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E-mails reveal possible Walker concessions on union bill

danarhea

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Madison — Gov. Scott Walker's office released documents Tuesday showing he's willing to give on some points of his union bargaining bill to break the Capitol standoff and bring Senate Democrats back from Illinois.

The e-mails showed ideas and counteroffers - panned Tuesday by state labor leaders and some Democrats - that were made by the Republican governor's aides and two Democrats as they sought some resolution that would allow Democrats to come back to Wisconsin. Senate Democrats have been holed up in Illinois since Feb. 17, when they left the state to block a vote on Walker's budget-repair bill.

The e-mails were first released to the Journal Sentinel through an open-records request and then to other news outlets. The Journal Sentinel also first reported Friday on some of the ideas, which would rewrite some of the provisions most criticized by unions but still sharply restrict their bargaining.

This is a huge development. Governor Walker, who vowed that there would be no compromise, has blinked. But, with his poll numbers plunging precariously, with recall efforts against 7 Republican state senators already underway, and a vow by Democrats to recall the Governor himself, when legally able to do so next year, Walker has found himself over a barrel.

Whatever Walker does at this point is too little too late to stop the bleeding of his political future, which is toast. In office only a short time, Governor Walker is already on his way towards becoming a lame duck. There is a lesson to be learned here. Walker and his cohorts do not own Wisconsin. The residents of Wisconsin do, and the governor only serves at their pleasure. He will find that out very soon, when the people of Wisconsin fire him for poor work performance. But don't worry about the governor. He still has a bright future as a used car salesman.

Article is here.
 
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Thanks for the laugh at the end.

Interesting development, I wonder if the Dems will come back for these concessions?
 
Thanks for the laugh at the end.

Interesting development, I wonder if the Dems will come back for these concessions?

Probably not, but they have at least cracked the Governor's stance, which was supposedly set in stone. If I were a Dem, I would not come back, but would continue to pour it on Walker hard. After all, this is a fight that Walker picked, and is now losing. I would show the same mercy that Walker showed, which is none whatsoever. Kick him when he is down, and go for the kill. But, if history yields us any clues, you can count on Democrats to only go half way, since they do not have the same ruthless spirit as Republicans do. In short, Democratic leaders tend to be ******s.
 
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Meh, both sides have overreached and the public is getting sick of it. I would say chances are if given the choice, the public will replace every god damn one of them, Republican and Democrat alike.
 
This could be a trap, if the democrats do return they won't really have much leverage anyway. The walker phone call does seem to imply that he is looking for ways to trick them back into session and force a vote.

Transcript of prank Koch-Walker conversation

an interesting idea that was brought up to me this morning by my chief of staff, we won’t do it until tomorrow, is putting out an appeal to the Democrat leader that I would be willing to sit down and talk to him, the assembly Democrat leader, plus the other two Republican leaders — talk, not negotiate — and listen to what they have to say if they will in turn — but I’ll only do it if all 14 of them come back and sit down in the state Assembly. They can recess it, to come back if we’re talking, but they all have to be back there. The reason for that is, we’re verifying it this afternoon, but legally, we believe, once they’ve gone into session, they don’t physically have to be there. 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 a quorum because they started out that way. Um, so we’re double checking that. But that would be the only, if you heard that I was going to talk to them, that would be the only reason why. We’d only do it if they came back to the capital with all 14 of them. And my sense is, hell, I’ll talk to them. If they want to yell at me for an hour, you know, I’m used to that, I can deal with that. But I’m not negotiating.


On a lighter note, this makes me wonder, which side would win a fist fight on the senate floor at the Wisconsin capitol?
 
This could be a trap, if the democrats do return they won't really have much leverage anyway. The walker phone call does seem to imply that he is looking for ways to trick them back into session and force a vote.

Transcript of prank Koch-Walker conversation




On a lighter note, this makes me wonder, which side would win a fist fight on the senate floor at the Wisconsin capitol?

Read my last post, in which I called the Democratic leaders ******s. I don't wonder at all. :mrgreen:
 
This is why I could never get into politics, if it was me in walkers shoes .. I tear up the damn bill, I would veto any spending cut bill that was passed, and when the state ran out of money just just say okay .. thats it everyone is out of work now .. close and lock the doors to the capital, and take a vacation.

The people don't want to tackle the problems of the budget .. so give them suckers what they want.
 
This is a huge development. Governor Walker, who vowed that there would be no compromise, has blinked. But, with his poll numbers plunging precariously, with recall efforts against 7 Republican state senators already underway, and a vow by Democrats to recall the Governor himself, when legally able to do so next year, Walker has found himself over a barrel.

Whatever Walker does at this point is too little too late to stop the bleeding of his political future, which is toast. In office only a short time, Governor Walker is already on his way towards becoming a lame duck. There is a lesson to be learned here. Walker and his cohorts do not own Wisconsin. The residents of Wisconsin do, and the governor only serves at their pleasure. He will find that out very soon, when the people of Wisconsin fire him for poor work performance. But don't worry about the governor. He still has a bright future as a used car salesman.

Article is here.

I agree with this assessment you can't become the Statesman need at this point in our history if you fold so easy on what thought were firm commitments to do what is needed regardless of what some people think.

If you are going to be a leader and command respect fromall sides you have to be clear about you principles and your back bone to stick to your guns and if you are going to compromise don't ever say you won't. You have to be firm or choose your words more carefully.

I am sorry to see this because I was just beginning to admire Walker. I hate when a politician makes such a amateur mistake because they don't have an experienced advisor to help them.
 
Here's hoping Walker sticks it out and if necessary fires 1,500 out of the public sector. Wisconsin is probably better off not having a functioning government to some extent. They should be happy at least that their assembly and congress are prevented from doing more damage.
 
I agree with this assessment you can't become the Statesman need at this point in our history if you fold so easy on what thought were firm commitments to do what is needed regardless of what some people think.

If you are going to be a leader and command respect fromall sides you have to be clear about you principles and your back bone to stick to your guns and if you are going to compromise don't ever say you won't. You have to be firm or choose your words more carefully.

I am sorry to see this because I was just beginning to admire Walker. I hate when a politician makes such a amateur mistake because they don't have an experienced advisor to help them.

He could always become a Democrat. :mrgreen:
 
But, with his poll numbers plunging precariously, with recall efforts against 7 Republican state senators already underway, and a vow by Democrats to recall the Governor himself, when legally able to do so next year, Walker has found himself over a barrel.

recall process has begun on the eigible democrats also. From what I hear on WI radio (I live over the border in IL), it's expected that only 3 republicans are in any real danger of a sucessful recall, while a higher number of the democrats are in the same predicament. In other words, from what I was hearing, you might end up with a net negative of democrats after the recall elections are complete.
 
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recall process has begun on the eigible democrats also. From what I hear on WI radio (I live over the border in IL), it's expected that only 3 republicans are in any real danger of a sucessful recall, while a higher number of the democrats are in the same predicament. In other words, from what I was hearing, you might end up with a net negative of democrats after the recall elections are complete.

Recall Campaigns Under Way For 16 State Senators - Politics News Story - WISC Madison

Political experts call it an unprecedented move, as formal recall campaigns are in motion for 16 of Wisconsin's 33 state senators: eight Democrats and eight Republicans. That's everyone in the Senate who's legally eligible to face a recall this year, meaning they've been in office for more than a year.
 

Nothing I posted disagreed with that. So, i'm not quite sure what your point is... I simply stated that, again, based on what i've heard, only 3 republican senators are actually in danger of being recalled. By that statement, I simply meant that the recall petition/election will not be sucessful on the other republicans. In the same way that not all democrats that are eligible for a recall effort will actually be recalled. However, from what i've been hearing from those in WI, more democrats are in danger of actually being recalled.
 
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