Scott Walker Is Proving Himself Unfit To Govern Wisconsin-- But Iowa GOP Caucus Voters Think He's Swell

In the most recent poll of the GOP contenders in Iowa, Scott Walker, governor of neighboring Wisconsin, is still in the lead. He's polling at 18%, eight points ahead of Trump and Ben Carson, who are at 10% each. Walker also has the best favorability rating, 66% favorable to 8% unfavorable, among likely GOP caucus participants, and he also scores high on personal qualities, as voters say 71% to 8% that he is honest and trustworthy, 75% to 7% that he has strong leadership qualities and 71% to 10% that he cares about the needs and problems of Iowa Republican voters. Strange to someone like me who sees Walker as a sniveling worm.

It's especially difficult to imagine how any self-respecting Tea Party-identified Republican could relate positively to Walker and his authoritarian nature. Saturday at HuffPo Brendan Fischer and Mary Bottari from the nonpartisan Center for Media and Democracy wrote about how Walker and his right-wing legislature have been twisting the very nature of democracy itself in their state. "America," they wrote about the meaning of the 4th of July celebrations, "fought a revolution against secret and unaccountable government, but this 4th of July Scott Walker and the Wisconsin GOP are planning on gutting Wisconsin's open records law, the strongest in the nation."

On the same day that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker announced his run for president, the Wisconsin GOP has proposed a virtual gutting of Wisconsin's open records law, long considered one of the best in the nation. The drastic changes were proposed in a last-minute, anonymous budget motion, with zero public input on the eve of a holiday weekend. The motion will be rolled into the state's massive budget bill and voted on in the coming weeks.

The unprecedented proposal would give lawmakers broad authority to hide the special interests who are working to influence legislation. It would keep legislative drafting files under wraps,  create a new "deliberative materials" exemption in the open records law that would exempt records at all levels of government, and give the legislature an easy way to hide even more records from disclosure in the future.

The move to gut the open records law appears to come in direct response to a lawsuit that the Center for Media and Democracy filed against Governor Walker in May. State Rep. Gordon Hintz, a democrat from Oshkosh on the Joint Finance Committee, tweeted that GOP budget leaders made it clear to the committee that Walker had signed off on the changes, including the changes to the open records law.

...The sweeping proposal would gut the public records law as it applies to the legislature and governor's office, hiding special interest influence over public policy. The measure would help candidate Walker sidestep public scrutiny as more and more national media outlets file records requests with his office. The Joint Finance Committee chairs, Sen. Alberta Darling (R) and Rep. John Nygren (R), have refused to say who asked for the changes.

Bill Lueders, president of the transparency watchdog Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, called the proposal a "cowardly" and a "shocking assault on the state's long and proud tradition of open government."

  "These radical and sweeping changes represent a full-frontal attack on Wisconsin's history of open government," Lueders said. "They are clearly intended to block the public from discovering what factors drive the official actions of government, especially the Legislature, and will inevitably lead to abuse, malfeasance and corruption."

Ron Sklansky, a former 35-year senior staff attorney at the nonpartisan Wisconsin Legislative Counsel and an experts on open records, told CMD he had never seen a legislative proposal put forward that was as "devastating" to the open records law as this one. The measure is "almost a complete gutting of open records as it applies to the legislative and executive branch. It prevents the public from investigating the undue influence of special interests on the passage of legislation and the development of executive branch proposals and rule making," he said.

Although the proposal passed the Joint Finance Committee along party lines-- with all Republicans voting in favor and all Democrats against-- the move has prompted outrage across the political spectrum. The president of the right-wing MacIver Institute, Brett Healy, said the proposal "looks to be a huge step backwards for open government." Wisconsin's Republican Attorney General, Brad Schimel, said "Transparency is the cornerstone of democracy and the provisions in the Budget Bill limiting access to public records move Wisconsin in the wrong direction." Hours later, Walker's spokesperson promised vaguely that the governor would work with the legislature to address the issue.

Critically, some legislators are saying they will not vote for the controversial budget with the changes included. "I will not support a budget that includes this assault on democracy," GOP Senator Robert Cowles said. And other GOP Reps. expressed discomfort and surprise with the move.

The tragedy of the 2016 Republican field is that there isn't a single contender who could be expected to hold Walker's feet to the fire for this outrage. I suppose Hillary's speechwriters and consultants could make something of it if they ever had to.

UPDATE: Caught Like A Rat, Walker Backs Off

Over the weekend, Walker and his allies in the legislature-- recognizing the catastrophe of their untenable anti-democracy position going public-- dropped it unceremoniously.

Faced with a swift and fierce backlash, Republicans on Saturday abandoned a plan that would have gutted the state's open records law.

In a joint statement issued Saturday afternoon, Gov. Scott Walker and GOP legislative leaders said the provisions relating to any changes to the law would be removed from the state budget.

"After substantive discussion over the last day, we have agreed that the provisions relating to any changes in the state's open records law will be removed from the budget in its entirety. We are steadfastly committed to open and accountable government," the statement read. "The intended policy goal of these changes was to provide a reasonable solution to protect constituents' privacy and to encourage a deliberative process between elected officials and their staff in developing policy. It was never intended to inhibit transparent government in any way."

...The turnaround came less than 48 hours after lawmakers slipped the plan into the budget unannounced in a late-night session heading into a three-day holiday weekend.

On Transparency Is Obama Even Worse Than The Cheney-Bush Regime?

In January 2009, the newly elected President Obama said that "transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency." Watch the video above. He also said that "The way to make government responsible is to hold it accountable. And the way to make government accountable is to make it transparent so that the American people know exactly what decisions are being made, how they're being made and whether their interests are being well-served… For a long time now, there's been too much secrecy in this city. The old rules said that if there was a defensible argument for not disclosing something to the American people, then it should not be disclosed. That era is now over. Starting today, every agency and department should know that this administration stands on the side not of those who seek to withhold information but those who seek to make it known."

A consensus at the the American Society of News Editors and Associated Press Media Editors joint convention this week was that things haven't gotten better, nor have they stayed as bad as they were under Cheney and Bush. They've gotten worse. Worse than Cheney and Bush. Can you imagine? This is how President Obama, when he was first elected, said he wanted it to be:

Our commitment to openness means more than simply informing the American people about how decisions are made. It means recognizing that government does not have all the answers, and that public officials need to draw on what citizens know. And that's why, as of today, I'm directing members of my administration to find new ways of tapping the knowledge and experience of ordinary Americans-- scientists and civic leaders, educators and entrepreneurs-- because the way to solve the problem of our time is-- the way to solve the problems of our time, as one nation, is by involving the American people in shaping the policies that affect their lives.

It didn't turn out that way. The editors seem to agree that not only has the Obama Administration not lived up to its promises about transparency but that things are getting worse and worse. "It's widely agreed by journalists who cover the Obama administration that it has the worst record of all time when it comes to freedom of information. 'There is a serious problem with access across the federal government,' [AP Washington Bureau Chief Sally] Buzbee says, adding that the situation has 'worsened significantly in the last few years.' Says AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll, '(President George W.) Bush was bad. Obama's worse.'"

Team Obama seems to have written a road map that others are eagerly following. The information spigot is increasingly being turned off by state and local governments, universities and sports teams, according to journalists who spoke Wednesday as well as ASNE legal counsel Kevin Goldberg, who says the problem goes all the way down to high schools. "There is a concerted effort," he says.

Buzbee has a long list of infractions, including: few opportunities to take photographs or video of Obama appearances (the administration likes to distribute its own); no photos or video of bombers taking off for sorties against the Islamic State and no embedded journalists on hand; a massive blackout on information about Guantanamo; unprecedented ferocity in prosecuting national security leaks designed to intimidate journalists and chill sources.

And the get-tough approach is having an impact. "It's harder to get sources to believe that we can protect them," says AP senior managing editor Mike Oreskes.

But the information crisis has spread far beyond the Beltway, says AP Managing Editor for U.S. News Brian Carovillano, infecting state and local governments and institutions of higher learning. "It's the most difficult climate we've seen," he says.

Carovillano points to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who also ran as a big transparency guy, then tried unsuccessfully to have his swearing-in closed to the press. But, says Carovillano, Hizzoner has since barred the media from 53 events, and on some days his entire schedule is off-limits.

And there is no limit to the absurdity. Outgoing ASNE President David Boardman, the former Seattle Times editor who is now dean of the Temple University School of Media and Communication, recalls a time when the University of Washington wanted to limit the number of tweets at sporting events.

So what's the answer? The news media have to battle back on every front. They should refuse to run government photos and video. Reporters should constantly push back as hard as they can. News outlets should be ready to challenge unreasonable restraint in court. And the industry must band together in a full-fledged campaign against government secrecy.

And they must do their best to educate the people about why this is their problem. Because the American public-- and American democracy-- are the losers when the electorate can't get the information it needs to make informed decisions.

Oh, and one more thing, says New York Times reporter James Risen, the convention's keynote speaker, who faces jail time for refusing to ID a confidential source: The best idea is to do even more hard-edged investigative reporting, to find out more things the government doesn't want you to know. That, he said, would amount to a "brushback pitch."

"If there's not pushback," he says, the authorities are going to "keep doing what they are doing."