Scott Walker really does drive liberals crazy. Well… crazier.
Last week we learned that supporters of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker have been the targets of violent home invasions by the police, at the behest of Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm. Literal police power is being used to punish political dissidents, right here in the USA.
And Chisholm wants us all to shut up about it. Patrick Marley, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
In a swing through the crucial presidential state of Iowa this weekend, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker took the rare step of lashing out at prosecutors who had probed his campaign by questioning whether their tactics were constitutional.
In an equally unusual turn, prosecutors fired back by calling Walker’s comments inaccurate, offensive and defamatory — with Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm suggesting Walker could be criminally charged for lying…
“I said even if you’re a liberal Democrat, you should look at (the raids) and be frightened to think that if the government can do that against people of one political persuasion, they can do it against anybody, and more often than not we need protection against the government itself,” Walker told [WHO-AM in Des Moines]…
I’m not sure how it’s “lashing out” to express alarm at raiding people’s homes in the middle of the night, for the crime of supporting a political opponent. Isn’t speaking out against abuse of government power the right thing to do? Would Patrick Marley write the same thing if it was a Democrat pointing out a Republican abusing his power?
And I’m even less sure how Chisholm’s response is supposed to mollify anybody:
“As to defamatory remarks, I strongly suspect the Iowa criminal code, like Wisconsin’s, has provisions for intentionally making false statements intended to harm the reputation of others,” Chisholm said in a statement Saturday responding to Walker’s comments.
If you support somebody John Chisholm doesn’t like, he’ll raid your home. If you talk about people’s homes being raided, he’ll threaten you with prosecution. If you dare to say anything about that… Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Hat tip to David French at National Review, who broke the story about Chisholm behaving like a cheesehead tinpot tyrant. As French notes in his follow-up today:
The excesses of the John Doe investigations raise concerns that Wisconsin prosecutors are trying to criminalize political speech, and in response the lead prosecutor . . . threatens to criminalize political speech.
History repeats itself. That’s what it does.
If you want to tell Chisholm what you think about this, he can be reached here. Try to show more respect for him than he does for you. Which is to say, any at all.
Update: This might explain Mr. Marley’s attitude. What did the Journal Sentinel know and when did it know it?