It must be nice to have the kind of party unity that Republicans enjoy. And they don’t really care if they get reelected so long as they advance the cause. They’re like worker bees or ants or something. I admire their willingness to ram stuff down our throats without worrying about silly things like the law or precedent or the polls or whether they just might be insane assholes. It makes it a lot easier to get things done. I can only envy their ability to screw us without mercy.
Our only consolation is that we don’t do the same things to them because we’re not deranged greedheads.
And it’s supposedly Obama who wants to be the dictator. Ain’t that fucking irony for you.
If this coup in Wisconsin doesn’t fan the flames of righteous rage, then nothing will.
it’s called projection (sorry, couldn’t resist; of course you know that)
Yeah, our side is just a bunch of spineless wimps, half of which take their cues from the same corporate daddies that Republicans do.
In any case, this time their overreach may have backfired, so there’s some silver lining.
No one cares about process. No one cares about process. No idea why this was so hard for dems in dc to understand during health care debate.
only hope is that this thing creates an unstoppable electoral coalition of progressives, unions, minorities and young folks.
but since 2008, i can’t think of too many political moves the GOP has made that haven’t worked out in their favor. Will this break their streak? Have they overplayed their hand?
I’m kinda confused why the Wisconsin Republicans didn’t do this weeks ago, as soon as the Democrats left the state, instead of letting this go on so long.
Exactly. What a disaster for them.
They didn’t think of it.
They didn’t think of it until Rove showed up in town…
They used an “emergency session” ruse to do it. It was an “emergency” now instead of weeks ago because weeks ago the Democratic 14 had not been in Illinois for three weeks. They have been now.
Watch this weekend how uninterested in process folks are.
It’s tractorcade time. Madison is going to look like springtime in Paris when the government threatens to cut ag subsidies.
the tractorcade was already scheduled, n’est-ce pas?
Oui. Maintenant, samedi, c’est formidable.
Frankly, it seemed to me last week or a couple days before that – whenever Walker’s poll numbers really started to tank – that the WI 14 had done what they needed to in this fight. That is, to galvanize the left and force the GOP to show its hand on union-busting. The Wisconsin GOP always had the votes to pass this bill, and though there was some hope that a couple of the GOP state senators might cave, it was a slim hope at best. That Walker and his cronies were going to win this in the short-term seemed pretty much a given to me.
What was not a given or even expected was how the unions would react to the bill, and then how the public would react to the unions. And in my view both of those reactions have done serious political damage to, certainly the state GOP, but also, perhaps, the GOP nationally, given the frenzy on the left that it has whipped up. Where Walker totally failed was not doing this quietly – notice that various similar bills have passed in recent days in Ohio and Idaho (and possibly elsewhere?), and apparently a couple years ago in Indiana. Were you aware of these fights as they were happening? I sure as hell wasn’t. But I’m VERY aware of what’s going on in Wisconsin, and it doesn’t even affect me directly.
How bad the backlash is against the GOP because of this bill remains to be seen. It depends on how short or long memories are, and how folks on the ground in Wisconsin and elsewhere harness the anger of union workers and others on the left. It’s possible that the left’s anger will peter out into nothing, and leave despair, discouragement, and non-action in its wake. It’s also possible that Russ Feingold will be Wisconsin’s governor-elect in a year or so. We just don’t and can’t know right now. But the idea that this fight is over or that Walker can be said to have “won,” at least in the long-term, is laughable.
Exactly. The numbers in Madison have been larger from the beginning than anything the Tea Party mustered.
And of course, the media blackout has been stunning compared to how they puffed the Tea Party.
http://www.livestream.com/theuptake
Live Video in Wisconsin Capitol
Our only consolation is that we don’t do the same things to them because we’re not deranged greedheads.
Sorry, we don’t do it because some of our leaders have no spine, and some of them don’t really believe in the things they campaign on. And some are both.
Is there any doubt that with 59-later-60 seats in the Senate, a large margin in the House, and the Presidency, that the GOP would have enacted their full agenda? I’m sure the Roves are both amazed and thrilled that the Dems had that advantage and all they got for it was Heritage Foundation Heath Care “Reform”, a watered-down stimulus, and a facade of a Wall Street “reform” bill.
Hell, if the Dems had any guts — any at all — they would have taken that 60 seat advantage and pulled a legal maneuver like granting statehood to DC, leaving only the non-resident land around the Capitol as the “district” to satisfy Constitutional requirements. Bingo, two more safe Democratic Senatorships and House seats. You know damn well Rove and company would do the same if the situation were reversed.
Our side plays politics like the 1962 Mets played baseball. If the situation had been reversed, and the GOP had a 60-40 advantage after years of being locked out, but was being hamstrung by a 5-4 SCOTUS, you know damn well they’d increase the size of the SCOTUS to 11, ram through the Senate approval process, and get Citizens United overturned well before the next election. Instead we get Obama giving a speech expressing his “concern”.
Preach. I love your comments, by the way.
Interesting to read this post, however i assume that simple readable fonts are being used most by famous or popular website, and people like to follow styles of those web sites.
If when the Rats first made overtures towards “bending you over” you had said “Fuck you?, motherfucker!!! I’m gonna kick your ass right here!!!” and then done so…would we be seeing this foolishness?
No.
A flat answer.
No. We would not.
There have been so many opportunities to call them out.
Fucking with Clinton’s sexual appetites.
Stealing an election in 2000?
The Swiftboat foolishness?
But here we are.
Walker publicly admitted considering using goon plants to turn the protests violent.
Did the Dems jump all over him?
No.
Result?
Here we are, people.
Fucked again.
Yeats knew.
And here we are.
Whining.
Disgusting.
AG
From everyone according to capabilities, to everyone according to needs. Who else beside GOP had that idea?
the President was right not to insert himself in this. in fact, one of the byproducts of the President NOT getting involved is that the GOP has been the one attempting to put the President in it. THEY have been the ones trying to impose the President on what’s happening all across this country. this is truly ‘ organic’. no astroturfing billionaires behind those folks in those state capitals…this is a BOTTOM-UP happening, and WHO ELSE, but Barack Hussein Obama knows when to stay out of people’s way.
My sense is that there is only one way that Scott Walker can get President Obama involved in the controversy. That is to call out the National Guard to evict protesters from the capitol.
The only way to countermand such an order would be to federalize the guard almost immediately. No doubt, that would provoke Walker to drag the President into the issue for federalizing the National Guard.
Historically, the only President to do that was Eisenhower in Little Rock in 1957. Throughout most of the labor movement and the anti-Vietnam War movement, the National Guard was used by governors to violently break up protests with impunity. River Rouge and Kent State come to mind.
the complete and utter visual of a BLACK President federalizing the National Guard to protect, pretty much – WHITE FOLK..the visual of that would be stunning.
Indeed
I believe that the happenings in Wisconsin and elsewehre have stripped the last facade from those dumb ass blue collar ‘ I’m a union member but I vote Republican on social issues’ crowd. the jig is up.
I certainly hope so.
The group that it looks like the GOP might have alienated the most in Ohio with their antics are the cops.
If the Republicans lose the cops they might just lose the state.