Looks like Scott Walker's prank phone call may end up getting him in some trouble with their Government Accountability Board and his remarks about bringing in agent provocateurs to cause trouble at the rallies isn't sitting too well with the voters. Ed Schultz discussed Governor Walker's conversation with the fake Koch brother with The Nation's John Nichols who filled Ed in on some of the latest developments in Wisconsin.
NICHOLS: The governor’s not walking a fine line Ed. He tripped off the cliff. The fact of the matter is that Wisconsin has the toughest ethics laws in the nation. We pride ourselves on that. That goes back more than a hundred years to the progressive era with Bob La Follette. Those ethics laws require that an elected official keep faith with the people of Wisconsin. Those statements raise deep concerns here in Madison and around the state.
The former Attorney General of Wisconsin, Peg Lautenschlager told me tonight that she is in the reviewing this, of the transcript of this conversation, for several hours found what she determined to be multiple ethics, election law and labor law violations. And she will tomorrow morning suggest that the state Government Accountability Board begin to review those ethics violations.
Ed Schultz asked Nichols if the Republicans running the state would allow the investigation to go forward.
NICHOLS: The Government Accountability Board is an independent, non-partisan board, staffed by former judges who are elected in a non-partisan manner without any Republican or Democratic control.
Nichols wasn’t sure where the investigation would end up going and pointed out to Schultz that the residents of Wisconsin aren’t too happy with some of the other statements he made during the call as well.
NICHOLS: But second, there’s a moral component to this. People around Wisconsin are talking tonight about the fact that they brought their children to peaceful, very attractive and popular rallies in Madison and other communities and now they find out that their governor says that he considered sending agent provocateurs into those rallies to screw things up and cause trouble, perhaps to begin violence and he only decided not to do it, not because he’s worried for the people of his state, but because he was worried that it might not play well politically. That’s a very troubling thing to have a governor of an American state talking about.
It looks like the tactics being used by these Koch brother teabaggers are finally coming back to bit them.
