There are a number of questions I asked myself last night regarding Governor Scott Walker’s reasons for forcing his Republican colleagues (comrades?) in the Wisconsin Senate to ram through a quite possibly illegal vote to remove the collective bargaining rights of Wisconsin employees.
Perhaps he was scared that some of the “weaker” Republican States Senators were wavering in the face of polls that showed the majority of people in Wisconsin wanted state employees to retain their right to collectively bargain. In other words, the vote now may have been a panic move.
But that didn’t fit with both the public and private persona that Walker has revealed over the course of this controversy. Yes, he was impatient perhaps, but panicked? I’m not sure. He didn’t act like a panicked politician after the rallies in Madison began, or after the prank Koch phone call was revealed, or after the selective release of his emails was revealed as a deception.
No, Walker seemed to glory in the media attention this situation was and is bringing him. He seems to enjoy sticking his middle finger up in the air at Democrats, liberals, unions, teachers and the middle class on a nightly basis. He has reveled in the various portrayals, both good and bad, in which the news media painted him: (1) stubborn extremist asshole trying to single-handedly kill the middle class in America or (2) steadfast man of principle slaying the evil dragon of hate filled and (potentially) violent union creeps. Either way he was displayed to the national public, he liked it. You could see it on his face.
In addition, he has been literally sucking all the air (and by that I mean “broadcast air”) away from all the other Republican figures (Gingrich, Palin, Bachmann, Huckabee, Boehner, etc., etc., etc.) who have been standing on the sidelines of the media landscape waving their hands and jumping up and down trying to get someone to notice them. But no one has. Walker has controlled the political narrative in this country over the last several months. He was forcing politicians on both sides to react to him. He made certain that every day the media spotlight remained fixed firmly on Wisconsin, and most especially on him personally.
Sure, he had help, especially at first. The union and public employee outrage that fueled the rallies around the Capital building in Madison, and the Democratic State Senators departure from Wisconsin no doubt exceeded his expectations. It became a much bigger story than he could have imagined. However, he grabbed the opportunity to keep the story going with both hands. Rather than back down as any half-way reasonable politician (and by reasonable I mean someone concerned about his self-preservation as a viable candidate for the next gubernatorial or Senate race in Wisconsin) would have done, he just dug in his heels harder.
It was all so damned confusing to my little liberal brain. Why? Republicans, no matter how extreme, do things for a reason. Rarely do they act out of pure principle, even the most ideological of them, despite what they tell their rabid supporters.
It was the one of Ed’s guests (John Nichols of The Nation) on The Ed Show last night who spelled out the obvious for me. Scott Walker doesn’t give a damn about governing Wisconsin. He doesn’t give a damn if he is a one term governor or faces a recall election next year. Why? Because he is running for a higher office: President of the United States.
He saw how Sarah Palin, an outright moron compared to himself, succeeded financially and politically within the Republican party after 2008. She made herself a bucket load of moolah and kept her name in the news despite quitting as governor of one of the smallest states (population wise) in the country. If an idiot like Palin could attract enough attention and support for a possible presidential run, what could a a “Real American Man” do using similar tactics?
Well, I think we know. Scott Walker has become a Tea Party rock star over the last few months. No matter what happens in Wisconsin he is now a “Name” with a Q Factor that practically ensures that he will attract national attention from the news media (right, left or “centrist”) and financial support from the extreme wing of the GOP, or as I like to call them, The Base (and yes, in part that’s a reference to the meaning of the name “Al Qaeda”).
He doesn’t need Wisconsin anymore. Just as Sarah Palin’s popularity among the most likely GOP primary voters (see “The Base” above) didn’t take a hit when she quit as Alaska’s governor halfway through her term (amid allegations of financial and legal improprieties), a recall electoral defeat of Walker next year also wouldn’t hurt him in the least. If anything it would only enhance his stature among the paranoid Tea Party faithful. That is, if his real goal is to become a national figure and cash in (both literally and figuratively) on his Reaganesque “Strong Man” act in standing up to the “evil” Union “thugs” that the rest of us more commonly refer to as teachers, firefighters, etc.
Now some Republicans may (e.g., those in the State Senate) have been wavering, but Scotty Walker wasn’t. The vote to strip away government employees’ collective bargaining rights without public notice was not even a calculated risk as far as Walker was concerned.
No, that vote stripping away the bargaining rights of Wisconsin’s public employees makes certain that the attention being lavished on Wisconsin and, more importantly, on Scott Walker, won’t go away anytime soon. It’s all free advertising for his next campaign, and I don’t think that campaign will be for any office in the Great State of the Cheeseheads.
No, I am convinced that little Scotty Walker is running for the Republican nomination for president. Just wait. I bet we hear he has a book deal in the works any day now.
Scott Walker is a Tea Party Hero. And the longer he stretches out his fight with the unions, the better his chances of converting all the publicity he has received, and the popularity among die hard Republican primary voters, into both cash and a strong run at the Republican nomination for the presidency.
In my opinion.
you might be right, and when he leaves the rest of the Republicans to deal with the voters of Wisconsin…hope they enjoy retirement.
After Nichols’ gave his perspective I kept thinking that Walker would make GW look like the international diplomacy king. As pres he would likely not even bother to fill the position of Sec of State.
The naked picture of the new breed of Rep governing style is horrifying and to all those Independents and Dems who decided to sit out the ’10 elections to teach the Dems a lesson, I hope your job and your civil rights are the first they deny.
This is exactly why the first demand of the protesters, once he showed bad faith, should be to ask for his resignation. Waiting a year for recall allows him too much time to put a campaign in place. Resignation in disgrace and unpopularity buries him. Palin was at least smart enough to resign while she was still moderately popular in Alaska.
And neither are particularly smart. They are being led by smarter and more experienced mentors. And you can tell when they are not taking their mentor’s advice.
But that’s just it, Scotty’s not a quitter. No way that guy’s resigning.
A regular Muammar Gaddafi, eh? Waiting for 5.5 million people, a rail, and a free trip to wherever the rail goes.
A new outfit of tar & feathers might be nice as well.
And I think the other GOP WI legislators, who voted with complete disregard for the now clear evidence that most WI citizens support the protesters, have been reassured that they will be well taken care of at recall time, whatever the outcome. Reassured by whom? David Koch, of course. The real one.
This is some damn fine analysis, Stephen.
He saw how Sarah Palin, an outright moron compared to himself, succeeded financially and politically within the Republican party after 2008
I think this probably hits the nail on the head the best. Is Palin a viable candidate for President? Is Gingrich? Realistically, no. But both are making huge personal profits based on their Tea Party popularity. And Walker knows that by becoming a Tea Party hero he’ll never have to work again.
Anyone remember Katherine Harris, the infamous Republican Florida Secretary of State from 2000? As a reward for sticking to her guns she was showered with all kinds of money and even limited power (a house seat in a safe district), although when she tried for the Senate her utter lack of any sort of competence finally did her in. Even so, the GOP machine is keeping her on wingnut welfare to this day.
Basically, please the GOP sponsors and you are set for life. This is why Climate Denial conspiracy is able to get a small number of semi-credentialed Paid Liars ™ — the money is really, really good.
The payments come in many forms. Gingrich may have perfected the art of collecting his fees using ghost-written books that were bought in bulk at full price by various wingnut organizations. Then there is the lecture circuit — Palin made a ton of money this way, but it was really Reagan who collected his post-Presidency millions using primarily this technique. But it also works outside the spotlight for those who normally wouldn’t be able get much of a lecture paycheck.
Then there is the Clarence Thomas method — contract for the services of the spouse at outrageous prices. Or maybe just give the kids over-paid positions that they aren’t qualified for (see: Powell, Colin).
The key thing is to demonstrate your fealty to the cause and become a hero. And never, ever, stray off of the farm (see: Frum, David).
Walker has hit his personal lottery.
But The Quittah has something that Walker, nor any of the others have. Sex appeal. Would Palin be Palin if she looked like Olympia Snowe? Or KBH? No!!
I arrived at the same conclusion after seeing things like this from a former WI GOP Senate aide a few days ago:
There are those currently searching for Scotty’s “man on dog” or perhaps a “wide stance” moment. Keep scouring those e-mails gang.
There is an eerie precedent for this.
A governor, in his first year of office, crushed a strike by public employees in his state (policemen), who went on strike because they were denied the right to form a union. As a result, he rose to immediate national prominence and was nominated at the Republican convention the following year.
That would be the 1920 convention, which nominated Massachusetts governor Calvin Coolidge as VP. He, of course, became President 3 years later when Warren Harding died.
There has never been a President from Wisconsin, but there should have been. Ironically, it was at that same 1920 convention that Harding picked for his running mate a progressive Republican senator from Wisconsin, Irvine Lenroot. He is now totally forgotten, but he would have been the 30th President, had the convention not rejected Harding’s choice in favor of the union-busting hero Coolidge.
So, why not? It’s happened before.
Walker may look good to the TP, but he’s in the running for the least popular man in America. It’s the GOP’s Tea Party problem writ large. The more popular someone is with them, the less popular they are with everybody else. So basically … this is good news! For John McCain!
Actually, Scott Walker may be in fine shape in Wisconsin for future elections.
For one thing, there are no Democrats with any statewide popularity other than Russ Feingold. But Feingold just lost a statewide election to a guy nobody ever heard of, and nobody knows that Feingold wants to be governor, anyway.
But besides that, the contention that Walker is vulnerable politically ignores a huge change that has taken place in Wisconsin election law. The Voter ID bill, that was passed quietly amid all the hubbub.
The Voter ID bill aims at suppressing two large segments of the Democratic vote — the urban poor (mostly in Milwaukee), and students (mostly in Madison). The poor don’t have cars and, therefore, don’t need or usually have driver’s licenses. It will be difficult for them to get the state ID that they will need to vote. The Democratic party will have to devote a large amount of money that would otherwise be spent on candidates in order to inform people that they have lost their voting rights unless they go through the trouble and expense of securing an ID from the state Transportation Department.
A student ID, even from a Wisconsin state university, will not enable a person to exercise the right to vote. Since many thousands of students in Madison carry driver’s licenses from other states, they will not be able to vote in future elections in Wisconsin.
Besides that, there is the now well-established Republican playbook of creating an artificial scarcity of voting venues and apparatus in Democratic wards, thus creating long lines and frustration, and further reducing the Democratic vote.
Oh, and there is all the Citizens United money that will flow into any future Walker campaign.
The assumption you have made is that future elections in Wisconsin will be as free and fair as elections in the past have been. But that is clearly not the case. Wisconsin has become a HORRIBLE place to live. My advice is simply to vote with your feet. Leave. Abandon the state. It’s a dead state now anyway.
Trenchant analysis … of conditions as they stood about a month ago.