Wisconsin Governor takes call from prankster posing as a Koch brother
From Buffalo Beast – the link now appears to be down, presumably because of the traffic
Read about it on Salon
‘David Koch’: “We’ll back you any way we can. What we were thinking about the crowd was, uh, was planting some troublemakers.”
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker: “You know, well, the only problem with that – because we thought about that…..”.
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‘Koch’: “You’re the first domino….”
Walker: “Yep. This is our moment….”
‘Koch’: “Now what else could we do for you down there?”
Walker: “Well the biggest thing would be – and your guy on the ground is probably seeing this…..”
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‘Koch’: [Laughs] “Well, I tell you what, Scott: once you crush these bastards I’ll fly you out to Cali and really show you a good time.”
Walker: “All right, that would be outstanding.”
Read all about it at Buffalo Beast
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Ezra Klein: “….if the transcript of the conversation is unexceptional, the fact of it is lethal. The state’s Democratic senators can’t get Walker on the phone, but someone can call the governor’s front desk, identify themselves as David Koch, and then speak with both the governor and his chief of staff? That’s where you see the access and power that major corporations and wealthy contributors will have in a Walker administration, and why so many in Wisconsin are reluctant to see the only major interest group representing workers taken out of the game.
The critique many conservatives have made of public-sector unions is that they both negotiate with and fund politicians. It’s a conflict of interest. Well, so too do corporations, and wealthy individuals. That’s why Murphy – posing as Koch – was able to get through to Walker so quickly. And it shows what Walker is really interested in here: He is not opposed, in principle, to powerful interest groups having the ear of the politicians they depend on, and who depend on them. He just wants those interest groups to be the conservative interest groups that fund him, and that he depends on.
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“The governor takes many calls everyday,” Walker’s spokesman, Cullen Werwie, said in a statement. “Throughout this call the governor maintained his appreciation for and commitment to civil discourse. He continued to say that the budget repair bill is about the budget. The phone call shows that the governor says the same thing in private as he does in public and the lengths that others will go to disrupt the civil debate Wisconsin is having.”
The Obama Diary 