Last Friday the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office announced the end of the lengthy and contentious John Doe investigation of Gov. Scott Walker’s Milwaukee County Executive office.

The close of the John Doe investigation marks the end of three years that Milwaukee County officials spent sifting through emails, searching houses and filing criminal charges against Walker’s aides. It heralds the end of three years of plodding investigative monotony punctuated by the occasional arrest of a Walker associate. For the most part, these arrests served to remind us that John Doe was not an investigation of particularly egregious crimes, but rather moderately serious bureaucratic wrongdoings. 

Many Wisconsinites are ready to breathe a sigh of relief now that the extended investigative drama is finally over. Unfortunately, politicians on both sides of the aisle have refused to let the matter drop. 

Republicans such as Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester, have jumped at the opportunity to point out, having been cleared of criminal charges, Walker has been vindicated. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports Vos said, “It’s important to know that this is a complete vindication of what he did and once again a reaffirmation of how he did things right.” 

It is absolutely true Walker has been cleared of legal wrongdoing after an extensive criminal investigation – while Democrats obviously still don’t like him, the Milwaukee County prosecutors have found him innocent, and that can’t be argued with. However, being innocent in the eyes of the law and having “done things right” are not necessarily equivalent. If not being a criminal is our new standard of political excellence, well, then apparently we live in Chicago. 

While there is an obnoxious element of told-you-so gloating in Vos’s comments, they were not nearly as damaging to public discourse as the off-the-deep-end remarks of Democratic Party spokesman Graeme Zielinski. 

Shortly after the John Doe investigation was closed, Zielinski posted multiple tweets comparing Walker to infamous serial killer Jeffery Dahmer. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Zielinski wrote, “@GovWalker had better lawyers than Jeffrey Dahmer in beating the rap. Clear that he committed crimes,” and, “@GovWalker spent more than Jeffrey Dahmer to beat criminal charges.” 

Where to begin? Well, there’s an obvious point to be made: Zielinski’s comparisons of Walker to Dahmer are both untrue and unacceptable. Zielinski may believe Walker is a criminal – but the fact is the Milwaukee County District Attorney doesn’t, and it’s his opinion that counts. It is disappointing a spokesperson for the Democratic Party would make such slanderous comments immediately after Walker was cleared of criminal charges. 

But Zielinski didn’t just call Walker a criminal, he compared him to a serial killer – something that should never be said about someone who is definitely not a serial killer.
In the end, Zielinski simply discredits himself as a case study in the sort of psycho Madison liberal hatred of Walker that defies all reason. 

This raises the question of why Zielinski is employed as a Democratic Party spokesperson in the first place. After all, as a spokesperson, he should be smoothing over the controversial comments of others, not creating his own public image disasters. 

Zielinski eventually deleted the tweets and issued a public apology to both Walker for his slanderous comments and the victims of serial killer Jeffery Dahmer for his insensitive remarks. Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate also made a public statement, saying in an email to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “Graeme’s tweet is inappropriate, overzealous and insensitive … He should have chosen a different comparison point in pointing out Gov. Walker has had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to avoid criminal charges. He and I regret his comment.” 

How’s that for a passive aggressive apology? In the same breath, Tate apologizes for Zielinski’s senseless tweeting while reiterating Democratic accusations of Walker’s wrongdoing.

Regardless of how you feel about Walker, the reality is that the John Doe investigation is over. There is nothing to be gained from continuing to speculate about possible Walker wrongdoings – if Milwaukee’s Democratic DA didn’t find anything, then there probably isn’t anything. Those who continue to perpetuate false claims about Walker are no different than “birthers” who, against all evidence, claim President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.

Charles Godfrey ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in physics and math.

Joe Timmerman ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in economics and math.