Christie down, Walker next?
Now that Chris Christie’s candidacy seems to have been damaged, even though there is still no proof (or even evidence) that he knew what his aides were doing in Bridgegate, next on the list is Wisconsin’s Scott Walker.
Walker is rightly perceived as being a strong contender for 2016 on the Republican side. In fact, as I’ve said several times, he’s my favorite for the nomination at the moment. So it stands to reason that he and anyone who ever had anything to do with him will be investigated and investigated and investigated until something is found on him or on someone connected with him. A connection will do, because the assumption for a Republican is that he is responsible for every bad act of everyone around him.
No need, really, to point out the contrast with the press’ treatment of President Obama, who has had to deny knowledge of almost everything around him and everything under him, as well as people he was affiliated with and praised (mentor and pastor Reverend Wright comes to mind). But I’ll point it out anyway.
The Christie brouhaha and the Walker aide investigation not only have the goal of trying to bring these particular men down. They also serve as notice to anyone else even thinking of running on the Republican side, letting them know what’s ahead for them, no matter how uncorrupted they may appear to be or how uncorrupted they think they actually are. How many politicians can know exactly what every aide of theirs is doing at all times?
Meanwhile, it’s not okay to look at Hillary Clinton’s actual record or that of her husband, who would be First Man (or whatever it’s called) if she were elected.
In case you’re interested in what WaPo article actually says about the charges against Walker’s aides, here are some quotes:
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who has been eyeing a 2016 presidential run since his battles with labor unions made him a Republican star, is in the midst of dealing with the fallout of two criminal investigations at home that could complicate his move to the national stage.
One is ongoing, and while the other is now closed with no allegations of wrongdoing by Walker, it has the lingering potential to embarrass him.
The article goes on to describe the hopefulness that just oozes out of Democrats who no doubt will be doing their best to use guilt by association against Walker if actual guilt cannot be found despite all the effort:
Prosecutors said then that Walker was not a target, and he was not charged.
But Wisconsin Democrats hope the new e-mails could still prove politically harmful to Walker, perhaps providing examples of times when he appeared to be aware of the router or of political work being performed on the county’s dime.
Democratic officials in the state are salivating over the chance to draw comparisons to Christie, who enjoyed an image among national Republicans as a stand-up fighter for conservative causes until internal e-mails revealed a plot by aides to create a massive traffic jam as possible political retribution against a Democratic mayor.
The salivation is not just limited to Wisconsin Democrats. Note, also, the article’s ridiculous characterization of Christie’s pre-scandal standing, stating that he had “enjoyed an image among national Republicans as a stand-up fighter for conservative causes.” The writer, Rosalind S. Helderman, is either abysmally ignorant of Republican and conservative opinion or purposely misrepresenting it. I vote for the latter.
The goal of this all is not just to discredit Walker. Most Republicans and conservatives will continue to support him, unless a smoking gun is found, which it almost certainly won’t be. Liberal Democrats weren’t going to vote for him anyway, although they’ll enjoy trashing him some more. It’s moderate Democrats and Independents, and especially those so-called low information voters, who are the particular intended audience. Something vaguely scandalous around Walker can serve to lower his appeal (which rested at least in part on his perceived integrity) to swing voters, and that would be exceedingly valuable to liberals and the left.
We’ve seen this movie before during the Republican presidential primaries. As soon as someone rises to the top, they get cut off at the knees by the MSM. Conservatives have to go after Democrats early and often with private money.
It is so dreary, tedious and predictable.
And what makes it worse is the Republican blessing of these things.
Walker is great. But I will walk the plank and say what the heck, Palin, Palin, Palin.
What’s the best way to fight slander? When rebutting the charges just serves to keep them in the (bird-witted) public mind?
It’s much more insidious than just hitting the potential candidates, they’re using thug tactics to intimidate and harass Walker supporters:
“The Wall Street Journal reports that there are two subpoenas from special prosecutor Francis Schmitz requiring the release of “all memoranda, email . . . correspondence, and communications” both inside the subpoena targets and also between the subpoena targets and roughly 30 conservative groups. Some of the groups involved are the Friends of Scott Walker and the Republican Party of Wisconsin, the League of American Voters, Wisconsin Family Action, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, Americans for Prosperity–Wisconsin, American Crossroads, and the Republican Governors Association.
One subpoena also wants to ferret out who the donors to the conservative groups are, stating its demand for “all records of income received, including fundraising information and the identity of persons contributing to the corporation.”
…
But Eric O’Keefe, the director of the Wisconsin Club for Growth, confirmed he received a subpoena in early October and revealed that at least three of the homes of the targets of the subpoenas were raided by law-enforcement officers who grabbed their computers and their files.”
http://tinyurl.com/pumxo3s
They’ve graduated from IRS harassment to raiding donors’ homes in the middle of the night. This is seriously out of control.
Let’s just take a list of ALL real patriots ,and put them in ALL positions of government. The one that gets the most votes, is the CEO, but everybody else needs to be on the team pulling the war wagon over the Left’s bodies.
All of which will eventually leaves us with Karl RolyPoly Rove’s hand picked man- we all better be prepared to get excited about Jeb Bush. That’s who I am predicting the Fat Faced one and his braintrust will push in 2016. Jeb stands for every RINO principle, and openly disparages conservatives as political terrorists who are ruining Republican chances. In other words, he’s the next perfect loser for president.
I would not be a bit surprised if uncle Karl has been aiding the takedown of the Christie and Walker himself, just as did with Ted Cruz, when Cruz ran against Dewhurst for the Senate in TX. Cruz was not supposed to beat Karl’s boy, and you can expect him to undermine any conservative candidate that isn’t one of his hand picked puppets, who can be trusted to deliver the government pork to Karl’s donors.
southpaw:
I will bet you (gentleman’s/woman’s bet) that Jeb Bush goes nowhere.
Why blame any of this on RINOs? The left is more than willing and eager to do it.
I’m not a Karl Rove fan, but I don’t see it the way you do at all.
We need to fight back before it starts.
Name and shame the fascist slanderers.
I vote for the former. A liberal who isn’t abysmally ingnorant of Republican and conservative opinion is a rare find. I’ve never found one. Ignorance is just as effective as malice in these situations.
I’d vote for a yellow dog if I thought it could beat Hillary and the lefties. Too many conservatives stayed home last time and stuck us with Obama because they did not like RINOS.
Jeb Bush has a Hispanic wife and speaks Spanish. That could be huge. He was a popular governor of a large swing state. I think he is too moderate for my ideal, but he may be the only one who can win.
With all the dependent people that Obama has created, this may be the last shot to stop the left for a few years. Pick someone who can win. Short of that nothing changes.
By a fluke I saw and heard a half hour speech in person by Karl Rove. He was a delightful and highly intelligent person. He may have been playing to the crowd, but then no one was paying attention except for me and my table, and he came over and recognized as much after.
Lizzy above is so right on. The seeds of oppression and totalitarianism have been watered and fertilized, they are at the end of the cultivation stage.
Russia spent decades doing the same cultivation (from 1848, just to throw out a number?), as did Germany. Hitler learned from it all, saw the efficacy of the method, and gave it a little twist, substituting race for class, but leaving the methods intact. With the Left (Hitler, Lenin, Mao, Castro, Chavez, Obama) the method is everything.
The non-Left “drearily” concerns itself with morality and the complexity of human nature.
Rove and the Bushes have their connections which take precedence over anything else. That is too bad.
For me, Ronald Reagan was the actual uncorrupted true human who had the profound intelligence to make a difference.
IMO, so is Sarah Palin, and I say that recognizing how many will think I am an idiot for saying so.
Wasn’t Christie’s strength supposed to be his ability to smack down Leftist orgs and unions that like to make him look bad?
If it only took a national funded propaganda campaign to get him… then he wasn’t as resistant as some thought. Or perhaps, the Left’s power is underestimated on this venue for sheer firepower and character assassination efficiency.
When rebutting the charges just serves to keep them in the (bird-witted) public mind?
Find the investigators. Then deal with them on an individual basis. Nobody’s going to go around Palin’s trash and not get paid at least something by the unions or oRganized to vote systems. The money will flow. People will get paid. And manpower will be mobilized.
Instead of trying to find a way to defend against that, absent any real intel, people would be better put to launch offensive operations against the supply lines keeping the Left going. Which isn’t stuff at the top where people talk about policies and candidates, but has more to do with the individuals the Left employs. The obedient storm troopers.
Every time I hear the words “Koch Brothers,” I’m going to say “George Soros, convicted felon.” Might be a small thing, but it’s a start.
IMO, so is Sarah Palin, and I say that recognizing how many will think I am an idiot for saying so.
I think we’ve provided substantial pushback for those so called American Republican patriots that would have said the like in 2008.
That leaves mostly Leftists that would say or think something like that. The Peggy Noonans and various… others, supposedly on our side, no more like Sarah Palin’s challenge to the corruption of DC than they like Democrats beating them at the polls.
“…moderate Democrats and Independents, and especially those so-called low information voters, who are the particular intended audience…”
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The thing is, those of us who search out and read conservative blogs are pretty well informed. Those who watch Fox News on cable at least UNDERSTAND that the rest of the alphabet-soup media of our nation are NOT reporting fairly or completely on the issues.
But the folks who don’t go “browsering” the byways of the Internet nor have an alternative source for news –who read their daily paper and dutifully watch the evening news on broadcast TV– have no reason to believe they are other than well-informed.
The media are doing GREAT EVIL to our country (too bad there’s no way to punish them for dereliction of duty!) and their prime victims, ordinary well-meaning citizens, DO NOT KNOW they are being conned, and herded like sheep toward a preordained “consensus”.
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(Hey …. that reminds me: that “reaching a consensus” thing is a big goal of the Common Core program, too …)