Posted on 03/13/2011 6:04:42 AM PDT by fightinJAG
My thoughts exactly — that while the Wisconsin GOP won this fight legislatively — how lamely naive they were as far as the PR war goes.
And then they act shocked that the Dems were acting in bad faith. Gee. Who knew?
Yes, anyone who can help promote this article, by twitter or whatever, is doing a public service.
I hope #Rush reads this on-air on Monday.
Egggscellent!
I don't care much for Stephen Hayes on the TV panel as he's somewhat of a wussy....but he's an excellent writer....and he's kinda cute, too.
Leni
I think one fact that has been shorted in all this mess is that Governor Walker had a very unique and peculiar situation to deal with -— unlike most states, the WI state capitol is smack in the middle of a huge, populus Commieville.
Most state capitols are in sleepy, out-of-the-way places, where even if there’s a state university in town, it’s focused on beer-drinking and football, not on rabid radicalism and reliving hippie-glory-years.
Very few governors have this kind, and this numerous, of population of radicals swirling just around their doorsteps, ready, willing and, more importantly, RIGHT THERE when it comes to launching into an extended Woodstockian festival of protest.
Even in CA, Sacramento is not Berkeley (and Madistan is even much worse than Berkely, IMO). Sure, people can go to the state capitol to protest, but it sure is a lot easier when you live right there and have “docs” working right there who are willing to write you bogus sick notes, etc. . . .
Yes!
If a “right” costs someone else money to “fulfill,” hello, it’s not a “right,” it’s a privilege.
My right to free speech, free exercise of religion, etc. costs no one anything.
Their “right” to 40 days paid vacation costs the rest of us big-time.
I like Stephen on Special Report. I think his measured demeanor is a strength. And it’s otherwise clear that nothing much gets past him. He’s often the velvet hammer on the panel, as far as I’m concerned.
On his cuteness, I have no opinion.
“Gee...Democrats negotiated in bad faith? Democrats lied? Democrats colluded with the Media to bully elected representatives?”
Great Geico commercial.
I’m not sure what you mean by your comment, but I think Governor Walker and the GOP in WI handled this masterfully. They acted like grown-ups.
I saw in another post somewhere recently that a previous republican governor of Wisconsin described Madison as “(t)hirty square miles surrounded by reality”.
And then when the Rats launched their media assault on Walker and the Republicans, they admit that they refused to fight back, thinking that it might scuttle whatever "progress" they had made with the Rats.
So in short, they allowed themselves to be played (again) for too long before finally realizing that the Rats never had any intention reaching some sort of compromise.
Same story, over and over again, except this time they woke up before it was too late.
Bump for later distribution...
I disagree.
The efforts the GOP made in this regard didn’t jeopardize the final result one whit. They had that in the bag early on. All they did was show their own good faith and expose the bad faith of the Rats.
If the Rats had compromised, that would have helped the GOP. Since the Rats didn’t compromise, that helps the GOP.
This is the main point I disagree with. The GOP was never going to give up its two legislative goals. The "negotiations" with the Rats were about process.
ping
I think part of the reason it took so long to resolve was that they weren't getting certain answers out of the fiscal bureau and other like groups, until they finally just asked straight out:
"Since the earliest days of the standoff, Republicans had been engaged in an informal back-and-forth with lawyers from the state’s legislative fiscal bureau, a nonpartisan agency, about their options. On Monday, they formalized their request: How much of the budget repair bill could be passed without a quorum?
They were thrilled with the response—almost all of it. Despite speculation that employee contributions to benefits (what Walker and his staff called the “5-and-12” provisions) would have to be stripped out, the bureau informed Republicans these could remain—meaning both of the main components of the bill could be passed without Democrats. Two other nonpartisan state agencies agreed, the Legislative Council and the Legislative Reference Bureau. The attorneys insisted that the legislation drop a refinancing provision as well as the sale of state-owned power plants. But most of the bill could be moved. Although the 5-and-12 and collective bargaining provisions would have a fiscal impact, they did not require the state to appropriate any money and thus could be included. “Democrats thought we wouldn’t be able to do the 5-and-12 with collective bargaining,” says Walker."
The mistake was doing any bargaining with people who fled the state to disrupt the democratic process. Allowing that to be considered simply a tactic in the arsenal of Dem tricks is a slap to the democratic process. You can’t legitimate what they did.
Excellent article. Stripping out the sale of the power plants was a good idea in any case. That is an issue that should be resolved on its own merits.
Thanks for posting.
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