There's a blogger in Buffalo, New York, with some gigantic, swingin' balls. Balls big enough to call up Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and pretend to be billionaire oil baron David Koch of Wichita's Koch Industries.
Walker is currently battling his state's Democrats and labor unions over his bill that would kill the collective-bargaining rights of workers in the public sector.
The fake David Koch (reportedly voiced by Ian Murphy,
editor of the Buffalo
Beast) tells Walker near the end of their conversation, "Once you
crush these bastards, I'll fly you out to Cali and really show you a
good time."
In the recording, posted here, Walker replies, "All right, that would be outstanding."
Walker's spokesman confirmed that the voice on the recording is Walker's and issued a statement that said, in part, "The governor takes many calls every day. ... The
phone call shows that the governor says the same thing in private as he
does in public and the lengths that others will go to disrupt the civil
debate Wisconsin is having."
Previously, media sources questioned how much influence the Koch brothers and their political group, Americans for Prosperity, have had on Walker and his union-busting actions.
According to Milwaukee's Journal Sentinel:
Americans for Prosperity announced Wednesday that it was spendingMysteriously, the Buffalo Beast website has been down since yesterday. Some journalists, like NPR's Frank James, are frettin' about the ethics of prank-calling an elected official, but so far it doesn't appear as though any laws were broken regarding the taping of the phone call. Both Wisconsin and New York have one-party consent statutes.$342,200 on advertising in Wisconsin to convince residents to back
Walker's plan. The ad calls on Wisconsin residents to support the
governor in his dealings with public employee unions and his handling of
the state's fiscal crisis.
KochIndustries' political action committee was one of the biggest financial
supporters of Walker's gubernatorial campaign last fall, giving $43,000
to his political fund.
Comments (0)