Wisconsin governor duped in prank call, reveals union fight strategy

[Roger Perry]

MADISON, Wis. — On a prank call that quickly spread across the Internet, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was duped into discussing his strategy to cripple public employee unions, promising never to give in and joking that he would use a baseball bat in his office to go after political opponents.
Walker believed the caller was a conservative billionaire named David Koch, but it was actually the editor of a liberal online newspaper. The two talked for at least 20 minutes — a conversation in which the governor described several potential ways to pressure Democrats to return to the Statehouse and revealed that his supporters had considered secretly planting people in pro-union protest crowds to stir up trouble.

He also floated an idea to lure Democratic senators back to the Capitol for negotiations and then have the Senate quickly pass the bill while they are in talks.
Walker said aides were reviewing whether the GOP could hold a vote if Democrats were not physically in the Senate chamber but elsewhere in the building. At the news conference, he insisted that idea was not a trick but an effort to get Democrats back to work.

On the call, Walker said he expected the anti-union movement to spread across the country and he had spoken with the governors of Ohio and Nevada. The man pretending to be Koch seemed to agree, telling Walker, "You're the first domino."
"Yep, this is our moment," Walker responded.
At the end of the call, the prankster says: "I'll tell you what, Scott, once you crush these bastards, I'll fly you out to Cali and really show you a good time."
"All right, that would be outstanding," Walker replies, adding that the standoff is "all about getting our freedoms back."




http://www.freep.com/article/2011022...65/1008/NEWS06

[road kill]

MADISON, Wis. — On a prank call that quickly spread across the Internet, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was duped into discussing his strategy to cripple public employee unions, promising never to give in and joking that he would use a baseball bat in his office to go after political opponents.
Walker believed the caller was a conservative billionaire named David Koch, but it was actually the editor of a liberal online newspaper. The two talked for at least 20 minutes — a conversation in which the governor described several potential ways to pressure Democrats to return to the Statehouse and revealed that his supporters had considered secretly planting people in pro-union protest crowds to stir up trouble.

http://www.freep.com/article/2011022...65/1008/NEWS06

BULL SHAT!!


Listen for yourself;

http://blogs.wsj.com/wsjam/2011/02/2...ogle_news_blog


RK

[Buzz]

Yup, the other day RK accused me of making baseless accusations when I said he was union busting. I wonder what he thinks Walker is talking about here:

I told my cabinet ... about what we were going to do and how we were going to do it. We'd already kind of built plans up but it was kind of the last hurrah before we dropped the bomb. And i stood up and pulled out a picture of Ronald Reagan and said this may seem a little melodramatic, but 30 years ago, Ronald Reagan ... had one of the most defining moments of his political career, not just his presidency, when he fired the air traffic controllers. And I said, to me that moment was more important than for just labor relations or even the federal budget, that was the first crack in the Berlin Wall and the fall of communism ... in Wisconsin's history, this is our moment, this is our time to change the course of history ... for those who thought I was being melodramatic you now know it was purely putting it in the right context.

[road kill]

Yup, the other day RK accused me of making baseless accusations when I said he was union busting. I wonder what he thinks Walker is talking about here:

Please show me where I said that.

Much like Rogers post...BS!!


RK

[Franco]

Unions for public workers should not only be busted, they should be outlawed!

[Buzz]

Please show me where I said that.

Much like Rogers post...BS!!


RK

I think Walker has one thing in mind. Bust the unions, period.

No chance he is trying to correct wasteful spending and balance the budget??

Maybe you should do a little reading before you make generalized, baseless accusations.

And....he is doing exactly what he said he would do.


RK

Post #10 in the Scott Walker thread...

It's not beyond me to make a baseless accusation, but this wasn't one of them...

[road kill]

Post #10 in the Scott Walker thread...

It's not beyond me to make a baseless accusation, but this wasn't one of them...

"1 thing in mind."

I think a rational person KNOWS that is baseless.

Looks like I did refer to that.
You are fully aware that there is much more to this issue.

It's about the union controlling the state Democratic party (not the people).
It's about paying money we don't have.
It's about balancing the budget.
It's about relieving the burden on small school districts and municipalities.
It's about allowing union members choices (in insurance when the have to help pay for their own, instead of using the healthcare the union chooses for them).


It's about sanity!!

That does not seem like "1 thing in mind."


RK

[luvmylabs23139]

Unions for public workers should not only be busted, they should be outlawed!

+10000!!!!!

[Matt Weberpal]

We all knew he was trying to bust the unions before the conversation. I don't think the tapes change anything.

[Blackstone]

Unions for public workers should not only be busted, they should be outlawed!

Next time you see a police officer or a fireman tell then that.