everything. Politics to my mom has never been about personal gain or scoring political points. It’s always been about how she could best help kids and how she could give a helping hand to families in the grip of addiction or institutional poverty.

As a kid it was my mom who took me to my first soup kitchen. It was my mom who taught me that delivering Meals on Wheels was more important than our family’s holiday dinners. It was my mom who showed me that when my classmates in grade school needed a safe place to stay at night, we’d always be the first to provide it.

These values – these living lessons – not only form the center of her character, they also represent the kind of governor she will be.

If we want to elect a governor who leads by example around the values we care about to replace a governor who divides us around the politics of partisanship, I’m asking that you help elect the candidate who’s got the experience doing it.