Fake News: Marquette Tribune Recycles Discredited Rumor about Scott Walker and Marquette

From a story on Marquette Wire, on a speech by Governor Scott Walker on the Marquette campus:

Walker was once a student activist himself, and attended Marquette University for a time in the late 80s. There are disagreements as to why the future governor left the university shy of graduation, but one thing is clear: his time here was spent climbing the ranks of MUSG and building a political platform for himself.

What the story refers to is a claim, by leftists, that Walker was expelled from Marquette because of fraud in a student government election.

This, in fact, was debunked long ago. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel investigated the claims, made by partisan Democrats, that Walker “either dropped out or was forced out” of Marquette because of some scandal. Marquette, citing student privacy laws, refused to comment without Walker’s permission. Walker gave that permission to Marquette, and the paper reported:

“Gov. Scott Walker was a student at Marquette from fall of 1986 until spring 1990 and was a senior in good standing when he voluntarily withdrew from Marquette,” the university said in a statement.

That means that no conduct issues, academic or otherwise, blocked Walker from continuing in school at the time of his departure, MU spokesman Brian Dorrington told us in early December 2013.

When we asked Dorrington whether any conduct issues were on Walker’s earlier school record, he said Walker would have to permit release of that information. Walker did so in response to our request.

“Governor Walker was in good standing each term while he was enrolled at Marquette University and when he left Marquette University,” Associate Vice Provost Anne Deahl said in a letter. “Governor Walker was not expelled or suspended from the university at any time.”

Thus the implication that Walker might have been expelled or forced out of Marquette because of some scandal is bogus, and the claim was debunked back in 2013.

The Marquette Tribune has thus engaged in irresponsible journalism, probably as the result of a liberal bias.

Will they issue a correction? We shall see. The default position of the mainstream media (the folks Tribune staff are in training to join) is to stonewall.

Left Wing “Netroots” Really Hate Walker

From Politico:

PHOENIX, Ariz. — There’s no love lost for any of the 2016 Republican presidential contenders at the 2015 Netroots Nation confab, but attendees reserve a special kind of loathing for one candidate in particular: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

It’s an understandable sentiment given the setting. This year’s edition of the annual convention of liberal activists is heavily focused on bread-and-butter economic issues, with a strong union presence. The AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Teachers, and the National Education Association have booths set up near the center of the convention hall, and many of the other booths are focused on one economic topic or another. Two large American flags with rainbow stripes instead of alternating red and white hang from the LGBT Netroots Connect booth, an indication of how forcefully gay rights are defended here.

All of which makes this a very hostile crowd for Walker, who regularly trumpets his victories over public-sector unions in his home state, and now weaves his opposition to the Supreme Court’s recent same-sex marriage decision into his stump speech as well.

“Scott Walker is probably the most dangerous of the Republicans in my opinion. And that’s just my opinion,” Dan O’Neal, the Arizona state coordinator for the Progressive Democrats of America, said. “He and Bush are probably the two most dangerous in terms of competing with Bernie or Hillary.”

It’s not that there are any warm and fuzzy feelings toward the rest of the GOP field, but it’s Walker who stirs the most negative passions among liberal activists.

“I mean, if you look at the records, Scott Walker has destroyed the economy and it’s been devastating for workers there,” Stephanie Taylor, the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said on Thursday as she sat in a conference room alongside Adam Green, the other founder of the liberal political action committee. “I would hate to see that happen to America.”

Green quickly interjected, saying Walker and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie are the least appealing of the bunch. “But that’s not to say we could live with the other ones,” he added.

This year, Netroots attendees sporting pro-Bernie Sanders buttons are everywhere (on Thursday, it was hard to find a Hillary Clinton logo), and none of them had positive things to say about Walker.

And just as Sanders, with his unabashedly pro-labor views, fires up his left-leaning supporters, Walker’s union-busting boasts send them into paroxysms of rage.

“To me he looks like a little twerp,” said Fred Koegel, a retired member of the Iron Workers of Chicago Local 11 union. “He looks like the kid that hired the bullies in the schoolyard to protect him. That’s him, OK?”

This kind of raw hatred on the part of the left has, in fact, proven to be a huge political asset for Walker.

It is a truism among political scientists that people with intense preferences matter more in politics than people with bland opinions. But it doesn’t work that way when extremists are conspicuously deranged. The leftists’ tantrums in Wisconsin didn’t seem to hurt Walker. Ordinary voters are likely to sympathize with the targets of the extremists. This is especially true when the target of the extremists is rather mild-mannered and earnest. (Between left extremists and Donald Trump, the issue is more complex.)

Most certainly, nobody in the Walker campaign is crying in their beer over news like this.

Scott Walker Interview

A rather friendly interview, and not some liberal reporter trying to trip him up. That kind will come later. But since Walker has a good ability to stay on message, this is a good example of what he’ll be saying regularly during the campaign season ahead.

"I'd be a candidate who's done both. I've fought the good fights and won those fights consistently for hardworking taxpayers. We've consistently taken on the big challenges...right to work, lowered taxes by $2 billion, property taxes are lower today than when we first started, we passed voter ID...regulatory reform, lawsuit reform, education reform, our school are better today than they were four years ago."

Posted by Scott Walker on Saturday, June 6, 2015

Scott Walker Using Mitt Romney Mailing List

This blogger gets a lot of spam e-mail. That’s true of everybody, but we tend to get more political spam than other people.

Recently, we got two e-mail messages from Scott Walker. Since he’s clearly running for president, this is hardly surprising.

Here is one of the e-mails.

Here is the other.

What is interesting is that both come from the Mitt Romney campaign, apparently using a mailing list left over from 2012.

But clicking on the link sends one to “Friends of Scott Walker.”

Of course, it doesn’t say “Walker for President,” but everybody knows that’s what it is, de facto.

The e-mail says “This message reflects the opinions and representations of Friends of Scott Walker, and is not an endorsement by Mitt Romney.”

Sure. But we will see how many other candidates get to send out fundraising e-mails with the Romney list. At a minimum, this is “endorsement lite.”

This could be a minus for Walker among conservatives who think Romney was too soft a conservative, or a plus as a “semi,” “maybe,” “somewhat” endorsement by an important Republican figure. But it’s early in the election season, any anything one says at this point is little better than speculation.

Democratic Party Smear Against Scott Walker Debunked

The left in Wisconsin is particularly nasty. Maybe it has something to do with the concentration of leftists in Madison, or maybe it’s the labor tradition in Wisconsin, which is now decaying and leaving a bunch of bitter people.

Exhibit One of this bitterness has been the willingness of leftists to smear Republican Governor Scott Walker. Not merely to disagree (even vehemently) with his policies, but to flat out lie about him as a person, and his history.

Thus we have what was, until very recently, the “Walker bio” on the State Democratic website. It claims that Walker “was kicked out of elections at Marquette after masterminding a scheme scheme that destroyed newspapers critical of him” and that “Walker either dropped out or was forced out not long thereafter.”

One of our liberal colleagues, apparently accepting this, has assured us that Walker was kicked out of Marquette.

Dave Umhoefer of the Journal-Sentinel has investigated this for Politifact.

First finding: Scott Walker was never kicked out or forced out of Marquette.

We heard nothing — and found no evidence — suggesting Walker was pushed out of the university.

But publicly available documents cannot fully resolve the question, in part because a federal privacy law blocks release of information on former students unless the person consents. In addition, Walker told us he was sticking to an earlier decision not to release his transcript.

With that in mind, we asked Walker if he would allow Marquette to comment on his academic and conduct record. He did.

“Gov. Scott Walker was a student at Marquette from fall of 1986 until spring 1990 and was a senior in good standing when he voluntarily withdrew from Marquette,” the university said in a statement.

That means that no conduct issues, academic or otherwise, blocked Walker from continuing in school at the time of his departure, MU spokesman Brian Dorrington told us in early December 2013.

When we asked Dorrington whether any conduct issues were on Walker’s earlier school record, he said Walker would have to permit release of that information. Walker did so in response to our request.

“Governor Walker was in good standing each term while he was enrolled at Marquette University and when he left Marquette University,” Associate Vice Provost Anne Deahl said in a letter. “Governor Walker was not expelled or suspended from the university at any time.”

Finally, there’s another problem with the Democratic Party’s claims.

According to MU, Walker left school after the spring semester in 1990. That’s more than two years after the 1988 election, instead of the “not long after” the Dems claim.

One claim that can’t be decisively debunked is that Walker and/or his supporters stole copies of a Marquette Tribune issue with an editorial endorsing Walker’s opponent in a student government election. No records exist to debunk that claim, but no records exist to support that claim either. Umhoefer found no evidence that Walker had done that.

Further, as the above statements from Marquette show, no conduct or academic issues prevented Walker from completing his Marquette degree. The now-current version of the Democratic Party website has this claim removed — while still being as nasty as it can possibly be. It has dropped the “forced out” [of Marquette] claim, but still has the “masterminded” claim.

Umhoefer does make a bit of an issue about somewhat inconsistent explanations Walker has given about why he did not return to Marquette and complete his degree. In reality, none of this is terribly damning, since in broad terms it’s clear why he didn’t: a lot was going on in his life, and school was not a top priority. When people recount their own motives and thinking, any account may be imprecise, since a lot of different thoughts and ideas go through people’s minds.

How sleazy was the Democratic Party in all this?

Mike Tate, chairman of the state Democrats, told us the party based its post on unnamed sources who he said had privately passed on information about possible “nefarious activity” that Tate did not describe.

Those parties would be reluctant to talk to a reporter, he said. The allegation is defensible, said Tate, because the party is trying to raise questions about the “mystery” of Walker’s departure.

That’s a flimsy case, at best. At worst, it suggests a possible fictional smear.

But “raising questions” by telling (or recklessly repeating) bald faced lies is out of bounds.

Just why is Mike Tate still employed by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin?

Hitler Reacts to Wisconsin Recall

Jon Stewart on Wisconsin Recall

Anti-Walker Rant from Congresswoman Gwen Moore

OK, it’s painful to watch.

This does have a Marquette connection. Not only is Gwen Moore a Marquette alum, she was honored by Marquette’s Les Aspin Center. She is one of several pro-abortion politicians to be so honored.

Watch it here.

Walker’s Policies Are Working

From the Weekly Standard:

Emily Koczela had been anxiously waiting for months for Wisconsin governor Scott Walker’s controversial budget repair bill to take effect. Koczela, the finance director for the Brown Deer school district, had been negotiating with the local union, trying to get it to accept concessions in order to make up for a $1 million budget shortfall. But the union wouldn’t budge.

“We laid off 27 [teachers] as a precautionary measure,” Koczela told me. “They were crying. Some of these people are my friends.”

On June 29 at 12:01 a.m., Koczela could finally breathe a sigh of relief. The budget repair bill​—​delayed for months by protests, runaway state senators, and a legal challenge that made its way to the state’s supreme court​—​was law. The 27 teachers on the chopping block were spared.

With “collective bargaining rights” limited to wages, Koczela was able to change the teachers’ benefits package to fill the budget gap. Requiring teachers to contribute 5.8 percent of their salary toward pensions saved $600,000. Changes to their health care plan​—​such as a $10 office visit co-pay (up from nothing)​—​saved $200,000. Upping the workload from five classes, a study hall, and two prep periods to six classes and two prep periods saved another $200,000. The budget was balanced.

“Everything we changed didn’t touch the children,” Koczela said. Under a collective bargaining agreement, she continued, “We could never have negotiated that​—​never ever.” Koczela, a graduate of Smith College and Duke University Law School, is no Republican flack. She says she’s a “classic Wisconsin independent. I vote both parties. I voted for Senator [Russ] Feingold but I voted for [Republican state] Senator Alberta Darling too.”

In Brown Deer and school districts across the state, Walker’s budget repair bill, known as Act 10, is working just as he promised. To make up for a $2.8 billion deficit without raising taxes, state aid to school districts (the largest budget line) was reduced by $830 million. Act 10, Walker said, would give districts “the tools” needed to make up for the lost money as fairly as possible.

But union leaders argued that the fight over the budget repair bill had nothing to do with balancing budgets. It was all about stripping public employees of their “collective bargaining rights.”

“We have said all along that this isn’t about pay and benefits,” Mary Bell, president of the state’s teachers’ union, said in February. “We are prepared to implement the financial concessions proposed to help our state in these tough times. But .  .  . we will not be denied our right to collectively bargain.”

Acceding, at least rhetorically, to higher benefit contributions​—​5.8 percent of salary for pension (up from nothing) and 12.6 percent of health care premiums​—​looked like a smart tactic. It made teachers seem reasonable and focused the fight on collective bargaining “rights.”

What few people may have understood, though, is that these are “rights” that most people, including federal employees, don’t have. But Americans don’t like taking away anybody’s rights. The polls in Wisconsin showed voters overwhelmingly opposed to “weakening” or “stripping” or “eliminating” collective bargaining rights. President Obama called the bill an “assault on unions.” Democratic state senator Lena Taylor compared Scott Walker to Hitler.

But as the abstract debate over collective bargaining collides with reality, it is becoming clear just how big a lie the Big Labor line was. Now that the law is in effect, where are the horror stories of massive layoffs and schools shutting down? They don’t exist​—​except in a couple of districts where collective bargaining agreements, inked before the budget repair bill was introduced, remain in effect.

In Milwaukee, nine schools are shutting and 354 teachers have been fired due to a drop in state funding and the end of federal stimulus funding. But if teachers there agreed to the 5.8 percent pension contribution, the school district says it would rehire 200 of those teachers. (Other changes could offset the rest of the layoffs.)

Despite the promise from Mary Bell that all teachers would contribute something toward their pensions, Milwaukee teachers’ union president Bob Peterson won’t agree to the change. In doing so he’s made it clear that “collective bargaining rights” is code for “union veto power.”

“You have a choice: layoffs or pension contributions. Do you see that choice?” a local Fox News reporter asked Peterson. “Why did you make a choice of layoffs?”

“I didn’t lay off anybody,” Peterson replied. He thinks Milwaukee teachers have conceded enough and blames Walker’s budget cuts for the layoffs. But a year ago​—​before Walker was elected and when Democrats controlled all branches of government​—​there were also layoffs.

Given the choice between fewer benefits and layoffs, the Milwaukee teachers’ union chose the latter. In 2010, 482 teachers, including Megan Sampson, a young educator named an “outstanding first year teacher” by the Wisconsin Council of Teachers of English, got the axe. CNN reports that this year “Milwaukee teachers are offering meals and moral support to 354 fellow educators who will be laid off.” Meals and moral support? The union’s got your back. A job? Not so much.

The only other district seeing such massive layoffs is Kenosha, where 212 teachers will be fired this year. “Kenosha is in the same boat as [Milwaukee], with a collective bargaining agreement signed before Walker took office that lasts until June 30, 2013,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on July 16. “But most other Wisconsin districts have avoided layoffs and massive cuts to programs.”

One striking feature of Walker’s budget repair bill is the flexibility it has given school districts to balance their budgets. For example, things are looking up in the tiny town of Pittsville in the heart of the state, where the district balanced its budget mostly through increased pension contributions and not replacing four retiring teachers.

“We didn’t change anything in our health care at all,” Superintendent Terry Reynolds told me. “If Act 10 hadn’t passed,” he said, “I don’t think the teachers’ union would have wanted to approve the 5.8 percent contribution” to pensions. “That would have been a hard battle to fight. I’m not sure we would have saved dollars there.” Enough money was freed up that Pittsville property taxes will decrease by 9 percent next year.

While class sizes increased slightly in Pittsville, they’re going down in the Kaukauna school district, where the school board used the budget repair bill to turn a $400,000 deficit into a $1.5 million surplus. In addition to the 5.8 percent pension contribution, the board pared back personal days from ten to five, increased the deductible for a family health insurance plan from $250 to $500, and required middle school and high school teachers to teach six classes instead of five. Any or all of these changes could have been vetoed by the union under a collective bargaining agreement.

The reforms will allow Kaukauna to spend $300,000 in merit pay for teachers next year and offer more Advanced Placement classes and languages like Chinese or Arabic in the future, according to board president Todd Arnoldussen. Bringing down class sizes “was a win for the kids and a win for everybody,” he told me.

But as Patrick Meyer, the head union negotiator in Kaukauna, says in a video, “morale has been terrible” in the district. Might teachers be spread too thin now? “Elementary teachers already teach seven hours a day,” says Arnoldussen. “That’s a horrible argument. I mean, come on. Six classes at 50 minutes.”

If morale is down, interest in teaching at Kaukauna isn’t. An opening for an elementary teacher attracted “over 500 applicants,” says Arnoldussen. “So you obviously have a huge amount of people that really want to work for Kaukauna .  .  . under our noncollective bargaining agreement.”

Just three weeks after Walker’s budget went into effect, its sweeping success is already apparent. But will it be enough to spare the six Republican state senators who face recall elections on August 9? Whether or not the Democrats gain the three seats they need to take over the senate, Walker’s collective bargaining success won’t be undone anytime soon. But a victory could embolden Democrats, who are gearing up for a recall election against Walker as early as the spring of 2012.

“I don’t think they think the sky’s going to fall,” says Emily Koczela of Brown Deer residents, who will vote in the recall election of Republican state senator Alberta Darling.

As for the teachers, “some of them will feel better in a year or two.” Koczela says the union told them that “this is all a sham. There isn’t really a budget shortfall. If we just all stop giving tax breaks to wealthy corporations you’ll all be fine.”

“They didn’t know who was lying to them.” But soon enough they will.

Fascism in Madison: GOP Senator Glenn Grothman Chased, Trapped by Hecklers

Kudos to Democratic Representative Brett Hulsey, who saved Grothman from a very threatening situation.

More on the Union Goons in Madison

From the Daily Caller. By all means read the article, but also this list of sources:

P.S. Matt Welch at Reason magazine asks: “Is This How a President Should Act?” (Hint: No.)

P.P.S. Oh yeah, almost forgot: Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin are getting death threats, and these union guys are showing up at their homes and businesses. Let’s hear it for the New Tone.

P.P.P.S. They’re not even trying to hide the astroturfing.

P.P.P.P.S. Stephen Green: An Open Letter to Mr. Daily Kos.

Liberal Hypocrisy About Political Rhetoric: Tea Party vs. Scott Walker

Lena Taylor: Anti-American

Great bit of investigation from Daniel Suhr at GOP3.COM.

It seems that Taylor’s Myspace page has (or at least had) a cartoon lampooning Americans for being (supposedly) so terribly provincial.

Here is the cartoon. If you click on it, you can see a larger version, which will be more readable.



Lena Taylor, it seems you are rather like Jeremiah Wright.

We checked the site, and apparently it has been sanitized. We could not find the cartoon in question.

But we did find an interesting motto that Taylor has.

“If nothing changes, then nothing will change!”

Lena Taylor, meet the concept “tautology.”

Journal-Sentinel Working on Walker Transit Hit Piece

Quite often, journalists let their biases show.

Sometimes, they make their agenda patently obvious.

Via GOP3.COM, an account of a Journal-Sentinel reporter who is clearly working on a hit piece directed against Scott Walker.

From post on the Journal-Sentinel Newswatch blog.

THURSDAY, Feb. 28, 2008, 3:36 p.m.

Have county transit changes affected you?

How have you been affected by Milwaukee County Transit System fare increases and service cuts? Please contact Journal Sentinel reporter Larry Sandler at lsandler@journalsentinel.com to let him know, and please include your name and a telephone number where you can be reached.

Of course, any such accounts will be used to attack budget-cutting County Executive Scott Walker.