Walker threatens layoffs in press conference

Scott Walker - Starting to sound like a broken record.

In Walker's press conference at 2:30 today he made his threats of layoff much more explicit, claiming that if the AWOL senators in Illinois do not return and pass the Budget Repair Bill by Friday, thousands of public workers will be laid off.

He had strong words for out-of-state, and particularly Washington people who are coming in for the protests, saying that he hopes they will "not interfere with the process".

So -- apparently the "Koch brothers" can suggest disruption with fake protestors is hunky-dory, but politicians and media personalities from out of state are "interfering". 

He was asked about the prank phone call, and immediately tried to distract - saying that a prank phone call cannot distract from the important activities at hand.  The press corps did not seem to be buying this.  Walker kept insisting that he said nothing in the call that was out of step with his public position. His continual inability to listen and pay attention to what is being asked, and to simply parrot the same points continually is amazing.

He blamed "union bosses coming in from Washington" for lies and deceptions.   He brought Reagan in, claiming that he was doing the same thing Reagan did during the PATCO strike, which is not only ludicrous, but appalling enough even if true. He also claimed that none of the bill is about union busting, and is all about balancing the budget.

His final question in the press conference revolved around the sales of power plants in the bill. 

The Democratic response by representative Brett Hulcy  to his speech called it "utter nonsense", but found it difficult to be heard over the noise of pro-Walker people, and called Walker "a maniac". 

Hulcy continued to attack Walker for being in the pocket of oil tycoons, explaining his stance against high speed rail, restraints on windmill farms, and his stance against the  unions.  He called Walker's behaviore "absolute pay-to-play" and that Walker was trying to make Wiscsonsin "a corporate-controlled state forever".

At that point, Channel 3000's live feed went from being intermittent to totally dead.  We will try to bring you audio or video of the press conference soon.

Every time Walker speaks, I lose more respect for him.