Scott Walker-- Caught Lying Again

Scott Walker's entire public career has been founded on flat-out lies and distortions-- and even more so since he became governor of Wisconsin. The Koch brothers' favorite for the GOP presidential nomination was just caught out in another bold-faced lie. It should surprise no one that he tried putting his own degenerate thoughts into the mouth of Britain's Conservative Prime Minister, David Cameron. Walker claims Cameron "confided" in him that he thinks Obama is a bad leader. Cameron says Walker is making it up.

Walker, who has taken several trips overseas in recent months to study up on foreign policy in preparation for an all-but-certain presidential bid, told a roomful of Republican donors Friday that world leaders, including Cameron, are worried about the U.S. stepping back in the world. "The Prime Minister did not say that and does not think that," a Downing Street spokesperson told Time.

"I heard that from David Cameron back in February earlier when we were over at 10 Downing," Walker said. "I heard it from other leaders around the world. They’re looking around realizing this lead from behind mentality just doesn’t work. It’s just not working."

His comments came at the E2 Summit hosted by former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in Deer Valley, Utah, where Walker was auditioning for support from some of the Republican Party’s deep-pocketed donors.

Walker and Cameron met Feb. 10 while Walker was traveling on a trade mission for his state. The trip was overshadowed in the U.S. by news coverage of Walker dodging a question on evolution.

Walker’s political office deferred comment to his official office, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Walker has made himself a laughingstock in Europe because of his reactionary utterances and his inability to defend his naive, backward positions when confronted by non-Republicans abroad. Not that Walker is doing that much better back in Wisconsin, from which has has largely absented himself lately. He's been trying to gut public education in his state with draconian budget cuts that no one likes.

One GOP lawmaker has dissed his spending plan as a "crap budget," and it gets worse than merely a rhetorical slap. While Walker has been courting voters, party activists and donors in advance of his expected announcement that he's running for the 2016 party nomination, state GOP lawmakers, in concert with Democrats, have crushed some of his biggest ideas this year.

And that works against one clear advantage governors like Walker can bring to national politics - a record of achievement in public policy that many candidates coming from the Byzantine, often gridlocked chambers of Congress can't match.

Walker played into that theme last week in addressing a Utah retreat held by 2012 nominee Mitt Romney. Walker said flatly of senators in the presidential race: "They have yet to win anything and accomplish anything." That was a dig at Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

In Wisconsin, however, lawmakers voted to restore money the governor wanted to cut for K-12 schools. They rejected his proposed changes to a popular prescription drug program for Medicaid recipients, scrapped a merger of state agencies he wanted and voted against the governor's plan to make the University of Wisconsin system independent of state laws and oversight.

...Now it's a struggle to find agreement on Walker's proposed $1.3 billion in borrowing for roads, likely to be reduced, and a financing plan for a new $500 million arena to keep the Milwaukee Bucks from leaving the state. "We may have a crap budget, but we're going to make it better," freshman Republican state Rep. Rob Brooks told fellow lawmakers in May.