Tide Turning?
by digby
I don’t want to jinx this, but I’m starting to feel a little bit positive:
Gov. Mitch Daniels signaled this afternoon that Republicans should to drop the right-to-work bill that has brought the Indiana House to a standstill for two days and imperiled other measures.Daniels told reporters this afternoon that he expects House Democrats will return to work if the bill dies. It would be unfortunate if other bills are caught up in the turmoil, he said.He will not send out state police to corral the Democrats, the Republican governor said.The Democrat minority has right to express its views, he added.The governor clung to his view that this is not the year to tackle right to work.
Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) is now to the right of Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) on the question of allowing public sector workers to unionize…
“My belief is as long as people know what they’re doing, collective bargaining is fine,” Scott said in an interview with Tallahassee’s WFLA FM radio station. But as long as state workers are agreeing to pony up, Scott says the workers should be allowed to organize. Walker’s drawn a bright line on that issue. Which is saying something — the tea party favorite Scott is definitely no RINO.
No he definitely isn’t.
It will be interesting to see how the tea party supporters take this. This is an interesting fight for them because it isn’t explicitly against Obama (although the Beckies have created a whole narrative about how he’s part of a Muslim Brotherhood plot.) This is a fight against working people, and although they are more than happy to rail against them if that’s the sanctioned Tea Party view, their leaders may be deciding that’s not going to help them get elected.
This isn’t about fighting the “San Francisco liberals” or the Hollywood Elite. These are their Real Americans. The politicians seem cognizant of that fact anyway.
Update: I think this may explain it:
The poll found that 61% would oppose a law in their state similar to one being considered in Wisconsin, compared with 33% who would favor such a law. Ohio and several other states that have new Republican governors and legislative majorities are considering laws that would reduce the power of government employee unions to bargain over benefits and work rules. Wisconsin is the first state to consider the limits, prompting protests that have closed schools and drawn tens of thousands of protesters to the state Capitol in Madison.