Democrats admit: The people of Wisconsin like Act 10. They like that the unchecked power of public sector unions has finally been curbed. They like that essential services are still provided but their tax bills--finally--have not gone up.
So Democrats need to change the message mid-stream: It's no longer about "collective bargaining." Instead they are just going to make up some messages. Which makes you wonder what this is really about. (Here's a hint: It's power). From the lefty rag Mother Jones:
In an interview, an official with the Democratic Party of Wisconsin downplayed the importance of the anti-union provisions in Walker's "budget repair" bill in the Democrats' broader recall strategy. "Collective bargaining is not moving people," says Graeme Zielinski, a Democratic Party spokesman. And in the party's new strategy memo (PDF) for defeating Walker, there's little mention of collective bargaining or organized labor in the Democrats' messaging plans.
Walker's controversial anti-union legislation, known as Act 10, curbed collective bargaining rights for most public employees and made it harder for unions to recertify and collect dues from their members. (A federal judge later ruled that the recertification and dues provisions weren't legal.) When Walker introduced the bill—"dropped the bomb," as he put it—and threatened to sic the National Guard on angry public workers, tens of thousands of protesters poured into the streets of Madison, the state capital; thousands more occupied the Capitol rotunda.
The most potent anti-Walker messages, the Dems' strategy memo explains, slam Walker for pushing policies harmful to the middle class, slashing education funding, and grabbing power via a secretive redistricting process. What's more, Zielinski continues, Democrats' anti-Walker strategy will center on two key issues: the secret "John Doe" investigation targeting Walker aides and what Democrats calls Walker's "war on women."
So they will run on a "secret" probe that has more leaks than a sinking ship, run by a bunch of lefty anti-Walker hacks that has no proben connection to Scott Walker at all.
And they're parroting the party line because (bereft of creativity) they saw the brief outrage against Rush Limbaugh and think the issue of a "war on women" because it is a winner and they have nothing substantive against Walker.
Absolutely ridiculous. From a post on RedState by the founder of Media Trackers:
Oddly, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which normally holds itself up as a watchdog against abuse of government office, has chosen to bury this story and ignore it as much as possible. Could it be that the liberal reporters and editors at the newspaper are providing cover for what increasingly looks like a politically motivated investigation into a conservative governor?
Let’s get this straight: Democrats in Wisconsin want to take Walker out by relying on the information they glean from this supposed-to-be-secret investigation. A Democrat District Attorney is leading this investigation and a tremendous number of his staff signed petitions to remove Governor Walker from office. The newspaper that gets all the well-placed leaks and tends to spin the story to favor liberals and Democrats is silent about this expose of partisanship and bias.
This looks like a classic case of a liberal media establishment, a far-left political party, and a highly partisan set of public officials trying to get away with destroying a conservative political opponent. If this is what it is, let’s hope it fails and kudos to the guys at Media Trackers who discovered the bias, partisanship, and horrible conflict of interest.
This article needs to be distributed far and wide so people can see the utterly ridiculous reality behind both the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and the recall efforts.
