Prank caller dupes Walker

MADISON, Wis. - On a prank call that he believed was from a wealthy campaign contributor, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was duped into discussing his strategy to outwit his Democratic opponents and sharing a joke about using a baseball bat to go after them.

Walker believed he was speaking to conservative billionaire David Koch. The caller was a liberal blogger.

The governor described potential ways to pressure Democratic state senators to return to the Statehouse to enable a quorum for a vote on his controversial bill to reduce the collective-bargaining rights of many state workers' unions, and revealed that his supporters had considered, but not pursued, plans to plant people in union protest crowds to stir trouble.

The call revealed Walker's cozy relationship with the two billionaire Koch brothers who have poured millions of dollars into conservative political causes, including money for Walker's campaign last year.

Walker compared his stand to that of President Ronald Reagan in firing air-traffic controllers during a labor dispute in 1981. "That was the first crack in the Berlin Wall and led to the fall of the Soviets," Walker said.

The audio was posted on the Buffalo Beast, a left-leaning website in New York, and quickly went viral. Editor Ian Murphy said he arranged the call Tuesday with two Walker aides, including the chief of staff. He made the call using Skype and recorded it.

At a news conference, Walker acknowledged being deceived but stuck to his theme that the union changes are needed to balance the budget.

"I'm not going to let one prank phone call be a distraction from the job we have to do," he said. "The things I said are the things I've said publicly all the time."

During the call, he said he planned to ratchet up pressure on the Senate Democrats to return to the Capitol. He said he supported a move to require them to come to the Capitol to pick up their paychecks rather than have them deposited directly.

He also floated the idea of luring them to the Capitol for negotiations and then having the Senate quickly pass the bill while they were in talks.

At the end of the call, the prankster says: "I'll tell you what, Scott, once you crush these bastards, I'll fly you out to Cali and really show you a good time."

Walker: "All right, that would be outstanding."

For Democrats, the phone call gave new reason to question Walker's motives. "This isn't about balancing the budget. This is about a political war," said state Rep. Jon Richards of Milwaukee.

Besides reducing unions' bargaining rights, the governor's plan would force many state employees to pay more for their health care and retirement benefits. Unions also could not collect mandatory dues and would have to face a vote of their members each year to stay in existence.

The proposal has set off days of protests at the Capitol and prompted Democratic senators to leave the state in a legislative maneuver.

The GOP-controlled state Assembly began debating the bill Tuesday and was still hearing dozens of Democratic amendments nearly 24 hours later before taking a break. Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald said he expected to take a vote on the bill by the end of the day.

David Koch and his brother Charles own Koch Industries Inc., the nation's largest closely-held company, with major operations in Wisconsin. Its political action committee gave $43,000 to Walker's campaign, and David Koch gave $1 million to the Republican Governors' Association, which funded ads attacking Walker's opponent last year.

A Koch-backed group, Americans For Prosperity, launched a $320,000 TV ad campaign backing Walker's legislation Wednesday.