Fleebaggers to Return to Wisconsin?

The fourteen missing Wisconsin Senate Democrats, AKA Fleebaggers, are reportedly planning a return to the capitol some time in the near future. They aren’t doing so because it’s the right thing to do. No, they cynically believe that they have done enough damage to Governor Scott Walker’s approval ratings that they think it’s a good political move.

The Wall Street Journal reported:

Sen. Mark Miller said he and his fellow Democrats intend to let the full Senate vote on Gov. Scott Walker’s “budget-repair” bill, which includes the proposed limits on public unions’ collective bargaining rights. The bill, which had been blocked because the missing Democrats were needed for the Senate to have enough members present to consider the bill, is expected to pass the Republican-controlled chamber.

He said he thinks recent polls showing voter discontent with Mr. Walker over limits on bargaining rights have been “disastrous” for the governor and give Democrats more leverage to seek changes in a broader two-year budget bill Mr. Walker proposed Tuesday.

But Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said Sunday night that the “budget repair” bill can not be amended at this point. But it’s possible that over the next few weeks adjustments could be made to Mr. Walker’s broader budget plan. “This bill will pass. The collective bargaining piece has to pass. If it doesn’t the governor’s budget doesn’t work,” he said.

They aren’t returning just yet, though. They want something done about that resolution that was passed holding them in contempt.

Governor Walker said he’s not concerned about polls.

Before Sunday’s developments, Mr. Walker said he would not be swayed by the polls. “If I governed by polls I’d still be in the state Assembly,” Mr. Walker said on Friday. “I won reelection twice as county executive in an area of the state that went two-thirds for President Obama by identifying a problem, telling people how I was going to deal with it, and then moving forward with the solution.”

I don’t know if this will be as disastrous for him as people would like us to believe. He’s doing the right thing. Once the bill is passed and things start to improve, people will forget about the weakening of the public employees’ collective bargaining privilege. I really doubt most people who are non-union spend a whole lot of time worrying about collective bargaining. But most people do worry about paying their bills, and higher taxes makes that a lot more difficult.

WI Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald doesn’t think this will hurt Republicans, either.

The Republicans rejected the idea that the legislation would hurt the GOP. “If you think this is a bad bill for Republicans, why didn’t you stand up in the chamber and debate us about it three weeks ago?” said Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald. “People think it’s absolutely ridiculous that these 14 senators have not been in Wisconsin for three weeks.”

Memeorandum has a big thread, with links to Maggie’s Notebook, Another Black Conservative, Freedom’s Lighthouse and more.

Also noteworthy: Talking Points Memo reports that the Fleebaggers say the WSJ article is misleading and they are not returning any time soon.

Tags: 14, Democrats, fleebagging, return, wisconsin

This entry was posted on Monday, March 7th, 2011 at 8:24 am and is filed under politics, unions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.