As Digby notes in Salon, Scott Walker is the latest Midwest governor to be anointed a hero by conservatives when he beat the teacher's union and he's seen as a formidable presidential candidate for 2016, but that was before the John Doe case came along.
After some early success with the case, Activists like Club For Growth and the WSJ are now freaking out that he may want to settle the case. They can't have that.
Scott Walker is falling apart: The little corruption problem he just can’t shake
And then they broke into a rousing rendition of “We shall overcome.” The affiliated big money right-wing groups like Club for Growth and American Crossroads and Americans for Prosperity were undoubtedly very pleased at that outcome. And they were also undoubtedly very pleased with one Scott Walker who was standing up nicely to the pressure and getting their backs when they had so generously padded his campaign coffers. That’s how it’s supposed to work. And then the bottom fell out
A legal civil war broke out Wednesday among targets of a John Doe probe, as a conservative group sought Wednesday to block prosecutors from having settlement talks with Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign.
In a letter sent Wednesday, the Washington, D.C., attorney representing the Wisconsin Club for Growth and one of its directors questioned whether a special prosecutor in the case is negotiating with the GOP governor’s campaign to seek concessions that the club might oppose.
Oops. It would appear that Gov. Walker forgot who he was working for. It’s one thing to want to put a political scandal behind you -- it’s quite another to fail to comprehend that you have been chosen as a designated test case for Big Money and they expect you to fight it all the way for the good of the team.
Conservatives are drunk with power because of recent Roberts Supreme Court decisions that have enabled them to redefine campaign finance laws and civil rights, and they want to more. How dare Scott Walker for trying to end the dream.
And the team leaders are hopping mad. Here’s the Wall Street Journal’s reaction to the news:
Walker might think he can help himself with a settlement, but he’d be letting down his allies if he did so in a way that lets the bogus theory of illegal coordination survive. Wisconsin has an especially pernicious regulatory machine that targets political speech, and the legal backlash to the John Doe probe offers a rare chance to dismantle it. Mr. Walker is a hero to many for his fight against public unions, but he will tarnish that image if he sells out the cause for some short-term re-election reassurance.
Yes, and all those allies who might “help” with that presidential campaign Gov. Walker is obviously trying to salvage will likely not be there with the money that’s been implicitly promised.
Scott Walker has a problem. He is obviously spooked by this probe and would like to put it behind him because he knows it could derail his larger ambitions. But his backers want him to fight all the way, at maximum danger to himself, so they can make a political point. And he needs those backers — every Republican presidential candidate does. What to do? Will he throw himself on the sacrificial altar for the Koch brothers and just hope he comes out alive? Stay tuned.
It looks like their golden boy ain't pretty no more.
