If the race for the GOP nomination gets testy in the coming months, Gov. Walker said Saturday, it won’t be him throwing elbows.
“If I (am) a candidate, I’m not going to go out and attack my opponents,” Walker said while attending the winter meeting of the National Governors Association.
“You’re not going to hear me say ill will about any of the other candidates,” said the Wisconsin governor, who has enjoyed a wave of early media attention and rising poll numbers as he gets closer and closer to becoming an official candidate.
Speaking to reporters between breaks at the governor’s meeting at a D.C. hotel, Walker singled out Chris Christie, Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio as potential candidates he knows and gets along with.
“There’s no friction with me with any of the likely candidates,” he said.
Obviously, this is another attempt by Walker to emulate himself after his hero, Ronald Reagan, and his "eleventh commandment" of not speaking ill of another Republican.
Apparently, the swipes he took at Chris Christie don't count because he did that before he made the promise.
But even giving Walker the benefit of the doubt - not that he deserves it - it still didn't take long for Walker to break his first campaign promise:
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker compared his “friend” Jeb Bush to several failed GOP presidential nominees Friday, suggesting the Republican establishment is supporting him in part because they owe favors to the Bush family.
"We had Bob Dole, John McCain, Mitt Romney. If it's just whoever's next up, that hasn't worked so well for the Republican Party in the past,” Walker told the Tampa Bay Times’ Adam C. Smith.
“Jeb's a good man. You're not going to hear me speak ill will of Jeb. He's a friend of mine. He called me two days before [announcing] his PAC, I think highly of him,” he added. “I just think voters are going to look at this and say, 'If we're running against Hillary Clinton, we'll need a name from the future — not a name from the past — to win.'"
As the video above shows, this isn't the first time Walker went after Bush either:
This isn’t the first time Walker has thrown subtle shade at Bush. In February, many saw a comment by Walker during a speech in Nashville as an indirect reference to Bush’s famous father and brother, both former presidents.
“I realize, unlike some out there, I didn’t inherit fame or fortune from my family. I got a bunch of things that are a whole lot better than that,” Walker said. “I got from my parents and my grandparents the belief that if you work hard and you play by the rules, here in America you can do and be anything you want.”
Walker's attacks shows his weakness.
While the Koch Boyzzz, Sheldon Adelson and Bradley Foundation are throwing boatloads of dark money at Walker, he still isn't matching Bush's fundraising. And while Walker is doing fairly well in the early polls, he still consistently lags behind Bush.
And as Walker goes farther off the deep end with his Ronald Reagan fetish, it would take a major blunder by Bush to lose that lead.
