Tag: wisconsin

US Supreme Court upholds Wisconsin voter ID reform.

Basically, the court declined to hear a further challenge to Wisconsin’s Voter ID law, thus allowing it to be finally implemented.  More here: and, let us be perfectly honest about something.  People who strenuously oppose Voter ID laws are, frankly, fringe.  A clear majority of the population – except hardcore liberals and progressives – thinks that it’s perfectly sensible to present a photo ID as proof of identity in order to vote. Whites, minorities, Republicans, Democrats, independents: time after time we keep seeing widespread support for this policy.

This is not to say that people who oppose Voter ID should shut up.  What it does say is that people who oppose Voter ID should stop pretending that they speak for the American people.  The American people can, in fact, speak for themselves: and they’ve clearly decided to mandate that voters show a photo ID*.  Deal with it. Continue reading US Supreme Court upholds Wisconsin voter ID reform.

Wisconsin unions start the inevitable, futile lawsuit process on Right-To-Work.

(Via Althouse) Futile because – and this is something that the Badger Herald unaccountably forgot to mention – the courts keep making it clear: right-to-work laws are constitutional.  And the courts will inevitably do so here, as well. Like it or not, the unions are going to have to learn to accept that elections have consequences.  Particularly when you’ve picked the wrong faction. Continue reading Wisconsin unions start the inevitable, futile lawsuit process on Right-To-Work.

Right-to-work officially passes in Wisconsin.

This is what democracy looks like: “Overhauling more than a half century of labor law in Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker on Monday signed so-called right-to-work legislation banning labor contracts that require private sector workers to pay labor fees.”  …and I don’t think that the rest of the post can live up to its first six words, so I’m just going to stop here. A man’s got to know his limitations.

 

Breaking: Right to Work has passed in Wisconsin.

First news, via Dan Spencer:

62-35, according to the linked tweet.  The AP has since confirmed, noting rather primly that the right to work bill passed without Democratic support. Which, of course, suits everybody involved.

Moving on: the right to work bill will be signed Monday. Expect the usual screaming over the weekend. Just not… as intense as in the past, alas. Perhaps the Activist Left has learned a harsh, yet valuable, lesson on the merits of knowing when they’ve been whipped back to their kennels? I would have guessed ‘no,’ but I suppose that pain really is a wonderful teaching tool.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Tweet of the Day, Right To Work Is Coming To Wisconsin.

While the article itself is rather good as a patient explanation as to why Right to Work is going to pass in Wisconsin and the electorate isn’t going to be bugged by that, this one bolded bit is simply not true.

When the left has exhausted every talking point and political strategy, it trots out uncles Charles and David Koch as a last gasp.

Hearing the word “Koch” from a Democrat means something he really doesn’t like is about to happen, and he is powerless to stop it. When it is invoked, there is likely a Republican and a bottle of champagne chilling nearby.

Most of the Republicans I know prefer bourbon or whiskey as celebratory drinks.  Me, I like a nice shot of tequila, or rum.  Probably because I’m an immigration squish, or something.

Calls for a General Strike in Wisconsin. Will it work?

Interesting question.

As Wisconsin considers becoming the nation’s 25th Right-To-Work state, unions are up in arms and planning to protest the state capitol on Tuesday.

In some corners, however, some are proposing something more radical—a “general strike.”

My immediate gut answer would be …theoretically, it might.  If the unions could get the Democrats in general on board, they might have a shot. Might. In practical terms, though? Well, I am not from Wisconsin, but I get the general impression that many of the people in Wisconsin are getting tired of the Democrats pulling junk like this every two years. It’s like the recall: theoretically, the Democrats could get one going for next year. …Which would probably ensure that Wisconsin flips to the R column.

I can’t imagine that the Democrats don’t already know that. So I’m going to guess that no, there won’t be a general strike. At least not until the Wisconsin Democratic party recharges its batteries a bit more. Which means that Right-to-Work is going to probably pass in Wisconsin.

Moe Lane

 

Wait. What is Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D, Wisconsin) so worried about?

Yeah. Calling in the high-powered lawyer isn’t a sign of anything wrong.  Nope, not at all.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin is finally speaking out about her decision to fire a staffer over the problems at the troubled Tomah VA Medical Center.

Or at least her nationally renowned Democratic attorney [Marc Elias] has issued a statement defending the move last month to oust Marquette Baylor, ex-deputy state director for Baldwin and chief of her Milwaukee office.

[snip]

Baldwin’s office sat for months on an inspection report that found officials at the Tomah medical center were prescribing high amounts of opiate pain pills to patients. She began calling for a federal investigation only after news reports ran in January showing that as many as three vets died after receiving treatment at Tomah.

Continue reading Wait. What is Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D, Wisconsin) so worried about?

Actually, it’s more like “Gail Collins (@nytimescollins) needs a competent editor.”

Shot: Gail Collins of the New York Times, referring to teacher layoffs in Wisconsin that included by-all-accounts excellent teacher Megan Sampson.

…those layoffs happened because Walker cut state aid to education.

Chaser: John McCormack of the Weekly Standard, noting the implied temporal paradox.

…the big error in Collins’s piece is her claim that “those layoffs happened because Walker cut state aid to education.” As you can see in the excerpt above, Collins is talking about teacher layoffs that occurred in 2010. Walker did not become governor until 2011.

Continue reading Actually, it’s more like “Gail Collins (@nytimescollins) needs a competent editor.”

Just had the Chromebook eat a post on the crazy people who hate Scott Walker.

Short version: they are, indeed, crazy.

Continue reading Just had the Chromebook eat a post on the crazy people who hate Scott Walker.

The Left did absolutely nothing to stop Scott Walker’s re-election. They didn’t even slow him down.

Throne. Of. Skulls.

Permit me this little amusement.  All bolding mine.

  • The Daily Beast, August 25, 2014 (“The Tea Party Governor Backlash of 2014”): “Wisconsin’s Scott Waker is frequently talked up by RNC types as a leading 2016 contender, but he’s fighting for his political life at home, beset by a tsunami of scandals and running neck and neck with Mary Burke. Walker’s most-favored Midwestern governor status in D.C. is in trouble despite a misguided arrogance born of his surviving a recall attempt. His efforts to rein in the public sector unions have been successful, but his style and tone—and did I mention scandals—could make him an unexpected loser on Election Night.”
  • NPR, October 28, 2014 (“In Wisconsin Election, Gov. Scott Walker Fights To Hold On”): “[Craig] GILBERT: Well, you know, one thing that we’ve seen in all the public polling is that, as divided as the state was in the middle of that kind of raucous recall fight, it’s even more divided now. It has not got – there hasn’t been a lot of healing in Wisconsin. And Governor Walker hasn’t really added to his coalition, politically, since those elections. And if you think about 2010 being a really conservative wave election, and you think about 2012 – winning a recall where some voters, you know, had reservations about Governor Walker but didn’t like the recall process – you can sort of see how this election really ought to be closer than those two elections and is.”
  • Politico, October 29, 2014 (“Scott Walker limps toward 2016”): “The politician who confidently lectured Mitt Romney in 2012 (“He has to say that I’m a reformer like Scott Walker,” Walker told The Weekly Standard) has tumbled into yet another fight for his political life. Far from a conservative Clark Kent, Walker is visibly straining in the closing days of his race against Mary Burke, a wealthy former Trek Bicycle executive and member of the Madison School Board.”
  • The New Republic,  October 28, 2014 (“Scott Walker Is Scared He Might Lose—and He’s Already Blaming His Fellow Republicans”): “The polls are generally not trending well for Democrats in the final days before the 2014 midterms, but it’s increasingly looking not inconceivable that the party’s loss of the Senate could be accompanied by a loss for one of the party’s biggest bête noires: Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. If polls showing him effectively tied with former Trek Bicycle executive Mary Burke weren’t enough, Walker has been giving off the distinct vibe of a man in a bit of a panic.”
  • Salon, October 30, 2014: (“5 Tea Partyers who could lose reelection next week”) “Walker was never going to glide to reelection in a state that in 2012 elected progressive Democrat Tammy Baldwin, the nation’s first openly gay U.S. senator.”
  • Slate, November 3, 2014 (“The Most Important Race in America”): “On a portable stage in the parking lot of a strip mall in front of the Eau Claire GOP field office, sandwiched between a Curves and an Office Products Co. store, Gov. Scott Walker is keeping his chin up. After the beating he’s taken, that’s no small feat. Walker, Wisconsin’s incumbent Republican governor, is in a tough statewide contest for the third time in four years, and this one is much closer than it was supposed to be.”
  • ThinkProgress, November 4, 2014 (“A Pro-Environment Candidate Could Kick Scott Walker Out Of Office Tonight”): “With the final polls showing an extremely close race between incumbent Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) and challenger Mary Burke (D), an influx of last-minute donations and high-profile supporters indicate the importance of the race on a national scale.”
  • Wonkette, October 25, 2014* (“Scott Walker Gets Some Chris Christie All Over Him, On Purpose”): “With a little over a week to go before Election Day, Scott Walker is increasingly a man in need of a helping hand.”

Continue reading The Left did absolutely nothing to stop Scott Walker’s re-election. They didn’t even slow him down.