Wisc. Gov caught in phone prank - Koch influence exposed

Wisconsin gov. caught in prank by caller posing as
donor
Feb.23, 2011
USA Today
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A prank caller pretending to be
billionaire conservative businessman David Koch was
able to have a lengthy conversation with Wisconsin
Gov. Scott Walker about his strategy to cripple public
employee unions, the governor's office confirmed
Wednesday.
On the call, Walker joked about bringing a baseball
bat to a meeting with Democratic leaders, said it
would "be outstanding" to be flown out to California
by Koch for a good time after the battle is over, and
said he expected the anti-union movement to spread
across the country.
Audio was posted on the Buffalo Beast, a left-leaning
website based in New York, and quickly spread across
the Internet.

Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie confirmed Walker took
the call, which will only heighten widespread
suspicions that brothers David and Charles Koch are
pulling strings in Wisconsin's battle as part of a
conservative agenda to limit the unions' power.

The man pretending to be Koch said, "You're the first
domino."
"Yep, this is our moment," Walker said.

The brothers own Koch Industries, Inc., which is the
largest privately-owned company in America and has
significant operations in Wisconsin. Its political
action committee gave $43,000 to Walker's campaign,
and donated heavily to the Republican Governors'
Association, which funded ads attacking Walker's
opponent in last year's election.

The Kochs also give millions to support Americans For
Prosperity, which launched a $320,000 television ad
campaign in favor of Walker's legislation on Wednesday
and already has a website, standwithwalker.com, where
more than 60,000 have signed a petition supporting his
plan.

On the call, Walker talks about speaking with
Democratic Sen. Tim Cullen, one of the Democrats
hiding in Illinois to stop the bill, and telling
Cullen he would not budge. After Walker said he would
be willing to meet with Democratic leaders, the caller
said he would bring "a baseball bat." Walker laughed
and responded that he had "a slugger with my name on
it."

The caller suggested he was thinking about "planting
some troublemakers" among the protesters, and Walker
said he had thought about doing that but declined.
Walker said the protests eventually would die because
the media would stop covering them.

At the end of the call, the prankster says: "I'll tell
you what Scott, once you crush these bastards, I'll
fly you out to Cali and really show you a good time."
"Alright, that would be outstanding. Thanks for all
the support and helping us move the cause forward. We
appreciate it and we're doing the just and right thing
for the right reasons and it's all about getting our
freedoms back," Walker said.

The caller: "Absolutely. And you know, we have a
little bit of vested interest as well" and laughs.
"That's just it. The bottom line is, we're going to
get the world movement here because it's the right
thing to do."

Walker ends the call by saying, "thanks a million."
Cullen called the call an "astounding confirmation of
what we've been saying for a couple weeks now."