Wisconsin has a fuller political calendar than most states: we’ve not merely the traditional state and federal races, but recall elections likely for May and June.
A libertarian will look at these issues with sharp interest, but without a partisan attachment.
Perhaps all those contests, sure to be fought tooth and nail, have made some bloggers fuzzy-headed. Over at Shark and Shepherd, a conservative lawyer’s blog, blogger Rick Esenberg takes paragraphs to contend that Gov. Walker’s creation under statute of a legal defense fund does not, necessarily, mean that he’s under investigation in a campaign corruption probe. In Esenberg’s view, Walker might be establishing a defense fund because agents of his are under investigation.
(See, The Facts Regarding the Walker Defense Fund.)
It’s a silly argument, but of a kind one sees more and more from diehards who have an opinion – favorable or unfavorable – about Gov. Walker. Just about any explanation or rationalization makes its way into the wild.
There’s not the slightest political chance on earth that Gov. Walker would establish a legal defense fund in advance of a recall election unless he believed himself under investigation, and felt the necessity to create a legal dense fund for that reason.
It’s that simple.
The upcoming recall election will see strong pluralities for, and against, Gov. Walker, yet victory in the race will require support from lukewarm voters.
No sober, conscious candidate would risk alienating the sliver of independent & uncertain voters on whom victory in the recall will depend by creating a defense fund because others are being investigated.
Gov. Walker is neither drunk nor asleep. His critics have said many things of him, but never those things.
It’s more likely that a meteorite will strike Milwaukee tomorrow than it is that Walker has created this fund merely because others are under scrutiny.
I don’t know whether Esenberg is foolish enough to think his theory serious, or whether he thinks others are foolish enough to take him seriously.
Either way, his speculation is unpersuasive.
Posted originally on 3.13.12 at Daily Adams.