It was this time last year that we shared our first “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, delving into his entire history as a politician going all the way back to his days as a student at Marquette University (where he left school in 1990 to avoid disciplinary action for attempting to have his student body president campaign staff round up as many campus newspapers as they could to destroy them because they endorsed his opponent), to his run for the White House. Walker, as we noted, has a tendency to tell really terrible lies, like union workers surrounding his car and attempting to flip it over, or that his rapidly developing bald spot isn’t actually male pattern baldness, but just a scar from a time he bumped his head on a table. In his time as Governor of Wisconsin, he has given huge tax breaks for the top income bracket, while cutting more money to teachers than any governor in the country (and any shortcomings in student performance, he blames on the teachers who are operating without real budgets). Walker has demonized union workers, wiped out government oversight offices, and has had repeated criminal investigations launched against his staff for illegal use of state resources to further their own partisan agenda.
And that doesn’t even begin to cover what a boob he looked like while campaigning for president in 2016. Gov. Walker was hell bent on winning Iowa, pandering to locals, and trying to establish himself as the frontrunner for the GOP early on, in the process, neglecting his own state. And that presidential run showed him to be, as some GOP pundits delicately put it, “Kind of a Dumbass”. While visiting London, Walker denied the science behind evolution. He found himself in the midst of being considered a Birther for saying in two separate campaign stops that he “wasn’t sure if President Obama is a Christian”, and that he could not confirm that “Barack Obama loves America”. He tried claiming he could stop ISIS because he “stopped 100,000 union protesters back home”, changed his stance on immigration no less than four times (claiming this wasn’t flip-flopping because he never had cast a vote on the issue), denied that a woman’s medical history regarding abortions should remain between her and her doctor, tried pretending that mandatory intra-vaginal ultrasounds were “a cool thing”, refused to answer when asked if he thought being gay was a choice or not, sued the federal government for the right to drug test welfare recipients, and promised to bomb Iran on the first day of his presidency. To name just a few gaffes.
And Walker’s constant flubs saw him further tank his poll numbers in Iowa not long after we shared that original profile:
- August 20th, 2016: as Gov. Walker began to see his lead in Iowa faltering, he thought he could energize his base the same way Donald Trump was, by attacking immigrants. As such, Walker started wavering on birthright citizenship, eventually saying he supported a repeal of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.
- August 21st, 2016: Scott Walker when asked if he would meet with the Black Lives Matter movement, comes off as pretty dense when he answers, “Who even knows who that is?”
- August 30th, 2016: Walker, still trying to one-up Donald Trump to gain support with the anti-immigrant crowd, discusses that he wouldn’t stop at a border wall along the U.S./Mexico border, that he would build one along the U.S. Canada border, as well.
- September 13th, 2016: Gov. Walker decides to blame President Obama for the deaths of two police officers.
- September 21st, 2016: Walker suspends his presidential campaign, when his support in the GOP Primary dwindles to less than 1%. He returns to Wisconsin with record low approval ratings, after 71 days on the campaign trail.
- December 15th, 2015: Gov. Walker signs legislation to dissolve the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, a non-partisan panel of judges that guarantees government ethics, and fairness in elections. Presumably, this was personal, as the GAB had previously investigated a myriad of wrongdoing by Walker.
- March 7th, 2016: After Scott Walker nominates Rebecca Bradley to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, it is discovered that she once wrote opinion editorials at Marquette University (where Walker went to school) where she repeatedly called gay people “queers”, and said that they deserved no sympathy for dying from AIDS. In one such column, Bradley wrote that it was “their misdirected compassion for the degenerates who basically commit suicide through their behavior.” Walker’s nomination, once confirmed, got Bradley a 10 year term on the Court. Pretty sure she won’t be good enough to recuse herself in cases on LGBT issues.
- March 29th, 2016: Walker finally gets around to endorsing someone else in the GOP Primary, almost six months after leaving himself… and goes with Ted Cruz. Very decisive of you, Gov. Walker.
Currently in his second term as Wisconsin governor, Scott Walker’s presidential run has left him vulnerable for a potential third term in 2018. His approval ratings have now hit the 30s (among the reasons trying to save money so rich people can keep getting tax breaks by not repairing the state’s roads and suspending a program to pick up dead deer from the highways, instead leaving them to rot), and his attempt at running for president has left him with a meager campaign war chest. He was also one of the few high profile Republicans to not have the sense to steer clear of the 2016 Republican National Convention, choosing to be a speaker at the event that hypes Donald Trump as the party’s standard bearer. Maybe Walker thought, at the time he agreed, that the NeverTrump movement might make a play to get him the nomination, but it seems like that possibility is moot.
What is certain, though, is Scott Walker, for being a man who talks so much about being part of the party of responsibility, accepts none for his own terrible leadership. Instead, he blames his low approval ratings on “bad headlines” from the media, unfairly turning people against him. Have no pity on this man, especially with all the damage he’s done to Wisconsin, and hope that the Koch brothers cannon prop him up again in two years’ time.
One Year Ago, July 23rd, 2015: Scott Walker (WI)- Original Profile
Two Years Ago, July 23rd, 2014: Todd Akin (MO)