Posted on 03/11/2015 1:48:53 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
President Obama waded into 2016 waters Monday when he slammed Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) for a new state law that curbs the power of labor unions.
Democrats say Obama’s unusual shot at the likely GOP candidate, who sits atop early polls, could energize liberal opposition to Walker as he moves closer to a presidential run.
But Republican allies of Walker believe the president’s broadside could actually help the governor’s impending candidacy by elevating his stature in the GOP field.
It’s rare for Obama to single out state laws for criticism in White House statements. But that is what the president did Monday night after Wisconsin’s so-called “right to work” bill became law.
Obama said he was “deeply disappointed” in Walker’s decision to sign the measure, which would block labor unions from collecting dues from individual workers without their consent.
“It’s inexcusable that, over the past several years, just when middle-class families and workers need that kind of security the most, there’s been a sustained, coordinated assault on unions, led by powerful interests and their allies in government,” the president added.
The GOP governor said in a statement that the measure would give workers the “freedom to choose” whether to join a union and would bolster the state’s economy.
Walker’s high-profile battles with labor unions are what catapulted him onto the national stage. His successful 2011 effort to limit the collective bargaining power of public-employee unions gained widespread attention, and the so-called “right to work” law represented another victory for Walker and Republicans.
The governor survived a 2012 recall attempt after his initial clash with labor and won reelection in 2014 in the blue state, but now he has his eye on the White House.
Walker has a unique cross-party appeal to both hardcore conservatives and more establishment-minded Republicans because of his record in the state, which hasn’t voted for a Republican president since 1984.
Thanks to a strong performance at early 2016 cattle calls, Walker is performing well in polls.
Fifty-three percent of Republican primary voters say they could vote for Walker, while 17 percent said they could not, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Monday. The same survey showed most voters want a fresh face, like Walker, rather than a known quantity, like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
As a result, Democrats are trying to stop Walker’s momentum. Obama’s decision to go after the governor could help motivate key liberal constituencies in 2016, according to Democratic strategists. That includes labor unions, which have sometimes clashed with Obama over economic issues such as trade.
“He is a very viable candidate, and I assume they wanted to take a whack at him,” said Jim Manley, a veteran Democratic strategist and former aide to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). “He symbolizes, and allows you to draw a contrast with, some of these anti-worker positions.
“It’s drawing a line in the sand,” added Manley.
Income inequality and workers rights are poised to be major issues in the 2016 presidential campaign. Labor unions have lost clout in historic Midwestern strongholds, such as Michigan and Indiana, which have recently adopted “right to work” measures.
White House officials say Walker’s possible presidential candidacy had nothing to do with their decision to criticize the law.
“I saw a lot of the political commentary speculating that that’s what we were doing, but our bottom line is this is an issue that we have spoken out whenever it rears its ugly head,” White House principal deputy press secretary Eric Schultz told reporters Tuesday during a gaggle aboard Air Force One.
“Instead of rolling back workers’ rights, states, including Wisconsin, should be expanding workers’ rights, like raising the minimum wage and paid sick leave,” Schultz added.
The White House noted the president has commented on state issues before, pointing to three statements last year on state minimum wages increases in Massachusetts, Minnesota and Connecticut.
Obama personally criticized Michigan’s “right to work” legislation one day before it came law in December 2012.
But Obama’s decision to go after Walker this time around could have the effect, intended or not, of strengthening the governor’s hand among Republican voters who dislike the president.
“If you’re on the Republican side and the president is beating up on you, that’s not a bad thing,” said Brandon Scholz, a Wisconsin-based GOP strategist and ally of Walker.
Scholz said if the past is any indication, the left’s criticism of Walker’s union policies only bolster his political stature.
“Gov. Walker has always sustained those body blows,” he said. “He’s always taken them and moved on. And that has made him stronger.”
Wisconsin became the 25th state to adopt a “right to work” law, and legislatures in others, such as New Mexico and Missouri, are considering similar measures.
Walker’s supporters say the president should view his state's new policies as a positive example for economic improvement.
“President Obama did what he does best and made the issue political to attempt to derail common-sense reforms,” Kirsten Kukowski, a spokeswoman for Walker’s leadership PAC, said in a statement.
That includes LABOR BOSSES - the Democratic Party money and muscle machine that Walker and the WI Legislature have defanged in WI.
“.....Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, a group that advocated for the law has also weighed on on Obama’s statement. WMC President/CEO Kurt R. Bauer said:
“It’s disappointing that President Obama has come out against a policy that gives workers freedom of choice in the workplace. The fact is, right to work states grow jobs and wages twice as fast as forced-union states do. By contrast, the President supports a wage policy that the Congressional Budget Office said will likely kill 500,000 American jobs. Gov. Walker remains focused on providing freedom and economic opportunity to workers.”
“What we`re gonna be seeing is a WEAKENING of the power of labor over the next couple years and along with that the WEAKENING of the power of the Democratic Party.
It`s almost like what we`re seeing (Monday) is the moment Wisconsin becomes a Republican state,” UW-Milwaukee Professor Mordecai Lee said...
On a thread you posted yesterday here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3266171/posts
Starting at reply #17, you can read the comments of a “conservative” F.R. member, who is opposed to Right To Work laws.
Oops, it starts at #3.
You’re in the Congo? How interesting.
Who is your choice for GOP candidate?
Or are you going for another party?
I live in the conservative area of Illinois, which is the entire state except Cook county and one collar county and I like Walker.
You have the Congo flag on your profile page - so reason for the question [?].
: )
“Obama personally criticized Michigan’s “right to work” legislation one day before it came law in December 2012.”
It just goes to show that criticism from Obama is benign, if not beneficial to his target.
3 or 4 years ago, I had the Illinois flag. I started getting super long copy and paste messages that appeared on my “News/Activism” page. I had to scroll and scroll and scroll to get to the news articles.
I couldn’t figure out how to just drop the flag (and message board) but did figure out how to change it to some other message board.
I chose the Congo, assuming that I’d get very few messages from there. So far, zero. So I just leave it there.
What state do you live in?
Gracious!
I’m in Texas but I was born in Wisconsin.
Don’t forget Rock Island county. It’s the second most corrupt county in IL. The Dem hold is slowly weakening as it loses union jobs.
- ex lifetime Chicagoan (Cook) now living across the river in right to work Iowa.
I honestly believe Democrats are very, very UNenthused about Hillary Clinton, and that they could live with Jeb Bush, if Clinton craters.
I also think the Dems will join forces with the GOP to weed out Walker supporters and donors, and grow Jeb’s. The Union battle lost to Walker makes him a mortal enemy to the Left, and a target for political incineration by the right if he continues to interfere with the Bush machine.
I agree. Look at this article [out this morning] about Walker.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/scott-walker-is-riding-high-but-can-it-last-through-2016/
The war against the Left needs to focus on removing their sources of funding and power. Labor unions are a big part, as a source of funding, as a source of activists, and as a source of intimidating thugs.
The next target should be the myriad "non profits".
Much of the left is funded by government, it needs cut off
That's something the next conservative President needs to get into. Have an Executive Order that no grant can be issued by any federal entity without approval by (some designated person the Pres trusts), with the approval application listing exactly what legislation mandates this grant, and how the grantee expects to use it.
Also, an Executive Order to forbid the Justice Department from having "settlements" of cases which involve the defendent making some contribution to some left-wing group.
I forgot about Walker having some kind of campaign financing issue that his opposition naturally will have interest in exploiting, but that certainly pales in my opinion to Jeb’s pushing the answer on too many things to be that the government is the answer, and his liberal affect that goes with it.
Jeb has let monumental issues morph into liberal playing fields and outcomes. Regardless of his claims, Common Core has become a pathway for runaway heavy handedness socialist curriculum, and the extreme examples on youtube.com are simply undeniable.
If he is so smart, he should have anticipated that his bright idea would become a tool for the Left, because HE LEFT THE DELIVERY SYSTEM IN PLACE, which is Public Education.
Also from that link I sent you above: "....Walker has denied any wrongdoing, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court could decide this summer whether to throw out the investigation.
"It seems unlikely that the Supreme Court ultimately reinstates the probe," Franklin said."
In fact!.....
Now it's costing the WI taxpayers to DEFEND the Milwaukee County DA who launched the probe against Walker in 2012!
"...MADISON, Wis. — Taxpayers conservatively have spent north of $775,000 defending the prosecutors of a politically charged John Doe investigation driven on a legal theory that even the prosecutors have rejected.
The state, as of Monday, had paid $368,654.60 for the legal defense of Francis Schmitz, the special prosecutor for the multi-county John Doe probe into dozens of conservative organizations and Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign, according to information obtained by Wisconsin Reporter through an open records request.
Taxpayers are on the hook for another $407,643.58 in attorney fees to defend Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, the Democrat who launched the probe in late summer 2012, two of his assistant DAs and a special investigator contracted by the state Government Accountability Board.
“That’s an awful lot of taxpayer dollars to advance a legal theory that the state itself has already repudiated,” said Andrew M. Grossman, an attorney for political activist Eric O’Keefe and his Wisconsin Club for Growth, one of 29 conservative groups targeted in the campaign finance probe.
The expenditures were released by Walker’s legal counsel, who, under state law, is in charge of handling the legal bills of the same people who for the past few years have gone after Walker’s campaign and the Republican governor’s conservative allies. Costs reflect only money spent defending the prosecutors in federal court."....... More
This will be a nothing burger I bet, in the end.
Walker has certainly had to endure a Democrat Party witch hunt his entire career. He will be invicible emotionally in any kind of election contest, whether it be local, state or national. Good for him.
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