[sickoflibs]

RE :”Polling is equivocal. A national poll by Rasmussen found that 48 percent supported Walker while only 38 percent favored the unions. A highly significant 56 percent of independents sided with the governor. On the other hand, a CBS/New York Times poll found that 56 percent of those surveyed opposed reducing pay or benefits of public employees in order to balance state budgets, and 60 percent opposed weakening the bargaining rights of public employees. Let's stipulate that polls can suffer from tendentious wording. Nevertheless, the public’s response to the Madison imbroglio suggests that Republican budget cutters have not completely made their case. Republicans may need to put greater emphasis on the difference between private- and public-sector unions. In a private-sector company, when unions negotiate with management, there is a limiting factor at work — the company must remain profitable or everyone is out of a job. In the case of public-sector unions, “management” consists of elected officials, and the city, state, or federal government is the employer. Profit or loss is irrelevant, so there is no limiting factor. If unions receive more and more generous pay and benefits, it's the taxpayers who are on the hook, not “management.”

The advice above about separating public sector unions from private sector ones politically (conceptually) is smart. Watch the progressives/liberals on MSNBC. They do the opposite and equate rhetorically the public sector unions with all workers. They try to create a picture of ‘the rich’ only paying for the public services like schools and that being overly generous to public workers somehow benefits the private sector worker who ends up footing the bill.

1) Control the message, 2) Split the opposition

[Liz]

Wisconsin, it gets better: Returned Democrats can not vote. At all.
wispolitics.com | Sen.Fitzgerald / FR Posted by Madistan

From: Sen.Fitzgerald
Sent: Monday, March 14, 2011 3:52 PM
To: Legislative Senate Republicans
Subject: Senate Democrat voting privileges in standing committees

Dear Members,

With the return of the Senate Democrats this weekend, questions have arisen regarding Democrat members’ participation in Senate standing committee public hearings and executive sessions. Please note that all 14 Democrat senators are still in contempt of the Senate. Therefore, when taking roll call votes on amendments and bills during executive sessions, Senate Democrats’ votes will not be reflected in the Records of Committee Proceedings or the Senate Journal. They are free to attend hearings, listen to testimony, debate legislation, introduce amendments, and cast votes to signal their support/opposition, but those votes will not count, and will not be recorded. If you have any questions, feel free to contact my office. Thank you, Scott Fitzgerald Senate Majority Leader 13th Senate District (Excerpt) Read more at wispolitics.com ...