His Master's Voice

Photo: Center for Media and Democracy live reporting

He may not be speaking with unions or Democrats, but a certain governor sure was eager to talk to one caller.

And the call made him a trifle overexcited:

WALKER: ...I ...came home from the Super Bowl where the Packers won, that Monday night, I had all my cabinet over to the residence for dinner. Talked about what we were going to do, how we were going to do it, we had already kind of doped plans up, but it was kind of a last hurrah, before we dropped the bomb and I stood up and I pulled out a, a picture of Ronald Reagan and I said you know this may seem a little melodramatic but 30 years ago Ronald Reagan whose 100th birthday we just celebrated the day before um had one of the most defining moments of his political career, not just his presidency, when he fired the air traffic controllers and uh I said to me that moment was more important than just for labor relations and or even the federal budget, that was the first crack in the Berlin Wall and the fall of Communism because from that point forward the soviets and the communists knew that Ronald Regan wasn't a pushover and uh, I said this may not have as broad a world implications but in Wisconsin's history—little did I know how big it would be nationally, in Wisconsin’s history, I said, this is our moment, this is our time to change the course of history and this is why it's so important that they were all there. I had a cabinet meeting this morning and I reminded them of that. I said for those who thought I was being melodramatic, you now know it was purely putting it in the right context.

He does on with his gloating; too bad the guy he was yakking to wasn't really "David Koch."

It's hilarious—and as serious as it gets, with Walker speaking so freely of conspiracy against unions and elected officials.

Yes: he is a Republican, so there very well may be no consequences. But his conspiring—and his being owned by Koch—are plain for all to see.

As is his overwrought ambition about where he expects David's dough to take him—

WALKER: We've been on all the national shows, we were on Hannity last night, I did Good Morning America, the Today Show and all that sort of stuff was on Morning Joe this morning, we've done Greta, we're going to keep getting our message out. Mark Levine last night and I've got to tell you, the response from around the country has been phenomenal I had Brian the governor in Nevada call me last night, he said he was out in the Lincoln day circuit the last two weekends and he was kidding me, he's new as well as me, he said "Scott don't come to Nevada 'cus I'm afraid you'll beat me running for Governor." That's all they wanna talk is what are you doing to help in the governor in Wisconsin. Next I talked to Kasich every day, you know John's got to stand firm in Ohio. I think we can do the same thing with Rick Scott in Florida, I think Snyder if he got a little more support could probably do that in Michigan. We start going down the list, you know, there’s a lot of us new governors that got elected to do something, big.

KOCH: You're the first domino.

WALKER: Yep. This is our moment.

The national media may cast events according to the usual story lines: greedy teachers are a trouble-making mob (so unlike patriotic tea partiers, or Libyans demonstrating against nutjob Gadaffi); tacky Democrats left the state because they are rude and unBipartisan.

But all news is local, and events are happening in a state that still has some decent local journalism, judging from what I've seen in the last week or so.

And Madison in particular has well-established independent news outlets, the oldest being The Progressive ("peace and social justice since 1909").

The Capitol Times is at the scene, along with the Center for Media and Democracy ( live reporting here).

Laura Flanders did this program from Madison, with guests including local journalists John Nichols (of The Cap Times and The Nation) and Matthew Rothschild (The Progressive).

After this, you have to wonder about Walker's future national usefulness to the real David Koch. Fake David gave the public a glimpse of how the real one operates, which Koch expects to do in all the privacy his money can buy.

From the start of the showdown, it was obvious that Walker had visions of staging a quick conquest of his own PATCO, followed by rapid ascent to venues larger than Wisconsin.

If Koch remains invested in Walker's career, he can certainly buy an unlimited amount of marketing. But will he want to put money into selling this clown beyond a remorseful Wisconsin?

At the end of the Mother Jones interview, Ian Murphy says he was shocked by how easy it was to get through to Walker.

The governor's intelligence is truly questionable: so puffed up by instant fame and a vision of Scott Reagan Walker as to think a Koch is eager to ring up one of the servants.