Sunday, February 27, 2011

Scott Walker, Miscalculator-In-Chief

It occurs to me that Walker may have considered his first big move - - killing the Amtrak extension to Madison and returning its federal funding - - as a winning template from which to launch "the bomb," as he described to the fake David Koch prank caller the union-busting plan.

Big difference.

Huge miscalculation.

[Update: And if the State Capitol is forcibly cleared Sunday afternoon, add that to Walker's miscalculations.]

Here's why.

When Walker made his kill-the-train move, there were some small demonstrations, and then he, his opponents and the issues moved on.

Mainly because Walker had said throughout the campaign that he would do what he did. He even had a website put up dedicated to killing the train.

Audacious, yes.

Surprising, no.

But Walker's anti-union plan came out of nowhere, as has been verified by PolitiFact.

Yes, Walker said he wanted economic concessions from unions - - for which he had pressed during his years as Milwaukee County Executive and repeated often in the campaign - - but he never said he'd move to strip away a half-century of bargaining rights, or that he would reject those very economic concessions when they were offered by the unions because he was playing for an end-game that ended collective bargaining.

To crush unions and tilt elections towards Republicans indefinitely, meshing with Citizens United, Voter ID and other purely political "bombs."

His extremist budget-repair (sic) proposal and subsequent rejection of concessions made him look devious, power-mad and downright irrational.

Walker thought because he'd gotten away consequence-free with one big policy change - - killing the train - - so he could get away with "dropping the bomb."

Look what's happened since.

His secret scheming has fueled unprecedented democratic action - - a genuine movement.

Labor is energized, when his goal was to weaken it.

Polls are against him after less than eight weeks in office.

He told the fake Koch caller that he, Walker, was "the first domino" in a national, conservative anti-union offensive.

Now the dominos are falling right back on him.

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