Victory in WI...For Now

VICTORY IN WISCONSIN...FOR NOW

By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN (emphases mine)
DickMorris.com March 11, 2011

Governor Scott Walker and the courageous Senate Republicans have struck a massive blow for "education reform" and quality schools by their passage of the restrictions on collective bargaining. Now it will be possible, in Wisconsin, to limit teacher tenure -- discharging bad ones and promoting good ones. Merit pay, rewarding great teachers with big salaries, will follow. And, should layoffs be needed, we will be able to keep our best teachers regardless of seniority.

Nationally, Walker's courage impairs the power of the teachers union and undermines the stranglehold it has on our politics. His initiatives, we hope, will spread throughout the nation.

But all will hinge on the coming recall elections. It now appears likely that the Democratic Senators will never return to the State Capitol in Madison. They will probably not return to allow passage of the rest of Walker's program, but will focus instead on their efforts to recall the Republican Senators and Governor Walker himself.

In turn, the Republicans will file recall petitions against the absent Democratic State Senators who have been AWOL throughout. Sometime between July and October, the recall elections will be held and we will see who wins.

Thus, in effect, Wisconsin is going to put the issue to a statewide referendum through the device of recall elections.

The balance of Walker's program - still held in abeyance - seeks to make state workers pay more for health insurance and pensions, force the union to collect its dues rather than see them deducted automatically, and cap collective bargaining agreements at the rate of inflation.

The course of the recall elections will determine the fate of his proposals and the future of such movements across America.

The stakes could not be higher.

We plan an all-out effort to win these recall elections decisively and to drive from office the absentee Democratic legislators. We will work hard to help the Republicans and reward them for their courage in standing up for our children in the face of the teachers unions.

If we win in Wisconsin, we will break the back of the teachers union and the entire municipal employee labor structure which has dominated state and local government for decades. The financial base of the left wing of the Democratic Party will be in tatters.

But if we lose, other governors will shy away from the confrontation and the union domination of our schools and local governments will continue, sapping educational quality.

At stake is our ability to hold bad teachers accountable, promote good ones, layoff based on merit not seniority, and to let parents choose the school they want.

We will be back in touch to suggest ways to donate to help. We'll also be urging people to travel to Wisconsin to volunteer in person to save our schools from the grip of rapacious union bosses.

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The stakes could not be higher.

Stay tuned.

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People of WISCONSIN Must Win~

" 'Walker wants to end collective bargaining,' is the wail.

Actually, what the governor wants to end is the scandalous practice of powerful unions raising millions and running phone banks and get-out-the-vote operations for politicians who thank them with wages, benefits and job security no private employer can match."

Dovetailing into my most recent post, Patrick Buchanan's piece from Taki's Magazine:

"Why Scott Walker Must Win"
The anti-democratic methods President Obama’s union allies are using in Wisconsin testify to the crucial character of the battle being fought.

Teachers have walked off in wildcat strikes, taking pupils with them. Doctors have issued lying affidavits saying the teachers were sick, a good example of ethical conduct for the school kids.
Thousands of demonstrators have daily invaded the Capitol, chanting, hooting, banging drums. Hundreds have camped out there and refused to leave so the Capitol building can be cleaned.

Is this democracy in action? Is this what 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green went out to see that Saturday morning in Tucson?

Picketers have carried placards with the face of Gov. Scott Walker in the cross hairs of a gun sight. He has been compared to Hitler, Mussolini, Mubarak. Democrats have fled the state to deny the elected Wisconsin Senate a quorum to vote.

Such tactics cannot be allowed to triumph in a republic.

Why is the Left behaving with desperation? Because it senses what this battle is all about. Not just about pay, but about power.

The Republicans are not only resolved to guarantee government workers pay a fair share of the cost of their pensions and health care. They are in a purposeful drive to disarm and demobilize the tax-subsidized armies of the Democratic Party and end sweetheart deals between unions and the poodle politicians they put into office.

“Walker wants to end collective bargaining,” is the wail.

“The senators who fled will come home heroes, and Walker will have broken the hearts of the people who put their faith in him.”

Actually, what the governor wants to end is the scandalous practice of powerful unions raising millions and running phone banks and get-out-the-vote operations for politicians who thank them with wages, benefits and job security no private employer can match.

Since the 1960s, government unions have been able to sit behind closed doors with the politicians they put in office and write contracts, the cost of which is borne by taxpayers who have no one at the table.

They call this collective bargaining. A more accurate term is collusive bargaining. And Walker means to put an end to the racket...

...When government unions sit down with the politicians they put into office, the relationship is not adversarial. It is not healthy. It is incestuous. And taxpayers must pay the cost of their cohabitation.

Gov. Walker also seeks to end the practice of having the state government collect union dues from state workers.

Indeed, why should a Republican administration collect dues for the benefit of union bosses who constantly labor to see to it those Republicans are not re-elected? Let the unions collect their own dues.

Walker would also require public service employee unions to hold annual elections by secret ballot to determine if state workers want the union to represent them, or if they would prefer to have their deducted union dues put back in their paychecks.

Legislators submit to voters every two years.

Why ought not unions to do the same?

In Wisconsin, the die is cast and Walker cannot yield.

For if he yields, the state and its 3,000 cities, counties, towns and school districts will be forever at the mercy of these unions.

If he yields, it will be a triumph for the tactics of intimidation, wildcat strikes and mass demonstrations to block legislative action.

The senators who fled will come home heroes, and Walker will have broken the hearts of the people who put their faith in him.

If Walker yields, governors and legislators across America will read the tea leaves and back away from taking on government unions. That means higher and higher taxes, as in Illinois, and eventual sinking of the states into unpayable debt and default.

The correlation of forces is in Walker’s favor. Time is on his side. When you are holding a winning hand, you do not offer to split the pot.

After his opponents invaded the Capitol, called him Hitler, fled the state, and tried to shout down and shut down the legislature with raucous demonstrations, what other cards do they have left to play?

Walker has recalled Ronald Reagan’s firing of the air traffic controllers as an example of how a strong leader must stand up even to a popular union when it is wrong.

There is an earlier example. When the Boston police went on strike and criminals ran amuck, and Sam Gompers came to the defense of the cops, Gov. Calvin Coolidge sent a telegram to that founding father of the American labor movement, “There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time.”

Scott Walker cannot lose this fight, because his country cannot afford to have him lose it.

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