From the Wisconsin State Journal:
A staffer who worked for Gov. Scott Walker when Walker was the Milwaukee County executive is expected to plead guilty to charges of posting pro-Walker messages online on work time.
Darlene Wink of Cudahy is charged with two misdemeanor counts of political solicitation by a public employee. She’s due to enter a plea Tuesday afternoon.
The charges carry a maximum combined penalty of one year in prison and a $2,000 fine.
Defense attorney Peter Wolff says his 61-year-old client has reached a tentative plea agreement with prosecutors. He says under the agreement she would plead guilty to both charges, and prosecutors would recommend only a fine. Wolff says negotiations might continue Tuesday morning.
Wink resigned in May 2010 after admitting to posting anonymous pro-Walker comments on websites and blogs.
I’m not defending Darlene Wink. She admits to violating a law, and the laws are on the books for reasons.
However . . . let’s compare this with what the “Badger Doctors,” also employees of the State of Wisconsin, did, and what their punishments were.
If you’ll recall, when the protests at the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison were going on, a number of physicians associated with the University of Wisconsin’s teaching hospitals took it upon themselves to offer to write sick notes for teachers who were taking unauthorized time off, in order that they might not be penalized for their political activism (in which they often involved their charges). And by penalized, I mean having their pay withheld for those days that they chose not to show up for their jobs.
In short, those “Badger Doctors,” employees of the State, were aiding and abetting fraud practiced on the school districts from which those striking teachers were drawn, and some of the districts’ money comes from the State. The consequence? Some of them were “reprimanded.” Elsewhere, teachers posting at web sites and on social media during their daylight hours in order to back the union and revile Scott Walker have been noted, though no such prosecutions seem forthcoming, even of those directly employed by the State at the University of Wisconsin, both in Madison and elsewhere. And some have been permitted by contract to conduct union business during their teaching hours at no cost to WEAC. And one could even argue that the Fleebaggers defrauded Wisconsinites by continuing to draw salary when they took a vacation in Rockford, IL in order not to have to perform their functions as representatives.
At the same time that it allows union peculation, the so-called Government Accountability Board will not give any TEA Party entities standing to challenge recall signatures against Scott Walker:
Leaders of two tea party groups are considering suing the Wisconsin elections board over its decision not to accept any evidence they find of fraud in petitions seeking the recall of Republican Gov. Scott Walker.
The Government Accountability Board on Tuesday agreed that the law only allowed for it to consider rejecting signatures based on evidence brought forward by its staff or the targeted office holders.
Two tea party groups had wanted to share findings of its own independent review.
Jeremy Levinson, attorney for recall organizers, says allowing the tea party groups to be a part of the process would be “ridiculous.”
Larry Gamble with the Wisconsin GrandSons of Liberty tea party group says a legal challenge isn’t being ruled out.
I would like to know just why Jeremy Levinson believes that recall organizations have standing to be a part of this process, and that TEA Party organizations do not, apart from his characterization of this legal parity as “ridiculous,” and I would like better to understand the GAB’s reasoning, assuming there is any, as well.
I’m sure that the GAB feels they’re not the police, and that it’s necessary for any functioning Democracy to countenance obvious fraud.
UPDATE: A much bigger story regarding selective prosecution.
