Tim Pawlenty is taking a leading and unflinching public position supporting Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in the battle with public sector unions.
As pointed out a The Hill, Pawlenty has been more aggressive and consistent at defending Walker:
Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) sought Thursday to take the lead among possible GOP presidential candidates in bolstering Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) in his state’s labor dispute.
Pawlenty released a video on Thursday boosting Walker and directing viewers to a petition in support of Walker, who’s locked in a major battle with state Democrats over a labor reform bill eliminating most collective bargaining rights for public employees.
“The gig is up [sic] for public employee groups who demand better benefits than the taxpayers who are paying the bill,” the petition says. “I’m confident Governor Walker’s reforms will succeed in Wisconsin. Stand strong, Scott — average taxpayers everywhere are rooting for you.”
For Pawlenty, the gambit is simple: As a former union member who’s been more willing to speak out on labor matters in the past, he could own the issue and score points with Republican primary voters, who might be inclined to support Walker.
Mitch Daniels waffled on the issue, which may be more of a public relations issue than substance, as he has been strong on the issue in the past.
Is this the move for which Pawlenty has been waiting to propel himself out of the pack?
I’m beginning to think I could be convinced about Pawlenty.
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Comments
I see we have a little troll named ord avg guy. Don't feed the trolls.
Stop the Koch Brothers!
"Koch Family Foundations supporting causes like ballet"
Reason
Maybe they're the ones responsible for Black Swan.
hmm…
"What connection is there between the Koch brothers and Walker?"
Walker's campaign – $43,000 from KOCHPAC
(2nd only to $43,125 in contributions from housing and realtor groups in WI)
Last Saturday's Tea Party rally in Madison was organized, in part, by Koch funded Americans for Prosperity.
…or just type "standwithwalker dot com" into the ole browser and see where that gets you.
Walker + Koch = "None"? ummm….not so much.
The Walker-Koch connection is certainly real. Nothing you guys need to be defensive about, it is what it is.
So instead of "standwithwalker dot com" try "standingwithscott dot com" – {spoiler} you end up at Pawlenty's PAC.
So, Pawlenty is running in what will be a pretty crowded field (he strikes me as the "Duncan Hunter of '08" for '12 – Not a rock star and not fringe).
To survive the primaries he needs Tea Party attention and money (as they all do) and Koch/AFP is a potential for A LOT of money. What better way to put himself on the radar than co-opting the Koch/AFP URL idea? It certainly helped him with this site.
"The trendy new epithet among Big Labor organizers who've been camping out at the Madison, Wis., Capitol building for more than a week to block GOP Gov. Scott Walker's budget reform bill: "Koch whore." Classy, huh? It's a reference to the reviled Koch brothers, David and Charles, who have used their energy-industry wealth to support limited-government activism. A left-wing agitator based in Buffalo who impersonated Koch in a prank phone call this week used the slur to headline his "gonzo journalism" report. (If a right-leaning activist had perpetrated such a stunt, he'd be labeled a radical, stalking fraudster. But that's par for the media's double-standards course.)
The 20-minute phone call undermined the grand Koch conspiracy by exposing that Walker didn't know Koch at all. No matter. "Koch whore" is the new "Halliburton whore."
Townhall
“With the Left trying to intimidate the Koch brothers to back off of their support for freedom and signaling to others that this is what happens if you oppose the administration and its allies, we have no choice but to continue to fight,” says Richard Fink, the executive vice president of Koch Industries. “We will not step back at all. We firmly believe that economic freedom has benefited the overwhelming majority of society, including workers, who earn higher wages when you have open and free markets. When government grows as it has with the Bush and Obama administrations, that is what destroys prosperity.”
"Fink tells us that he does not see the Walker prank as an isolated act. “This is not just left-wing bloggers,” he says. “This is part of an orchestrated campaign that has been going on for many months. It involves the Obama administration, the Center for American Progress, aligned left-wing groups, and their friends in the media. This is just the latest salvo in their attacks on the Koch brothers and Koch Industries. But it is an escalation — they’re now bringing in some labor groups, which they have not done before. We expect this to be part of an ongoing effort against [Koch Industries] as the 2012 presidential campaign approaches.”
National Review
Remember Alinsky's Rules for Radicals:
"Rule 11: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. Don’t try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies. Identify a responsible individual. Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame."
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