On, Wisconsin!

Paul Krugman's column Sunday, Wisconsin Power Play, detailed the parallels between Cairo and Madison; he concludes that as with Mubarak the real storyline is about power. As the economy continues to struggle with the effects Wall Street deregulation induced on Main Street, the crisis of confidence in Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's leadership is because his proposal would further accelerate the disturbing trend: redistribution of wealth away from the middle and lower classes.

Of course, logically the proposal flies in the face of the evidence about his spending and budget decisions, but he evidently thought he could slip that by in the current political climate. After all, as Pew research from earlier this month points out, while lots of people favor "cutting spending" when you get down to brass tacks it turns out that the vast majority like what the government is spending the money on:

So that leaves a real problem for those who campaigned on cutting the size of government: just what are people really willing to give up?

Walker's call to remove collective bargaining rights amounts to opening a new front in class warfare, and he's at the pointy end of the stick.

"...it has nothing to do with helping Wisconsin deal with its current fiscal crisis. Nor is it likely to help the state’s budget prospects even in the long run: contrary to what you may have heard, public-sector workers in Wisconsin and elsewhere are paid somewhat less than private-sector workers with comparable qualifications, so there’s not much room for further pay squeezes."

Paul Krugman, 20 Feb 2011

I feel for Governor Walker; new bosses that flex their muscles don't always understand the limits. Less than two months into his term he's learning that ascending to the executive branch doesn't come with absolute power. Voters who liked the sound of lower taxes in November apparently don't expect vague promises of "fiscal discipline" to reduce what's invested in our children's education or the support we guaranteed military veterans. Meanwhile certain of Walker's own spending increases smell of corporate welfare and backroom deals.

The Governor is losing the battle of public opinion. People in Egypt are ordering pizza for demonstrators in Madison, for crying out loud. If moderate Wisconsin Republicans can't mediate his position and broker a deal quickly, irate people in Wisconsin recalling that government bailed out banks and learning more about the Koch's support for their new Governor may just get beyond rumors they're talking about organizing a recall and actually do so -- which will make Walker's current concerns about losing face for reversing a strongly-stated position pale in comparison.

Thomas Hayes is an entrepreneur, former Congressional Campaign Manager, strategist, journalist, and photographer who contributes regularly to a host of web sites on topics ranging from economics and politics to culture and community, who incidentally stands in solidarity with the citizens and workers in Wisconsin refusing to let their Governor's self-created budget "crisis" and new spending priorities be re-cast as a reason to undermine contractual obligations and collective bargaining agreements.

You can follow him as @kabiu on twitter. Tweet

DNC Convention Invesco Tour | CNN Grill | Pepsi Media Tent City

On the morning of July 31st 2008, I boarded a United Airlines morning flight to Denver to attend the final (?) media walkthrough before the Democratic National Convention, this one at Invesco Field.

Unlike my first media walkthrough trip, I ended up renting a Saturn SUV for ground travel. The reason was simple: it was cheap. Cheaper to rent than a Prius and because they were in low demand versus the economy cars. In a way it worked out to a savings of about $25. Invesco Field was only 20 minutes away from the airport, so it was a quick trip for me.

I arrived at Invesco at 11:20 and ran into a DNCC employee (who I will not name by request) and who walked me around the stadium (we ended up on the field at one point) and eventually into the main briefing meeting.

For security reasons I did not film the main meeting discussion, but focused more on the 'broadbrush" tour and interviews of key media people there. On the way to the main press box, I met "Oreo" who's one of the main contributors at DemConWatchBlog.com and talked about how the blog came to be and who the writers were. To my surprise, one of them was a person who had his own blog called "Mr. Superdelegate" for a time, and gave all of us political junkies fits trying to figure out who he was. It's become a great resource for DNC Convention news.

After talking with Oreo, and heading to the main field, I met Sara Burrett, who's a reporter for the Rocky Mountain News. Sara -- who I talked to while tripping all over myself on the Invesco Field sidewalk -- told me that she was a court reporter until this assignment and that her current focus was on the lawsuit the protest group Recreate68 and their leader Glen Spagnuolo, who's known for protesting the Columbus Day Holiday in Denver and for whom a split was caused between his group and other protest groups.

See, even Democratic PROTESTERS can't get along.

But I digress.

Sara also pointed out where Senator Obama will stand to give his acceptance speech, which is about on the 50-yard-line of the field used by The Denver Broncos.

That about ended that part of the tour. But Oreo and I decided to take a tour of our own making. He drove us over to the Pepsi Center area to see the media tent city in the making. Two construction reps let us in and we parked and walked the grounds. The media tents must be about 25,000 square feet in size each, and there were two made already, one for NBC News, the other we didn't know who was for, perhaps CNN.

Writing of CNN, we then walked over to the Brooklyn Grill for a quick lunch. Oreo informed me that the grill was to be transformed into the "CNN Grill" and almost on que, we saw a stencil being used to paint the CNN = Politics logo on the side of the building. They had just got started with this, and we were the first to record the action.

The one problem with the CNN plan is the restaurant workers know nothing about it. They don't know if they will be paid double-time or who will get to work the shifts, or anything and they're getting a little nervous about the whole deal.

Then, on the way out, Oreo, who lives in Denver, pointed to where the DNC Media Party was to be held over at an amusement park nearby.

In all, the Democratic Party is working overtime to make the DNC Convention work. The objective is open-ness. The main issue now is still scheduling. Contrary to reports, many of the speakers and speaking days have not been fully set. Speculation that Hillary Clinton will not be the VP choice because of the Tuesday "Women's Day" event is faulty at best.

On the way back to the airport, I turned in my rental car and then forgot my iPhone in it. Alamo Rent-A-Car got it back to me very quickly and for that I give thanks.

U.S. Sen G. Smith (R-OR) cites work w/ Obama in campaign ad

I think you have to call this endorsing Obama, myself. Republican U.S. Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon has a campaign ad out that touts his success working "across the aisle" with Senator Barack Obama.

Talk about the new wave of bi-partisanship... this guy is making a bold statement. Senator Smith wants to be seen as a Republican who can bridge the bi-partisan gridlock in Washington, and one with a track record of working with the Democrat's presumptive nominee - what's that suggest about Smith's estimates of McCain's odds in November?

What's that say about his desire not to be seen as too closely aligned with President George W. Bush?

Go watch his ad, but here's some more on Gordon Smith from late 2006 on CNN. He's a maverick west coast Republican Senator who is defying "traditional wisdom" about labels. He's letting it all hang out, and it makes you realize that he thinks there's more power in this stand than in towing the RNC line to get their financial support for his re-election.

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