Lawton: Day Two

Early this morning, I thought my hypothesis about the Rahm Emanuel tie-in with the Barbara Lawton story was doomed.  Some co-workers of mine had dug up a podcast from WTAQ talk radio host Jerry Bader reporting – as fact – that Lawton left the race abruptly due to a lesbian extramarital affair with a staffer for Governor Jim Doyle.  The implication was clear -there was hard evidence (probably photographs) that this affair did happen.

I’m glad I’m not Jerry Bader right now, because his story apparently had some flaws:

11:23 AM  STATEMENT FROM JERRY BADER CONCERNING THE BARBARA LAWTON STORY:

I HAVE LOST CONFIDENCE IN THE SOURCES THAT PROVIDED INFORMATION YESTERDAY REGARDING LT. GOV BARBARA LAWTON.  THEREFORE I CANNOT STAND BY THE STORY POSTED YESTERDAY.

I am assuming that Bader’s statement constitutes a full retraction.

My own sources have told me that Bader had initially heard the lesbian affair story from a Green Bay-area source and was shopping it hard around Madison early yesterday morning looking for confirmation.  I would be curious to know who he found to corroborate and give him the confidence to take it on air – or if this is another instance of an overzealous radio talker looking for a scoop on a story too sexy (no pun intended) on which to hold fire.

I have to imagine that Bader’s legal team is crapping tacks right now.  Consider Lawton’s comment this afternoon in a WisPolitics interview that the rumors circulating about her are “outrageous slander.”  I expect that a lawsuit against Bader and WTAQ is metaphysically certain – as well it should be.  This story was a joke from the very beginning.

If you want a taste of how these rumors spread over the last day, simply do a Google search for “Jerry Bader Lawton.”  I’ve never seen so many bloggers backpedaling so quickly.  This is a good lesson in how quickly total garbage can spread around the Internet.  I said yesterday that I didn’t buy the lesbian angle, and I think the people who did – and then proceeded to spread it as fact – ought to be ashamed of themselves.

Still, Lawton didn’t state the specific reasons for her departure and, sadly, that probably means that rumors of some type will continue to circulate indefinitely.

The White House Connection

In the same WisPolitics interview, Lawton continues to laugh off the notion that she was forced out of the race by Obama, Doyle or anyone else.  At risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, she is now being a good team player.  What else is she supposed to say – that the White House forced her out of the race to make way for the president’s hand-picked candidate?  No.

What still troubles me, however, is the sheer haste of her departure from the race.  As I said yesterday, she normally would have been granted the time to concoct a graceful exit and preserve some political capital within the Democratic Party and Wisconsin as a whole.  So what could possibly be the reason for such a rapid shuttering of her campaign?

I am sticking to the Rahm Emanuel theory.  A few minutes of research on the Internet will find that Emanuel has been described as a lot of things – not the least of which is a “bully” (again, just Google “Rahm Emanuel bully” if you need sources).  What’s more, he’s a prolific dropper of the f-bomb and various other profanities.  So imagine how his conversation would have gone with Lawton.  I don’t know her personally, but I have to imagine that even the most weathered political hack would wither under the fire of a profanity-laced tirade courtesy of Emanuel.

Moreover, the Clinton years gave us a window into the world of White House power projection.  Do not underestimate the ability of the president’s minders to make life utterly miserable for a naive gubernatorial candidate who has never won election to a real office.  This specter of a Chicago-style machine chewing her up and spitting her out – and leaving nothing left for even the hyenas to scavenge – would presumably be very intimidating to someone like Lawton.  She showed a remarkable ability to withstand Jim Doyle, but the White House is an entirely different animal.

In the end, the demise of Barb Lawton’s  campaign for governor has nothing to do with an extramarital lesbian affair and everything to do with a starry-eyed progressive true believer having her dreams crushed and being intimidated out of the race by forces she was too inexperienced to handle.

Walker and the RPW – What did they know?

Meanwhile, the Scott Walker campaign issued a statement yesterday in response to the news from Team Lawton:

“The voters will have a clear choice next November.  Our plan to fix the economy is to create jobs in Wisconsin through low taxes and less government – instead of the Doyle-Barrett plan of more spending, higher taxes, and overreaching government.”

And the Republican party of Wisconsin issued the following:

“While it appears Governor Doyle and the White House were successful in derailing Lawton’s candidacy, no doubt paving the way for their handpicked successor in the Democrats’ primary, her announcement today takes nothing away from the positive message and innovative ideas of our Republican candidates for Governor. Our focus will continue to be getting Wisconsin workers back on the job and getting our economy back on track.”

Now, it may seem like I’m splitting hairs, but politics is a precise science.  Generally speaking, people don’t say things like “Doyle and the White House were successful in derailing…” without having at least some knowledge that this is, in fact, what happened.  It leads me to believe that someone gave Walker or RPW a heads-up at the very least – or flat out told them in advance what was going to go down.  We will probably never know exactly, but there is more to statements like this than simple words on a web page.

Something just doesn’t seem right – and you never know which of your enemies will suddenly have interests that coincide with your own.

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