Tag: throne of skulls

Courtier from Baronness Hog-gelder joins the court of the Duke of Skull Throne.

Come on, you have to admit: it sounds better than “The team that is building Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s political organization for a possible presidential campaign has brought on a GOP strategist with Iowa ties: David Polyansky.” As the Des Moines Register notes, Polyansky was one of Senator Joni Ernst’s key advisers during her successful campaign last year: he was also involved in getting Mike Huckabee to win the Iowa caucuses in 2008 and Michele Bachmann to win the Ames Straw poll in 2012.  True, neither Huckabee nor Bachmann went on to win the nomination: then again, neither Huckabee nor Bachmann are Scott Walker. Besides, this is clearly about Iowa.  Presumably the Duke of Skull Throne will be seeking suitable courtiers for the other primary states…

Via RCP.

Um. Well. Yes, of course Scott Walker is going to run for President.

This is news?

In a 35-minute speech here at the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting, the governor mentioned the name of his home state no fewer than two dozen times—and referenced “our state” or “my state” on at least 30 other occasions.

It all fed into the contrast Walker is eager to strike. While President Obama’s Washington, Walker says, is spending big, expanding the federal bureaucracy, and taking a “top-down” attitude to governance, Wisconsin has cut costs, shrunk the size of government, and adopted a “bottom-up” approach.

Walker’s speech left little doubt that he will run for president in 2016.

This is apparently news. I knew that Scott Walker was going to run for President just as soon as the Presidential election was called in 2012: the combination of Walker’s recall win and Mitt Romney’s loss made it pretty much inevitable. And yes, I knew since about mid-2013 that Walker was going to win re-election in 2014, too.  I never quite understood why other people seemed to be more uncertain about that, but then again I usually am quite ridiculously optimistic about things…

The Left did absolutely nothing to stop Scott Walker’s re-election. They didn’t even slow him down.

Throne. Of. Skulls.

Permit me this little amusement.  All bolding mine.

  • The Daily Beast, August 25, 2014 (“The Tea Party Governor Backlash of 2014”): “Wisconsin’s Scott Waker is frequently talked up by RNC types as a leading 2016 contender, but he’s fighting for his political life at home, beset by a tsunami of scandals and running neck and neck with Mary Burke. Walker’s most-favored Midwestern governor status in D.C. is in trouble despite a misguided arrogance born of his surviving a recall attempt. His efforts to rein in the public sector unions have been successful, but his style and tone—and did I mention scandals—could make him an unexpected loser on Election Night.”
  • NPR, October 28, 2014 (“In Wisconsin Election, Gov. Scott Walker Fights To Hold On”): “[Craig] GILBERT: Well, you know, one thing that we’ve seen in all the public polling is that, as divided as the state was in the middle of that kind of raucous recall fight, it’s even more divided now. It has not got – there hasn’t been a lot of healing in Wisconsin. And Governor Walker hasn’t really added to his coalition, politically, since those elections. And if you think about 2010 being a really conservative wave election, and you think about 2012 – winning a recall where some voters, you know, had reservations about Governor Walker but didn’t like the recall process – you can sort of see how this election really ought to be closer than those two elections and is.”
  • Politico, October 29, 2014 (“Scott Walker limps toward 2016”): “The politician who confidently lectured Mitt Romney in 2012 (“He has to say that I’m a reformer like Scott Walker,” Walker told The Weekly Standard) has tumbled into yet another fight for his political life. Far from a conservative Clark Kent, Walker is visibly straining in the closing days of his race against Mary Burke, a wealthy former Trek Bicycle executive and member of the Madison School Board.”
  • The New Republic,  October 28, 2014 (“Scott Walker Is Scared He Might Lose—and He’s Already Blaming His Fellow Republicans”): “The polls are generally not trending well for Democrats in the final days before the 2014 midterms, but it’s increasingly looking not inconceivable that the party’s loss of the Senate could be accompanied by a loss for one of the party’s biggest bête noires: Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. If polls showing him effectively tied with former Trek Bicycle executive Mary Burke weren’t enough, Walker has been giving off the distinct vibe of a man in a bit of a panic.”
  • Salon, October 30, 2014: (“5 Tea Partyers who could lose reelection next week”) “Walker was never going to glide to reelection in a state that in 2012 elected progressive Democrat Tammy Baldwin, the nation’s first openly gay U.S. senator.”
  • Slate, November 3, 2014 (“The Most Important Race in America”): “On a portable stage in the parking lot of a strip mall in front of the Eau Claire GOP field office, sandwiched between a Curves and an Office Products Co. store, Gov. Scott Walker is keeping his chin up. After the beating he’s taken, that’s no small feat. Walker, Wisconsin’s incumbent Republican governor, is in a tough statewide contest for the third time in four years, and this one is much closer than it was supposed to be.”
  • ThinkProgress, November 4, 2014 (“A Pro-Environment Candidate Could Kick Scott Walker Out Of Office Tonight”): “With the final polls showing an extremely close race between incumbent Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) and challenger Mary Burke (D), an influx of last-minute donations and high-profile supporters indicate the importance of the race on a national scale.”
  • Wonkette, October 25, 2014* (“Scott Walker Gets Some Chris Christie All Over Him, On Purpose”): “With a little over a week to go before Election Day, Scott Walker is increasingly a man in need of a helping hand.”

Continue reading The Left did absolutely nothing to stop Scott Walker’s re-election. They didn’t even slow him down.

Scott Walker’s War on Wisconsin continues!

Does Scott Walker not understand that all that tax money belongs to the State?

The ($531 million) tax decreases — the third round of cuts by Republicans in less than a year — passed 17-15 with GOP Sen. Dale Schultz of Richland Center joining all Democrats in voting against the proposal. The proposal now goes to the Assembly, which passed a different version of the tax cuts last month with two Democrats joining all Republicans in supporting it.

With growing tax collections now expected to give the state a $1billion budget surplus in June 2015, Walker’s bill will cut property and income taxes for families and businesses, and zero out all income taxes for manufacturers in the state.

Continue reading Scott Walker’s War on Wisconsin continues!

Quote of the Day, This Is Only Surprising To Some edition.

I suppose that Peter Grier writes for a different audience than I do:

…some new ratings are out that we find pretty interesting. They’re from the “Crystal Ball” newsletter of the always quotable Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia Center for Politics. He chops the Republican field into layers, and in his top tier Dr. Sabato puts New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (No. 3, and falling); Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky (No. 2, and rising); and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin (No. 1, and “huh”?).

…because I can safely assume that my audience knew all of this already.  Admittedly, we’ve been preparing them to consider the possibility for some time.

Via Hot Air Headlines. Continue reading Quote of the Day, This Is Only Surprising To Some edition.

Tweet of the Day, In Fairness The Democratic WI-GOV Candidate Has Enough Troubles Already edition.

Going up against The Honey Badger King* is hard enough as it is without having to add excess baggage:

Continue reading Tweet of the Day, In Fairness The Democratic WI-GOV Candidate Has Enough Troubles Already edition.

AFSCME in dues freefall after Wisconsin labor union reforms.

Maintain your composure, people.  No tears!  No tears:

The 2011 state law that all but ended collective bargaining for most public workers has hit Wisconsin’s second largest union hard.

The Capital Times reports the latest tax documents available show combined income of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees dropped 45% in 2012. That was the first full year of the law, called Act 10.

In 2011, the four councils that make up the state organization reported a combined income of $14.9 million. In 2012 that dropped to $8.3 million. Dues revenue dropped 40% to $7.1 million.

Turns out that if you give people an opportunity to vote with their pocketbooks, they take it.  I’d also note that a hefty percentage of those people opting out of forced union dues are undoubtedly doing it because Big Labor is a lapdog for the Democratic party establishment.  Gallup found in 2012 that 35% of union households backed Mitt Romney (34%, government union); while that may not make much of an electoral difference, I imagine that those folks are now happy not to be paying for Democratic attacks on their candidates. I suggest that the unions take a hint or two from this. Continue reading AFSCME in dues freefall after Wisconsin labor union reforms.

Wisconsin Democrats forced to retract Scott Walker smears from website.

I remember when that particular state party was effective.  Or even competent.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin scrubbed its website Wednesday of accusations that Gov. Scott Walker was kicked out of Marquette University and student elections there.

The move was in response to a PolitiFact Wisconsin investigation that found no evidence Walker was forced out of either.

In the story published Wednesday, PolitiFact reported that Marquette, with Walker’s permission, released a letter that said he left voluntarily in spring 1990 and was in good standing each term. That means no conduct issues, academic or otherwise, blocked his registration.

Continue reading Wisconsin Democrats forced to retract Scott Walker smears from website.