Shoot The Twinkie.

That was my immediate response to this:

I wonder what the House Republicans could learn from the Hostess example.

— Ben Domenech (@bdomenech) November 19, 2012

…which is itself a response to the news that Hostess has gotten the bakers union to come back to mediation; and make no mistake, the union has caved.  The judge in today’s decision visibly wondered what on Earth the union was thinking when they called the strike, and gently pointed out that said union could in fact be sued for an illegal strike.  That, coupled with the news that other companies were eager to buy the brands – but explicitly not the plants and union contracts – apparently made folks thoughtful.

Moral of the story? A threat is much more impressive after your opponent figures out that it was actually a promise all along.  And that it remains true that if you want to train a jackass, the first thing that you need to do is to get the jackass’s attention.

Here endeth the lesson.