CRG "scared-silent" campaign FAIL

by folkbum

Ol' capper pulls off the rare and difficult Wisopinion Daily Double.



We hear he stuck the landing, too.

CRG doubles down on their (probably) baseless complaint

by folkbum

As I noted yesterday, Citizens for Responsible Government demonstrated a remarkable level of irresponsibility and an extreme level of laziness in filing a complaint against Chris "capper" Liebenthal for blogging on work time. (Chris works for Milwaukee County.) [UPDATED to add: This literally does seem to be tit-for-tat after a County employee was caught pimping Scott Walker on County time.] CRG's evidence at the time consisted entirely of four posts all made on either County furlough days, nine days so far this year when Chris was legally unable to do his job let alone blog concurrently, or vacation days that he had publicly announced.

Today CRG makes another post claiming further evidence of Chris's having blogged or commented on political blogs on County time. Sadly for them, they still include all those furlough days. They also include posts or comments made on January 18 (Martin Luther King Day) and May 31 (Memorial Day) and September 7 of last year (Labor Day) when County workers were also not working. CRG was even so thorough in looking for "evidence" that it trolled individual posts at Milwaukee County First looking for comments from Chris, and they cite specifically in their list this comment made on October 9: "And before you get your undies in a bundle, yes, today is a pre-approved vacation day, as was yesterday." So smart enough to look at the comments, but not smart enough to, you know, read them, since CRG thinks Chris made five different posts on County time during those vacation days on October 8 and 9.

So far, there's been no word from the DA's office about whether anything incriminating has been found on Chris's computer (and even if there were something, people smarter about the law than I feel that the DA is the wrong person to be handling this). But if what CRG can muster--a bunch of posts on furlough days and holidays--is representative of what "evidence" exists, our friend Chris is in no real danger.

Also: There's evidence in the Journal Communications server room!

Citizens for Responsible Government wants irresponsible waste of taxpayer funds

by folkbum--note updates below!

And see Thursday's developments!

Never let it be said that CRG is actually responsible. Today is a perfect example.

They have apparently filed some kind of complaint with the Milwaukee County DA's office about my friend Chris "capper" Liebenthal's blogging, claiming he has been blogging on Milwaukee County time (Chris works for the County).

So let's see what all CRG is not responsible for, shall we?

CRG is not responsible for doing a 20-second google search; if they had, they would have noticed that the four posts in their "evidence" (1 2 3 4) were all posted either on a County furlough day (April 15 UPDATE: and January 15) or a day (May 14) when Chris publicly announced that "today is a paid day off."

CRG is certainly not going to be responsible for whatever time the DA's office spends investigating the complain (I'm sure they'll charge for a lot more than the 20 seconds I took to google the facts up).

And CRG is also apparently not responsible for pushing for any kind of similar investigation into Darlene Wink, who not only was in fact on the internets politicking on County time, but has admitted as such (and that admission curiously corresponds to the disappearance of a pro-Scott Walker blog that had postings up the wazoo made during work hours).

So then what is Citizens for "Responsible" Government really responsible for? A huge waste of time, and perhaps libel or slander lawsuits against the squawkers and bloggers spreading easily-disproved untruths. Not any responsible governing, that's for sure.

Thursday morning updates: Chris has responded, understandably, without providing much actual information. But his allies have stepped up: The Brawler notes the irony of Chris's having been targeted for blogging on a furlough day--"Cap helps balance the county budget and all he gets is a DA probe!" Tom Foley correctly guesses Charlie Sykes's age. And Jason Haas has perhaps the most important reaction, noting that while Chris spends his day toiling away to help the neediest in Milwaukee County only to be rewarded with a DA investigation, Scott Walker regularly rewards his campaign cronies with plum County jobs.

And a further update: Cory Liebmann documents the irresponsibility of CRG's blind support for the very irresponsible Scott Walker.

Another Promise Bites The Dust

by capper

I've often heard the right complain about liberal politicians who would make unpleasant or controversial announcements late on a Friday afternoon. In their conspiracy-filled world, they thought the politician would be doing this hoping that the public wouldn't notice, or if they did notice, that they would forget by Monday.

I can't say that they are necessarily wrong, with the exception that almost every politician, of either party, pulls the same kind of stunt. However, perhaps Republican politicians are better than the Democratic ones. I say this because of the stunt that Scott Walker pulled today, and I am not aware of one of the right wing watchdogs saying a word about it.

While all of Milwaukee was busy celebrating the Marquette Interchange, or the statue of Fonzie Lt. Commander Data, or the Brewers, or summer in general, Scott Walker thought he'd pull a fast one.

Walker took the time from emailing Charlie Sykes, complaining about how people are on him for emailing Charlie Sykes, to appoint a crony to his administration. From the All Politics blog at JSOnline:

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker today said he hired his campaign manager to a county job as an assistant in Walker's office.

Tim Russell, a real estate agent who most recently served as Walker's campaign manager for his spring re-election, will be paid $75,982 a year. Russell is temporarily filling the vacant post of community liaison, but will likely shift to another job in his office soon, Walker said.

"Where he's at right now is just a place-holder" position, he said. Walker said he expects to use Russell to help with developing his 2009 county budget. Walker said he wanted to tap Russell's expertise and said he would maintain a clear separation between county and campaign duties.

It's Russell's third stint with the county. He formerly worked as operations director for Walker and as county economic development director.

Supervisor John Weishan Jr. said Walker's hiring of Russell was disappointing, calling it political patronage.

As Dan Cody points out, this is the definition of cronyism. Of course, Walker has a history of trying to repay favors to supporters, but never this disgustingly blatant.

And of course, just to remind you Walker supporters that may have forgotten, Walker had promised not to do this sort of thing:

Implement a program to eliminate cronyism and nepotism in county government, including a review of all management and supervisory functions under the executive. Within 60 days.

And this promise stemmed on a platform of promises demanded by the misnamed group Citizens for a Responsible Government. Yet apparently, this is no longer a big deal for them either, judging from their website. So much for their pretense as well.

Can We Have A Little HIPAA Over Here? Revisited

by capper

A couple of weeks ago, I had already pointed out how Walker and his administration doesn't only ignore state law, but has a high disregard for federal laws as well. Being the astute observer that I am, I wrote (emphasis mine, now):

It appears that Walker's acting director of the Department of Administration, didn't bother checking the law, or running this past the Clerk of Circuit Courts, John Barrett. Instead, she just went ahead and released this information. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, Walker is mum on the subject.

Chris Kliesmet, spokesman for CRG, wrote a letter to the editor at MSJ, trying to foist the blame on John Barrett. In this morning's paper, Mr. Barrett answers those accusations, in his own letter to the editor:

Chris Kliesmet, spokesman for Citizens for Responsible Government, recently criticized my concern over the release of confidential information in a letter ("Clerk to blame for mishandling release," Feb. 21).

Evidently in his world, responsible government does not expose mistakes made by Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker's administration. What is mystifying is why CRG is so angry about transparency in government - a concept it claims to stand for. Transparency should include all government and not just the party one favors.

What Kliesmet's letter didn't say was that the Walker administration had input and released this data. It violated "the fundamental rule of secure record keeping that demands public and private information be kept separate." This whole debacle has cost the taxpayers money. County employees had to scour 188,000 invoices to remove confidential information. I hope CRG will pay the taxpayers back for this cost.

I do not believe confidential information should be made public. Not surprisingly, the law agrees with me. I was not consulted about the release of confidential information. I did not grant and will not grant anyone the authority to publish such information. It was only when the Journal Sentinel exposed the problem that the data was finally removed. I call that service.

John Barrett
Clerk of Circuit Court/Register in Probate,
Milwaukee County
Milwaukee

The question that remains is: Does this fall under Safety (violating people's privacy), Affordability (sticking taxpayers with the bill to correct yet another one of his blunders) or Pride (not following the law)?

Walker Officially Breaks Another Promise

by capper

Remember earlier this year, when the conservatives made such a big deal about a pledge that Governor Jim Doyle made several years ago about not raising taxes. They kept repeating the "No Tax" thing ad nauseum. When confronted on the fact that the statement was from years ago, they said that it did not matter, a promise is a promise. An example would be such high thinking would be from Jessica McBride, in an exchange with Tim Rock:

Other Side said...
The quote you are using is from Governor Doyle's State of the State address back in February 2003 and was made in reference to to digging ourselves out of the Thompson/McCallum fiscal mess.

As a journalism professional, you might try to get all the facts and report them rather than just parrot talk radio. Your students expect more from you.
October 28, 2007 9:45 AM

Jessica McBride said...
Other Side, Your typical gratuitious(sic) nastiness aside, who cares when he promised it? He promised it. He made similar comments since then, as you well know, anyway.
October 28, 2007 11:11 AM

I would bet a lot of money that they will be changing their stance on this issue real soon.

Scott Walker has now officially declared that he will be seeking re-election for Milwaukee County Executive. This is in spite of the fact that he promised, not to run for a second full term as county executive. And before Fraley, Owen, Sykes and the other Walker supporters go into full denial mode, he did indeed promise. In fact, when you look at those campaign promises, he has broken many of those. He also appears to be in the hooks of special interests, when CRG (Corrupt Republican Goons) can make their own platform for Walker.

And before all the Walker lemmings get into line with their one-plank platform about holding the line of taxes, let's not forget that this year, even with the Milwaukee County Board doing their best to correct Walker's inept budget, it still blew up in record time. How much are all these inquests (and I'm certain there will be a lawsuit coming), faulty budgets, and broken promises really going to cost? I bet it's going to add up to a lot more than the six dollar tax increase in the 2008 county tax.