On September 11, 2014, Milwaukee County released another batch of documents from the John Doe investigation into Scott Walker, his campaign and his staff from when he was Milwaukee County Executive.
I've slowly been working my way through them when I found this cartoon, which was included in a series of emails exchanges which included Walker as a recipient:
Along with that very disturbing image was this text:
First, let me emphasize that Walker neither sent nor responded to this email.
As for the sender, George Sanders, he is a Milwaukee man that was extremely upset that the African American political and civic leaders in the Milwaukee area were supporting Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett at the time.
It should also be noted that this is not the first disturbing, racist email found in the Walkergate files.
Previously reported was an email sent to Walker's former Deputy Chief of Staff, Kelly Rindfleisch, from a woman comparing her dogs to welfare recipients:
Among the racist jokes and emails found in recently released documents connected to the criminal probe of Gov. Scott Walker’s 2010 campaign, one stood out: A “joke” about a woman trying to sign up her dogs for welfare, because “my Dogs are mixed in color, unemployed, lazy, can’t speak English and have no frigging clue who the r Daddys are. They expect me to feed them, provide them with housing and medical care, and feel guilty.” The punch line: “My Dogs get their first checks Friday.”
Walker’s deputy chief of staff Kelly Rindfleisch replied: “That is hilarious. And so true.”
The sad part of that joke is that Walker's administration did treat people receiving financial assistance like dogs.
The other email was from Tom Nardelli, Walker's then Chief of Staff, who apparently was trying to insult as many people as he could at once:
In another email, sent in July 2010, Thomas Nardelli, Walker's chief of staff for Walker at Milwaukee County, forwarded Rindfleisch and others a joke about someone who has what he calls a "nightmare" about turning into a black, Jewish, disabled gay man who is unemployed.
"Oh God, please don't tell me I'm a Democrat," the email concludes.
And that's not the only examples of racism from Team Walker. As with all things Walker, there's more. There's always more.
At the end of last year, Walker fired his deputy finance director for some racist tweets she sent out years earlier. Surely, it had nothing to do with the international embarrassment Walker suffered when his infamous Black Friday fundraising email went out with her name on it.
Then there was a race baiting tweet from then Walker campaign aide Michael Brickman, which was retweeted by then campaign spokeswoman, Jill Bader.
There was also a top Walker official, Steve Krieser, who completely lost it on Facebook, comparing illegal immigrants to Satan and displaying a mock hunting permit declaring open season on them.
Walker apologists, including the corporate media, have pointed out that either the offenders were not close to Walker since he's been governor or that he fired them as soon as the racist comments were discovered.
This is, of course, not true.
Nardelli, as noted above, was Walker's Chief of Staff, and Walker was aware of the email. However, he still gave Nardelli a high-paying, cushy state job. Likewise, Brickman was one of Walker's executive aides and education liaison.
The apologists attempts to distance from Walker doesn't explain away the culture that Walker allowed in which such racist attitudes were so prevalent.
Nor can they dismiss Walker's own racist policies, including the introduction of Jim Crow laws, the refusal to accept federal funding to expand Badgercare, the refusal to raise the minimum wage or the strong defense of schools to continue using racist and offensive mascots.
If something or someone sounds like a duck, acts like a duck and attracts a lot of other ducks, it's a pretty safe bet that it's a duck.
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