I guess you could call this the indictment-that-wasn't, but you'd never get the Democratic Party of Wisconsin to agree. At least, not until Friday.
It all started last year during Wisconsin's heated recall election. Rumors began floating that Gov. Scott Walker was about to be indicted on corruption charges. Democrats eagerly seized the idea and trumpeted it loudly as a "fact" both during the recall campaign and afterwards. Not just the Democratic Party, but supposedly serious news networks such as the Huffington Post, the Daily Beast, Mother Jones, the Nation and Salon.com all reported it as a done deal. Tom Barrett, the Democratic candidate, made the investigation the focal point of his final debate with Walker. MSNBC host Ed Schultz, for instance, said on the night of the recall that, "Scott Walker could very well be indicted in the coming days."
One little problem: it never happened. In fact, Walker was never even the subject of an investigation. (Not that it mattered to Democrats; the fact that he had hired a lawyer was cited as "proof" he was guilty.)
Three former aides, from his days as the Milwaukee County executive, were convicted of misuse of money for a veterans group. But guess who contacted the state attorney and requested the investigation in the first place? That's right - Walker.
Living up to their reputation as sore losers, Democrats refused to let go, and blamed the legal system. Last Friday, Graeme Zielinski, the official spokesman for the Democrat Party of Wisconsin, said"
"@GovWalker had better lawyers than Jeffrey Dahmer in beating the rap. (It is) clear that he committed crimes... What do @GovWalker and Jeffrey Dahmer have in common?"
That, apparently, was too much, even for Democrats. Over the weekend Zielinski was forced to delete the comments and issue an apology. And Monday the Democrat Party announced that Zielinski was no longer spokesman - although he still has a job with the party.
Cosmic karma is slow and tortuous, but it is out there and it does bite back.
washingtonexaminer.com . . .
