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发帖数: 897 | 1 MADISON, Wis. – A prank caller pretending to be billionaire conservative
businessman David Koch was able to have a lengthy conversation with
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker about his strategy to cripple public employee
unions, the governor's office confirmed Wednesday.
On the call, Walker joked about bringing a baseball bat to a meeting with
Democratic leaders, said it would "be outstanding" to be flown out to
California by Koch for a good time after the battle is over, and said he
expected the anti-union movement to spread across the country.
Audio was posted on the Buffalo Beast, a left-leaning website based in New
York, and quickly spread across the Internet.
Democrats ripped Walker's comments on the call on the Assembly floor
Wednesday morning, saying they had nothing to do with his assertion that
legislation stripping public employees' collective bargaining rights is
needed to help solve a looming budget deficit.
"That's why we must fight it! That is why people must come to the Capitol
and fight this!" Rep. Jon Richards of Milwaukee yelled as thousands of
protesters inside the rotunda roared in approval. "This isn't about
balancing the budget, this is about a political war."
Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie confirmed Walker took the call, which will
only heighten widespread suspicions that brothers David and Charles Koch are
pulling strings in Wisconsin's battle as part of a conservative agenda to
limit the unions' power.
The governor's plan would take away the ability of state and local public
employees to collectively bargain for working conditions, benefits, or any
other than their base salaries. Unions could not collect mandatory dues and
would face a vote of its members every year to stay in existence.
The plan has set off more than a week of demonstrations at the Capitol, and
prompted Wisconsin Senate Democrats to flee the state to block its passage.
Similar ideas are being pushed in some other states with Republican
governors.
The man pretending to be Koch said, "You're the first domino."
"Yep, this is our moment," Walker said.
The brothers own Koch Industries, Inc., which is the largest privately-owned
company in America and has significant operations in Wisconsin. Its
political action committee gave $43,000 to Walker's campaign, and donated
heavily to the Republican Governors' Association, which funded ads attacking
Walker's opponent in last year's election.
The Kochs also give millions to support Americans For Prosperity, which
launched a $320,000 television ad campaign in favor of Walker's legislation
on Wednesday and already has a website, standwithwalker.com, where more than
60,000 have signed a petition supporting his plan.
On the call, Walker talks about speaking with Democratic Sen. Tim Cullen,
one of the Democrats hiding in Illinois to stop the bill, and telling Cullen
he would not budge. After Walker said he would be willing to meet with
Democratic leaders, the caller said he would bring "a baseball bat." Walker
laughed and responded that he had "a slugger with my name on it."
The caller suggested he was thinking about "planting some troublemakers"
among the protesters, and Walker said he had thought about doing that but
declined. Walker said the protests eventually would die because the media
would stop covering them.
At the end of the call, the prankster says: "I'll tell you what Scott, once
you crush these bastards, I'll fly you out to Cali and really show you a
good time."
"Alright, that would be outstanding. Thanks for all the support and helping
us move the cause forward. We appreciate it and we're doing the just and
right thing for the right reasons and it's all about getting our freedoms
back," Walker said.
The caller: "Absolutely. And you know, we have a little bit of vested
interest as well" and laughs.
"That's just it. The bottom line is, we're going to get the world movement
here because it's the right thing to do."
Walker ends the call by saying, "thanks a million."
Cullen called the call an "astounding confirmation of what we've been saying
for a couple weeks now."
"This bill is about the money," he said. "This bill is about destroying
public employee unions."
Cullen said he felt the call "displays a level of partisanship and pettiness
on the side of the governor I don't think is going to sit well with the
public."
Werwie, the governor's spokesman, said 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." |
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