The
Washington Post proudly announced
that Obamacare was constitutional. Associate US Supreme Court Justice deemed
the paper “shrilly, shrilly liberal”, yet WaPo released reports that Iraqi
dictator Saddam Hussein had
weapons of mass destruction. This newspaper now has a storied fascination,
if not dislike, for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, plus conservatives and
Republicans in general. WaPo political Jenna Johnson, to her credit or
criticism, has
followed Walker extensively.
Her latest article betrays a juvenile lack of
integrity or ingrained lack of seriousness:
“Punked” in the urban dictionary actually means “get
pranked” and refers to “That 70’s Show” celeb Ashton Kutcher’s MTV show of the
same name. But doesn’t a prank mean that something demeaning occurred? What
happened, exactly?
The Wisconsin Governor was making the rounds with
prospective voters in the Granite State, and two ebullient twenty-somethings
approached him for a photo. Initially carrying a sign which read “Walker for
President”, in the photo op they turned the sign over to reveal a mock check
written out by the Koch Brothers to Walker for Nine hundred million dollars.
The two pranksters were members of a bullying Big Green interest group, 350
Action.
For a little background. . .
The Koch
Brothers are libertarian oil magnates who have recently
preached against government cronyism, the very things that Occupy crowds
have demanded. Relentlessly targeted as the big money behind conservative
candidates and causes, Democrats throughout the 2012 and 2014 cycles attacked
them as the prime source of government dysfunction and frustration. The attacks
failed miserably in 2014, with Republicans taking the US Senate and 70% of the
state legislatures. Walker also won his third election bid in Wisconsin.
 |
| 350 Action prank photo with Scott Walker |
Johnson’s article included some telling tidbits:
Maybe
it should have been a tip-off that the two 20-somethings were so overly excited
to meet Scott Walker. Like dramatically excited. The young woman was literally
bouncing with excitement. And the young man had a homemade sign declaring that
the Republican governor should become president.
Why would two enthusiastic promoters approaching a
presidential candidate seem like a “tip-off” for something negative? Young
conservatives cheered
Walker in at CPAC 2013.
As
Scott Walker smiled and put his arms around Tyler McFarland, 23, and Giselle
Hart, 20, the sign flipped. Suddenly Walker was posing with a fake,
game-show-style check made out to him from the billionaire Koch brothers,
Charles Koch and David Koch, who plan to spend $889 million on the upcoming
election.
Walker the candidate was genuine and caring. He has
been pretty open with individual voters for selfies and camera shots. The young
pranksters look petty, not the presidential candidate. After the photo bomb,
one of the activists explained why they did what they did:
"Scott
Walker is the worst on climate change," said Elaine Colligan, 21, a recent
Georgetown University graduate who is a fellow with 350 Action, an
environmental activist group that has been challenging presidential candidates
from both parties on their climate change stances. "He's for being bought
out by the Koch brothers."
“He’s for being bought out by the Koch Brothers” –
someone call the grammar police. These individuals are Georgetown graduates,
too? Also, their photo did not say anything about climate change. Not getting
it.
It's
not unusual for activists or protesters to stop by campaign events and put
candidates on the spot — but Walker faced many more than usual during a
campaign stop at Theo's late Monday morning ahead of an evening candidates'
forum.
Is this really true? Why shouldn’t candidates
embrace answering questions from prospective voters and donors?
Even
those in the crowd who identified as proud Republicans often greeted the
governor with a pointed question they wanted precisely answered. Again and
again, Walker quoted passages from his standard stump speech — or told them to
hold out for a policy plan.
This criticism is more telling and serious, and
deserved more attention. Presidential contenders should not get away with “I’ll
let you know later” or “Get back to me when I have a plan”. Yet Johnson went
with “Walker got punked” rather than “Walker won’t answer pointed questions”.
This scene also deserved more reporting from Johnson:
Later,
as Walker did a one-on-one interview with a local reporter, the top-hat
protester jumped on top of a car and started screaming: "Scott Walker will
do anything to get elected! Because that's what politicians do!" (At one
point, a woman confronted the man atop the car — who at that point was complaining
about wasted food being thrown into dumpsters — and asked him if those were the
same dumpsters used to disposed of aborted fetuses, launching a very different
discussion.)
This lady, perhaps a Walker supporter, understood
the need to counter with a different narrative. Hopefully, more presidential
candidates follow her example.
The last observation in Johnson’s article, she made
a point in reference to Walker, only to dismiss it:
Walker
has been criticized for not spending as much time in New Hampshire as other
Republican candidates and for avoiding town halls here. Walker bragged on
Monday that this is his 11th event in New Hampshire this year — but that's the
same number of events he did in Iowa in just one weekend last month.
He spends equal time in both states. Nothing
noteworthy here. Johnson later wrote an article about the decreasing
political activity in New Hampshire, so who cares?
.
. .Walker said he doesn't mind the difficult questions and gritty debate in New
Hampshire, plus he has grown accustomed to protesters during his polarizing
four years as governor in Wisconsin.
“He has grown
accustomed to protesters” – a nice kudos for a presidential candidate, one who
can take a photo prank with grace and move on.
The
Federalist Papers Project described the 350 Action prank best:
This
ridiculous stunt is stupid. What kind of
a jerk does this kind of juvenile prank to someone who is running for President?
Nobody thinks this is cute, or funny.
Indeed, and WaPo should have known better.
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