Conscientious Observer

I have been off the political radar lately, for the most part. Mostly due to non-political reasons, but partly due to the feeling that the political sphere to which I am acclimated seems to be running itself pretty much on auto-pilot lately. The decisions and statements made by various politicians, pundits, and activists on both sides of the aisle are basically sticking to the script that one would expect to see or hear. That's not necessarily a good thing, but at least there haven't been any real surprises... until now.

In my home state of Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker has made a pretty big name for himself. He has been vilified by his detractors, and practically deified by his supporters -- standard political fodder for the current climate. But a couple of years ago, while he was vigorously defending himself in an historic recall election, it also was made public that he was amassing a personal legal defense fund. Despite the fact that a John Doe investigation had been initiated to look into the activities of several of his current and former staff members (Walker was declared to not be a target of the investigation) and several of those staff members have since been indicted for their wrongdoing, no explanation was ever given for why Walker felt the need to build a legal defense fund. I guess he felt he didn't need to say anything about it. He said plenty, though. He travelled all over the country, talking to big-wig donors, drumming up support for the ways in which he "accomplished" what he has done back here in Wisconsin. As a result, he is considered to be a conservative hopeful to run for President. But if anyone ever asked him about the John Doe investigation setting its sights on him, he basically brushed it off.

And then the news broke. He has been accused of illegal campaign fundraising practices. Of course he's going to claim that this is all a "liberal witch hunt" that was orchestrated from day one... which is why he hasn't done anything suspicious, himself, from day one... like amassing a personal legal defense fund, right? Why would he have felt the need to do that? And why then? Tell me those things aren't related. Go ahead.