Protester Arresting Scott Walker Criticizes Congressional GOP for Not Compromising

While not so subtly detailing why he would be the best 2016 GOP presidential candidate, Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker used the government shutdown against his congressional competition and criticized Republicans for not compromising.

Speaking to ABC’s Jonathan Karl (Karl is infamous for passing off GOP talking points on Benghazi emails as fact) on “This Week”, Walker dismissed Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and even his BFF Paul Ryan. He responded that he thinks the Republican government shutdown was a mistake, while criticizing his 2016 Congressional competition for not compromising.

Walker called Congressional Republicans refusal to compromise a “real problem” and agreed “I think so” when asked if the Republicans shutting down government was a mistake.

Transcript from ABC:

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KARL: When you were elected in 2010, you were a something of a Tea Party hero. What do you make of the Tea Party movement now? I mean, tarnished in many ways. Certainly battered in the polls. Blamed for the government shutdown.
WALKER: I don’t think it’s a movement that’s monolithic. I, like others, was a bit frustrated with the shutdown because I don’t think the way you make the compelling case to the American people that we can do better is by shutting things down.
KARL: So the Republicans who pushed that strategy made a mistake?
WALKER: I think so.
KARL: Congress’s approval rating has now fallen to 9%, the lowest ever in the gallery.
WALKER: That’s really just family members right?
KARL: As you know the most unpopular of the unpopular are Republicans in Congress. Where has the Republican Party just gone bad, gone wrong?
WALKER: Republicans at the State level are showing we’re much more optimistic. We’re speaking in terms that are much more relevant to where real voters are at.
KARL: And Republicans in Congress it’s just about what? No, no, no?
WALKER: Yeah I think so. I think that’s a real problem.

Of course, Walker is very busy having grandmothers and young girls arrested for singing when he’s not arresting journalists, so he has no time to work on things like compromising.

Walker described the “ideal” 2016 candidate as if he were looking in the mirror, “I think it’s got to be an outsider. I think both the presidential and the vice presidential nominee should either be a former or current governor, people who have done successful things in their states, who have taken on big reforms, who are ready to move America forward.”

In case you were wondering, Walker’s vision of moving America forward involves dissenters in handcuffs, a cozy relationship between the enforcers of the law, the lawmakers and his administration, unconstitutional arrests and late-night “law” passing. This is what compromise looks like, Walker style. Sure, there’s no listening to the opposition, but still. Compromise!

Is super subtle Walker going to run? Well, gosh, he isn’t ruling that out, “I don’t rule anything out.” Walker is very impressed with Republicans at the state level (dig dig dig at Congressional Republicans), “Republicans at the state level are showing we’re much more optimistic. We’re speaking in terms that are much more relevant to where real voters are at.”

So sad for hopefuls Cruz, Paul and Ryan. Scott Walker, who left college after being busted for illegal campaigning and whose every administration has been riddled with corruption, is the Ideal GOP 2016 Candidate. After all, his people say he had a 2.59 grade point average before he left school and it’s true that level of education achieved is no indicator of intelligence. However, the reasons why Walker left school and his reliably non-existent ethics are issues he may find tough to escape under a national spotlight.

The media agrees with Walker on Walker being the Great White Hope for the GOP.

They are all Walker agog — a new shiny object after the Cruz fail also allows them to build another false horse race narrative for 2016 in spite of the polls. The media seem to be deliberately ignoring Walker’s horrific jobs record along with the failure of his ideas to “Open Wisconsin for Business” when Forbes named it one of the worst states for business. But hey, we know the media isn’t into actual policy or facts.

Walker is correct that conservatives won many state battles with the help of ALEC and the Koch brothers, but state battles are not scrutinized like national battles. Scott Walker is almost as blindly hubristic as Ted Cruz – judging his colleagues for being unwilling to compromise from his still-being-protested perch in Wisconsin.