Meet The Press: First Impressions - - Walker Pushing "No" As Leadership

Tough questions from David Gregory.

From Walker, slick answers, but he continued to say "no" to negotiating with unions, which, in Walker World, constitutes leadership.

I laughed out loud when Walker said how difficult it was for him to consider layoffs - - especially since the Milwaukee County Courthouse security people he did throw out are all getting their jobs back with lost wages because that firing was illegal.

So when he says collective bargain has costs - - his weak response to Gregory's tough questions - - he forgot to mention that there are costs when you blow up collective bargaining, too.

Walker also wants credit for standing up and telling the truth - - whopper right there - - about how other administrations kicked the can down the road, and then managing to say he's going to cut a billion dollars from local governments and school boards.

Walker dodged the questions about whether his proposals require shared sacrifice, and whether his exempting police and firefighter unions was picking winners and loser, or dividing workers.

In fact, by exempting these unions, Walker is picking winners - - the exempted unions all endorsed him for Governor - - and is making financial and program choices for local governments far more difficult because public safety employee costs make up a majority of municipal payroll costs.

Which means the sacrifices elsewhere in local budgets, programs and payroll, will be distorted at Walker's behest.

Talk about Big Government mandating reality at the local level, sending huge problems someone else's way.