Photo credit: Scott Walker Facebook page
Scott Walker
Scott Walker
Republican concern about prison conditions is at an all-time high with the convictions of Donald Trump’s campaign manager and his personal lawyer for multiple felonies. That’s awkward for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker who was already facing embarrassing questions about his adamant refusal to visit any of his state’s prisons during eight years as governor.
Not only Democrats, but fellow Republicans, including Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Appeals Court Judge Brian Hagedorn—Walker’s former chief legal counsel currently running for the Wisconsin Supreme Court—have faulted Walker for intentionally avoiding any direct observation of conditions for staff and inmates within a prison system that costs Wisconsin taxpayers more than a billion dollars a year.
Golly, I wonder what could be behind Walker’s reluctance to voluntarily enter a prison? Even though Walker and his Republican-controlled state legislature successfully rewrote Wisconsin laws to eliminate all those bothersome criminal investigations that have dogged Walker throughout his political career, could he still fear that, when that steel door clangs shut behind him, he might never be allowed back out again? Walker was only four years old when President Richard Nixon’s White House hired a gang of burglars to break into the Democratic National Committee’s Watergate offices. That was a little early to totally corrupt Walker’s view of what was acceptable in Republican politics.
The Unethical College Dropout?
But, was it just a coincidence that Walker was accused of unethical practices in a student government election at Marquette University at about the same time that his personal hero, President Ronald Reagan, was embroiled in the second major Republican scandal of political corruption during Walker’s lifetime? It was known as the Iran-Contra Affair.
Republicans have whitewashed Reagan’s presidency so thoroughly that many people forget Trump wasn’t the first Republican president investigated for secretly conspiring with a nation hostile to the U.S. Eleven Reagan administration officials, including Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger, were convicted of illegally selling missiles to Iran in violation of an arms embargo in place ever since Iran seized 52 American hostages from the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held them for 444 days during the presidency of Jimmy Carter, Reagan’s predecessor. Oliver North, a military aide to Reagan’s National Security Council, engineered the scheme to sell missiles to Iran and use the profits to fund the “Contras”—a rebel army backed by the CIA in a clandestine attempt to overthrow the government of Nicaragua.
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The national Republican corruption as Walker was coming of age politically was soon matched by the corruption Walker saw up close during his career in the Wisconsin legislature. A John Doe investigation in 2001 exposed political corruption in both major parties, with leaders routinely using state employees to work on legislators’ political campaigns. Five state legislators and four of their aides were convicted, ending the political careers of the state’s two most powerful legislative leaders: the Republican speaker of the Assembly and the Democratic Senate majority leader.
Meet John Doe
Walker wasn’t directly implicated in that John Doe investigation, but he was targeted by prosecutors in two John Doe investigations of his very own as Milwaukee county executive and, later, as governor. The county investigation convicted six of Walker’s staff members and political associates of crimes, including money laundering and embezzlement of nearly $75,000 intended for families of veterans killed or wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.
No charges were filed against Walker as governor in the second John Doe because Walker’s Republican allies on the Wisconsin Supreme Court shut down the investigation. News leaks revealed prosecutors were pursuing charges of money laundering through outside political organizations to hide the identities of companies and individuals contributing millions of dollars to Walker and Republicans who later benefitted directly from favorable legislation.
Walker and state Republicans wrote tolerance of political corruption in Wisconsin directly into state law by specifically prohibiting prosecutors from conducting John Doe investigations into misconduct in public office, bribery of public officials, theft by public officials, illegal gain from public contracts, violations of campaign finance and election laws, corrupt influence of legislators, extortion, lobby law violations, criminal violations of state ethics rules, false swearing and additional crimes that might occur during criminal investigations such as perjury, bribery of a witness and tampering with public records.
That outrageous law was an insult to any honest American who has ever hoped to “drain the swamp” of political corruption from U.S. politics. Republicans have no such interest under the most dishonest, corrupt Republican president in U.S. history, a man who talks like a cartoon mob boss, arguing that it should be illegal for law enforcement to “flip” his criminal associates to get evidence against the Criminal-in-Chief. But, the day of reckoning appears to be approaching for Trump and Republicans with Democrats running on an anti-corruption platform, and with prosecutors closing in on Trump’s inner circle. It might not be such a bad idea for Walker to stay as far away from prisons as possible after all.
