Free Republic

Madison — Senate Republicans Tuesday narrowly passed Gov. Scott Walker's $541 million tax cut proposal in a vote that guaranteed the cuts will become law. The tax decreases — the third round of cuts by Republicans in less than a year — passed 17-15 with GOP Sen. Dale Schultz of Richland Center joining all Democrats in voting against the proposal. The proposal now goes to the Assembly, which passed a different version of the tax cuts last month with two Democrats joining all Republicans in supporting it. With growing tax collections now expected to give the state a $1 billion...

Good to know. Last week, over 27,000 pages of private e-mails from one of Wisconsin governor Scott Walker’s convicted ex-staffers were released. As soon as the document dump hit the Web, Democrats began climbing over themselves to prove that the e-mails showed that during his time as Milwaukee county executive in 2010, Walker was part of a grand criminal conspiracy — despite the fact that prosecutors had the e-mails for nearly three years and found Walker had engaged in no criminal wrongdoing. This is a lot like what happened with Sarah Palin a while back. Democrats think that a...

--from one of the J-S' token non-communists---

The Talk Shows February 23rd, 2014 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.; Govs. Scott Walker, R-Wis., and Peter Shumlin, D-Vt.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): National Security Adviser Susan Rice.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Govs. Bobby Jindal, R-La., and Martin O'Malley, D-Md.THIS WEEK (ABC): Former President George W. Bush.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Govs. Rick Perry, R-Texas, Mike Pence, R-Ind., Dannel Malloy, D-Conn., Jay Nixon D-Mo.

HOUSTON, TX – The nation’s leading labor union will plan to spend $300 million in 2014 trying to unseat Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and four other Republican Governors. More: AFL-CIO to Target Walker, Other Governors People’s World reported that the AFL-CIO announced on Thursday morning during a press conference in Houston that they would spend money trying to unseat Governor Walker. Other Governors that the labor organization is targeting are John Kasich (R-Ohio), Tom Corbett (R-Pennsylvania), Rick Snyder (R-Michigan), and Rick Scott (R-Florida). The American Federation of Teachers backed the AFL-CIO’s plan. President Randi Weingarten said: “In many ways it...

Imagine watching the man marching in front of you taken out by snipers. Scott Walker must know the feeling, having seen what the media did to Chris Christie.Bridgegate did its work. Last December we read this:"Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie are in a dead heat in a hypothetical 2016 presidential matchup with the recently reelected governor leading by 1 point in a new poll.""Christie leads Clinton 42 percent to 41 percent in a Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday. Christie’s 1-point lead is the same as Quinnipiac’s poll in November, but a far cry from...

Having successfully demonized Chris Christie over the closure of traffic lanes on a bridge, the leftist mainstream media are now targeting Scott Walker, another very promising potential GOP candidate for president. All of this in the context media downplaying and outright ignoring revelations of lies under oath in a scandal that cost four American lives including an ambassador that reflects badly on Hillary Clinton. The Washington Post offered a front page story intimating Scott Walker faces a scandal in an ongoing investigation launched by his political enemies in Wisconsin (who are legion because he successfully took on the public employee...

With Christie pretty well neutralized, it’s time to turn to the GOP’s other successful blue-state governor and try to cripple him before 2016 too. Might as well have it on your radar now as you’ll be hearing about it sporadically, even though nothing will come of it. The scandal this time is the fact that, back when Walker was Milwaukee County Executive and running for governor, some of his county staff communicated with his campaign staff during county office hours, while on the taxpayer’s dime. It got to the point where a separate wireless router was installed in the county...

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has a message for Donald Trump about BuzzFeed blogger McKay Coppins, and it's one that other Republican officials might heed when liberal journalists come looking to "humanize" them. "This nervous geek isn't fit to tie the Donald's wingtips," Palin told Breitbart News after Trump ripped Coppins for lampooning him with what he alleged were out-of-context quotes and boorish behavior at Trump's Florida resort. "Don't ever give him attention again."Coppins tricked Trump's advisers into thinking he would profile Trump as a potential "major" GOP 2016 presidential hopeful. As Breitbart News reported, the Jan. 5 email...

MILWAUKEE — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who has been eyeing a 2016 presidential run since his battles with labor unions made him a Republican star, is in the midst of dealing with the fallout of two criminal investigations at home that could complicate his move to the national stage. One is ongoing, and while the other is now closed with no allegations of wrongdoing by Walker, it has the lingering potential to embarrass him. That could begin as early as Wednesday with the release of more than 25,000 pages of e-mails from an ex-staffer that were gathered as part of...

Madison — Four same-sex couples sued Gov. Scott Walker and other public officials Monday in an attempt to overturn the state's eight-year-old ban on gay marriage. The move comes amid a wave of challenges nationally — many of them successful — to limits on gay marriage. It also comes as the state Supreme Court considers whether a limited set of benefits available to gay couples under Wisconsin law is acceptable under the state constitution's prohibition on same-sex marriage and civil unions. Online court records show Virginia Wolf and Carol Schumacher, along with three other couples, sued Walker in federal court...

There's been a lot of blathering about who the front-runner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination is, and so far I've resisted taking part. But I guess I'm kind of curious: Is there much of a case to be made for anyone other than Paul Ryan? On the substantive side, Ryan sure seems like he's setting himself up for a run. There's his steady series of "unheralded" anti-poverty outreach trips that always manage to be just heralded enough to get sympathetic press coverage. He brokered a budget deal with Patty Murray that was businesslike and low-drama but didn't alienate the...

With Chris Christie still stuck in a traffic scandal at the foot of the George Washington Bridge, the donors and Main Street Republicans who make up the bulk of the GOP center-right establishment can be forgiven for feeling a little nervous. If Christie fades, this cohort, which boosted both Mitt Romney and John McCain to the nomination, fear that a Tea Party-fueled candidate will take over the party, leading to a drubbing at the hands of the Democrats come November 2016. Thus hopes have turned to Jeb Bush as a possible savior, even though the Florida governor has been out...

Democracy is starting to get me down. Oh, I know what you're thinking: I write regularly about American politics, and democracy is only just starting to get me down? Okay, good point. Maybe I should say that democracy is starting to get me down even more than it usually does. And why is that? Because it's beginning to dawn on me that Jeb Bush is probably going to be the Republican Party's nominee for president in 2016. Consider: With the ongoing implosion of Chris Christie's political career, the GOP establishment has lost its best hope for a candidate who could...

Madison — In a bit of a political mismatch Thursday, Republican Gov. Scott Walker will meet with President Barack Obama, while Walker's opponent will skip the chance to be seen with the nation's highest-ranking Democrat. Walker plans to greet Obama at the airport Thursday and talk to him about the state's propane shortage. Walker isn't attending the event Obama is headlining at a GE plant in Waukesha as he touts themes he hit in Tuesday's State of the Union address. Mary Burke, the Democrat challenging Walker in the Nov. 4 election, will not be at the airport or the Waukesha...

How Scott Walker and the conservatives saved Wisconsin. America, take note The Telegraph Has High Praise for Scott Walker Cortney O'Brien 1/28/2014 A certain Republican governor is getting some high praise across the pond. Dr. Tim Stanley, a historian for the United States and contributor to Britain’s The Daily Telegraph published a piece Monday entitled, “How Scott Walker and the conservatives saved Wisconsin. America, take note,” commending the governor of Wisconsin for employing a conservative agenda “that actually works”: The fact is that Wisconsin's recovery is real but fragile, and Walker has balanced the books without trying to impose on...

In his hunt for reelection, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is leading his Democratic opponent Mary Burke, according to a new poll released Monday. The Marquette Law School poll has the Republican governor ahead 47 to 41 percent among registered voters. The same poll has 54 percent of respondents saying the state is heading in the right direction, compared to 40 percent who say it is not. With the election still nine months away, Burke will have to play catch up to familiarize voters with her stance on issues; 70 percent of respondents say they have not heard enough about her...

The state of our state is strong and improving every day. The economy is dramatically better, and our finances are in great shape. Still, there is more work to be done. Thankfully, the days of double-digit tax increases, billion-dollar deficits and major job loss are gone. We replaced them with massive tax cuts, growing budget surpluses and significant job growth. Wisconsin is going back to work. We have some really great news about the economy and our fiscal situation. The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau recently verified that the state will have $911 million more than previously projected. These new revenues...

Gov. Scott Walker used his election-year State of the State address Wednesday to rally support for his plans to use the majority of Wisconsin’s $912 million in unexpected revenue for tax cuts. Read more: http://host.madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/scott-walker-touts-improvements-in-state-s-finances-in-annual/article_584cc05b-aa56-5178-aac7-053647a3dd75.html#ixzz2rTK3FtGS

Wisconsin should develop its own academic benchmarks by re-examining the Common Core Academic Standards already adopted by Wisconsin and many other states, Gov. Scott Walker said at an education conference Friday. In a speech at the State Education Convention in Milwaukee, Walker said he is working on legislation that would create a commission, chaired by Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers, to revisit the Common Core standards, which he said weren't high enough and were being dictated by people who weren't from Wisconsin. "We embrace high standards in the state of Wisconsin," Walker said. "There's got to be a way...