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Scott Walker has achieved the impossible: he’s positioned himself to the right of cartoon villain Rick Scott in Florida:
Gov. Rick Scott said during a radio interview Tuesday that Florida shouldn’t move to take away public employees’ collective bargaining rights as the Republican governor of Wisconsin has proposed, reports the News Service of Florida [...] “My belief is as long as people know what they’re doing, collective bargaining is fine,” Scott said in an interview with WFLA Radio in Tallahassee. Scott said what he means is that as long as the discussion is honest about what benefits employees are getting, he has no objection to public employees being members of unions.
This is easier for Scott to say, as Florida is already a right to work state. But I just don’t think you would have heard this kind of answer out of Scott, who released his budget at a Tea Party event, if it weren’t for the weeklong protests in Wisconsin.
And one other thing about “democracy,” which has suddenly been pulled out by the same people who resisted the Obama agenda through protests and legislative obstruction for two years. If that was part of democracy, then so is what is happening in Wisconsin. But more to the point, the bid to strip public employees of their collective bargaining rights was not a part of Scott Walker’s campaign platform.
Last night, I heard on Fox News from Stephen Hayes that Wisconsin governor Scott Walker had run on a platform to end collective bargaining rights for public sector unions. I can find no evidence of this in the public record. It isn’t on his campaign platform where he deals with “government spending and reform”. It’s clear that he vowed to slash pay and benefits for public sector unions [...] But not end their collective bargaining rights on everything but wages. There’s no reference to any such bid in the final gubernatorial debate. Here’s another substantive piece on Walker’s positions on public sector unions from before the election. Again no mention of collective bargaining. The same can be said about his State of the State address on February 1.
And this comes from Andrew Sullivan, not someone predisposed to public sector unions. He’s simply stating the facts, that this has been a bait and switch by Scott Walker to exploit a budget issue to strip workers of their rights. And the media can’t seem to understand the simple facts. The budget repair bill cleans up a $137 million near-term deficit. That’s where the public employee provisions have been placed. It has nothing to do with the $3.6 billion budget gap in the next two years. And the fiscal concessions proposed for unions on their pensions and health care contributions have already been agreed to. This is just cover for something so extreme, Rick Scott won’t agree to it.
This is as good a time as any to announce that I’ll be going to Wisconsin tomorrow, to talk to the major players, protesters, politicians and everyone involved in this extraordinary outpouring of democratic activism.
UPDATE: Walker may just be reading the polls. 61% oppose stripping collective bargaining rights, according to the latest from Gallup. People don’t want this.
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Translation and shorter Sullivan: Walker needs to take one for the team before they have riots everywhere and give up his collective bargaining position.
It appear Sully may be worried about all them uppity worker folks fighting back on tax cuts for rich folks and cut backs for the poor and middle class.
He knows that if this “debate” goes into overtime, it’s the right that loses.
Thanks DDay.
If this is helpful great, if not sorry to bother you.
Chris Liebenthal is a case manager in Milwaukee County who runs two blogs, Milwaukee County First and Cognitive Dissonance.
Bill Christoferson blogs at Uppity Wisconsin under the handle Xoff.
I think both are pretty good.
The link below is from a 2007 series which won a Pulitzer for Dave Umhoeffer at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Walker was armpit deep in a pension scandal.
Pension ‘buyback’ inquiry to cover several decades
2 ex-federal prosecutors from Chicago to lead effort
Walker was swept into power in a recall election over a previous pension scandal.
The link above was his attempt (thwarted) to use PENSION funds to hire CHICAGO attorneys
to fix the blame on his political enemiesinsulate him from responsibility. As county executive, he had a seat on the Pension board and that would enable him to steer the way his ‘hired gun,” lawyers investigated. Sadly the lawyers (Perkins Coie was the name of the firm) used to work for Pat Fitzgerald.Continuing
No one was ever held responsible for $50,000,000 in losses from the Pension fund. The Journal Sentinel dropped its own story. J.B. Van Hollen, the wingnut State AG declined to prosecute anyone and they didn’t hold JB accountable.
The JS’ Meg Kissinger was Pulitzer finalist for this 2006 series
Abandoning Our Mentally Ill
The photos from JS photographer Kristyna Wentz-Graff are riveting and help drive the narrative.
Within the human carnage, the heart of darkness in Walker’s banality for me was in this piece
Agencies botched chances for aid
Millions missed or unspent to provide proper housing, care
Save thousands on a county budget, by ignoring millions in federal (mostly HUD) aid.
Then, you get someone with a long history of mental illness shooting two Milwaukee police officers.
Psychiatric evaluation ordered for man charged with shooting police
But, they aren’t on Gov. Dropout’s budgets, so he doesn’t care.
IMHO, the two main players in Wisconsin for the wingnuts are the Bradley Foundation and Charlie Sykes, the very talented Rush Limbaugh of Milwaukee radio. Journal Communication owns WTMJ radio (Sykes) and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the NBC affiliate in Milwaukee.
The Bradly Foundation is run by Mike Grebe (70), West Point, and imho the most prestigous law firm in the state Foley Lardner. You will get arguments from others who know more than I about that characterization. Grebe also has strong interests/ties to the Oshkosh Corporation, which makes combat vehicles for DoD.
Mark Marotta (Harvard Law) worked for Governor Doyle and also works at Foley Lardner. I would suspect he’s very dialed into Democratic strategies. He’s originally form Pittsburg. He played basketball for Rick Majerus at Marquette with some guy name Glenn “Doc” Rivers. Glenn stole and married Marc’s gf. Marotta never had an NBA career, but he was a very serviceable, capable starter at Marquette.
The JS endorsed Walker, but he screwed them on high speed rail. I doubt people in the news room and the editorial board were very happy about that.
Even prior to that, however, the managing editor, George Stanley, put his picture in the paper about continuing coverage of the mentally ill. It was clearly a message to at that time, Gov-elect Walker.
Great reporting results in help for mentally ill
Please note the other photos. In addition to Kissinger, Steve Schultze is the beat reporter for Milwaukee County. I think the perception is that a guy makes it slightly tougher for the wingnuts to cry “bleeding-heart lib.” I think Gov. Dropout’s cronies would have preferred it if Stanley would have left Meg alone on the new series “Patients in Peril.”
The photo of the photographer, Wentz-Graf, suggested to me that Stanley was emphasizing that the JS would allocate photographer resources. My guess is Gov. Dropout would prefer coverage that did not include photos.
Dems have fled Indiana, too!
We should all attend local rallies in support of the Wisconsin Public Workers. We are all Working Class! We should not let the richest 2% divide us.
The link shows the SEIU protest locations:
http://action.seiu.org/page/s/solidarityaction
Anonymous enters into the fray.
NAMI (National Alliance for the Mentally Ill) DRW (Disability Rights Wisconsin) and other counter-feit advocacy groups have lined up behind both the JS’ News Division and the JS’ Editorial Board.
Here’s a recent example.
Walker put an occupational therapist, John Chianelli, in charge of the Mental Health Complex. In addition to people who kept DYING, women were getting raped by other patients. Patient with violent past went unsupervised
Chianelli responded in a closed meetings that the rapes were a “trade-off,” for co-ed facilities, which cost less.
Finally, less than two-months away from the election, (August) the JS Editorial Board drew a line in the sand. They joined with everyone else and demanded that Walker fire Chianelli.
NAMI took the legs right out from under the News division and the Editorial board with this August editorial.
It’s everyone’s problem to solve
NAMI does NOT call for Chianelli to be fired.
Walker demoted Chianelli from a job that paid $120,000 to a job that paid $90,000. Milwaukee County has already spent $300,000 on legal expenses for Chianelli/Walker.
In this context, Mr. Stanley and the JS are being pretty heroic. Their straddle is way out front on this one issue.
Unfortunately, what the people want doesn’t matter. It’s what the Cock Bros and Walker want.
Starting the recall process — filing the necessary Notices of Intent to Recall — against the 8 GOP members of the legislature who are eligible for immediate recall is the only way to apply meaningful pressure. IMO, Walker is too damn stubborn to fold.
Ohio update:
“With a patrol SWAT vehicle stationed across Third Street from the Statehouse and heavy security across the grounds, the patrol allowed only about 750 inside the Capitol. Seats were placed in the Atrium so the protesters could listen to the scheduled testimony of about 15 opponents to the bill at a Senate committee hearing”
LINK.
Thanks.
Kasich must be pining for the days when the National Guard fired on students at Kent State.