Scrooge-ism in Wisconsin, part 2 [excerpt]The pas-de-deux between Chuck Lane and myself, which has now become a long day's journey into night and the subsequent morning, has touched on a number of topics raised by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's attack on public-sector unions -- but not on the full range of political consequences that will follow if Walker's denial of collective bargaining rights is enacted. Walker argues that it's fiscal necessity that's driven him to his stance, but a dispassionate look at what he's actually proposed suggests the real reason is political opportunity.
For one thing, Walker's proposal lets police and firefighter unions retain their collective bargaining rights and, thereby, their institutional clout, even though their taxpayer-supported pensions are among the most generous in the state. Not coincidentally, a number of police and firefighter unions supported Walker in the last election, and such unions tend to endorse more conservative candidates than, say, teachers' unions. So what Walker is really doing is going after unions that support Democrats.[end excerpt]
JUST ONE PROBLEM WITH HIS ARGUMENT
This guy is the old liberal liar of omission. The city of Milwaukee’s Firefighters & Police unions backed Walker AGAINST Mayor Tom Barret who is a complete and utter failure. He’s let them down time and again. The state Firefighter’s & Police union backed Barret. So he isn’t wrong, just omitting a glaring and blinding fact. Also Walker didn’t jump on those two right now because he’s smart. Imagine the Firefighers & Police union members pulling the same thing that the teachers are doing? It would have happened and he didn’t want to tackle that all at one time. Their time is coming, though I doubt it will be soon and will be incremental (that is of course if he stays Governor of our fine state long enough).
