This Time its Smoking Ban, No-Bid Contracts
MADISON — Scott Walker was cowering from cameras in recent days after the newest revelations about his serial flip-flopping.
Over the weekend, Walker was nowhere to be found after shifting his position on Wisconsin’s smoking ban — though left it to an unlucky spokeswoman to claim that Walker’s ever-shifting positions were somehow consistent.
Then on Monday, it was revealed that, contrary to earlier positions about no-bid contracting, Scott Walker awarded a no-bid contract to a “politically connected” firm that was slated to investigate safety at county buildings in the wake of the tragedy at Milwaukee County’s O’Donnell Park last month.
The evasions join a breathtaking list of Walker flip-flops on a wide range of issues, including:
-Arizona’s immigration law, when it took Walker less than 24 hours to change his position after challenged by Mark Neumann.
-Late-night voting, where Scott Walker railed against a practice he had voted himself in the Legislature to condone.
-Stimulus funding, which Scott Walker foreswore, but then took by the millions.
-His own pay, when Scott Walker vowed to give back a percentage of his pay and then, abruptly and without explanation, reneged and gave himself a $50,000 raise in 2008.
-Concealed carry of firearms, where Scott Walker voted against the practice while in the Legislature, but now claims he supports it.
-When in the Legislature Scott Walker co-authored a proposal that would have cut shared revenue and would have had a particularly large impact on Milwaukee. But after becoming Milwaukee County Executive, Walker attacked Governor Doyle for shared revenue cuts. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “Plan would shift sales tax, end aid,” 2/26/1999; “Doyle Plans 7% Shared-Revenue Cut,” 2/16/2003; “Walker Orders 200 Layoffs,” 8/13/2003)
“Scott Walker can’t be trusted. What’s he smoking that he continues his flip-flopping?” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate asked Monday. “When he bothers to take a position it reminds us of the old saying about the weather in Wisconsin-just wait a few hours and it will change.”
