So what’s new in Wisconsin?

Just received this in an e-mail from the Daily Kos (to be honest, it was a fundraising letter):

Wisconsin Republicans say the state is too broke to pay for teachers, but they just gave the 26-year-old mistress of a union-busting Republican Senator a state job with a fat raise. It’s a classic Republican scandal filled with hypocrisy, cronyism, and their special version of “family values.”

Here’s the story. Last year, Wisconsin Republican state Senator Randy Hopper left his wife to live with a young Republican political operative. Last month, as Governor Scott Walker unveiled legislation calling for deep cuts in state workers’ salaries and collective bargaining rights, Hopper’s mistress was hired by the state on the advice of Scott Walker’s cabinet as a “communications liaison.” Further, her salary is 35% higher than her predecessor’s.

Randy Hopper is now facing recall.

What is it about Republicans that, no matter what kind of principled stance they claim to be making, they always undermine it with something like this? And they all work together doing it, so you can’t say it isn’t planned. That also means they lie during campaigns and, once they have the majorities they engineer, they go ahead and do what they intended to do… in this case bust unions, get rid of teachers and reward their own.

I’m getting really tired of this… I only wish Democrats had enough guts to go in and make things right. Maybe those 14 Democratic State Senators in Wisconsin are stronger than our Federal donkeys.

Related Articles

• Governor Walker’s Admin Gave Married Senator Hopper’s Girlfriend Job With Big Raise, Former Job: Persuasion Partners (unaskedadvice.wordpress.com)
• Wisconsin Republican hypocrisy deepens on 35% raise for Randy Hopper’s mistress (dailykos.com)
• Girlfriend of Wisconsin Republican state Senator gets state job, 36% raise (dailykos.com)
• Song About Wisconsin State Senator Randy Hopper (dekerivers.wordpress.com)
• Young Lobbyists in Love: The Randy Hopper Story (theawl.com)
• WI State Sen. ‘Randy Hopper Knows How To Create Jobs.’ Yep, For His Young Lobbyist Mistress! (crooksandliars.com)
• Girlfriend of Wisconsin Republican state Senator gets state job, 36% raise (alternet.org)

Walker screws the Democratic Senators… and the People of Wisconsin…at the last minute…

…screws the Union workers, too. Screws Wisconsin actually.

He’s using a “nuclear option” to just bring up the anti-Union section of the bill to a vote, which will not require a quorum )since they now claim it is NOT budget related.)

It was also a 180-degree reversal by Walker and state Senate Republicans, who have insisted for the past three weeks that the collective bargaining provision was designed to help alleviate the state’s budget problems. State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R) had previously said he would not attempt to pass any portions of the bill without Democrats present.

Republicans in the Wisconsin Senate voted 18-1 to strip Union rights and no Democrats were present.

These are outrageous bullying tactics, done without saying anything to the press or public (even though there is a Wisconsin law saying such a maneuver would require a 24 hour public announcement.

From HuffPo:

University of Madison-Wisconsin student journalist Talya Minsberg, who is at the Capitol, told The Huffington Post that there are vastly more people stuck outside than inside due to “airport-style” security measures. Those outside crowded around a window near where the vote was taking place, to shout and protest Republican lawmakers: “You lied! You lied! You lied to Wisconsin!” went one chant. “Shame!” went another.

A mockery has been made of the rule of law and Scott Walker will pay a huge political price for this.

Related Articles

• Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Rejects Dems’ Meeting Proposal (kaystreet.wordpress.com)
• The name for what Scott Walker, The Wisconsin Republican Senators and David Koch are trying to pull is called “structural adjustment” (iflizwerequeen.com)
• Scott Walker, Wisconsin GOP, wavering under recall pressure (dailykos.com)
• Quote of the Day – Russ Feingold, former Wisconsin Senator, to Scott Walker, Wisconsin Governor (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)
• Wisconsin Republican: attacks on unions aim to defeat Obama (dailykos.com)

Why Do Republicans Hate Working Americans?

Wisconsin and its college flunk-out Republican governor has decided to make hard working teachers and other government employee union members the target of Tea-Bagger insanity. Fortunately, the unionized Police and Firefighters are supporting those hard working Americans, as are the minority Democrats in the State Senate who have maintained an absence in another state in order to keep disastrous legislation from being voted on.

And it’s not just Wisconsoners who are battling for their rights to be responsible workers. As Ethan Rome, Executive Director of Health Care Now has said:

The battle of public employees for their rights in Wisconsin is about fairness, the preservation and expansion of the middle class and keeping the American Dream alive. In the face of a vicious Republican, corporate and brazenly political assault on the ability of workers to negotiate for a better life, Wisconsin’s workers are fighting back. They’re standing up for their right to collectively bargain and they’re standing up for all of us.

This was not the first time that Governor Scott Walker has brought his anti-Union efforts into play. You can trace it back 8 years to his term as Milwaukee County Executive. According to the Washington Post:

On a Tuesday afternoon in September 2003, during Scott Walker’s first term as Milwaukee County executive, scores of union workers gathered at the local courthouse to protest layoffs he had ordered as part of an aggressive effort to balance the budget and avoid what he said would otherwise be necessary tax increases.

They shouted anti-Walker chants, and union officials and Democratic officeholders took turns denouncing his slash-and-burn approach.

The layoffs Walker had announced that summer decimated the county’s public parks staff and also reduced the number of county social workers, corrections officers and janitors. As a result, park bathrooms were shuttered and pools were closed. Trash was piled up so high in the Milwaukee County Courthouse that visitors had to sidestep apple cores and coffee cups, and some judges resorted to cleaning toilets, a local newspaper reported.

So we know he is ready to trade benefits to the public… ones that effect health, lifestyle and education, for purely right-wing political reasons. I’ll never understand why Republicans want to raise their children in such a world.

Related Articles

• A Walk(er) in the Park…. (tagg-lines.com)
• You: Wisconsin gov. has battled unions before (washingtonpost.com)
• “Scott Walker First Wisconsin Governor in 64 Years Not to Have a College Degree” and related posts (nalert.blogspot.com)
• Wisconsin governor seizes chance to take on unions (salon.com)
• Dem Senator On Gov. Scott Walker: ‘Unions Have Always Been His Piñata”‘ (crooksandliars.com)
• Burning Down Wisconsin: The Hidden Budget Bill Item Even Worse Than Union Busting (theawl.com)
• In Wisconsin, thousands protest budget proposal (cbsnews.com)
• Lawmaker: Gov’s plan has torn Wisconsin apart (cbsnews.com)
• Wisconsin State Senators Remain in Illinois as Public Employee Battle Goes On (news.firedoglake.com)
• Democrats leave Wisconsin to protest union curbs (reuters.com)
• Wisconsin Protests Escalate: Union Demonstrators Clash With Tea Party Groups – ABC News (news.google.com)