“Scotty doesn’t know” is now not only the best line to ever come out of Matt Damon’s mouth, but a new staple for our governor. This is the governor who finds himself in a place of ignorance in the middle of an evolving John Doe investigation. He probably doesn’t like it anymore than Scott Thomas did in Eurotrip.
The ethical problems that began for Gov. Scott Walker last year when the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Darlene Wink was using state time to post pro-Walker comments on JS blogs have increased in the past few months as the John Doe investigation continues to create news.
The conviction of railroad CEO William Gardner for excessive campaign contribution was another rung down the ethical ladder as the donations were rewarded with more than $14 million in government contracts. Those contracts came at the same time Walker was killing the $800 million in federal funding because “Wisconsin doesn’t need trains.”
The John Doe investigation remained under the radar until the FBI raided a member of Walker’s inner circle and one of the architects of the budget repair bill, Cindy Archer. In the week that followed, the administrations attempts to distance Archer from the governor by moving her to a new position also came to light.
But for the first time in this administration, we may finally have an honest answer to a controversial topic: “I don’t know.” That is because rhetoric wizard and official spokesperson Cullen Werwie was revealed to have been granted immunity in the John Doe investigation.
Werwie’s words have been at the front of every controversy in this administration. The budget repair bill was spun perfectly as a crisis that everyone had to pay for. The open records request/threat towards a history professor providing a historical perspective was nudged aside as a perfectly normal conversation about a state employee’s use of state time.
Truly, Werwie has skillfully steered Walker through dangerous political waters, often quickly creating a political victory where a defeat seemed certain. Without Werwie, the best Scotty seems to have to say on this matter is “I don’t know” and “I am a man of integrity,” both of which are beginning to sound far-fetched.
Gov. Walker, Wisconsin is going to need better answers. With the governor lacking his usual quick and strong response, it seems the political game might be catching up to him.
The realities of Walker as a tenacious player of political brinksmanship is well documented. In the midst of the budget repair battle last year, Rachel Maddow had a great piece on Walker’s handling of a change in security guards in Milwaukee County. The gist of the piece was Walker exaggerated budgetary concerns (familiar) to break the security guard union and bring in a private group with previous scandals for five bucks an hour cheaper. Eventually, the union bust was proved illegal and now Milwaukee County gets to double pay for each guard position.
Then, of course, you have the budget repair bill, the Fab 14 and everything else that happened last February, a month in which a deficit was turned into a political sword aimed directly at a Democratic power base, unions.
But now the architects of that strategy are falling quickly. Archer is hiding out under the guise of sick leave while both her inner circle position and lesser post remain empty. Werwie is refreshingly silent and the governor is beginning to look like a man looking for a leg to stand on.
The investigation is still ongoing and with so little confirmed right now it may be premature to assume Walker is John Doe, but whom else do all these people know about? “Scotty doesn’t know” is not going to hold up forever. For an administration that has done an excellent job of instantly overpowering any negative press with a consistent message, this silence should be very disquieting to its supporters.
John Waters ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in journalism.
