Coming Soon to a Bargain Bin Near You

When I read, I always choose non-fiction.  I enjoy historical tomes and biographies of influential figures.  Yet I have no interest in reading Governor Scott Walker's memoir scheduled to be published later this year.  My main problem is how do you have any historical perspective on something that happened pretty much yesterday?

We haven't gone through enough budget cycles to determine the real benefits of Act Ten for Wisconsin taxpayers.  And the law hasn't even gone through all of its legal challenges yet.  Yes, Walker survived a recall, but was that just voters rejecting the process--or endorsing his policies?  I would think another election cycle or two would provide that perspective.  But in our "instant analysis" culture, we don't have time to wait for such things to play out--we need to pass "final judgement" as soon as possible.

Besides, none of the stuff we really want to read about is going to be included in this book.  The Governor will provide only a "sanitized" version of what went on at the Capitol from only his perspective.  Don't you want to know if there really were conversations with the Koch Brothers?  Or what was promised and/or threatened to Republican Legislators from districts with larger public employee populations (some of whom did not seek re-election in 2012)?

And the Governor really isn't telling the most interesting part of the story!  Wouldn't you really rather know what was going on in the Democratic Party offices when they realized that a viable recall candidate wasn't going to get into the race?  Wouldn't you love to hear the private reaction of those same leaders when their endorsed candidate--Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk--lost in the primary?  And what were those folks thinking when the internal polling showed there was no way they were going to win on a platform of "restore Cadillac benefits packages and automatic raises to public employees"--and they had to find some other angle to pursue?  Maybe now that the raving lunatic Mike Tate has been fired as Democratic Party Spokesman, he'll have time to write that book.

I think most people see the Scott Walker Book for what it is: a trial balloon on the national popularity of someone hearing whispers about how he should run for President.  In that case, the Governor is going to have to get busy on his second book almost right away--because that is the new standard set by our current Author-In-Chief before he ran.  (Apparently, being a "Community Organizer" a Harvard Law Professor, A  State Legislator and a freshman US Senator isn't that time-consuming).

Meanwhile, those of us who like a little perspective with our history will wait for the full story about 20 or 30 years from now.