Lupica: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Tea Party clown David Koch ganging up on working heroes

NY Daily News ^ | Monday, March 7th 2011 | Mike Lupica

[presidio9]

Now one of the grandstanding governors of the recession, a political chump named Scott Walker, expects everybody to believe that the only way to save the State of Wisconsin, and maybe the whole country, is one union worker at a time.

Walker comes riding into office in Madison on this huge wave of anti-Obama, anti-government hysteria. He promises that he will create 250,000 jobs and now expects suckers to believe that he would already be doing that if these Democrat-loving unions would get out of his way.

In a country where it seems that only Bernie Madoff does time after all the white-collar crimes against the economy over the past three years, a country where the high rollers of Wall Street still live high off big bonuses and the old-boy network seems as strong as ever, we are really expected to believe this:

That it is union workers who are the enemies of the state.

Walker and all the other state-house phonies like him talk a good game about going after fat cats and corporate contracts and special interests. They just never really do. They would rather act tough with teachers and cops and firemen, who are the backbone of the country that guys like Scott Walker say they want to take back from Barack Obama.

You would say Walker, pimping himself out to the Tea Party, is picking on the little guy. Except that the people he tries to bully these days are so much bigger than he is, there is nothing to discuss. You know what Walker really is? He is management, showing why workers in this country have always looked for ways to protect themselves.

Here is Mike Murphy, a Republican shill and B-list guest in Cable America, allowed to write in Time magazine about Wisconsin teachers and make them sound like potential shoe bombers:

"On average, a teacher in Wisconsin pays more than $1,000 to the union (from an average salary of $51,264). A decent chunk of this money is used to fund political activities."

Murphy - who eventually discloses in Time that his company is doing pro-Walker ads - doesn't explain what he means by "decent chunk." Maybe that's because he seems more interested in making some third-grade teacher in Green Bay sound like the bogeyman. But is it 50 bucks they're spending out of their thousand bucks of dues to fight Murphy's vision of a better America, or a hundred bucks, or the entire thousand?

Somehow, though, teachers and members of other unions are supposed to be more of a threat to our way of life than somebody like David Koch, the Daddy Warbucks of the Tea Party movement, perhaps the most powerful conservative wing-nut anywhere.

Are Koch's people rolling into Wisconsin and fighting for Scott Walker, rough tough union buster? Like the offensive line of the Packers. And since the current Supreme Court has rolled over on corporate spending in elections - Citizens United vs. Federal Elections Commission - Koch can spend more on independent-expenditure campaigns than ever.

Somehow Koch and the politicians he props up don't seem to care how many working people they have to assault to get at Obama. Scott Walker wins in Wisconsin because he runs against government and now shamelessly fronts for the likes of David Koch. A rich old man who apparently wants to buy the government.

I talked to a friend from Wisconsin on Sunday, one whose mother - a Republican - was elected a shop steward by the social workers with whom she worked in Fond du Lac County in the 1960s.

"My mother," he said, "was just opposed to people who weren't making nearly enough money being picked on, because she thought that was fundamentally wrong. The way the people in the streets of Madison think what Walker's doing now is wrong.

"You know why teachers are retiring at the age of 60? Because they'd rather have benefits they collectively bargained for instead of another 2% pay raise. But this is [Gov. Walker's] idea of being anti-government. Acting like retired teachers and unions are the enemy."

Teachers aren't the enemy, not in New York, not in Wisconsin, not anywhere. Firemen and cops and their unions aren't the enemy. But somehow when cuts must be made, they are the ones who find themselves at risk. The party that says it had to come to the rescue of the country doesn't even know which country it is supposed to be representing.

[presidio9]

Mike Lupica somehow gets paid to be a sports writer in NY. He lifelong Red Sox/Celtics fan who has made his living pitting Yankees fans against Met and Jets fans against Giants fans with nothing but critical commentary on the owners or highest paid players of one team per column. Sports columns that fail to mention Sara Palin or Dick Cheney are the exception. Because he can only exist on the liberal tidal pool of the Daily News, his seniority has awarded him the authority to contribute assinine political commentary to the front side of the paper, his only credential being that he appears to believe what he's saying. The man is obviously confused, as only 10% of responants to a recent Gallup poll claimed that they belonged to a union (the majority of these were government employees). Since he's a sports writer, I will assume that he is alluding to the good guys in the film "Dodge Ball: A True Underdog Story." While there are several reasons why this analogy doesn't work, the first that comes to mind was the fact that the cute and intelligent girl is an "Average Joe," while the hairy retarded girl works for Globo Gym. Just last week, liberals complained that the right uses pretty girls to manipulate how society interprets political commentary.

It just kills pinheads the Mike Lupica that they can't compartmentalize the Tea Party with suggestions that it is racist (when union protesters are telling Clarence Thomas to "get back in the fields) or it needs a sugar daddy (when MoveOn can't exist without George Soros).

[camerongood210]

Stick to sports, Mike.

[jdsteel]

I wonder what color the sky is in his world....

[sauropod]

Lupica is a tool. I’ve read enough of his columns to know even he doesn’t believe the male bovine fecal effluvia he spouts.

[Reagan Man]

Lupica is a douche-bag!

[Carley]

Lupica looking to take Rich’s job at the NYSlimes?

[pabianice]

[Buckeye McFrog]

another sportswriter with a severe case of Olbermann Envy Syndrome

[2ndDivisionVet]

Didn't he forget something?

[socialism_stinX]

Except for cops, firefighters, the very best prosecutors, and teachers in tough inner-city schools, all government employees are overpaid. That is because, in general, government workers get much less work done per hour than workers in the private sector who have much more pressure on them to produce (now). State and local employees do not deserve or need collective bargaining rights, which give them the power to shut down the transportation systems and essential services in entire cities. 90% of American workers have no collective bargaining rights and have to bargain individually with employers.

I’ve never had any collective bargaining rights and I’ve done just fine, although I did relocate seven times within twelve years to get better jobs and consulting assignments. I’ve also completely retrained myself twice and I’m now in my third career in three different businesses. That kind of frequent relocation and retraining is something that a lot of union workers wouldn’t even consider because it’s too difficult. It’s easier for them to strike and extort more compensation from a corporation or a municipality.

[Past Your Eyes]

[rockrr]

Brown (and stinky ;-)

[samtheman]

What a turd-brain.

[blackdog]

I just had to go to the post office retail counter. The line was seventeen people deep and took 35 minutes to get to the (1) customer service clerk. The other five (5) customer service people were standing around chatting, making sure they avoided eye contact with the public.

When people started commenting on their wait, I loudly told them that "this is the benefit of collective bargaining." Some people got very uncomfortable with my comment and the five clerks not serving the public went off to a back room.

[Lazamataz]

I had to take an Obama in my Lupica today, and I wiped it with some Democrats.

[Vasilli22]

[presidio9]

[oust the louse]

Those mean old Koch Brothers only employ 80,000 people. The gall of them all to actually be productive members of society. And to top it off the Kochs fight for causes that encourage their corporate growth so they can hire and employ more people.
Man these guys are so despicable...

[oust the louse]

I bet Lupica use to get his azz kicked when he was a little boy...oh wait, he still is a little boy.

[Mr. Jeeves]

"There is a ready solution for anyone on the public payroll who feels that he is not paid enough: He can resign and work for a living. This applies with equal force to Congressmen, Welfare 'clients', school teachers, generals, garbage collectors, and judges."

-- Robert A. Heinlein