Oh, my. I hope you’re sitting down for this shocking revelation:
In the video, Hendricks told Walker she wanted to discuss “controversial” subjects away from reporters, asking him:
“Any chance we’ll ever get to be a completely red state and work on these unions -”
“Oh, yeah,” Walker broke in.
“- and become a right-to-work?” Hendricks continued. “What can we do to help you?”
“Well, we’re going to start in a couple weeks with our budget adjustment bill,” Walker said. “The first step is we’re going to deal with collective bargaining for all public employee unions, because you use divide and conquer.”
The entire conversation was not released Thursday with a video trailer of the documentary, but Journal Sentinel reporters were allowed to view the raw footage.
“So for us,” the governor continues, “the base we get for that is the fact that we’ve got – budgetarily we can’t afford not to. If we have collective bargaining agreements in place, there’s no way not only the state but local governments can balance things out. . . . That opens the door once we do that. That’s your bigger problem right there.”
Walker co-sponsored right-to-work legislation in 1993 as a freshman in the state Assembly, but as governor has consistently downplayed seeking any restrictions on private unions in public statements.
“From our standpoint, it’s never going to get to me,” Walker said of right-to-work legislation in an interview with the Journal Sentinel on April 27. “Private sector unions are my partner in economic development.”
Walker, however, has repeatedly declined to say whether he would sign or veto a right-to-work bill if passed by the Legislature.
In response to the documentary trailer, Walker spokeswoman Ciara Matthews said Thursday that the governor’s position on right to work was clear.
“Governor Walker has made clear repeatedly that he does not have an interest in pushing right-to-work legislation,” Matthews said.
Except when he talks out of range of reporters. Divide and conquer, open the door.
This will be surprising only to the celebrity cast of Morning Joe and the members of the austerity fan club who work in the national opinion industry. Walker lied about his plans to destroy all unions in Wisconsin, sure, but Mitch Daniels also lied about his plans to destroy all unions in Indiana, and Mitch Daniels (of course, as planned) went through with it. John Kasich was, thankfully, stopped.
Mitt Romney…well, you figure it out:
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said today that while he favors right-to-work legislation on a state level, he will not push for a federal right-to-work law.
“If there were to be a federal right-to-work law that reached my desk, I would support it,” Romney said. “But the right approach is a state by state approach at this stage.”
Pressed by John Kalb, executive director of New England Citizens for Right to Work, about whether he would actively advocate for a federal law, Romney responded, “I’m a Tenth Amendment guy. I’d like the states to be the place we carry out this path.”
So Romney’s position is that a federal anti-union law is the wrong approach. But he would sign it into law. Even though he thinks the law runs counter to the 10th Amendment. Or something.
Anyone who believed that stripping collective bargaining rights from public sector union members had anything to do with budgets or “job creation” despite all the evidence to the contrary is either not very bright or hostile to the continued existence of any union, anywhere, and not telling us that.
redshirt
When you boil down all the madness, what’s left over, what this “movement” is all about, is crushing workers. The overlords – for some reason that makes no long term sense – want beaten down serfs/slaves, and by Jesus they’ll do whatever it takes to make that happen.
Face
Great! Wait….lolwut?
Shorter Romney: I won’t push to add a wife or two, but if two hotties want a piece of the MittMeat, I’m going to have to sign off on that.
Dracula
Fixed
Steve
I sure want to believe this video will be a game-changer. My fear is that everyone has already made up their mind to love Walker or hate him and so this won’t change many minds. You might say I’m concerned (but in fact, I am actually concerned). What do Kay and others think? Where I come from, this would have been a big deal, but it sort of seems like the rules got changed on us at some point.
c u n d gulag
Conservatives apparently believe in “Constructive-Destruction.”
They believe you construct lower-paying jobs by destroying higher-paying ones.
I’m hoping that all of the different factions in modern Conservatism, the neo-cons, the religious loons, and the pro-business/fascist ones, go at teach others throats this election and the next one, and the rest of us can see them “Mutually Destruct” one another.
Now that’s worth stocking the bunker with popcorn!
Hal
Even if Walker does prevail in the recall, I have to wonder what type of political future he’ll have beyond the end of his term. It seems unlikely he’ll succeed in winning a re-election if so many people are already pissed off at the guy.
Napoleon
@redshirt:
That is becuase the Republican party dances to the tune of the deep south, a part of the country that have never been truly democratic.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
I’m hoping this gets some traction. It’s all about squashing the 99% so the 1% gets a bigger share. People need to understand this.
OT but tangentially related, tomorrow (Saturday May 12) is the annual NALC food drive called Help Stamp out Hunger, Last year, 70.2 million pounds of food was collected for distribution. Per the flyer, 2 steps:
It’s really easy – only 2 steps. As listed on the flyer (here):
1)Collect and bag [or box!] non-perishable* food items.
2)Place by mailbox on May 12, 2012 for letter carrier to pick up, after which the distribution team will deliver it to a local food bank or pantry.
* Donate items like canned meats, fish, soup, vegetables; bottled juice,pasta, cereal and rice that do not require refrigeration. Please do not include items that have expired or are in glass containers.
~~~~~
I think we are all aware that the need is even greater than in years past. Campbells is donating 1 million pounds of food to Feeding America as partner in this program. I’m fortunate that I’ve never been actually hungry. The least I can do is put out a box for our mail carrier to put in the truck Saturday.
c u n d gulag
Hot mic – meet stupid dick!
Nethead Jay
Saw that video on Maddowblog just a moment ago and actually thought, I hope Kay picks this up. Yeah, no surprise, but I kinda think having actual video documentation is going to make a bit of a splash in Wisconsin with the recall election entering the final phase.
Villago Delenda Est
Who are you? – The Vorlon Question
What do you want? – The Shadow Question
What do you want to hear? – The OvenMitt Rmoney Question.
Barry
“Anyone who believed that stripping collective bargaining rights from public sector union members had anything to do with budgets or “job creation” despite all the evidence to the contrary is either not very bright or hostile to the continued existence of any union, anywhere, and not telling us that.”
As well as anyone who believes that “States’ Rights” or federalism or the 10th amendment would for one second stop the GOP from doing whatever it wants to do.
Kay
@Steve:
I don’t know anything about Wisconsin other than what I read (and the great emails I get from Wisconsin people) but I do think there’s a corrosive effect to Walker’s credibility (the multiple investigations, the out of state conservative activism and tapes like this) that might hurt him more than the union-busting.
It is my understanding that Wisconsin has a certain amount of pride in being a “good government state” (akin to Minnesota, where I once lived for a time) so if he’s perceived as corrupt that will hurt him more than being perceived as conservative. They can live with conservative. I don’t know that they can live with dirty.
gene108
From the first link Kay posted.
Why do Unions support Republicans?
I understand you can find gays icky and blacks scary, but neither blacks nor gays have created an orchestrated operation to gut your ability to earn, what you consider, a good living at a fair wage, unlike Republicans.
At some level, you’d think blue-collar workers would realize the icky-scary feeling is just a feeling and feelings aren’t real in the tangible sense, whereas losing your job, benefits, or seeing your wage cut in half is real in the tangible sense and real in the tangible sense trumps feelings, in terms of importance.
Villago Delenda Est
@gene108:
This is a classic example of having seriously fucked up priorities.
But tribal identity is strong. Often it overrides reason, or even economic self-interest.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@gene108:
But they’re making sure all those goddamned leeches and freeloaders get theirs, so FUCK YEAH, REPUBLICANS, FUCK YEAH!!!!
They never got the memo that the ‘leeches and freeloaders’ they GOP speaks of include them. And they never do, it seems.
redshirt
@gene108: Divide and conquer is a hell of a tool. Hard to overcome most of the time.
Kay
@gene108:
This is based on my personal experience, but I think there’s two things. First, they think there’s some leverage advantage with some level of “bipartisanship”. The thinking there is they don’t want to be locked into Democrats, because then they can’t lobby Democrats as effectively: no threat.
The other thing is (and I’ve witnessed this, over and over) a lot of their members ARE Republicans. They’ve been Republicans FOR YEARS. Remember: a unions primary purpose is not lobbying or political activity (although that’s huge), it’s representing their members. If 40% of their members are Republicans, that is going to effect who they support.
Right now, I am working with a GOP union member to plan a fundraiser for our statehouse candidate, who is a Democrat. It’s a little awkward, actually. It gets tense when she says things that I think are absolutely delusional, but there it is. She volunteered, contacted me, and it’s her local connections (venue) and her idea. She’s voting Democrat at the state level, but I assume she’s voting for Romney in November.
feebog
May I say, with all due respect, that Terry McGowan is a complete and utter idiot? Now that Walker is outed as ploting to turn Wisconsin into a RTW state, the best McGowan can do is to keep his local neutral in the recall election? He should be cutting an ad condeming Walker telling his 9000 members that they should get out the vote against Walker like their jobs depended on it, because it does.
Jay in Oregon
@Dracula:
Oh, they’re not picky.
They’re just as happy to put working-class Republicans into workhouses; the advantage is that the blue-collar Republicans believe they’ve winning as a result.
General Stuck
OT
Yea, right. “Zero” Obama hand outs to buy votes/wingnut.
LanceThruster
Being on the Clownhall mailing list got me this piece of dreck under the email subject “Senseless Recall.”
[text of email] Dear Friend,
This is it. The Wisconsin Recall election is less than four weeks away.
The liberal special interests and Washington insiders have sworn to spend tens of millions of dollars to defeat me. I need your help right now to beat back this senseless Recall. Will you stand with me today?
For more than a generation in Wisconsin, the power of special interests and the liberal elite have gone largely unchecked. My Administration finally stood up to them, and we changed the way we do things in government in Wisconsin.
That’s why my opponents are so desperate to defeat me in this Recall. They want to roll back the clock and take us back to the days of skyrocketing taxes, bloated budgets, and unchecked and unaccountable spending. We cannot let that happen.
The moment I became Governor, I set about the work that the people of Wisconsin sent me to do. We eliminated the deficit left by my Democrat predecessor. We gave the freedom of choice to public employees. Our reforms have allowed public employees to decide if they would like to spend (in some cases more than a thousand dollars a year in dues) or keep their hard earned money. We finally put the control of state government back where it belongs, in the hands of the people.
I kept my promises to the voters here in Wisconsin. I didn’t raise taxes. We have not had massive lay offs of state workers. Our reforms have balanced the budget and lowered the unemployment rate to a level unseen since 2008.
Now I need you to help me tell the out-of-state special interests that we do not want another tax-and-spend liberal in charge here in Wisconsin.
This Recall is not just about Wisconsin, it is about the cause of reform across this country. It is about deciding what kind of country we are going to be for generations to come. We must send a message that we can and will live within our means. We must not hand power back to a small group of special interests and let them run state governments into the ground across this great nation.
When we defeat this baseless Recall, it will send a powerful statement across our country about the kind of government we want to have and the bold reforms that will get us there.
We have less than a month to go. I need your help–not tomorrow, not next week, but right now.
Today, I ask you to stand with me so I can continue to stand up for hard working taxpayers. Together, we can defeat this Recall and make history – in Wisconsin and across the country.
Sincerely,
Scott Walker
Governor
[end text]
Kay
@LanceThruster:
I love how incredibly wealthy people are not a “special interest”. They’re just patriotic Americans meeting out of range of reporters. Nothing special about that treatment. No sir.
gex
This doesn’t hurt them that badly. They’ve distilled their support down to the people who glady hate on the other. Liberals, gays, etc. They love divide and conquer.
There was a guy in WI who jumped in front of his wife’s car to try to stop her from voting for Walker’s ouster. Guy’s brother says “liberals are always doing crazy stuff like that.” Like what? Driving? Voting? Being female? Why isn’t the guy who is depriving someone of their constitutional rights and throwing himself in front of vehicles like an insurance scammer the one doing crazy stuff? Well, he’s on the right side, that’s why.
rikyrah
Kay,
glad you saw this. When I saw it first at TPM, I hoped you would pick it up.
Don’t know if it will make a difference.
I want the 12 people who have gotten IMMUNITY FROM PROSECUTION to start singing in unison.
but, HELL NO, the union busting has nothing to do with balancing the budget.
as far as union members voting GOP…they’re part of that clinging to Whiteness, and I just don’t feel the need to coddle them. when Walker comes for them…they should just S-T-F-U.
Forum Transmitted Disease
@gex: There’s a sick part of me that would love to be able to command such power and respect. I’m glad my life took a course that made that impossible.
Kay
@rikyrah:
Ha ha. Me too :)
Gravenstone
I’m reminded again of someone I saw manning a pro-Walker demonstration during the signature gathering phase that lead up to the recall. She was carrying a hand lettered sign saying, “Union Wives For Walker”. I wondered then if she was that willfully obtuse not to see that Walker’s attacks on (some of) the public unions wouldn’t soon be aimed at her husband’s union? I wonder now whether she understands just whan good old Scotty has in mind for her and her husband? Probably not.
Quincy
@Villago Delenda Est: I think tribal identity is the key here. My impression, from speaking with relatives in Wisconsin and keeping occasional tabs in local news, is that in a fairly divided state the Republicans were excited to win the governorship for the first time in 8 years. The union-busting controversy happened so soon after before they could have a honeymoon period or grow disillusioned with the guy. They saw the protests and Democratic Senators leaving the state as unprecedented partisan behavior, the same way we view the appalling GOP obstructionism toward Obama. At that point, Walker became an unfairly attacked team member and NOTHING he did after would matter to any of them. They’re running on pure emotion, loyalty and hate for the other side and as a result turnout in the recall will be really high on their side. The problem is that the low-info independents seem to view all of this as an unseemly war between Walker and unions, neither of whom they are particularly fond of, and even videos like this, which could be damning outside the context of what’s happened in the State over the past year, get subsumed in that framework. It’s quite depressing, and while I hope Barrett pulls it out, the state will remain extremely divided after June 5 regardless.
jibeaux
@General Stuck: I saw that, I think it’s great news. The good aspects of the law need more visibility. Of course, the oh-so-subtle distinction between “government handout” and “insurance company refund of premiums you personally overpaid” will be lost on some.
JCT
@Kay: Not to mention all of that money flowing in from out of state. I’m sure those donors have Wisconsin’s welfare in mind.
jibeaux
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Stopping hunger is a great cause and I would never tell anyone not to participate in a food drive. But if you can, a cash/check donation is preferable to nonperishables for your average food bank because they can make it go further than you can. They can generally purchase it at a lower price, without the need for staff or volunteers to sort it and chuck the expired stuff, etc.; they can use it for produce and meat; and if food donations are good they can hang on to it for when donations are down. Also, easily tax deductible for you.
LanceThruster
@Kay: Yes…we must fanatically cling to power for the sake of our special interests.
What a d-bag.
jibeaux
Oh, let me add one coda: If you do want to donate food to a food drive, another possibility to consider is if a local school has a Backpack Buddies program. These are bookbags that are sent home on weekends with needy kids, packed with food. They particularly like healthy nonperishable snacks, and containers that kids could open themselves such as pop-top fruit or soup.
pete
@Quincy: Tribal identity is, I think, why the divide-and-conquer video is more important in firing up the opposition to Walker than in peeling away support. But firing up the opposition is really important.
Brachiator
I rate this a 8.5. I love the double axel twist on the flip, but Romney didn’t quite nail the flop. I would have rated it a solid 9 had he thrown in some outright mendacity.
@Kay:
Great point. It will be interesting to see what the reaction to these revelations are in the coming days.
Davis X. Machina
@gene108:
It’s atavism. We haven’t had paychecks for that long, but we’ve had tribes since Olduvai Gorge. And clever wealthy people know that.
TooManyDans
Agreed the quoted portion isn’t all that shocking, but if you read the whole article, you see Diane Hendricks is described as a “Beloit billionaire.”
I’ve been to Beloit. I’m really surprised there are billionaires there.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@jibeaux: Good point. I actually do both, but I suspect that the uninvolved can perhaps be motivated to put out a bag of food once a year.
Kay
I like this, but who has the responsibility to ask the questions, ya know, of Walker, when he’s standing there?
Cris (without an H)
At first I thought the headline said “Scott Walker meets with the people he resents.” Which is probably true too.
Culture of Truth
Was it Scott Walker?
Ruckus
@redshirt:
Of course it makes sense.
If you are an amoral fuckstain whose only function in life is to
makesteal the most short term profits possible out of any situation.Labor costs are usually the largest block of costs in most companies, so of course it makes sense to
slashreduce those costs as much as possible. A side benefit is that “owners” have more control over theirslavesemployees lives, making them more compliant and willing to bend over and…An even bigger benefit is that increasing short term profits is worth a few more percentage points in the old bonus equation.
Kay
Yay!
I know, why were they endorsing him at all, ever, but every little bit helps:
martha
@Kay: yes Kay, this. The non-activists will be swayed by the lying and division and perceptions of being a slimy politician rather than the union issue.
And the billionaire from Beloit married her money….hubby died fairly recently. He built a chain of roofing supply warehouses I think. He fell off his roof. I’m not kidding.
martha
I think Tom Barrett is wise enough and low key enough to use this gift not as a sledgehammer but more as a “see, I told you so and he just keeps reinforcing why he’s not good for WI”…while that may not seem terribly flashy to many, the pool of undecideds is small and it will take some subtlety not to get defensive of poor Scotty and those union thugs. The airwaves are getting thick…
jibeaux
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Yeah, I don’t have any problem with the food drives since it’s basically added bonus, I just throw that out there because one year I participated in one at work, and I went to the store mostly for the food drive and tried to make good choices for it, and later learned it would have been easier on me and better for the food bank if I’d just written the check. It’s a “learn from my fail” type thing.
Ruckus
@rikyrah:
Some conservatives probably come from conservative families. They have been conservative their whole lives. They lived in smaller communities that distrusted outsiders no matter their color. They liked their small town lives, their churches which provided not only spiritual but social context. They were comfortable. A lot of that has and is changing and mostly it’s outside of their worlds where the change is happening. Which means it is other people causing it. The big land owner, the mill owner, the rich asshole in town, they all knew about him and even if they didn’t like it they could accept it, because he was part of them. Now it’s every thing outside that’s changing and causing all their problems. That’s why they are conservatives.
And if you just alter the situations a little this describes a large percentage of people. They want their lives to be simple and easy and not desperate.
They just can’t believe that one of their own has turned on them. Until they believe it they won’t change. Conservative to them does not mean the same thing as it does to us.
Quincy
@TooManyDans:
Hendricks’ wealth is rather obscene compared to the rest of the town. I always wondered what they did with it. Should’ve known the answer would be giving to Republican causes.
Ben Cisco
@Villago Delenda Est: There is a hole in his mind.
arguingwithsignposts
This might be of interest to you, Kay, as it crosses two areas of interest: the attack on public workers and health care. The Illinois legislature passed a bill that will require retirees to pay health insurance premiums.
Jack Burton
The newest talking point from the pro Walker idiots in Wisconsin is that Walker got nearly as much votes as Barrett and Falk combined in the primary on Tuesday. This leaves out the fact that we also had Vinehout and La Follete running as well. I truly believe because of all the bad policies in other states(look down and to the right) many of those people moved here for jobs and brought the stupid with them. They don’t realize that those policies are why there are no jobs. We are not a red state.
redshirt
@Ruckus: Short term, sure. Long term? Move on to the next healthy host? Because the short term goals will ensure a long term destruction.
lovable liberal
Republicans would put no limit on the size of the management bargaining unit but would only permit labor to bargain as individuals. Fair and balanced!
Frankensteinbeck
@redshirt:
I’m late (too late, really) to this conversation, but I think it’s only peripherally about financial gain. It’s about ego gain and entitlement. They don’t resent the money they pay to workers or to unions. They resent not being able to pay workers whatever their whim tells them to. They resent having to negotiate, having any check on their absolute control over their property. They hate unions, federal regulation of all kinds – they want power, the ability to do whatever they want with their companies and workers, rather than more money. What they want usually is something with a short term financial gain, but that money isn’t really what matters.
EDIT – And since this is exactly what the rest of the narcissistic asshole teabag base would want in their position, it’s easy to support it and hard to realize they’re the ones receiving the screw.
Gravenstone
@Jack Burton: It also ignores the fact Walker wouldn’t have faced a primary (as his Lt. Gov did not) had an energetic soul not chosen to challenge him from the Republican side in order to try and minimize R crossover voting intended to disrupt the Democratic primary.
Jack Burton
@Gravenstone: Excellent and very true point.
Xenos
Ken Hendrick’s Wikipedia profile is an interesting read.
Did you know that the secret of his success is that he paid his workers so much, and he empowered them so effectively, that he just could not avoid making billions in a rather narrow-margin business (roofing supplies)? The great emancipator was, interestingly, greatly beloved in wingnut welfare circles, too.
It reads like some publicist was given one of those Kentucky Derby milkshakes were reading about earlier.
Jack Burton
@Xenos: They dedicated An American Carol to him as well. Ha ha ha ha! Wingnut welfare indeed.
LosGatosCA
If you just apply the conservative Republican TeaBagger credo to every situation then you are never surprised:
Party before country, money above all.
They are a party of aristocrats and willing religious serfs who want to punish anyone who might want to crash the aristocracy or bring it down, because their god wants only white males with the right religious beliefs to have a job, career, and have enough money to make semi-independent decisions.