Scott Walker Looks in the Mirror; Turns on the Water.

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker got up this morning, looked in the mirror and turned on the water. The water ran down the drain to the sanitary sewer pipes that run under Milwaukee County public streets and roads. They are joined by storm water pipes as they travel past Briggs and Stratton, the machine shops, Miller Brewery, Miller Park, and his offices.

A hundred years ago Milwaukee had leaders who understood that investment in infrastructure and investment in human capacity would build a great city.

They spent public money.

Schools were built, attracting workers who wanted a public education for their children. Roads were paved, moving goods to market. A public transit evolved that moved employees to work quickly and efficiently. Milwaukee built an airport that would open new markets for Milwaukee manufacturing.

Then came the Scott Walkers. It was a great way to get elected. Attack government spending and ignore the public benefits of investment in infrastructure and human capacity.

Scott Walker does not believe what he says. He knows better, but it got him elected. 

This is the girl he brought to the dance and he would look like a cad to dump her now.

The next great Milwaukee County public leader will face the challenge of improving the quality of services through difficult transformations, not meat axe approaches.

Comments

[James Rowen]

Walker owes his office to the talk radio stations that put him there, and that cater to him daily.

They whip up a suburban consitutency in Franklin and River Hills and Wauwatosa and other areas that have a higher living standard than much of Milwaukee.

His anti-stimulus pronouncements are part of a calculated strategy that appeals to middle-and-upper income residents outside of the City of Milwaukee, and are also meant to appeal to Republican ideologues that control the state party and want Walker to run against Doyle in 2010.

That Walker has backpedaled a bit tells me he knows he has miscalculated; a strong stimulus plan that resolves some of the intense poverty in Milwaukee would reveal Walker as an insensitive pretender.