UPDATE: It's not true! Wrong Scott Walker, apparently.
UPDATE 2: Sarah Jones has an important update to this story: "Wrong Scott Walker or Political Smokescreen: Questions Remain On Walker Baby Daddy Story"
UPDATE 3: This post has caused a bit of a kerfuffle in the blogosphere, so I thought it would be best to explain. As many of you who regularly read my writing understand, I often intersperse irreverent posts with serious posts. This post was intended to be irreverent and not a serious journalistic effort. I thought I had made that clear in the semantic choices that I made. Nonetheless, I must admit that I failed in that regard and take full responsibility for it.
Dr. Bernadette Gillick is accusing Scott Walker of impregnanting his college girlfriend and, after encouraging her to get an abortion, abandoning her.
INORITE!?
The girlfriend (who is going by Ruth) had the child after having been berated by Walker's mother for trying to ruin Walker's reputation. Dr. Gillick was college roommates with "Ruth" and was witness to these shenanigans. She claims she was present for the birth of the child. She also claims that after a paternity test, Scott Walker conceded that he was the father but then had nothing further to do with Ruth or the child.
Dr. Gillick says she decided to come forward after watching Scott Walker in the debate last week, droning on about his integrity and lookit me! I'm a Boy Scout! It pissed Dr. Gillick right off because Scott Walker has no soul.
HOLY CRAP, RIGHT?
I hope this is true. It's like right out of Scandal or something. Scott Walker has gone Hollywood:
Bernadette Gillick was a college freshman in 1988 when she first met Scott Walker. It was spring semester, and she had just transferred to Marquette University. She was assigned a room in O’Donnell Hall (then a women’s dormitory), which she shared with her new roommate, Ruth (not her real name). Ruth was dating Scott Walker, who was 20 at the time, and, according to Bernadette, Ruth was deeply in love with him.Midway through that spring semester, Bernadette alleges, Ruth found out she was pregnant. She informed her boyfriend, Scott, and initially he was supportive. That support changed to callous indifference for his girlfriend’s predicament after Scott informed his parents of the pregnancy.
Bernadette reports that at this point Scott began denying that he was the father of the baby, and when Ruth said she was considering an abortion, he claimed he didn’t care, as he wasn’t the father anyway.
Bernadette remembers being present when Ruth was dealing with the wrath of Scott’s mother, who allegedly admonished Ruth for trying to “ruin [her son's] reputation.”
“I supported her [Ruth] as he [Scott] went from encouraging her to get an abortion, to telling me it was in my best interest to keep my mouth shut, to denying that he was the father and having his own mother call her and tell her to stop erroneously accusing her son of paternity,” Bernadette recounts.
It was a “horrible time” for her friend. “Imagine her being 18 years old and pregnant, walking around Marquette’s Jesuit Catholic campus with her boyfriend denying he was the father,” says Bernadette.
All this was taking place while Walker was running for student body president. As one of his classmates, Dr. Glenn Barry recalled in a remembrance published last week, Walker’s campaign was, “one of the dirtiest in school history.” The student newspaper Marquette Tribune called him “unfit for office” after his campaign was discovered collecting and throwing out copies of their paper that endorsed his opponent. Commenting on the election and Walker’s political career and style at Marquette, he noted, “Walker lost on all counts, but not before destroying a few people’s reputations, and amassing personal power.”
If Bernadette’s story is true, Ruth – and eventually their child – were just a few of the people who got in the way of Walker’s quest for power.
After consulting with her family, Ruth decided against an abortion. Bernadette was with Ruth in the hospital for the birth of her child later that year (and says Walker was not present), and later stood up as a bridesmaid in Ruth’s 1992 marriage to another man. She says Walker eventually had to concede that he was the father, after the birth and paternity test.
~snip~
Over the phone, Bernadette recounted how she watched a recent televised debate between Scott Walker and Tom Barrett. As he talked about his “lifelong integrity” her anger grew. This was a man who had abandoned his pregnant young girlfriend — completely turned his back on her at the most fragile point in her life. She notes his “now-convenient ‘pro-life’ proclamations” after burying his past “indiscretion.” Says Bernadette, “I cannot listen to his lies anymore … I cannot dream of how anyone would support such an evil man. Once a man shows that he has no soul, there is nothing more.”
Apparently, the Walker campaign isn't commenting, and some guy who used to work for the Walker campaign refused to comment and also said he couldn't disclose the source of his current employment. So, that's weird.
Also weird? That this didn't come out years ago. So I don't know what to believe, but I love it anyway.
Sarah Jones at PoliticusUSA has much more on this new development. WalkerGate. Or GillickGate. Or Walker/GillickGate. Do we have a name yet? Somebody get back to me. At any rate, go read Sarah's post, Pro-Life Scott Walker Accused of Abandoning Pregnant Girlfriend in College.
It's about to get velly intellesting in Wisconsin. Seriously. If anything can destroy a political campaign, it's being pro-life, encouraging your girlfriend to get an abortion, and then having a secret love child. Other things that fuck up political campaigns, like all the time: homosexuality, daughters of evangelicals who had secret abortions, and alien attacks.
Just sayin'.
