Did Walker basically admit to a deliberate coordinated assault on Unions?

[seawasp]

This article and others would seem to indicate... yes.


Am I blind, or am I the first person on my Flist to post this, which would seem to be total political dynamite?

Comments

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

I've seen this once (before your post, I mean), but it was from one of my syndicated feeds, tgpoliticalwire (Taegan Goddard's blog).

[othercat.livejournal.com]

Reading about it via my americablog feed.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Elected officials acting like bullying thugs? Nothing particularly new, really. Nothing will come of it, even if something ought to.

[seawasp]

Direct conversation between a billionaire (or at least someone who is thought to be a billionaire by the Governor) in which an organized campaign is outlined to destroy unions, through multiple states? In which it is clear by the conversation that the Governor is answering to the billionaire, and trying to make him happy (rather than considering the actual job he's elected to do)? In which they discuss specific tactics to force other lawmakers to co-operate, up to and including locking them in their offices when they're baited into the building?

Sorry, no, that's not "nothing new", unless you'd also say that to any other official revelation up to and including assassination plots. Sure, it's all happened before, and will happen again.

Getting caught this blatantly on tape? That's Watergate-level stuff.

[joycemocha.livejournal.com]

Only if the billionaire in question can't manage to squelch the news before it gets out too far. I'm frankly cynical about stuff like this any more, because even with getting caught on tape, they can lie themselves blind and enough people will buy their lines.

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

I try not to post much about political things. I am not very educated about politics, and usually if I say something I get stepped on.

[murstein.livejournal.com]

Only political dynamite to those who don't pay attention to politics. Or, perhaps, only tune in when there's a campaign going on.

Republicans trying underhanded tactics to destroy unions? That was old news when I was in diapers and my father was a precinct captain for Goldwater. While it's not always been at the top of the agenda, that's been on the Republican agenda since Taft kicked Teddy Roosevelt out of the Republican Party.

[hawkida.livejournal.com]

I read unions as Unicorns and had a whole other story in my head.

[kira-snugz.livejournal.com]

in canadian politics, we had a politician straight out admit to changing forms after they were signed, and shes not even getting a hand slap. its like batshit crazy politics week all over the world.

[cateagle.livejournal.com]

And for a different point of view on this, I direct you to:

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/02/governor-walker-accepts-phone-call-from.html

As far as I can see, neither side here is covering themselves with an glory.

[ancientone.livejournal.com]

walker is an idiot! it seems from what I've read, the only thing he knows how to do is "CUT". Wow, now thats creative.
Where do these idiots come from???

[krmtdfrog.livejournal.com]

the country is far too cynical anymore for this to do more than make people blink a couple times before shrugging and getting another starbucks as they wait in line at the local walmart.

[dalesql.livejournal.com]

I don't know exactly what the laws are in Wisconson, but in many states, recording a telephone conversation without informing all the parties, absent a proper court authorized wiretap, falls under the illegal wiretap laws. The person who called the governor while impersonating someone else and recording their phone conversation opens themselves up for criminal charges and lawsuits.

[seawasp]

Hm. In New York, this kind of thing is very common for morning radio shows. They call up some guy and pretend to be all sorts of things. They never inform them that they're being recorded at the beginning.

I may be wrong, but I *think* that New York law is that it only requires the consent of ONE of the parties to record.

[meril.livejournal.com]

saw discussion of this yesterday, and apparently NY and WI are both one-party consent states.

[burger-eater.livejournal.com]

The people who support him want him to do what he's doing, and the people who oppose him already knew this was his goal. I didn't listen to the calls, but there doesn't seem to be anything surprising in it.

[muirecan.livejournal.com]

No the prank call is essentially misleading. He is talking about the democratic legislatures who have left the state to avoid doing their job. Not about unions. Additionally his comments match public statements he has made that are many times clearer than what is in the call.

From the call.

WALKER: You’ve got a few of the radical ones — unfortunately, one of them’s the minority leader — but most of the rest of them are just looking for a way to get out of this. They’re scared out of their minds. They don’t know what it means. There’s a bunch of recalls up against them. They’d really like to just get back up here and get it over with.

From public comments.

WALKER: If they’re actually in session for that day, and they take a recess, the 19 Senate Republicans could then go into action and they’d have quorum because it’s turned out that way. So we’re double checking that. If you heard I was going to talk to them that’s the only reason why. We’d only do it if they came back to the capitol with all 14 of them. My sense is, hell. I’ll talk. If they want to yell at me for an hour, I’m used to that. I can deal with that. But I’m not negotiating.

Essentially this is about the legislature not about attacking the unions.