The release of the fake David Koch/Scott Walker tapes has been the best thing that could have happened for the progressive movement. Labor unions had already been doing the hard work of showing solidarity against the power grab of Scott Walker. Before the recording was released, the selling of our government to big money interests got barely a thought from most people. The recording changed that. Not only did it show that Governor Walker could find 20 minutes to talk to an out-of-state billionaire (while not talking to actual Democratic state legislators), he admitted on tape that his goal was to break the unions. One really troubling part of the recording got very little play on the news – the part where Walker admits he had considered planting agitators in the crowd. Apparently not everyone ignored this part:
Well, here’s one person who finds this disturbing: The police chief in Madison, Wisconsin. The Journal Sentinel reports:
Madison Police Chief Noble Wray said Thursday that he found comments by Gov. Scott Walker made about protesters at the state Capitol during a prank phone call “very unsettling and troubling.”
In a statement, Wray said he spent time overnight thinking about the comments Walker made during a 20-minute conversation with a Buffalo N.Y. blogger who posed as a major Republican donor during the call…
Wray said he was disturbed that Walker thought about planting troublemakers among peaceful protesters.
“I would like to hear more of an explanation from Governor Walker as to what exactly was being considered, and to what degree it was discussed by his cabinet members. I find it very unsettling and troubling that anyone would consider creating safety risks for our citizens and law enforcement officers,” the chief said.
The blase reaction by some in the press to this quote was a bit surprising, but that seems to have turned around a bit today. MSNBC has been pushing the quote hard, and more broadly, the big news orgs have been in effect portraying Walker as a bit of a national joke: “Governor punk’d.”
Despite all the people who said nothing to see, move along, the recording continues to be a big problem for Governor Walker. The recordings led the evening news, and all but one of the questions at Walker’s press conference were about the Koch conversation. Walker may win this battle, but he brought on a war.