[img_assist|nid=141740|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=300|height=243]Legal and political writer Ernest A. Canning has noticed something we in Wisconsin overlooked and Wisconsin Public Radio buried: Scott Walker and only Scott Walker signed-off on hiring Kelly Rindfleish and promoting her to deputy chief of staff a couple of months later.
In yet another case of someone in the Wisconsin media coming accross a piece of important information and burying the lede, WPR offhandedly dropped this bombshell at the end of their report:
The governor has distanced himself from Rindfleisch, although a copy of her personnel file obtained by Wisconsin Public Radio shows Walker was the only person to sign off on her hiring. He was also the only person to approve her promotion two months later.
This revelation is incredibly important because it demonstrates that there was no sunlight between Tim Russell and Scott Walker.
We had previously known Russell had hired Rindfleish and that Walker's Chief of Staff, Tom Nardelli, had no idea Rindfleish had been hired until she showed up for work. Now we know that Russell wasn't acting like some kind of lone wolf-- he completly bypassed Nardelli and went directly to Walker for the green light to hire Rindfleish.
Then, for whatever reason, Walker sent Russell over to run the Housing Department and promoted Rindfleish to fill in Russell's old spot as Deputy Chief of Staff. Did Walker bother to mention any of this to Nardelli? Nope. Heaven forbid you would tell the Chief of Staff what the staff he is chief-of are doing.
Walker's only defense is to try to say that Tim Russell was doing all these wildly illegal things that involved numerous people in Walker's County Executive office without Walker having any idea of what was up. This revelation, however, shows that there was a direct, straight-line link between Walker and Russell: Russell asked if he could hire Rindfleish and Walker, and only Walker, said yes. Russell asked if he could promote Rindfleish and Walker, and only Walker, said yes.
Then, Darlene Wink get's busted for doing campaign work on the taxpayer's dime by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and who does Scott Walker instruct to rein-in the illegal activity?
Tim Russell and only Tim Russell.