Fake Koch is a Wisconsin felon: law prof

Via Legal Insurrection. The money parenthetical:

(I do think the section of the law as to harming reputation has unanswered First Amendment issues which were not addressed by the [State v. Baron] case.)

Translation: The statute is unconstitutional as applied to fake Koch.*

It takes a special brand of wingnuttery to suggest a guy who said "Scott! David Koch" in Buffalo, NY, committed a Wisconsin felony.

Maybe Prof. Jacobson doesn't know political lying is protected here.

* As for the other case Jacobson mentions, State v. Lis, he ignores its discussion of a "benefit" to a thief requiring a corresponding loss to the victim. In this case the "victim," billionaire public figure David Koch, suffered no loss other than — arguably — some diminution of his reputation which, as Prof. Jacobson already conceded, invokes the First Amendment defense that protects the fake David Koch.

Well played.

Suspicion falls on Real Walker, not Fake Koch

Beautiful, beautiful.

Remember that goofball blog post by the right-wing law professor in New York suggesting fake Koch committed a Wisconsin felony?

An alternative view, from Dane County DA Ismael Ozanne:

Ozanne said he would be interested in knowing more about what conversations the governor had with others about planting instigators in the mass of peaceful demonstrators outside the Capitol. "At this time I do not find any criminal liability," Ozanne said, although he added that he was concerned about the statements Walker made to "Koch."

And unlike Prof. Jacobson, DA Ozanne possesses real authority.

Walker later made the press rounds, insisting the point was that the agents provocateur ultimately weren't planted. Reporters accepted that and moved on. However the more troubling point is that he considered it at all, giving no indication he shut the idea down immediately, which is what should be expected from a governor.

Furthermore Walker said the reason troublemakers weren't planted among the peaceful protesters was not because it was an outrageous and unlawful scheme, but that it would harm his political position.

Presumably those considerations are why the DA remains interested.

Scott Walker's fake David Koch revisited

From a friend of the court. Nowadays Gov. Walker is attempting to play the kissy-face compromiser with the legislators in question.

In late February, 2011, a prank phone call to Wisconsin's governor demonstrated the value of so-called "independent expenditures." After Democratic Senators opposed to Governor Scott Walker's "budget repair bill" complained that the governor is "just hard-lined — will not talk, will not communicate, will not return phone calls," Walker accepted a call he believed was from New York billionaire David Koch, a prominent contributor to conservative organizations and causes (including plaintiffs in this case, Americans for Prosperity and Wisconsin Prosperity Network), and whose PAC contributed $43,000 to Walker's campaign. Koch also gave $1 million to the Republican Governor’s Association, which subsequently spent $5 million in support of Walker’s campaign. The caller was actually a blogger who recorded the conversation.

While it may be unsettling that Walker accepted a phone call from an out-of-state "issue advocacy" funder while refusing to speak with his own state's elected representatives, the Citizens United majority acknowledged "[t]hat speakers may have influence over or access to elected officials does not mean that those officials are corrupt." However, Governor Walker’s request for support in the form of independent expenditures was particularly revealing. In response to the phony "David Koch" asking "what else could we do for you down there?" Walker replied:

"Well the biggest thing would be-and your guy on the ground [Americans for Prosperity president Tim Phillips] . . . per your question [], the more groups that are encouraging people not just to show up but to call lawmakers and tell them to hang firm with the governor, the better. Because the more they get that reassurance, the easier it is for them to vote yes."

This is a clear appeal to "David Koch" that the groups he funds (including Americans for Prosperity) make "independent expenditures" for "issue ads" or robo-calls requesting citizens call their legislator. The governor clearly recognized that independent expenditures sway public opinion and are valuable to an elected official. Indeed, Governor Walker appeared to believe that "issue ads" are so powerful that it is more important to speak with a man who could make significant independent expenditures favoring his budget bill than to converse with legislators who disagreed with him, but could allow his proposed legislation to proceed to a vote.

What has J.B. Van Hollen been up to

From Mike Tate's complaint against Gov. Scott Walker:

16. [Walker] states during the Call [with fake Koch] that he has the Attorney General's office "looking into" strategies to force the Democratic senators to return. This constitutes a misuse of the independently elected office of the Attorney General for primarily political motivations.

Wondered about that meself.

I still can't believe Walker's naiveté/hubris is such that he actually thought he was talking to real Koch. This guy is running the State.

Koch Industries "really kind of baffled I had ethics"

"Beautiful, beautiful." — Fake David Koch to Scott Walker

A Koch Industries joint venture pleaded guilty to a felony charge of conspiracy to restrain trade and paid a $28.5 million fine.

Wait a cotton pickin' minute, I thought conspiracies to restrain trade were exactly what conservative Republicans, the "Tea Party" wing-nuts, and their Koch Industries benefactors are always complaining about.

Bloomberg Markets: Iranians For Prosperity

Conservatives denounce anonymous source

When it implicates Scott Walker.*

But they love the anonymous source that implicates Justice Bradley.

This would be the same Scott Walker, incidentally, who admitted to Fake Koch he'd considered releasing Republican Party thugs into the protest crowds at Madison to foment violence. So threatening to run a rival candidate against Sen. Cowles is comparatively small potatoes.

* See also the last item, in which Assembly Speaker Republican Jeff Fitzgerald of the Party of Personal Responsibility blames an unnamed staffer for lying about a basketball scholarship in his official biography.

Grothman says new Huebsch policy "makes sense"

Which is your pretty much ironclad affirmation that it doesn't.

I mean, who ever heard of getting backcharged for free speech.

Wisconsin is still in America, isn't it?

Incidentally, Huebsch works for the governor who told Fake Dave Koch he thought about sending hired goons to disrupt peaceful protesters.