Sunday, February 20, 2011
Another Governor Awesome, and this time with cheese!
For those of you who have not seen him in action, here's a video of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's press conference last week.
My question: Would Walker have had to the room, or the courage, to confront the public employee unions if it were not for Chris Christie proving how popular it could be? Another few governors like this and people will decide that the Republicans have a deep bench, rather than a shallow one.
10 Comments:
By 
JPMcT, at
Sun Feb 20, 03:52:00 PM:
It will be interesting to see how Walker will ultimately deal with the State Senators who have, effectively, walked off the job and out of the state.
How many people in the "real world" could do that and not find a pink slip in their mailbox upon their return?
Can you imagine what Christie would do under those circumstances?
Time to kick some ass.
By Ray, at
Sun Feb 20, 04:00:00 PM:
I think he would've had to, or be foredoomed to go down as a dismal failure. A lot of the states really don't have much room when it comes to things to cut.
By 
, at
Sun Feb 20, 06:03:00 PM:
He did the same as Milwaukee County Executive. The question is how would the media have covered it in the absence of Gov. Awesome's prelude?
By victoria, at
Sun Feb 20, 10:58:00 PM:
He is a petulant child. Christie is awesome, not Walker.
He'll be going down to defeat soon. Compromise will be his middle name.
By Gary Rosen, at
Mon Feb 21, 03:28:00 AM:
Vicky,
To paraphrase BO in 2009 - We won. Get over it.
By Arthur, at
Mon Feb 21, 04:29:00 AM:
@ Gary Rosen
As a WI resident I was about to lambaste Vicky but then I read the "Compromise will be his middle name" part and remembered we're talking about the WI Republican Party here.
I just fired off an e-mail to my reps asking them NOT to do the normal 'compromise' giant government, go-along-get-along BS, but I'm not terribly optimistic.
By Neil Sinhababu, at
Mon Feb 21, 09:28:00 AM:
Do you also like how he's legalizing the sale of state-owned power plants to private companies without any bidding to make sure Wisconsin gets a good deal?
By , at
Mon Feb 21, 11:56:00 AM:
The Left (and Obama) are badly overplaying their hand here and will lose the middle for it. It exposes that they won't play by the rules, that they're actually anti-democratic.
One of the great problems with our unions today is that they too are often un-democratic. What starts as "we're all in this together" can morph over time into "but some of us pigs are more equal than others." Thus, some factions within the union benefit at the expense of the others. It's all very "soviet" and right out of Animal Farm.
In particular, the young often get "hind tit" ... or no tit at all.
In particular, the auto industry is a great example of the perverse and outrageously unfair outcomes that can occur. Two guys can be doing the same job side-by-side, with one guy making 3x the other.
The fight in Wisconsin is actually about (A) modest cuts for all teachers, or (B) some teachers getting laid off. Door Number Three (higher taxes) is no longer on offer.
This same fight has already been happening all across America. Government unions almost always pick "layoffs for some," which almost always means the younger union members.
But rather than banning unions, a better course might be to reform their governance. We could require re-certification votes periodically and even allow for "competition." We shouldn't have a permanent union representative class.
By Dawnfire82, at
Mon Feb 21, 05:43:00 PM:
Public sector unions are poison to democratic government. In addition to the perverse, so-called iron triangle system that lets these unions give taxpayer money as political contributions to politicians who then raise their pay/benefits with taxpayer money to be given as more political contributions, the very concept that a guild can bring the function of government to a stand-still to extort concessions from the public is repulsive.
"Nice school system you've got there... shame if anything happened to it."
"You want me to put out that fire? I dunno, I'm not feeling very well. Doctor said it might be the 'blue flue.' But I bet I could tough it out for a gold plated pension plan..."
By , at
Mon Feb 21, 05:52:00 PM:
Residing amongst the 'Sconnies' I can tell you that public opinion seems primarily against the protesters. Funnily enough, the break in the weather allowed many to be ferried in from out of state. The 6" of snow will surely curtail the zeal of many who don't stand to get a dime from the senate's inactivity.
-BK
