In response to the criminal complaint filed against Brett Davis' former fundraiser Kelly Rindfleisch, that's the question I've heard asked more than any other in the last 24 hours.
If Davis was paying Rindfleisch a meager $1,000 a month, and he seemingly had unfettered access to her during regular office hours, are we really supposed to believe that Davis had no idea how she was spending her weekday mornings and afternoons? Did he think she was working third shift at a Kwik Trip to pay her bills?
Brett Davis is a smart guy. He's too smart to be that stupid. The fact that his fundraiser was allegedly doing her work out of an office that wasn't even 25 feet away from where Scott Walker was doing his work as County Executive is a big problem. Perhaps not for Walker, yet. I think it's too soon to presuppose what Walker knew of the coordinated campaign activity that was going on underneath his nose.
But surely, Brett Davis is now a political liability, and Scott Walker is not in a position to coddle people who were either breaking the law or aware of people who were. Especially when those people are serving in his administration. And given the abundance of written evidence that Rindfleisch left behind for prosecutors, there's zero doubt that her case is ending in either a conviction or a plea deal.
There is no benefit of the doubt to give Davis.
7 comments:
Are we supposed to believe that Scott Walker or his chief of staff didn't know what Rindfleisch was doing? Thousands of emails, a few minutes each minimum, apart from phone calls - she was clearly spending a significant part of her day, day after day, on non-County business, on a personal laptop with a cellular modem.
If only Walker could produce anything that Rindfleisch did during all the alledged fundraising time, but all of his office records files cabinets full of paper were completely disposed of when he left the job. Walker just Nixon will be starting the firing soon- Davis and Warwie will be the first out the door. If Walker isn't guilty, he has sure helped make the case that he looks guilty with questionable statements, destroyed paper records, odd loyality to highly questionable staff, a lack of oversight in his 6 person office and weird emails. Where is the outrage from Walker that Tim Russell ran a rogue office when he wasn't around?
I was waiting for the news story on Friday afternoon that Brett Davis and/or Cullen Werwie had handed in their resignations.
After having just seen the "Ides of March", I think I know why these guys still have a job - it's the same reason Ryan Gosling gets promoted when he gets the good on George Clooney's Obama-like character. The fact that Davis and Werwie didn't resign is VERY interesting once you think of it that way.
As RS accurately puts it, Brett Davis isn't stupid. He was paying Kelly Rindfleisch to do a JOB for him on Milwaukee County's time.
Jake, so what do you predict is the endgame for Davis, Werwie, and Walker?
If Davis and Werwie stay, that looks increasingly bad for Walker but if he fires them, then they could turn on him.
So when will Walker announce for the good state that his new DOA head is Cullen Warwie and Brett Davis is the Chief of Staff?
Alex- My guess is that Werwie's immunity-laden statements will be among the things that get both Walker and Davis out of their current jobs in the next 6 months- either through recall elections or indictments.
And both Davis and Werwie know (as does Scotty) that firing them is the equivalent of Nixon's "Saturday Night Massacre" - the point of no return that dooms the Walker tenure of office. So they'll stay on until Walker gets sent back to Tosa, or they quit or get indicted.
Walker is going to win the recall election because of his working together with others, his job creation record, high ethics and transparent governing style. At least that was the brown bag campaign pledge in 2010, so it looks like Team Walker is hoping to be red shirted. The Governor needs to explain what he did or did not do in a logically, believable manner.
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