Still claiming to be clueless about what happened in Milwaukee, but you can believe him now that he's Governor. Right?
Bwahahahaha!
Gov. Scott Walker's office never had its own hidden Internet system as his office in Milwaukee County did, aides said.
But spokesman Tom Evenson didn't directly answer whether aides in the governor's office frequently used private email accounts to communicate on sensitive political topics outside of the state official system.
"From day one, establishing and maintaining ethical standards has been a priority for Gov. Walker and his administration. This has included ethics training with legal counsel and the Government Accountability Board, mandatory public records training, periodic reminders on ethical conduct, and the written policy that all governor's staff, lieutenant governor's staff, cabinet secretaries, deputy secretaries, and assistant deputy secretaries are required to sign," Evenson said.
(bolding is mine)
Republican Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker claims he had no knowledge of the secret router and private email system in use just feet from his desk in his Milwaukee County Executives Office, but tells us there's no such system in use in his Governors Office.
Really? For a guy who (emails now prove) micromanaged everything to claim utter cluelessness of misconduct by his closest staff, totally unaware they were using anonymous names to blog news web sites, and using a secret wifi router, personal laptops, and a private email system to circumvent archiving and Open Records Laws to now proclaim that his Governors Office is squeaky clean is beyond belief.
How would he know?
As if to tell the peasants to lay off Walker, they've offered this up: He's had his staff sign a written ethics policy, too. So there, you stinking demanders of ethical standards for elected officials. And remember that he's the son of a preacher and former Eagle Scout, too, so you can believe everything he says. Right? Riiiight!
In other news, there's more attention to the politics first, second, third and even last priority when it came to a death at the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex just before the Gubernatorial election in 2010.
Instructions from Scott Walker's campaign manager were explicit: Delay settlement of a long-standing legal case over the starvation-related death of Cindy Anczak at the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex.
"Could care less what it is on," Walker campaign manager Keith Gilkes wrote in an Oct. 22, 2010, email exchange with a Walker aide at the county, referring to the claim's legal basis.
"Keep it buried until Nov. 2nd and then hopefully they'll settle," Gilkes wrote.
(bolding is mine)
That's right, folks. Walkers campaign manager was giving instructions to the Milwaukee County Executives office. It's another example of how the campaign was running the show. It was ALL about getting Scotty elected Governor. Nothing else mattered.
The "they" Gilkes is referring to are the parents of a patient that died at the Complex. A death that came just before the election and may have focused attention of Walkers money saving tactic of cutting staff or delaying the filling of open positions, disasterous when staffing is already low.
The emails reveal that Walkers people were delighted that the lawsuit they filed wasn't about negligence (which is harder to prove, instead they filed on civil rights grounds).
Cindy Anczak died at age 33 following a five-week stay at the Mental Health Complex in which she lost 22 pounds. The county was hit with serious care violations by hospital regulators over Anczak's death, but the county did not acknowledge any fault in her death.
Remember that this case was dismissed as having an impact by a Walker aide who wrote "nobody cares about crazy people".
Her parents are now reacting to the callous disregard Walkers campaign and County staff had towards the death of their daughter.
Jean Anczak said the email comments about her daughter's case were insensitive and a sad reminder.
'I'm not looking for justice anymore," she said. "It's so sad they lost sight of the real problems."
Rock Pledl, the Anczaks' lawyer, said Gilkes' comment was "the most calloused thing I've ever heard.
"Whenever Milwaukee County has had a choice between playing politics and preventing patient deaths in the last 30 years, politics was usually the winner," Pledl said.
Gilkes did not respond to a request for comment.
Can you imagine what we'd find if ALL the private emails and John Doe documents were released?
Stay tuned.
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