There are no coincidences in WisGOP

Just gave a gander on the Tim Russell sentencing memo from the Milwaukee County DA's office. It's quite obvious other shoes are waiting to drop.

First, on Page 8, the complaint shows how Scott Walker unilaterally gave away control of Operation Freedom funds from a local American Legion Post in October 2009, with Walker claiming that "this new structure should allow the community to take ownership of it." And by "community", Walker meant his long-time buddy and political appointee Tim Russell.

Within months, Russell was using those funds to pay for trips to Jamaica and Hawaii, and as the sentencing memo brings up

...Russell set about the steal the charity's money wellbefore he did any significant work on Operation Freedom...Moreover, Michelle Gore of the Veterans Service Office (who served as the 2009 event coordinator) told investigators that alarmingly little had been done to prepare for Operation Freedom 2010 in the First Quarter of 2010, after contol of the event had been given over to Tim Russell.

It seems like the only work Russell did in this job was to name now-convicted Walkergate criminals Darlene Wink and Kelly Rindfleisch to serve as officers and fund-raisers for Operation Freedom. Oh, and he also was doing other Walker-campaign related work in 2010, coordinating strategy with a quite familiar name.

[Protecting America's Future] worked through a Limited Liability Corporation styled as Runner Media, which was organized by Tim Russell...Runner Media conducted "ad buys" in the media markets for the Kagen-Ribble congressional race and Lassa-Duffy congressional race. Bank records show that Russell wrote checks from PAF to Runner Media in a total amount of $39,000. Runner Media also did work with the Republican Party of Wisconsin (RPW), paying RPW $4,000 in September 2010.

With Russell's corporation, Strategic Outsourcing and Research Center, Inc. (Source), Russell actively engaged in opposition research. Source was a non-stock company formed by Tim Russell in October 2009. Keith Gilkes, the campaign manager for the Friends of Scott Walker, was a client. Source was used to hire and pay Brian Pierick and two legislative aides, Cameron Sholty and Dean Cady, for opposition research benefitting the friends of Scott Walker.

And now we know why Keith ("there better not be a scrap of paper") Gilkes formally left his post with Republican campaigns and merely serves as an "unpaid advisor", don't we?

C'mon folks. If you think Scott Walker knew nothing about all of these things happening out of his office with people he chose to hire and constantly worked with during the 2010 campaign, you probably also believe Manti Te'o wasn't in on the "dead girlfriend" hoax that made him a household name (and here's 11 contradictions and lies by omission from Te'o to show how full of shit he is.)

Yep, this thing's going up the chain. Should be fun to see how far over the next few months.

And with that, it's time to go to Vegas. Hopefully I'm more ice-cold at the sports book than the weather I'll come back to on Monday. (and yes, that's self-satire)