Wisconsin: Walker, Biskupic, corruption and hypocrisy
Back in 2007, the New York Times ran an article about Georgia Thompson, a buyer for the State of Wisconsin.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/16/opinion/16mon4.html
Opponents of Gov. Jim Doyle of Wisconsin spent $4 million on ads last year trying to link the Democratic incumbent to a state employee who was sent to jail on corruption charges. The effort failed, and Mr. Doyle was re-elected — and now the state employee has been found to have been wrongly convicted. The entire affair is raising serious questions about why a United States attorney put an innocent woman in jail.
The conviction of Georgia Thompson has become part of the furor over the firing of eight United States attorneys in what seems like a political purge. While the main focus of that scandal is on why the attorneys were fired, the Thompson case raises questions about why other prosecutors kept their jobs.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, which heard Ms. Thompson’s case this month, did not discuss whether her prosecution was political — but it did make clear that it was wrong. And in an extraordinary move, it ordered her released immediately, without waiting to write a decision. “Your evidence is beyond thin,” Judge Diane Wood told the prosecutor. “I’m not sure what your actual theory in this case is.”
Members of Congress should ask whether it was by coincidence or design that Steven Biskupic, the United States attorney in Milwaukee, turned a flimsy case into a campaign issue that nearly helped Republicans win a pivotal governor’s race.
Fast forward to 2012 and the politically motivated Biskupic is once again tied to a Republican Governor in Wisconsin...
http://uppitywis.org/blogarticle/if-walker-applies-same-standards-himself-he-did-jim-doyle-he-mus
Statement from Milwaukee County Executive and Candidate for Governor Scott Walker on the Indictment of one of Jim Doyle's Top Aides in the Department of Administration:
“The indictment handed down today shows how corruption can infiltrate all areas of government. Unfortunately we have a Governor and administration that condones unethical and illegal behavior. The people of Wisconsin deserve better. Today’s indictment provides further confirmation that the Doyle administration is damaged and must be removed from the Capitol. Jim Doyle’s political connections to this aide are, without question, mentioned as a defining piece of the evidence used to bring forth this indictment.” ...
“Governor Doyle needs to purge his administration of individuals who place politics and special
interests ahead of the people of Wisconsin....
“Little can be said to underscore the seriousness of this charge. I am hopeful that the people of Wisconsin will allow me the opportunity to clean up Madison with the same fervor that guided my reform movement in Milwaukee County.”
Strong stuff.
If Walker held himself to the same standard he demanded of Doyle, he would already have fired two members of his administration, Cullen Werwie and Brett Davis, who were both part of the illegal operation where Rindfleisch, while working on the county payroll, spent her says illegally raising money for Davis's campaign. Both were communicating with her on a secret email network set up in the county executive's office to break the law without being detected.
Biskupic of course is no longer a federal prosecutor. What's he doing? He works for Best and Freidrich, the lawfirm implicated in the Justice Gableman scandal as well as the scandal involving Karl Rove using Federal prosecutors for political purposes. Here's more on that (thanks, Starroute!)...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=134043
= new reply since forum marked as read
