The crusade to find some scandal — any scandal — to sink 2016 Republican presidential frontrunner Scott Walker officially jumped the shark on Monday when a deeply concerned American suggested that the Wisconsin governor’s spokeswomen are problematically attractive.
Isthmus, an alternative weekly newspaper out of Madison, raised the allegation in Tell All, a regular advice column.
“Dear Tell All,” troubled reader Kate Mallet wrote, “I can’t help noticing that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker picks beautiful young women to be the spokespeople for his administration and his campaigns.”
Mallet mentions four dazzling, alluring spokeswomen currently or previously employed by Walker: Laurel Patrick, Alleigh Marré, Jocelyn Webster and Ciara Matthews.
“It reminds me of Fox News, which uses super-sexy women as on-air talent rather than a normal range of women who just happen to be good journalists,” Mallet murmurs. “As with Fox, it’s hard to believe that the most talented females available to fill Walker’s frontline jobs also look like models.”
The reader then offers up a malignant conspiracy of beauty on par with the evils of tobacco companies.
“The thinking seems to be: We’ll use this eye candy to make our ‘product’ more palatable, just as the advertising industry has always done with noxious products like cigarettes and fast food,” Mallet proposes.
“What does it say to the young girls of Wisconsin who hope to do important work when they grow up, regardless of their looks?” she asks indignantly. “In my opinion Walker’s approach sets women back 50 years, to the pre-feminist Mad Men era.”
To his or her everlasting credit, the advice-giving correspondent behind Tell All at Isthmus rejects Mallet’s premise.
“Dear Kate: To be fair, Gov. Walker also hires male spokespeople like Cullen Werwie and Tom Evenson,” Isthmus counsels, “and good luck fighting the tendency to make good-looking people the face of an organization.” Also, Walker’s female flacks have “been quite effective at their jobs” and a “quick survey shows that both Democratic and Republican governors in neighboring states also employ attractive young spokespeople.”
Isthmus then advises the forlorn, scandal-desperate Mallet to condemn Walker “for restricting access to reproductive health care, repealing the Equal Pay Enforcement Act, refusing federal money to expand Medicaid, cutting Planned Parenthood funding and eliminating comprehensive sex education.”
The revelations that Walker’s employees are attractive come roughly a week after The Washington Post spent valuable interview time asking the governor whether he believes President Barack Obama is a Christian. (RELATED: WaPo To Walker: Do You Think Obama Is A Christian?)
Of the four spokeswomen Mallet mentions, Patrick currently works as Walker’s press secretary. Previously, she was the communications director for the Wisconsin Department of Revenue.
Webster also currently works as Walker’s communications director. Her previous experience includes work in communications for the Wisconsin Department of Administration and as the regional manager of government affairs for 7-Eleven.
Marré is currently the communications director for Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine.
Matthews worked as communications director for Friends of Scott Walker in 2011 and 2012. In her current role, she is a national political reporter for Watchdog.org. She has also been writing for National Review.
In 2012, the feminist website Jezebel breathlessly revealed that Matthews had once waited tables at Hooters to help pay her way through college. (RELATED: Websites Forced To Correct And Retract False Stories About Scott Walker)
Matthews discounted the reporting about her prior restaurant work. “I guess I would just say that’s disappointing to hear that this is news when there are so many other big issues happening in the state today,” she said, according to The Capital Times, a self-described progressive Madison news outlet.
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