Did Dems start this rumor about Scott Walker for labor secretary?

So where does that leave Trump’s Cabinet? Tillerson, Jim Mattis, John Kelly, Elaine Chao and Mike Pompeo have already been confirmed to head their respective departments. The DeVos debate will apparently be settled tomorrow, after Democrats finish an announced 24-our pseudo-filibuster against her on the Senate floor. Jeff Sessions will follow soon after. Several other Cabinet nominations (Rick Perry, Ryan Zinke, Steve Mnuchin, Scott Pruitt) have at least been advanced out of committee. David Shulkin (Trump’s Veterans Affairs pick) just had his hearing. Sonny Perdue, Trump’s last pick (for Agriculture) will probably be taken up later this month.

But one nomination appears to be in Limbo. That’s Andy Puzder, who was designated by Trump to serve as secretary of Labor nearly two months ago. His hearings have now been delayed four times, and no one seems to be arguing that this is a partisan delay, as with many of the other nominations.

The Atlantic has a semi-update:

People familiar with Puzder’s situation—on and off Capitol Hill—say he has agreed to divest his assets from CKE and is now going back and forth with the Office of Government Ethics on the precise mechanism for doing that. The Washington Post reported that Puzder initially wanted to put his assets into a blind trust but was told he had to divest completely. While several other wealthy Trump nominees have had to take similar steps to separate from their businesses, a spokeswoman for Puzder noted that his undertaking “is a complex process as CKE is a private company.”

Indeed, Puzder has had to repeatedly state in public that yes, he is still interested in the job. This has given rise to many rumors, the wildest of which appeared in print for the first time today:

Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan says rumors that Republican Gov. Scott Walker may be interested in becoming U.S. Labor secretary “makes sense.”

…Pocan said Monday that fresh rumors began to circulate in Washington last week that Walker could be interested in the job if President Donald Trump’s nominee Andrew Puzder is not confirmed. His hearing has been postponed multiple times.

Again, based on a search of all sources in Lexis-Nexus, this is literally the first mention of this rumor in print. It’s coming from one of Walker’s most bitter political rivals, who would love to see Walker weakened right now, and who apparently wasn’t asked where he had heard the rumor in the first place.

Walker, who has repeatedly denied any interest in a Cabinet post, is currently (at least to all appearances) preparing to run for a third term as governor of Wisconsin, with an announcement coming after work on this year’s state budget is finished.

UPDATE: Walker has just unequivocally denied any interest in the position, Fox 6 Milwaukee’s Theo Keith reports:

So where exactly did this rumor come from?