Walker Wins! Unions Lose!

Take that unions!

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan:  And a blow out win, too.  So far, it is a 15 point win.  That will probably hold up or at least something like it.  This spells doom not just to the corrupt and corrupting public sector unions but to Obama, as well.  Respected pollster after respected pollster had the race much, much closer…just like they had it much closer in the Indiana primary and it turned out to be a blowout win for insurgent conservatism.  It will be like that from now until November – because the pollsters simply don’t have a polling model taking in to consideration the fury against liberalism which has built up under Obama.

UPDATE II:  Barrett supporter on CNN apparently figures that democracy died tonight…which is typical liberalism:  when the people vote to do something is destroys a “democracy” which is made up of union bosses making back room deals with corrupt politicians.

UPDATE III:  I’m with Allahpundit on just ignoring the exits which allege that Obama still has a comfortable lead over Romney for November – those exits also alleged that the race was down to the wire.  Must have been more exit pollsters in Democrat-heavy areas.  Obama is doomed in Wisconsin, from what I can see.  Any State Obama won by less than 10 points should be rated as “lean Republican”.

UPDATE IV:  Bobby Jindal: “A lot of people thought it would be a late night in Wisconsin. I think it’s going to be a late night in Chicago.”

UPDATE V:  Mitt Romney congratulates:

I congratulate Scott Walker on his victory in Wisconsin. Governor Walker has demonstrated over the past year what sound fiscal policies can do to turn an economy around, and I believe that in November voters across the country will demonstrate that they want the same in Washington, D.C. Tonight’s results will echo beyond the borders of Wisconsin. Governor Walker has shown that citizens and taxpayers can fight back – and prevail – against the runaway government costs imposed by labor bosses. Tonight voters said ‘no’ to the tired, liberal ideas of yesterday, and ‘yes’ to fiscal responsibility and a new direction. I look forward to working with Governor Walker to help build a better, brighter future for all Americans.

UPDATE VI:  The GOP appears to have won all four of the State Senate recall elections, as well.  This whole recall effort was, of course, nothing more than an extreme expression of the Democrat “it ain’t over until we win” attitude.  But it blew right up in their faces.

On, Wisconsin!

According to the polls, Walker will be re-elected (is that the proper term for surviving a recall?) today by the voters of Wisconsin – by 5 to 10 percentage points, depending on which poll you believe (I tend towards the higher margin of victory – not because a poll says so, but because the dynamics of the race are showing increasing GOP support and a collapse of Democrat support).  While various liberal pundits and power brokers have spent the last week or so downplaying the significance of the Wisconsin result the fact remains that the American left poured everything it had in to Wisconsin – first to try and prevent Walker’s reforms from being enacted then in an attempt to undo them, with this recall vote today just being the last gasp.   After all this effort if Walker survives, then this is the death knell for the American left.

The left, since the 1930′s, has used the government to fund the increasing power of the left.  Public sector unions are just this sort of thing on steroids – such unions lobby themselves (essentially) on whether or not government will get bigger while they also ensure that anyone who plays ball with Big Government and the left gets rewarded with wealth and/or political power.  The real reason that government never gets smaller is because the government funds (on a gigantic scale) a vast army of lobbyists who work night and day against the concept of reducing government.  As long as public sector unions have unfettered power to draw money from government workers and use it in support of those politicians who are willing to increase the power and size of government (and thus the power and size of the public sector unions, as well as other leftist groups), so will government continue to grow.   While Walker’s reforms did a lot of things the most important aspect of it was to liberate the workers of Wisconsin government from a de-facto requirement to be a member of the union.

As was reported a few days back, public sector union membership has collapsed in Wisconsin – all due to Walker’s reform which took away the union’s power to deduct dues automatically from and employees pay.  Now the unions have to rely on voluntary subscription…and the workers are showing they want nothing to do with the union.  It was this which really impelled the leadership of the left to go ballistic.  While rank and file liberals are still convinced that Walker just hates workers, the union bosses know that the real issue is whether or not workers like the union.  Events are showing that they don’t – and each person who quits the union takes one more bit of power from the union.  The power to influence elections and lobby for ever larger government is ebbing away from the unions, and thus from the overall left.

This is for the whole ball of wax.  If Walker wins, then the public sector unions are on the ropes – and it then becomes only a matter of time, given our budget crisis, that the rest of government funding for the left goes to the chopping block.  Think about this – the taxpayers provide a great deal of money for Planned Parenthood.  PP spends a great deal of money not only advancing abortion, as a cause, but also attacking Republicans in service of their cause.  Boiled down – though PP pretends to keep the funds separate – the tax dollars of pro-life Americans are being used to fund the political advancement of pro-abortion Americans.  On and on it goes through a whole host of groups…all of them leftist, all of them getting all or part of their funding from the taxpayers, all of them advancing causes which most of the taxpayers oppose.  With fear of the unions gone, more and more politicians will be willing to slaughter liberal sacred cows to balance the budget.

So, get ready first off for a lot of fun tonight – watching crestfallen liberals and making fun of their increasingly bizarre attempts to spin this as not a loss, at all.  But then watch them come blazing back on the attack, knowing that if Obama goes down to defeat, there will be nothing stopping the federal government from duplicating Walker’s efforts.

UPDATE:  So far reports indicate a very high turnout.

UPDATE II:  Still many reports of high turnout and some indications of Democrat ballot box stuffing efforts.  Drudge is saying that early exits indicate Walker by 5 – which is doubly encouraging because it appears that Democrat areas had the higher turnout early on.  It will be what it will be – and I expect Walker will win as his victory margin will be outside the Democrat “margin of fraud”.

Liberal Nastiness Continues in Wisconsin (Updated)

We have some video:

 

Which side is the side of reason and decency?  We report, you decide.

They don’t seem to realize just how nauseating they are becoming – from 620 WTMJ:

Protesters crowded the street outside Messmer Preparatory School in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood as Governor Walker visited the school Friday to read to children. The protests came just hours after someone vandalized the school ahead of the Governor’s visit.

“Some of these folks super glued our front doors at the prep school,” said Br. Bob Smith, OFM, the president of Messmer Catholic Schools, about the school on the corner of North Fratney and East Burleigh Streets.

He told Newsradio 620 WTMJ that a woman was walking in front of the school Thursday, asking people to protest.

According to Br. Smith, one protester said ” ‘Get ready for a riot,’ because they were going to disrupt the visit.”…

A riot at a Catholic school where the Governor is coming to meet the kiddies and read them a story.  Petty vandalism thrown in, too.  These liberals just don’t understand – they have no sense of proportion or any grasp of how a democratically governed Republic is supposed to work.

You fight out an election and then abide by the results…you don’t keep trying to reverse them with recall after recall, and you don’t make every last aspect of life a heated political debate.  A while back ago the same sort of disgusting leftists disrupted Walker’s efforts to honor the kids of the Special Olympics.  If the left really thinks this will win hearts and minds and get people on board to recall Walker next year, then they’ve got another think coming.  After a while, it is time to admit defeat, and start gearing up for the next election…not keep up an unending drumbeat of political vitriol.

Keep hate alive, liberals…we’ll know how to answer you, next year.

Democrats Refuse to Admit Defeat…

…or go within a country mile of sanity.  They’re at it again, now working on a recall effort against Governor Walker.  From Hot Air:

You’ve got to chase your dreams. Ahab had Moby Dick, Javert had Valjean, and these tools have a guy whose collective bargaining bill is a fiscal success even according to Milwaukee’s favorite newspaper.

Can we get them to flush a bunch of money down the toilet next year that might otherwise go towards reelecting Barack Obama in a crucial swing state? Yes, we can.

“‘If we can do all of this against entrenched Republicans on their own turf, imagine our success … when all of Wisconsin can have its voice heard on Gov. Walker’s extreme, divisive agenda,’ Wisconsin state party chairman Mike Tate wrote in a memo to reporters Wednesday…’”

W. C. Fields once said that if at first you don’t succeed; try, try again.  And then quit.  No sense being a damn fool about it.  Our Democrats seem determined on being the fool.

They just spent $30 million to win two State legislative seats, one of which was held by a man who got himself mired in a sex scandal.  What’s next?  $60 million to try and bounce Walker from the governorship?  Goodness, even if they did it, if the GOP controls the legislature then a Democrat governor still wouldn’t be able to undo Walker’s reforms.  Furthermore, as Walker’s reforms are starting to take hold, all of the news is good (late breaking good news for Walker probably saved one or two of the GOP seats on Tuesday) – for Wisconsin’s budget, for Wisconsin’s taxpayers, for Wisconsin’s schools…for all aspects of Wisconsin life, except for corrupt union bosses and their bought Democrat politicians.  By the time the Democrats could get a recall off the ground against Walker (I understand that under Wisconsin law they couldn’t try until some time in 2012) things might be going so well that Walker is politically bullet proof.

I do appreciate the appeal to the voters aspect of this – something all too often absent from the left.  But the purpose of recall is not just to undo every election you don’t like, but to remove from office those politicians who prove egregiously corrupt or entirely out of tune with what they ran on.  Democrats are just throwing a temper tantrum here…

But, by all means, have at it…each cent spent on a quixotic attack against Walker is one cent less Barry and the Boys will have to stave off disaster in 2012.

Governor Walker, Smart Guy; President Obama, Not so Much

From Fox Nation:

Gov. Scott Walker on Monday afternoon responded to comments President Barack Obama made earlier in the day about the protests in Madison:

Walker’s office issued this statement:

“I’m sure the President knows that most federal employees do not have collective bargaining for wages and benefits while our plan allows it for base pay. And I’m sure the President knows that the average federal worker pays twice as much for health insurance as what we are asking for in Wisconsin. At least I would hope he knows these facts.”…

I bet he actually doesn’t – in fact, I’m getting more and more certain that Obama knows very little about everything. He seems to be nothing more than a small set of attitudes he was instructed to hold in college…and all he ever does is look around for means of reinforcing his views.

Walker to Fleebaggers: Come Back to Work or Layoffs Will Start

It is time to call an end to this farce by the Democrats – real people are going to be affected unless they come home and do their job:

A statement released by Gov. Scott Walker’s office on Monday says the option of refinancing debt in order to save $165 million will be lost unless Senate Democrats return to work and vote on it by Tuesday.

“According to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, if Senate Democrats refuse to return to Wisconsin and cast their vote the next day the option to refinance a portion of the state’s debt will be off the table,” the statement says…

Boiled down, if there isn’t a vote soon then the State will have even less money to cover expenses, and that means even deeper cuts will have to be made. Governor Walker has pledged to hold off on layoffs as long as possible, but eventually the money really does run out.

This isn’t a game – and our nation is not just a feeding ground for corrupt unions. Decisions have to be made – and for the Wisconsin Democrats, the inescapable facts of life are that they lost the 2010 elections. If they really believe in collective bargaining, then let them campaign on restoring it in 2012…if the people really want it, then they’ll vote the Democrats back in to a majority. That is the way things are supposed to be done in America – naturally, our Democrats don’t want to do it that way. Too American, I guess…

Walker Goes to War With Public Sector Unions

This may be the most important political battle of 2011 – from JS Online:

Governor-elect Scott Walker raised the possibility of essentially abolishing state employee unions on Tuesday as one option to control rising employee benefits costs and eliminate the state’s budget deficit.

Walker, a Republican, said he’s looking at a range of options that would weaken unions, including eliminating their ability to negotiate with the state.

“Anything from the decertify all the way through modifications of the current laws in place,” Walker said at a luncheon sponsored by the Milwaukee Press Club at the Newsroom Pub.

“The bottom line is that we are going to look at every legal means we have to try to put that balance more on the side of taxpayers and the people who care about services.”…

The States are, in lesser or greater degree, bankrupt and what is really blowing the budgets are the public sector union contracts. While the pay for public sector employees tends to outpace private sector (and that is bad, in and of itself – no one who is supported by taxpayers should, on average, make more than taxpayers), it is their pension benefits which really break the bank. For little or no worker contribution, public sector unions enjoy lavish retirement and health care benefits – and can often obtain these benefits when they are still quite young (no waiting around until 65 like the rest of us).

Unless States can reign in the costs of union employees, they can’t balance their budgets. This battle in Wisconsin may prove crucial. Governor Christie has led the way, but Governor-elect Walker proposes to take it to the next level – breaking the power of the unions to drain the people’s money in to union pay and benefits. Government has many vital functions to perform and such functions are harmed by having bloated personnel budgets – it is a matter of choosing between a fat pension for a government employee and good schools for the kids.

If Walker can win this fight, he’ll blaze a trail for the rest of the States and localities to follow, and from there we can get our State finances in order and start to revive our national economy as the burden of government is reduced. Watch for a hard and nasty battle here – the unions will not go down without a fight, and the MSM will be right there with the unions, saying that we Republicans are trying to kill granny and beat puppies to death with tire irons with these proposals. But if we hunker down and win this fight, we’ll have broken through to real reform; reform which won’t be reversible at the next election and which will set America firmly on a center-right course for the future.

Certainly, a fight well worth having…