Scott Walker - Florida Trip

It's no surprise that the liberal media are hammering away at Governor Scott Walker. Their relentless spin is predictable, but that doesn't make it more palatable.

That which isn't worth mentioning becomes newsworthy.

Union member and "willing partner" Dan Bice, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, asks the burning question:

Do you know where in the world your governor is?

Bice continues:

Turns out he and a campaign staffer were making the national rounds on the conservative circuit.

According to a Sunday piece on the right-wing website News- Max, Gov. Scott Walker had dropped by its headquarters in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Friday. The story said the trip was part of "a nationwide tour to drum up support for a new effort, FrontlineWisconsin.com, that seeks to defend eight Wisconsin GOP senators from a massive recall campaign that now is under way."

Various groups have launched recall efforts against 16 senators - eight Republicans and eight Democrats - for their positions on Walker's controversial budget-repair measure.

"What I've been doing is going around the country and making the case, given my position in Wisconsin, reaching out to folks across the country to say, 'Help us out,' " Walker told the online publication.

Walker "quietly" went to Florida.

What should he have done? Held a news conference to announce his trip?

What's wrong with Walker speaking in support of his agenda and Republicans?

I think he should try to help Republicans facing recall elections, to counter all the cash being dumped by the unions and out-of-state Democrats into the coffers of Dem state politicians.

Obama has been fundraising like crazy.

Do Dems/union bullies/liberal media criticize him?

At the end of March, Obama was raking in dough in New York. Today, Obama is in Chicago for fundraising events.

Personally, I think the president should be focusing on the monumental mess he's made at home and abroad rather than running around bringing in cash for his 2012 bid at taxpayers' expense. Air Force One isn't a cheap ride.

But Walker goes on a commercial flight to Florida and that's supposed to be inappropriate or sneaky or somehow wrong in some way.

Ridiculous!

Walker also spoke frankly to the publication about a number of other issues, including Supreme Court Justice David Prosser's re-election bid. (Full disclosure: No Quarter doesn't write about the court or that race because of a conflict of interest.)

So where is Walker going as part of this national tour? Who went with him to Florida? Did he hold any fundraisers for his own campaign while there?

Katie McCallum, a spokeswoman for the Republican Party and Walker's campaign, was initially tight-lipped about the Florida trip and national tour, providing just a bland statement that said the first-term Republican governor is defending the Senate Republicans for supporting his bill.

Later, McCallum explained that Walker had been invited by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, to speak on fiscal responsibility at a Florida event.

Heritage is a regular recipient of funds from the Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation, which gave the Washington, D.C., outfit $478,000 in 2008 and '09, the last years for which data is available. Walker's campaign chairman, Michael Grebe, is the president of the Bradley Foundation.

"Governor Walker continues to do interviews in Wisconsin and around the nation with reporters and talk show hosts, and continues to deliver remarks at events promoting www.frontlinewisconsin.com," McCallum said in an email.

Walker and a campaign staffer traveled to Florida by commercial flight, not a state plane, McCallum said. The expenses, she said, were picked up by his campaign.

At a news conference earlier this week, Walker defended his unpublicized, out-of-state trip.

"I said you've got big government union money coming in from Washington," he told reporters after the Journal Sentinel disclosed the trip online. "I think grass-roots activists from across the state and across the country are needed to be able to counter it. So over the weekend, I made that case."

Oooooh! Walker's campaign was "tight-lipped" about the Florida trip and "national tour."

"National tour"?

Give me a break!

Walker goes to Florida and that's a crime.

Fourteen Democrat Wisconsin senators flee the state to bring the government to a halt and that's heroic.

Yeah, right.

This is a non-story and Bice is treating it like some important exposé. Kind of pathetic.

Also, Bice writes:

(Full disclosure: No Quarter doesn't write about the court or [Supreme Court Justice David Prosser's re-election bid] because of a conflict of interest.)

It's not full disclosure if Bice doesn't explain what the conflict of interest is.

Tell us, Dan.