A liberal blogger named Ian Murphy had the bold and brilliant idea of phoning Wisconsin’s union-phobic Republican Gov. Scott Walker pretending to be the rightwing billionaire David Koch. He got through and spoke to the governor for 20 minutes, doing what sounds to me like a caricature of a rich, greedy rightwing bastard. But if it convinced Walker, maybe it’s not such a caricature of the way these people think and talk after all.
As The New York Times reports:
David Koch, along with his brother Charles, own Koch Industries, an energy and consumer products conglomerate based in Wichita, Kan., was one of the biggest contributors to Governor Walker’s election campaign. The brothers also support the Americans for Prosperity, which has strongly backed Governor Walkers efforts to curb the powers of unions. Throughout the Capital there are numerous signs hung from the walls essentially calling Mr. Walker a puppet of the Koch brothers.
You can listen to a recording of the phone call here and here.
This part is particularly astounding (or maybe not):
…Mr. Murphy [posing as Koch] suggested planting “troublemakers” in the crowd of protesters.
“We thought about that,” replied Governor Walker. “My only fear would be if there’s a ruckus caused is that maybe the governor has to settle to solve all these problems.”
