Scott Walker, enemy of institutions of higher learning, including his own state’s University of Wisconsin, is a college dropout. Which has become a big deal, big enough that Rush Limbaugh felt the need to offer Walker some helpful advice in February, that he quit college to avoid being accused of rape.
Walker attended Catholic Marquette University in Milwaukee and left after four years before earning a degree. Right Wing Watch reported earlier this month that “In an interview with radio host Dana Loesch at CPAC [on 2.27.15] Walker gave a nod to those who are skeptical of President Obama’s history.”
Referring to the stories about the Wisconsin governor’s college days, Loesch told Walker, “You’ve already been more vetted than the commander-in-chief.”
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
“Yeah,” Walker responded. “And more written about my college days than the president. I unsealed my records!”
But it turns out that, like so many other things Walker has said, this was a lie. And Politifact Wisconsin has come out with the dirt, telling us that in 2010, an attempt had been made by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to obtain Walker’s college records and that though two other leading candidates had complied, Walker had declined, which only added fuel to the speculation that he had something to hide.
He did release “a letter from Marquette that showed he attended the school for four years, from 1986 to 1990, and would have needed to stay there for at least another year to get a degree.”
In December 2013, when Walker “was gearing up for re-election and raising his national profile,” PolitiFact Wisconsin “published its article on Walker’s college days” and Democratic claims that “the governor was “kicked out” of student elections at Marquette” was rated False.
Asked by PolitiFact if he was “forced out” of Marquette for any reason, Walker said: “I can say unequivocally that isn’t true.” And PolitiFact found no evidence that he had.
But the article made an important point — that “publicly available documents cannot fully resolve the question, in part because a federal privacy law blocks release of information on former students unless the person consents. In addition, Walker told us he was sticking to an earlier decision not to release his transcript.”
With that in mind, PolitiFact asked Walker if he would allow Marquette to comment on his academic and conduct record. He did.
What PolitiFact found out was that suspicions to the contrary, “when he voluntarily withdrew, [Walker] was a senior in good standing,” which meant that he was eligible to register for classes had “no academic or non-academic conduct issues restricting registration.” He had never been suspended or expelled while attending Marquette.
But as PolitiFact points out, no actual documents were released.
Fast forward to 2015:
When we contacted the governor’s office for this fact check, spokeswoman Laurel Patrick forwarded us a copy of that letter.
When we asked if that meant there had been no unsealing of documents, she replied by saying:
“This effectively unseals his records, which is what he said. It gives Marquette University authorization to provide information about his record.”
But the limited comments Walker allowed Marquette to make about his record, of course, are far from any unsealing of the records themselves.
It is more akin to a statement that you paid your taxes on time, rather than producing the returns themselves.
In other words, Walker has continued to insist he attended Marquette University from 1986 to 1990, that he left in good standing without any personal conduct issues. All the information he has authorized the university to release, testifies to these facts. But he has not released, and continues to refuse to release, the actual records.
And since, contrary to the facts, he has said he has released his records, but has not in fact released any records, PolitiFact Wisconsin says, “We rate Walker’s statement False.”
Ouch. You would think, standing on the precipice of a run for the presidency of the United States, while basically accusing President Obama of not really being an American citizen, that Scott Walker would want to reassure people of his own bona fides.
Instead, he continues to give people a reason to suspect that he has something to hide. His campaign claimed in 2010 that Walker had a grade-point average (GPA) of 2.59, which is about a C+ (2.7 is a B-).
We have no way of knowing if this is true or not, and it is certainly nothing to write home about. It suggests also that Walker did not rigorously apply himself to his studies, and that extra-curricular activities may have been a distraction to him.
When he compares unions to ISIL, and equates ISIL with a computer virus, can’t answer questions about evolution, or any other questions really, he neither looks nor sounds, or even behaves like, the smartest guy on the block, so maybe 2.59 amounts to wishful thinking to the guy who hates education.
And he has been caught lying before, on numerous occasions. Like when he said 146,795 was equivalent to 250,000, or when he lied about the Teacher of the Year being fired thanks to a union.
In fact, Walker has proven himself to be, like so many other Republican politicians in 2015, a pathological liar. Why should we take him at his word that his GPA was not, in fact, more on the order of 2.0?
Let’s face it: listening to this guy, it’s hard to believe he even attended public school. One gets the impression – and the evidence supports this – that to marshal enough brain power to open his mouth and make words come out is a difficult task, let alone say anything intelligent-sounding.
People expected to trust Walker enough to elect him to the highest office in the land, certainly have a right to know what kind of grades he got in college. Limbaugh says college is irrelevant, but even if it is, that doesn’t do away with the character issues all this subterfuge raises.
Walker is not an honest man. Worse, he is not a private citizen but a public figure already holding the office of governor of one of this nation’s fifty states, and from all appearances, intends to run for president in 2016. But he can’t share with us, as other candidates have, how he did in college? While accusing President Obama of hiding things?
Given his abysmal track record where honesty is concerned, it is not unreasonable to ask, and continue to ask, what is Governor Scott Walker is hiding?
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
