Walker's bad week

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker has not had a good week. Let’s start with the bond issue, which suffered a fatal blow when a non-binding referendum rejected Walker’s proposal 57%-43%. The Milwaukee County Board has learned to outflank Walker. He would be advised in the future that if there are any more non-binding referendums, he should be out in front of the issue ala Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Then County Supervisor John Weishan opened the new front against Walker.

Supervisor John Weishan, a vocal opponent of Walker's tax-freeze budgeting, said Walker missed a chance to campaign hard for the borrowing deal because he has chosen to travel the state as a candidate for governor in 2006. As the referendum approached, Walker scheduled gubernatorial trips to Racine, Madison, Spooner, Green Bay and Platteville.

Watch for this to become a recurring theme, with the Journal Sentinel echoing those sentiments every chance it gets.

And then his opponent for the Republican nomination for governor scored big with the Pope’s funeral. Congressman Mark Green was part of the official congressional delegation to Vatican City, and his staff deserves a lot of credit for having him on the phone with Charlie Sykes for the first 15 minutes of Sykes’ program this morning. And just in case the point was missed, Charlie asked the congressman, “I should know this, but are you Catholic?” Somewhere in Rome, Mark Green’s staff is having a glass of asti spumanti to celebrate. I wonder how many more morning phone calls Mark Green got to make this morning about talking to Jim Caviezel.