One of the Washington Post’s brightest lights is Jennifer Rubin, the conservative blogger. Her piece today on the ramification of events in Wisconsin is spot on:
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, by holding firm, is winning his face off against the public employee unions and their Democratic handmaidens. Yes, the state senate Democrats remain in an undisclosed location in Illinois, but their situation has become a whole lot more precarious.
She notes how Wisconsin Republicans are using the opportunity created by the absence of their colleagues to pass bills that they would have struggled to get through if the opposition bothered to show up. The biggest winners in this, Rubin explains, aren’t just Wisconsin Republicans and taxpayers, but:
the other governors, Republicans and Democrats alike, who are battling public employee unions and trying to balance their budgets. Walker is showing that if a governor refuses to blink, the public employee unions have few options.
Walker isn’t the only Governor who has been providing a tutorial on how to beat back union power and defend taxpayers. During the past year, Gov. Christie has shown the power of frank talk about just how much your average union worker gets from taxpayers and exactly what continuing down the present path will mean for the budget. Most Americans haven’t been paying attention as public unions work with the politicians they help to elect to bilk taxpayers. Much of the public is shocked to learn just how generous those pols have been with other people’s money.
Gov. Christie has shown the power of plain talk, and now Gov. Walker is demonstrating for politicians everywhere (not just in the state houses; certainly we should hope those in Washington are also taking note), the importance of standing firm.