Cut The Unions, Hire The Girlfriends
The ham-handed self-serving greediness playing out in the background of Governor Scott Walker's attempt to make Wisconsin into the central battle zone in the Koch Brothers' attempt to end collective bargaining in this country, roared to the forefront Sunday night when the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported that the supposedly financially imperiled state had enough money to hire State Senator Randy Hopper's mistress.
Valerie Cass, a former Republican legislative staffer, was hired Feb. 7 as a communications specialist with the state Department of Regulation and Licensing. She is being paid $20.35 per hour. The job is considered a temporary post.
A lot of things in Wisconsin – especially those pertaining to one of Governor Walker's State Senate henchmen – appear to be temporary:
His estranged wife, Alysia, issued a statement to WTMJ-TV (Channel 4) accusing Hopper, 45, of beginning an affair with Cass, 26, last year. He filed for divorce in August.
Oh but this gets better and better. How did Ms. Cass wind up being hired by the state with no money, away from a Madison firm called "Persuasion Partners." Surely Governor Walker with his dedication to saving the
But who exactly recommended her for the post? Cullen Werwie, spokesman for the governor, confirmed that it was Keith Gilkes, Walker's chief of staff. She was then interviewed by the Department of Regulations and Licensing's executive assistant and deputy and hired by Secretary Dave Ross, a Walker cabinet member.
You can hear the hamsters running extra fast in that wheel inside Scott Walker's otherwise empty head. 'What? I can't hire this woman as payback for this guy's support in the Senate? Just because I'm telling everybody we don't have any money?'
And when you thought this couldn't get any sleazier, the saga of the hiring of the married Senator's young girlfriend during a supposed fiscal crisis of biblical proportions, manages to reach to...the election of the new chairman of the Republican National Committee!:
Werwie said Cass spent part of January in Washington, D.C., helping Reince Priebus with his bid to become the chairman of the Republican National Committee. He was elected to the post midway through the month. She brings up this duty in her note to Gilkes. "Things are really heating up with Reince's campaign and shaping up nicely," she wrote. "With the RNC vote coming up in a few weeks and Governor-elect Walker's inauguration this week, I was wondering if you had any more details about when you would have a spot ready for me?"
So beneath the attempt to rollback a century of labor reform, and beneath the millions of dollars of Koch Brothers influence-buying and beneath all these dreamt-of sweeping social changes lies a little somethin'-somethin' on the side who wants to know when the Gov "would have a spot ready for me?"
I've said it before and I'll say it again. The greatest defense of our way of life and our democracy is not vigilance nor protest nor political skill, but the rampant and always-to-be-relied-upon stupidity and avarice of the Republican Party. God Protect their devotion not to murdering freedom, but to shoplifting a $4.00 can of soup.