In Star Wars parlance, a Sith Lord is the anti-Jedi. An oversimplification, but essentially in the films the Jedi is the accepted good and the Sith, the foil, is established as the villian. In Episode III (the last film made), the Jedi Obi-Wan-Kenobi says, " Only a Sith deals in absolutes." This is what we think of when we see, hear, or read an interview with Governor Scott Walker (R-WI); that he is a Sith.
Every week, deep into the round table, Mr. Gregory revisits the state of Presidential politics, mostly focusing on the wide Republican field. Well, one thing we know is that Governor Scott Walker (R-WI), today's first guest, will never be President. Like in today's interview and every one previous, the Governor instills no trust, mostly speaking in absolutes of 'my way or the highway.' Because of this, ultimately, he's not a good politician and here's why.
During this recent lame duck session, President Obama saw a bump in his approval ratings and why? Because bills were passed because of a compromise. It showed that he could lead and work with Republicans to get something done, judgment on the specifics of the bill aside. In Mr. Walker's handling of the labor situation in his state, he hasn't been able to bring all parties to the table to work out a compromise that shares the burden of the solution, a failure in terms of leadership.
The Governor is excellent when it comes to staying on message and in avoiding to answer questions directly, but in his answers inconsistencies are abundant, which makes for distrust. For example, Governor Walker said, "This is not a value judgement," when speaking about the inconsistency of his proposal that would exempt policeman and firefighters. But this is a value judgment! Holding one group in higher regard over another is, in fact, assigning value. And speaking of value, it has taken a beating as to how we assign it to teachers. Because they belong to a union, the Republicans are effectively framing them as villains. Teachers are the villians... the people we entrust with the care taking of our kids... crazy, right?
Also, on the pure politics of it, Mr. Walker screwed up. When the unions made the concessions on contributions, he could have taken that and declared victory, but what puts a distaste in people's mouths is that he kept going to try and strip of union of essentially being a union, which is collective bargaining. Now, if he loses this stand-off, the perception will be that simply, he lost and that doesn't look good politically. However, if he wins, he still looks bad politically because he'll disenfranchise some many citizens in his state.
And almost as an aside, but worth mentioning is that one of Governor Walker's main complaints is that he has to negotiate with unions and those negotiations take too long. Well first, is that his job to negotiate? And secondly, the Union came back after a week to say that they would accept his cuts and contribution adjustments. That's a pretty quick negotiation if you ask us.
President of the AFL-CIO, Richard Trumka, during the round table, said that the governor is only providing one choice, give up your rights or give up your job. And as much as we would like to think that he's being hyperbolic, we can't say that because Mr. Walker, himself, has put that proposition out there. If there's no vote, he'll have no choice but to send out layoff notices.
Governor Haley Barbour (R-MS) summed up the Republican thinking on collective bargaining during the round table, saying that people act like collective bargaining is a right, but it's not a right. This fundamental belief is being put into action in Wisconsin. Given this, one who would think that workers' rights are essentially human rights - dignity in the workplace - would be dismissed. No one on panel challenged this statement.
Instead, Lawrence O'Donnell attacked with the 'troublemaker' issue in the Governor's, now infamous, crank phone call, in which Mr. Walker said he considered recruiting 'troublemakers' to go into the crowds protesting his proposal. Because Mr. O'Donnell raged into it, the point that he 'rejected it, means he did consider it' was not followed up on by the rest of the panel, hence lost, and was not discussed as a serious matter, which it is and should be investigated. Mr. Gregory inexplicably did not press Mr. Walker with a follow-up on this question.
Columnist Kim Strassel, of the Wall Street Journal, said that essentially it comes down to budgets, which will perpetually in trouble because of collective bargaining. If that is true then why were Wisconsin's pensions 99% fully funded before the Governor enacted substantial corporate tax breaks? Ms. Strassel doesn't consider that which Mr. Walker pays only lip service - the concept of shared sacrifice. It's laughable when a politician speaks in these terms, but it's intellectually insulting and tragic when Mr. Walker brings it up because it's clear that's not what is happening. We say tragic because the long-term thinking that continually giving tax breaks to the most financially affluent, while asking the middle-class to carry most of the burden, and cutting services to those most in need of them is somehow going to benefit us all, it won't. It will make The United States look more like India.
And lastly, speaking of Asia, David Gregory also spoke with Senator John McCain (R-AZ) who is presently in Cairo. And think about that in itself. Two weeks after a revolution that overthrew a 30-year dictatorship, United States Senators are in-country. They say that Mr. McCain is no longer a 'maverick' but he sure still is gung-ho. Saying that we should impose a no-fly zone and recognize a provisional government in the eastern part of the country is both premature and unnecessarily unilateral. A coalition consisting of the United States and the other countries in the region is the top priority and for this group to be on the stance page. Would this preclude The United States from making it's own statements? Of course, not.
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Today's Panel: Former head of the RNC, Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS); chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO); host of MSNBC's "The Last Word," Lawrence O'Donnell; president of the AFL-CIO, Richard Trumka; and editorial board member and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Kim Strassel.
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