The County Executive Who Cried ‘Layoff’

“It’s a Festivus Miracle.”

Turns out Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker’s fight to dismantle the rights of all public sector employees in Milwaukee was big, giant George W. Bush-sized lie.

Walker has made a career of blaming working men and women for his mismanagment of county government. His nonsense escalated exponentially as he continued his near-decade long run for governor.

Coupling that with the county crisis caused by Walker’s failed leadership and the failed tax-cuts-for-the-rich, reward-the-banksters-and-speculators policies of the Bush administration which caused the national economic collapse, Walker tried to extract as much from the hard-working men and women who serve Milwaukee County and its residents.

We’ve already seen Walker send out layoff notices, only to try and backtrack and say that he was using such heartless threats as a negotiating tool.

Turns out the largest tool in the Milwaukee County Executive’s arsenal is his shameless opportunism.

In today’s local news, the curtain was finally pulled back on his empty threats and castigation of working families.

“As of today, we have no plans for layoffs in 2010,” Walker said.

Just weeks ago, Walker had us believing there was an impending apocalpyse requiring him to (insert any number of harmful, anti-worker proposals to denude union workers) — now, he’s playing Emily Litella.

Never mind?!?

AFSCME District Council 48 exec director Rich Abelson can express the outrage much better than I can:

“He was the one who cried wolf with the layoffs in November and the furloughs and reduced hours in July. He’s the one who has been trying to scapegoat county employees for years.”

Well said.