Would Democrats Have Been Better Off Letting Scott Walker's Bill Pass?

WASHINGTON -- Perhaps the greatest challenge facing those 14 Wisconsin Democrats who fled the state in order to prevent a vote on an anti-union measure will be the capacity to control the surrounding political narrative.

Veterans of the 2003 Texas quorum break -- meant to stall a redistricting effort by Gov. Rick Perry -- universally noted that the media setup favors the governor. Harold Cook, the top staffer for Texas' Senate Democrats at the time, referred to it as "the home-team advantage." While lawmakers fled for the border, he noted, "the capitol press corps is at the capitol."

For this and other reasons, several voices sympathetic to the Wisconsin Democrats have begun questioning their strategy. This is being done largely from the comfort of anonymity, however: Politico quoted a "top labor official" worrying that if the protests fail to produce results this time, "it opens [the gates] in every state."

In an interview with The Huffington Post, David "Mudcat" Saunders, a longtime Democratic political strategist known for his work with blue-collar voters, had a different take. Rather than worrying about floodgates bursting open, he argued that the best public relations move for the Democrats would have been to simply let Walker's bill pass and then demonize it.

"Sometimes the best punch you can throw is to let somebody throw theirs first," Saunders said. "I would have debated it forever, as long as I could have kept it going, and I would have voted against it. Let the Republicans have their way and then work on getting the state house back and the governor's mansion. But a protest, that can only work so long."

Saunders is known for a unique and often contrarian take on party strategy, but this time his advice has been echoed by a number of Democrats who said they worry about the quorum break being sustained once the protests die down.

But that was before the weekend's demonstrations, which seem to have reaffirmed the convictions of those on the ground. Any second-guessing over tactics has, for now, stayed out of the public remarks of union officials.

"I really do disagree with what he was talking about it," Karen Ackerman, political director for the AFL-CIO, said of Saunders' remarks. "In my experience, it is very important for people to fight back no matter what the odds are, because people start to feel empowered."

Ackerman added that "all eyes are on Wisconsin."

Gerald McEntee, who heads the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, likewise said he disagreed with Saunders. If Walker's measure passes, he said, it will encourage similar moves elsewhere. "And instead of bringing public employees to the table," he said, in Walker's bill, "they have decided to just throw away the table."

Comments

[Kmuzu]

12:00 PM on 02/24/2011

Let's cut to the chase .. what you mean is that Democrats would have been better if we didn't elect a black president. ... then everything would have been just dandy in the world.

Sorry to ruin your dream Sam .. things got messy.

[SarahCuda2]

06:51 AM on 02/23/2011

Every day that goes by is proving Saunders correct. The push back has extended FAR from Wisconsin and teachers and now become a national topic questioning the very basis for the existence of public sector unions.

Had the teachers just taken their lumps like every tax payer is forced to do in these bad economic times, that question likely would not have come under a national spotlight.

But now it is ...and I'm glad.

[NoxiousNan]

12:34 PM on 02/24/2011

The teachers did take their lumps. It was after the lumps were agreed to that Walker made his slimy move. Saunders is scary wrong, but I too am glad it's getting national scrutiny now.

[JDZSB]

07:17 PM on 02/22/2011

Who are the "people" in this case? It certainly isn't the majority of voting taxpayers that elected Walker and the other Republicans into the State legislature. So, the "people" must be the minority of workers who are unionized public service workers who have risen to be a "special class" within our culture. These people make more money then their "civilian" counterparts, pay much less, if anything, for generous pensions and medical care. Have jobs where it is almost impossible to be fired from for poor performance, and have all kinds of union negotiated work rules that give these workers all kinds of additional perks private employees do not get. In return for this privileged treatment, these employees pay union dues which pay multi-million dollar salaries for their union leaders who then donate millions of union dues money to Democratic politicians who help them get these sweet deals from the government. And, all of this money comes from taxpayers who get none of these goodies. Sweet deal, isn't it? And the cost of this situation is getting exponentially more expensive.

[Kmuzu]

11:57 AM on 02/24/2011

More teacher h8te

[NoxiousNan]

12:39 PM on 02/24/2011

So full of fail. But those repubs you mention - the voting ones, not the legislature - they want the unions to have collective bargaining too. Wisconsin citizens are overwhelmingly in favor of unions.

[TheIndependenceParty]

05:41 PM on 02/22/2011

"Maybe I shouldn't have asked her out! I knew she'd shoot me down! Oh gosh, ... this sort of thing always goes badly for me, ... and this will probably end the same. I just knew! "

========================================================

Smile, ... you got your three days of fame.


Now, HP, ... can we yank this from the front page? Three days of "Woe is us" is plenty. It is clear the protesters have Amereica and the people of Wisconsin on their side.

[David Durbin]

04:31 PM on 02/22/2011

I think Saunders is correct.

Ackerman's view that "it is very important for people to fight back no matter what the odds are, because people start to feel empowered" just doesn't always make sense. People aren't going to feel empowered if this thing ends like the Texas redistricting situation the article references. I've been worried about that from the beginning. Well it seems the Democratic senators are committed to their course of action now, and I hope they can prevail, but the Republicans do have the propaganda advantage, damn them.

[its miller time]

04:14 PM on 02/22/2011

Where are the Republican Party supporters from Washington and Locally for the people protesting?

[ElBruce]

03:45 PM on 02/22/2011

Another hand-wringing Democrat preaching defeat. You can roll over and play dead if you want to, but don't tell me to go along with it.

[Littlewords]

04:06 PM on 02/22/2011

Bingo. The track record of the Dems untangling and resetting direction once the Repubs dismantle something is dismal. The guy lives in a dream world that exists only within his own head and mind.

[SEXYLEO]

03:09 PM on 02/22/2011

NO!

[Scott Berfield]

02:44 PM on 02/22/2011

I am amazed at the vitriol aimed at unionized state workers. It feels like everyone is bitter about state workers having successfully negotiated for decent benefits and semi-decent wages. The middle class has been ground down year after year after year. Formerly the sorts of benefits state workers have were enjoyed by the majority of workers, but the drain of decent jobs to overseas combined with relentless anti-union measures have put the average joe behind the eightball. So the answer conservatives want is not to raise the standards for non-public workers, but instead to drag down the standards in one of the few remaining areas where workers have rights. Lovely.

Anyone out there complaining about this willing to teach a room full of kids for a fraction of what you could make in the private sector? How about going into a burning building or facing down a crack-head with gun?

How quickly people forget the bad old days.

[Chem is she]

03:05 PM on 02/22/2011

"It feels like everyone is bitter about state workers having successful­ly negotiated for decent benefits and semi-decen­t wages"...

...this, this is it! Well put. I think you really hit the nail on the head. I've been baffled by people's fury of the semi-decent jobs these folks have, yet when it comes to Walll Street, their successes are attributed to deserving hard work. .

[JimR]

03:14 PM on 02/22/2011

"having successful­ly negotiated for decent benefits and semi-decen­t wages"

Why so modest? The benefits and wages are quite generous. And I think people aren't happy with that because they think of state workers as disinterested and not particularly hard-working. Then people realize that it is their tax dollars paying those salaries.

I hope the Democrats in Wisconsin are successful in their bid to keep collective bargaining rights for the unions. But kicking in for pensions and health-care? That is long overdue. States simply can't afford to fund those 100%, nor should they have to.

[NoxiousNan]

12:46 PM on 02/24/2011

Sounds like an excellent time to bring up universal health care....Oh the problems it would solve.

[Youliveinabubble]

02:20 PM on 02/22/2011

It would be awful if union leaders couldn't take money out of peoples pay checks to prop up candidates that the person whose money it was to begin with doesn't like!

The entitlements the people of this country seem to think are owed to them are mind numbing I was always taught the 10 ammendments as being the big freedoms after the origional constitution my parents and teachers must have left out the 10.1th ammendment which included entitlements and collective bargaining within a union, by 10.2 which most obviously assured the right of government imposed healthcare.

Its sad to see what a spoiled nation we have become.

[homer winslow]

03:53 PM on 02/22/2011

It is even sadder to see what an uneducated nation we have become. Now the gullible people such as yourself are so dumbed down that they will fall for anything spewed by fox newss.

[SarahCuda2]

07:23 AM on 02/23/2011

And who do these tax payers think they are anyway? The nerve of them thinking they should be able to keep more of their own money! Do they have any idea how much it already costs the government to let them to keep what they are already allowed to keep. Sheesh!

[braytjr]

02:15 PM on 02/22/2011

What a stupid question!

This whole problem can be traced to the feet of democrats past and present who have not acted like democrats. They act like moderate republicans and confuse the heck out of the voters who seen no difference in the two parties. If dems has stood up forcefully for what the base wanted in the first place, the republicans wouldn't be in charge anyway.

This is civil disobedience. Dems are finally bringing attention to the real motives of the republicans and the American people are horrified. This light has exposed the republicans motives and awakened the people from their stupor.

It' always the time to fight for what is right.

[SarahCuda2]

07:16 AM on 02/23/2011

So.. what is 'right'? Is it right for government employees to shut down government provided services and shake down the tax paying public more money in bad economic times? Is it right for unelected union boss thugs to dictate the work environment of jobs that are supposed to serve the public? Is it right for public service unions to be the campaign arm of the democrat party?

[braytjr]

11:05 AM on 02/23/2011

Let me help you out here Sarah and answer your three questions.

#1) The unions have not shut down the government. They are not asking for more money. They offered this compromise back in December and Gov. Walker said NO. The union also gave the state fourteen unpaid days furlough where they worked for free.

#2) Unions are a democratic body. They vote on what positions they want to take. Their representative bargains to get as much as possible. Both sides have a position they take and negotiations take place. When a compromise is made, the union rep takes that back to the union where they vote on the contract. There is no thuggish boss involved.

#3) Since they are citizens of this country, they can campaign for any political party they want. If the republicans were offering policies that would help working people, then maybe the unions would campaign for them. If you are a working person, then you need to understand that it was the unions that gave you a five day work week, overtime, child labor laws, paid vacation, safe working conditions, safe food and water, medical and disability insurance, minimum wage and a VOICE. There is strength in numbers.

This bill lets Walker sell off state power plants in no bid sales to the Koch boys. I'm from Texas. We did the same thing and our electric rates went from the lowest to the highest in the nation. They are lying to you.

[braytjr]

11:14 AM on 02/23/2011

Another thing Sarah. The people who created these bad economic times are the banksters on Wall Street and their republican puppets. We bailed them out. They kept their jobs and gave themselves bonuses. The republicans demanded we give them tax cuts to boot. Now, these same guys want to blame some teacher in Wisconsin for working thirty years at reduced wages for reasonable benefits down the road.

The crooks on Wall Street stole the pension money and now we are making the workers pay for it. Social Security is their next target with its $2.6 trillion surplus in government bonds. Don't you see that these crooks are dividing us workers so they can steal us blind?

This is Class Warfare. I admit it. The rich are the aggressors. Which side are you on?

[rebel9999]

02:11 PM on 02/22/2011

The Democrats have created a PR nightmare for themselves. Running away from an important job is cowardly. Stay and work.

[imtruthmonger]

02:51 PM on 02/22/2011

Hi, Sarah Palin here. I refudiate your claim and stand as personnel proof that you can make a lot more money playing politics than actually being a politic, er, having a politic job, er, well you should know what I mean because it's common sense.

[homer winslow]

03:55 PM on 02/22/2011

Sorry, you said common sense. You have to have sense to have common sense. It is pretty obvious from the comments being made here that those supporting governor greed do not have any of either.

[fredhayes]

09:38 PM on 02/22/2011

Common sense isn't common.

[imtruthmonger]

02:53 PM on 02/22/2011

P.S.: Walker made a PR nightmare for himself.