Wisconsin GOP win: a pyrrhic victory?

10 March 2011 |permalink | email article

The bitter political standoff in Wisconsin over Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s bid to sharply curtail collective bargaining for public-sector workers ended Wednesday night, as his GOP counterparts in the State Senate successfully maneuvered to adopt a bill doing just that.

The move is being described by Democrats as an attack on working families, a violation of open-meeting requirements in an already polarized state consumed with recall efforts, huge scale protests, and fury from public workers.

Walker, a Tea Party mascot who took office in January, has seen his approval ratings plunge into the mid-forties. Mark Miller, a leader of Senate Democrats said, “In thirty minutes, 18 State Senators undid fifty years of civil rights in Wisconsin.

A new Bloomberg national poll makes clear that voters aren’t interested in picking on labor unions. The survey found that 72 percent of all voters viewed public employees favorably and 63 percent said corporations “yielded more clout than unions.” Gallup found that just 42 percent favored reducing pay and benefits. This issue will heat up as 2012 approaches, and is a losing issue for Republicans nationally.

Brown plays negotiator

On the eve of his self-imposed deadline the governor asked lawmakers to delay planned votes in order to give him more time to negotiate with wavering Republicans. While the delay exists for an unspecified length of time, enforcement officials, teachers, parents and other interests are pressing for a special June election to extend temporary tax increases. Meanwhile, the clueless California Republican Party is trying to coax Brown to debate anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist at its March 18-20 convention in Sacramento. Time to get real. 

Remembering David Broder

The Washington Post political journalist and pundit, 81, died Wednesday in Arlington, Va. from complications of diabetes. As his longtime Post colleague Daniel J. Balz put it, “that not all wisdom resides in Washington.” Balz said “he had great faith in voters – not just their collective judgment, but there individual ideas. His view was always that campaigns should not just be about the candidates, but about voters and what they want to happen. … and he demonstrated over the years a great sensitivity to what was stirring in the country that people in Washington were slower to pick up on.” 

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