Walker Still Can’t Put “Lipstick on a Pig”
At Alma Mater, Can’t Spin Mockery of Wisconsin Jobs
MADISON-Speaking at his alma mater, failed Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker today blamed his well-publicized and deliberate attack on the work of the Milwaukee 7 economic group on its very successes. He previously had attacked the work of the group to bring jobs to Wisconsin as “putting lipstick on a pig,” a reflection of his larger hostility to jobs-creation programs and policies.
Today, speaking at Marquette University’s Law School’s “On the Issues” forum with Mike Gousha, Walker said:
“Those very comments that I made were largely part of the impetus to make sure that the M7 went beyond just that Web site to things that actually had an impact on jobs in this region…I think that’s why they have had the kind of successes that they have had up until now.”
Huh?
The problem is, Walker’s contemporary observers did not see Walker’s mockery as constructive. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in an October 2005 editorial commented, “Walker’s lipstick on-a-pig statement about regional marketing efforts came in answer to a question at the downtown Rotary Club…It is exceedingly unhelpful when one of the alleged leaders of a promising effort to market the region’s positives begins working at cross-purposes with the group so publicly, so early.” (MJS, 10/7/05)
From Republic Airways to C+D Technologies to Ingeteam, M-7 has helped save and attract some 2,000 jobs to Wisconsin in the past four months alone. As an original co-founder and the current co-chair, Tom Barrett has been an instrumental part of these successes.
In fact, under Barrett’s leadership the City of Milwaukee has invested $150,000 in M-7, compared to just $25,000 from Scott Walker’s County. When asked which entity has played a bigger role in helping the regional economic development effort, M-7 president Pat O’Brien said “the city has more tools at their disposal,” ranging from tax credits to an active economic development office. (MJS, 2/25/10)
“Scott Walker can try all he wants, but he can’t wash the lipstick from the pig of his “lipstick-on-a-pig” attack on Wisconsin jobs,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Thursday.
