Donald Trump unloaded on Scott Walker over the weekend while in Iowa:
He went down a list of criticisms that seemed the result of an overnight opposition-research effort. “Wisconsin is doing terribly,’’ he said. “The roads are a disaster because they don’t have any money to rebuild them, and they’re borrowing money like crazy.’’
He cited figures for the state’s budget deficit. “I wrote this stuff all down but I don’t need it because I have a really good memory,” he said.
He also accused Mr. Walker of flip-flopping on the Common Core education standards, having once supported them. “Scott Walker changed when he saw he was getting creamed, so now he’s not in favor,’’ he said.
By the way, for once, everything The Donald said about Walker was true.
What set Trump off was some adolescent name-calling by a Walker ally in a fundraiser email:
A fundraiser for Scott Walker’s presidential campaign called Donald Trump “DumbDumb” in a fundraising invitation and said electing the New York developer would be “a total and complete disaster for the country.”
“As you’ve seen Gov Walker is now well ahead of everyone not named DumbDumb (aka Trump) in the national polls,” wrote Walker fundraiser Gregory Slayton, a New Hampshire venture capitalist who served as consul general to Bermuda during the George W. Bush administration. “He’s also a plain spoken member of the 99% (as opposed to someone pretending to be so)…and that will be a KSF in 2016.”
Walker's campaign, took its sweet time to respond to this kerfuffle, but did not denounce the name calling:
Walker spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said: “Americans are frustrated with the direction of our country and we owe them a positive conversation about how we move forward together. With that in mind, the governor is going to talk about what he is for and not against and would encourage others to do the same.”
Team Walker is probably feeling pretty nervous for good reason. In New Hampshire, Walker is in a distant third place behind Trump and Jeb Bush. In Iowa, where Walker was a shining star, he's seen his remarkable lead dwindle to just two points ahead of Trump, who keeps climbing in the polls despite - or maybe because - of his outrageous ongoing commentary.
While Trump might be nothing more than a flash in the pan, if he can make Walker's campaign crash and burn, that's perfectly all right by me.
