With media help, Unions and their left-wing allies pull out all stops to undermine Wisconsin Republicans’ electoral mandate
My, how the MSM give into left-wing spin, with Yahoo! offering this headline, “Prank call adds to Wis. governor’s woes: A candid chat with a “billionaire donor” turns into a PR nightmare as the tape goes viral” on its home page. ”The call,” AP writer Ryan Foley contends, “also revealed Walker’s cozy relationship with two billionaire brothers who have poured millions of dollars into conservative political causes, including Walker’s campaign last year.”
How much tilting of the news to the favored narrative can we find in one sentence? Not until later in the article do we learn that the Koch’s PAC only gave “$43,000 to Walker’s campaign” while David Koch “gave $1 million to the Republican Governors’ Association, which funded ads attacking Walker’s opponent in last year’s election.” (Seems Mr. Foley got the message that the Kochs are now high on the approved left-wing list of conservatives to demonize.) His line makes it sound like Walker received millions in their billionaires’ largesse.
“Cozy relationship” with those billionaires? Huh? If the relationship were so cozy, the governor would have recognized that the prankster was not David Koch. The call, Michelle Malkin notes, shows “that Walker is not in deep, dark cahoots or collusion with Koch. If he were, he would have caught on quickly.” And despite Foley’s spin, consistent with the blather on the left-wing blogs, Walker, Jim Geraghty reminds us, “simply explains why he’s approaching the issue the way he is, and pretty much shrugs off the ‘zany’ comments from the faux-Koch, like, ‘you’re not talking with these Democrat bastards, are you?’”
Over at Verum Serum, John does find one comment in this 20 minute call that gets ”close to embarrassing” when “the crank caller suggests putting some ‘troublemakers’ in the crowd. Gov. Walker says we ‘thought about that’ but then goes on to say that he’s hoping there is no trouble so that the media gets tired of covering the protests.”
Ann Althouse finds that Walker ignores the “over-the-line things the Koch impersonator said“, going on instead “with his standard points, which is probably the standard strategy that most politicians use when people interact with them.”
Look, I do think this represents a minor setback for Governor Walker and Wisconsin Republicans and their attempts to reform their state’s government He shouldn’t have taken the call. That said, that left-wing performance artists took the trouble to make it while left-wing bloggers dwell on it should serve as a reminder of what he’s up against and should steel Republicans’ resolve to stand firm. Just look at the lengths public employees unions (& their allies) are taking to retain their perks.
One more thing. Foley quotes Democratic Rep. Jon Richards of Milwaukee who “yelled Wednesday on the floor of the state Assembly”, “This isn’t about balancing the budget. This is about a political war,” If there’s a war, Mr. Richards, it has been declared by your fellow Democrats and their union allies. You’re the one using that rhetoric. And Republicans are just fighting back, defending the mandate given them by Wisconsin voters last fall.
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“Elections have consequences” unless you’re a Republican. Don’t you love the double standard & the naked hypocrisy? This is not going to end well for the Fleebaggers, the Democrat Party, & President Obama.
Comment by Sebastian Shaw — February 23, 2011 @ 5:54 pm - February 23, 2011
[...] With media help, Unions and their left-wing allies pull out all stops to undermine Wisconsin Republi… [...]
Pingback by GayPatriot » Public Employee Unions: mechanism forcing taxpayers to fund Democrats — February 23, 2011 @ 6:18 pm - February 23, 2011
Walker is Koch’s little toy poodle. And it looks like he’s soiled the rug!
Comment by David — February 23, 2011 @ 6:33 pm - February 23, 2011
What’s with this whole “electoral mandate” thing as of late. It seems both sides, conservatives and liberals, only reference it when they perceive the mandate to be on their side.
Just because they voted for a candidate that believes in certain policies doesn’t mean that every person that voted for that candidate endorses every single policy the candidate supports. It really is a specious argument. The only way to say a mandate has been made is if that specific issue is being voted on.
By this same argument, wasn’t their an electoral mandate for the healthcare bill? Yet the Pharma companies, and certain media “pulled out all the stops to undermine congressional Democrats.”
Comment by aj — February 23, 2011 @ 6:34 pm - February 23, 2011
I can’t get to the transcript of the call. However, I have listened to it and clearly Scott was duped, but he is also very careful to schmooze without conspiring.
Can we count on the Obama Messiah handling Trumka and Soros in the same manner? Until Breitbart comes up with the tape, we will never know.
Comment by Heliotrope — February 23, 2011 @ 6:37 pm - February 23, 2011
*laughs at David* He’s so in the man’s pocket that he doesn’t recognize his voice. Brilliant observation there David.
Now let’s look at Obama and the unions. or his association with terrorists…
Comment by The_Livewire — February 23, 2011 @ 7:12 pm - February 23, 2011
Fair point, aj, but Republicans’ victories in the Badger State give them the mandate to govern the state and set the legislative agenda.
This doesn’t prevent Democrats from debating the merits of their proposals. Instead, we see insinuations that the Koch Brothers are pulling the strings as if there were no serious arguments to be made for holding public employee unions to a different standard than private sector ones — only corporate greed.
This focus on the Koch Brothers is little more than a red herring deigned to divert our attention from the real issue.
Comment by B. Daniel Blatt — February 23, 2011 @ 8:45 pm - February 23, 2011
The Koch Bros gambit here and elsewhere, along with the Rupert Murdock mentions are just deflection for the weak-minded. These attacks came out once Glenn Beck started scoring big hits on George Soros and his several minions.
Comment by DaveO — February 23, 2011 @ 9:49 pm - February 23, 2011
[Citation Needed]
Comment by ThatGayConservative — February 23, 2011 @ 10:55 pm - February 23, 2011
The more so as the prank-call stunt showed that Walker is *not*. Walker showed his lack of familiarity with Koch’s voice, and as well, said only the same things to “Koch” that he pretty much says in public.
The sudden, strange focus on the Koch brothers is easy to explain:
1) The Left hates real libertarians. (Because they hate individual / economic liberty.) And,
2) The Left’s fever swamp and Daily Two Minutes Hate crew need some fresh targets.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — February 23, 2011 @ 11:33 pm - February 23, 2011
This is a perfect illustration of everything wrong with American politics. Politicians should not just be freely discussing their plans in private conversations with billionaires. Republicans are of course too stupid to understand how inappropriate are these kinds of conversations, but what’s the use in explaining it to you? The GOP long ago abandoned the idea that the government is something to be run for the benefit of the country, and is seemingly eager to let it become an instrument for the wealthy and privileged to enrich their own lives at the expense of everyone else.
The way this conversation plays out makes it seem like Walker is the underling updating his boss. And you’re cool with this? This is no big deal? A non-constituent billionaire calls into the governor’s office and gets an up-to-the-minute, behind-the-scenes situation report about an issue in which the billionaire is clearly invested? You’re cool with this?
Comment by Levi — February 24, 2011 @ 2:39 am - February 24, 2011
I agree that Walker shouldn’t have taken the call, but if you listen to the audio and read the posts I quoted above, Levi, you’d see he’s not talking to a man who’s updating the boss, merely repeating his standard argument. And the tone clearly shows that this is not a guy who knows well.
And if he were updating the boss, as you put it, wouldn’t he be able to recognize his voice?
An no, Levi, only in the minds of left-wingers with a predetermined view of this situation does Walker seem like the underling to the fake Koch. If he were the underling, he’d have agreed to some of his most outlandish suggestions.
Comment by B. Daniel Blatt — February 24, 2011 @ 2:48 am - February 24, 2011
[...] No matter that Walker didn’t recognize Koch’s voice thus showing as Ann Althouse put it, that “Scott Walker is not close to Koch“. This non-recognition, Walker’s very failure to accede to the imposter’s odd suggestions wreck the narrative that the call showed Walker, as one of our critics put it, to be “the underling updating his boss.” [...]
Pingback by GayPatriot » Understanding left’s all-out assault on Koch Brothers through prism of liberal prejudice — February 24, 2011 @ 4:19 am - February 24, 2011
Levi likes to ignore facts Dan.
Note how he doesn’t accuse the President of the same thing when Trumpka talks about talking to the White house every other day. Of couse to accuse President Obama of reporting to his ‘secret masters’ as Levi deludes himself into believing Walker was, would be racist.
Comment by The_Livewire — February 24, 2011 @ 7:35 am - February 24, 2011
This is hypocritical!
Public Unions in Wisconsin are fighting for the right to make twice as much as the people who’s taxes pay their salary.
- The average public union worker in WI makes $89,000 per year.
- The average worker in WI only makes $40,000.
If this was really about ‘Wealth Equality’, those unions would have to give half of what they have, back to the taxpayers.
.
Comment by gastorgrab — February 24, 2011 @ 12:39 pm - February 24, 2011