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Thursday, April 5, 2012
ALEC Exposed
The Center for Media and Democracy EXPOSED these bills
People for the American Way is working to get ALEC's corporate members to leave the group. Sign this petition if you agree:
Tell ALEC's Corporate Sponsors it's Time to Cut Ties. Tell them to Ditch ALEC!
TAKE ACTION: |
The Petition:
Dear President/CEO and Board,Your company funds or participates in the activities of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a group whose ideologically driven agenda has led to the reckless promotion of bills that harm consumers, endanger individuals and deny the fundamental, constitutional rights of millions.
ALEC pushes discriminatory voter ID legislation that suppresses the votes of minorities, young voters, low-income voters and the elderly by erecting barriers that could disenfranchise millions of voters across the nation. Bills based on ALEC's model legislation in this area have been introduced in numerous states. Although proponents of voter ID laws claim the goal is to reduce voter fraud, there is no evidence that such fraud occurs with any regularity in this country.
Further, ALEC has worked with the NRA to aggressively spread passage of laws like the Florida so-called "Stand Your Ground" law which was implicated in the tragic shooting of Trayvon Martin. Such laws, more aptly named Shoot First laws, encourage vigilantism that endangers whole communities.
I strongly urge you to withdraw from and cease supporting ALEC and its agenda. I am part of a growing number of Americans who are concerned about the role that ALEC is playing in the promotion and passage of laws that do real harm to individual Americans and will be taking note of which companies continue to support ALEC's efforts.
Please do the right thing, and separate yourself from ALEC's extreme political, and reckless, agenda.
Signed,
Where's Romney's Alternative?
Etch A Sketch won't beat the Blue Social Model, BuzzFeed columnist John Ellis argues. posted
"The core institutions, ideas and expectations that shaped American life for the sixty years after the New Deal don’t work anymore. The gaps between the social system we inhabit and the one we now need are becoming so wide that we can no longer paper over them. But even as the failures of the old system become more inescapable and more damaging, our national discourse remains stuck in a bygone age. The end is here, but we can’t quite take it in." — Walter Russell Mead.
That sort of sums it up, no? When we elected Senator Barack Obama to the presidency in 2008, we assumed that he understood this. To pretend otherwise, after all, was to deny basic arithmetic.
Everybody understands that the social model we inhabit, which Mr. Mead calls Big Blue, is bankrupt. The deficits and unfunded liabilities now stretch out before us for as far as the eye can see (and beyond). Unless we arrive at some sort of new social model (fast), the next generation will be paying confiscatory taxes with drastically reduced services, all to insure that baby-boomers waddling around in their "golden years" get free health care and COLA-ed pension checks. The war against arithmetic is also a war against the young.
We assumed that Sen. Obama, knowing this, would endeavor to fix it. He didn't. Instead, he embraced the Blue Social Model; passing the laughably-named Affordable Care Act, bailing out the UAW in the GM bailout, throwing Simpson-Bowles under the bus, not addressing the unfunded liabilities of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, not addressing Davis-Bacon and "prevailing wage" laws. The list goes on and on (and on).
Which brings us to today.
In a speech to the nation's newspaper editors this morning, President Obama announced that he was running for re-election to preserve the Blue Social Model; pretending that it can be kept afloat long into the future and pledging to protect it from the dastardly designs of, among others, Paul Ryan, House GOP Budget Chairman and author of the so-called Ryan plan for addressing America's fiscal emergency.
The claim is that Ryan equals Romney, and that “social Darwinism” awaits if you pull the lever for the Mormon. That’s the Obama re-elect “message” in a nutshell.
Which brings us to tonight. With his sweep of the Wisconsin and Maryland primaries, Mitt Romney has finally secured the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. That is no small feat, given the realities of the modern Republican Party.
But he did so without sketching out any design of what a new social model might look like. Indeed, Mr. Romney seemed to stand aside from the most urgent political and policy question of our time -- what comes next -- and instead bored us to tears with reassurances that America would be great again if only we elected him to its highest office.
The key to a Romney victory is not to defeat President Obama; that would be a byproduct. The key is to make the case that the Blue Social Model is truly dead, that a new model is urgently needed and to present the first rough draft of what the new model might look like. Points one and two are an open-and-shut case. Point three is much riskier, obviously, but will (over time and with repetition) sharpen the points of difference. Vote for Obama and surely sink. Vote for Romney and at least there’s hope.
Mr. Romney will never run his campaign along these lines. He and his team will Etch A Sketch as they go; energy today, bomb Iran tomorrow, whatever gets them through the next news cycle.
Good luck with that. They'll be up against a well-oiled Obama attack machine and an Amen Chorus in Big Liberal Media; the largest, most powerful Super PAC on the planet earth.
Without a larger argument, Romney’s Etch A Sketch campaign will almost surely end in defeat. If he’s not serious, then why bother? The collapse of Big Blue is serious business.
The mission of the American Legislative Exchange Council is…
Limited Government · Free Markets · Federalism
… to advance the Jeffersonian principles of free markets, limited government, federalism, and individual liberty, through a nonpartisan public-private partnership of America’s state legislators, members of the private sector, the federal government, and general public.
… to promote these principles by developing policies that ensure the powers of government are derived from, and assigned to, first the People, then the States, and finally, the Federal Government.
… to enlist state legislators from all parties and members of the private sector who share ALEC’s mission.
… to conduct a policy making program that unites members of the public and private sectors in a dynamic partnership to support research, policy development, and dissemination activities.
… to prepare the next generation of political leadership through educational programs that promote the principles of Jeffersonian democracy, which are necessary for a free society.
ALEC under fire as Coke drop its membership
April 5, 2012 3:03 PM
(Credit:
AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Coke said Wednesday it was withdrawing from the American Legislative Exchange Council, a non-partisan organization working to promote free markets and limited government through state legislators after a liberal leaning group started a petition to urge ALEC's member companies to drop their financial support of the group.
"The Coca-Cola Company has elected to discontinue its membership with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Our involvement with ALEC was focused on efforts to oppose discriminatory food and beverage taxes, not on issues that have no direct bearing on our business," company spokeswoman Diana Garza Ciarlante said.
Progressive groups have criticized ALEC for pushing state laws that require voters to present government identification before voting. Such laws have traditionally been used to suppress voter turnout among certain demographics. Conservatives discount those claims and say voters should be required to prove who they are before voting. There is little evidence of voters pretending to be someone else when they head to the ballot box.
The Stand Your Ground law, which allows the use of deadly force by those who feel threatened, has come under fire in the wake of the shooting of an unarmed Florida teen, Trayvon Martin.
"We have a long-standing policy of only taking positions on issues that impact our company and industry," Garza Ciarlante added. Pepsi reportedly dropped its ties to the group earlier this year.
The leading organization behind the boycott, Color of Change, said it first contacted Coke about the issue last year and it would continue to put pressure on ALEC's other members to drop their ties to the organization.
"We welcome Coca-Cola's decision to stop supporting the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization which has worked to disenfranchise African Americans, Latinos, students, the elderly, the disabled, and the poor," said Color of Change, an organization that aims to make government more responsive to the concerns of Black Americans.
Other members of ALEC include AT&T, Bayer, ExxonMobil, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Koch Industries, Kraft Foods, Pfizer, State Farm Insurance, UPS and Wal-Mart Stores.
Corbett B. Daly
Corbett B. Daly is CBSNews.com's deputy politics editor.
CMD Asks Wisconsin Ethics Board to Examine Corporate-Funded Gifts to ALEC Legislators
PRESS RELEASE
CONTACT: Brendan Fischer, (608) 260-9713, brendan@prwatch.org
MADISON --The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) filed a complaint
today with the Government Accountability Board (GAB) based on newly
discovered documents revealing that numerous Wisconsin legislators have
received corporate-funded gifts through their connections to the
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Although ALEC describes
itself as the largest membership group for legislators, over 98% of its
$7 million budget is from corporations and sources other than
legislative dues. Documents obtained via Wisconsin open records law and
other sources show that ALEC corporations are funding lawmakers'
out-of-state travel expenses to posh resorts for ALEC meetings with
corporate lobbyists, in addition to gifts of entertainment and exclusive
parties.Wisconsin has some of the nation's strongest ethics rules and prohibits legislators from accepting anything of value from lobbyists (or corporations that employ lobbyists here). Wisconsin statutes also prohibit elected officials from taking anything of value that could reasonably be expected to influence how they vote on legislation. CMD's findings include:
- The "scholarship fund" that pays for legislators' travel to resorts is funded entirely by ALEC corporations, many of which employ lobbyists to influence Wisconsin law;
- Despite public claims the "scholarships" are in a "blind" trust, documents (PDF) obtained through open records requests to Senator Scott Fitzgerald shows which corporations have bankrolled legislators' travel;
- The drug companies' trade group, PhRMA, gave over $350,000 to the ALEC scholarship fund in 2010 via the Madison address of ALEC's corporate co-chair of Wisconsin, a state-registered lobbyist on behalf of several ALEC companies in Wisconsin, including Koch Industries; and
- Many Wisconsin state senators and representatives who received money from the "scholarship fund" held in trust by ALEC did not disclose this on their Statements of Economic Interests.
"We are asking the state elections board to examine these materials documenting corporate-funded gifts to Wisconsin legislators," said Lisa Graves, Executive Director of CMD, adding "we do not believe the ethics board has previously had evidence to compare the letter of the law with the actual extent of corporate influence being peddled through gifts to legislators via ALEC trips and events."
"It appears that the letter and intent of Wisconsin's clean government laws are violated by legislators accepting free, corporate-funded trips to ALEC conferences, where corporate lobbyists vote with legislators on 'model' bills and special interests underwrite receptions for legislators," said CMD's Law Fellow, Brendan Fischer. "These gifts raise legitimate questions about improper influence, and we are asking the board to issue a public decision interpreting the statutes in light of these new documents."
ALEC Ethics Complaint and Exhibit Index
ALEC Ethics Complaint Exhibits
Time Warner Cable Invitation
Credit Debit Spreadsheet
The Corporations Bankrolling ALEC, which Has Promoted the "Stand Your Ground" Gun Law as a "Model" Bill
The gun lobby has come under the spotlight for its role in the so-called "Stand Your Ground" or "Shoot First" law that may protect the man who shot and killed seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida -- but many other special interests, including household names like Kraft Foods and Wal-Mart, also helped facilitate the spread of these and other laws by funding the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
As Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman highlighted this week in the New York Times, the Center for Media and Democracy's work exposing ALEC has pierced through the veil of secrecy around how "model" bills like the NRA-conceived "Stand Your Ground"/"Shoot First" bills get approved in closed-door meetings of corporations and politicians and then pushed across the country.
But as CMD has documented through ALECexposed.org, the National Rifle Association (NRA) is not the only special interest that has funded ALEC's operations over the years.
Kraft, Wal-Mart, State Farm, and other well-known corporations are ALEC members and give thousands of dollars a year to ALEC to support its work, sit on its board, have a vote on its task forces, and access lawmakers through ALEC meetings at fancy resorts. Over 98 percent of ALEC's annual $7 million budget comes from corporations and sources other than the $50 in annual dues paid by its legislative members.
Because ALEC is largely corporate-funded, it is through the financial support of some of the largest companies in the world that ALEC model bills can spread across the country.
CMD has called ALEC a "corporate bill mill" because it facilitates companies like Wal-Mart and special interests like the NRAputting their wish lists in the hands of state legislators and having their desires ratified as model bills to pass in statehouses around the country.
In addition to the Florida bill that ALEC and the NRA call the "Castle Doctrine Act," ALEC model bills have served as the template for "voter ID" laws that swept the country in 2011, for the "voucher" programs that privatize public education, for anti-environmental bills, anti-immigrant legislation, and for the wave of anti-worker legislation pushed over the past year in Wisconsin, Ohio, New Hampshire, Indiana, and most recently, in Arizona.
ALEC Task Force meetings, where model bills are initially approved, are closed to the press and public, but corporations and ideological special interests like the Wal-Mart "have a VOICE and a VOTE," in the words of ALEC, with elected officials. Not only do corporate representatives have a vote on model legislation alongside legislators on ALEC task forces, some companies also provide gifts to the ALEC "scholarship" fund for elected officials to attend ALEC meetings at resorts. Under ALEC's published bylaws, every state's legislative co-chair has a "duty" to raise money from ALEC corporations for these trip funds. (CMD has filed a complaint with Wisconsin's Government Accountability Board about how the ALEC scholarships appear to violate state ethics and lobbying laws.)
ALEC boasts of having over 300 corporate members, with almost two dozen corporations sitting on the ALEC Private Enterprise Board. According to ALEC's published bylaws, this Board meets jointly with its "public sector" board of state legislators.
In addition to the usual suspects like Koch Industries, Exxon Mobil, and Altria/Phillip Morris, corporate members of that board include a variety of businesses whose products are well known.
Coca-Cola and
computer chip manufacturer Intel both sat on ALEC's board last year when CMD launched ALECexposed.org and began highlighting the corporations making ALEC's agenda possible.
Currently, the Board includes
mac-and-cheese maker Kraft Foods,
the "good neighbor" State Farm,
shipping giant UPS,
and the global consolidated liquor company Diageo (known for brands like Johnny Walker, Tanqueray, Smirnoff, and Guinness).
Verizon's former lobbyist, Ron Scherbele, is currently ALEC's Executive Director, after having represented Verizon on the Board for years.
Other ALEC Private Enterprise Board members include
telecommunications giant AT&T and
pharmaceutical companies like Bayer and GlaxoSmithKline,
along with the drug industry lobby group PhRMA. (PhRMA also gave over $350,000 to ALEC's scholarship fund in 2010 alone.)
Wal-Mart is also a member of the ALEC Board, and in 2005 headed the ALEC Task Force that ratified the law that may protect the killer of Trayvon Martin and other unarmed victims.
Wal-Mart is also the largest seller of rifles and ammunition in the U.S.
With the launch of ALECexposed.org, CMD, along with the efforts of Color of Change, Common Cause, People for the American Way, Progress Now, and others, began a corporate accountability campaign to hold the corporate leaders of ALEC accountable for legislation resulting from the ALEC bill mill.
Numerous citizens have responded by contacting ALEC corporations, which often try to disavow any responsibility for ALEC bills. Koch Industries has just issued such a claim, despite its long-time leadership role as a member of the ALEC corporate board, and despite having chaired the board in the past. Koch says it opposed an NRA bill in Florida, but at the same time, a Koch representative was sitting on the corporate board of ALEC (and have been for over a decade), and both Koch Industries and the Koch family foundations have been funding ALEC's operations. Over this period, ALEC in turn has been elevating an array of gun bills as state "models," including legislation expanding concealed carry and allowing guns on college campuses as well as the Stand Your Ground/Shoot First/Castle Doctrine bill. And many ALEC legislators have sponsored these bills to become the law in states across the country.
ALEC has boasted repeatedly that nearly a thousand of its bills are introduced each year and 20 percent become law.
Corporations like Koch Industries and Wal-Mart have helped make that possible through their long-standing financial support of ALEC.
A list of known ALEC corporations, present and past, can be viewed here.
Send a message to the corporations on the Private Enterprise Board here.
For Wisconsin Crowd, Romney Invokes “Union Bosses”
Romney knows his audience in Wisconsin, where organized labor is a dirty word for Republicans. “The recall has definitely sucked all the oxygen out of the political room,” says a local politico. posted
Romney with supporters on primary night in Wisconsin.
(Getty Images / Scott Olson)
MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin — Mitt Romney's biggest applause line tonight was a hat tip to the movement to keep Governor Scott Walker in office, and an acknowledgement that his race is not the main attraction in recall-crazed Wisconsin.
In his victory speech, Romney told a crowd at the Grain Exchange in Milwaukee that "Workers should have the right to form unions, but unions should not be forced upon them. And unions should not have the power to take money out of their members’ paychecks to buy the support of politicians favored by the union bosses." — a reference to the war over collective bargaining rights that has led to a recall election for Governor Scott Walker, scheduled for June 5.
Romney also jabbed at President Obama's past as a community organizer, which also appealed to the distaste that Wisconsin Republicans feel toward the statewide Democratic organizing against Walker. "The ironic tragedy is that the community organizer who wanted to help those hurt by a plant closing became the President on whose watch more jobs have been lost than any time since the Great Depression," he said.
The Republican primary is winding down just as the Wisconsin recall is kicking into high gear, and local Republicans say the presidential election is something of an afterthought in their state.
"Right now, the recall is more important," said Washington County GOP chairman Jim Geldreich. "The enthusiasm level on our side is very high, and I don't think the tactics of the unions and the rest of the people on the other side is going to be enough."
Ted Kanavas, a former Wisconsin state senator, told BuzzFeed that "the recall is hands-down, five to one, seven to one, ten to one -- you pick a number -- more important to voters in Wisconsin than presidential politics right now."
"June is coming fast," Kanavas said. "The recall has definitely sucked all the oxygen out of the political room."
News Editors Group Plays “Stars And Stripes Forever” After Romney Speaks
It's usually played after the President speaks.
I am glad I was not the only one who noticed that. I was like
Wait! He is not the President, yet....
posted
Zeke Miller
Romney Supported Cap And Trade, Bragged About Emissions Controls
He praised plans in a 2003 letter to NY Gov. George Pataki. He later backed out of regional greenhouse gas group as he laid the groundwork for a presidential run. posted
""Thank you for you invitation to embark on a cooperative northeast process to reduct the power plant pollution that is harming our climate. I concur that climate change is beginning to effect our natural resources and that now is the time to take action towards climate protection," Romney said in the letter, adding, "I believe that our joint work to create a flexible market-based regional cap and trade system could serve as an effective approach to meeting these goals."
The Pataki letter, obtained from a Democratic source, details Romney's support for cleaning up his state's most polluting power plants, in addition to an enthusiastic embrace of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative concept.
Romney backed out of the cooperative the same day he announced that he would not run for reelection — as he planned to run for president. As detailed by The Wall Street Journal, the decision was just one of a host of policy shifts in 2005 coinciding with Romney's look to higher office.
Weeks earlier Romney had called it "good business," and later "a great thing for the Commonwealth," The Boston Globe reported at the time.
The Romney campaign notes that he has spoken out about his decision before, and says his decision to abandon the regional cap-and-trade program came about when he decided it would be too costly for consumers and businesses.
“New York invited the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to participate in the RGGI discussion, but, at the conclusion of those discussions, Gov. Romney refused to sign the agreement because he felt there were inadequate protections for businesses and consumers,” said Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul.
The Pataki letter, obtained from a Democratic source, details Romney's support for cleaning up his state's most polluting power plants, in addition to an enthusiastic embrace of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative concept.
Romney backed out of the cooperative the same day he announced that he would not run for reelection — as he planned to run for president. As detailed by The Wall Street Journal, the decision was just one of a host of policy shifts in 2005 coinciding with Romney's look to higher office.
Weeks earlier Romney had called it "good business," and later "a great thing for the Commonwealth," The Boston Globe reported at the time.
The Romney campaign notes that he has spoken out about his decision before, and says his decision to abandon the regional cap-and-trade program came about when he decided it would be too costly for consumers and businesses.
“New York invited the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to participate in the RGGI discussion, but, at the conclusion of those discussions, Gov. Romney refused to sign the agreement because he felt there were inadequate protections for businesses and consumers,” said Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul.
Scott Walker: The Recall "Has Made Us Stronger"
The embattled Wisconsin governor gave a rare interview on the topic of the upcoming recall election to the Christian Broadcasting Network. posted
A difficult moment that's part of God's plan?
(Getty Images / Justin Sullivan)
It's just really prayer. It's the prayers that we have as a family, that we have individually, and the prayers that people tell us about. And those that we don't even hear about, but we feel people all around our state and really all around the country, that people go out of their way to lift us up, and it's just, it has been so amazing to us, and really as a family, I think it has made us stronger. We realize that all this is just a temporary thing and God's got a plan for us that, who knows where it might be, beyond just serving as Governor of this state, but if we stay true to that, there's always comfort.
Exclusive: Scott Walker on Recall: "God's Got A Plan"
In an exclusive interview with The Brody File, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker says prayer has gotten him and his family through this recall effort and that God has it all under control. “All this is just a temporary thing and God's got a plan for us," Walker tells us. Could that lead to even bigger things beyond being Governor of Wisconsin? “Who knows where it might be, beyond just serving as Governor of this state.”
The Brody File spoke with Governor Walker at his Executive Residence in Madison Wisconsin this past Sunday afternoon for about an hour. We are releasing a few of the video clips from the interview. More will be released on The Brody File Show later this week and a full story will air on The 700 Club in the next couple weeks.
Mandatory Courtesy: CBN News/The Brody File (VIDEO Coming Soon)
Watch his comments below with the full transcription.
Walker 2:
David Brody: Where does God fit into all of this, because as as a "PK" (Preachers Kid) as you called yourself earlier, look, there's got to be peace there, at the root of all of this for you.
Governor Scott Walker: “Oh, absolutely. People ask all the time, to Tonette (his wife) and I, how do you get through this? It's just really prayer. It's the prayers that we have as a family, that we have individually, and the prayers that people tell us about. And those that we don't even hear about, but we feel people all around our state and really all around the country, that people go out of their way to lift us up, and it's just, it has been so amazing to us, and really as a family, I think it has made us stronger. We realize that all this is just a temporary thing and God's got a plan for us that, who knows where it might be, beyond just serving as Governor of this state, but if we stay true to that, there's always comfort. And God's grace is always abundant no matter what you do, and it's just every step of the way. In fact our Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch, she asked me about this the other day, she's just been spectacular as well. She asked me, she said, Scott, do you feel like you're living your faith strong enough? She was asking me about this on a trip we were on. And I said yeah, the interesting thing is for me, it's not just about going out and quoting scripture, it's in how you live. And what I've tried to do over this past year is even at the moments of the peak of the attacks and the incivility and everything else, to make sure what I did was calm, it was reasoned, and that I was responding in kind.”
Exclusive: Scott Walker Says He's "Not Afraid To Lose" Recall Effort
In an exclusive interview with The Brody File, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker says that he’s no “afraid to lose” his recall election this June. “I don't plan on losing. I'm going to run a campaign to win,” he tells The Brody File. Walker laments the state of politics today saying, “Unfortunately, I think there are too many politicians in America today who make the decision solely in the end, about whether or not they run the risk of losing, and to me, that's one of our problems. You can't be afraid to lose.”The Brody File spoke with Governor Walker at his Executive Residence in Madison Wisconsin this past Sunday afternoon for about an hour. We are releasing a few of the video clips from the interview. More will be released on The Brody File Show later this week and a full story will air on The 700 Club in the next couple weeks.
Mandatory Courtesy: CBN News/The Brody File
Watch his comments below with the full transcription.
Governor Scott Walker: “People ask, do you like this? Well, no. Any human being, if we're honest about it, you don't want to be hated by anybody, you want everybody to love you. But, I was asked last December, a supporter asked me a very interesting question at dinner. He said, did you ever stop and think that maybe if you hadn't gone so far, that you wouldn't be facing a recall. I said yeah, sure. But if I hadn't taken the steps I took, we wouldn't have fixed things. And I said, you know for my kids and their generation, I don't want them to inherit a Wisconsin that's not at least as great if not greater than the one I inherited, and you don⊃;t get that by not fixing things. So, I said to him, my view is I don't plan on losing. I'm going to run a campaign to win. I'm hoping I get the truth out and ultimately convince enough voters in this state to honor me with their vote again, like they did in 2010, but I'm not afraid to lose. And that's the difference. Unfortunately, I think there are too many politicians in America today who make the decision solely in the end, about whether or not they run the risk of losing, and to me, that's one of our problems. You can't be afraid to lose. You shouldn't plan on it. But you should make decisions that are ultimately about what's right and what's just and what's best not just for yourself but for the next, the next wave of young people who are going to inherit our states and our country and not be afraid to lose along the way.” posted @ Thursday, April 05, 2012 2:09 PM
Exclusive: Scott Walker Looks Back, Explains What He'd Do Differently
In an exclusive interview with The Brody File, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who is facing a recall election in June says if he could do things over again he’d, “probably spend more time last January and February making the case for why we needed the change.” Walker’s push to balance the state budget led to a bill that angered unions because it took away some of their power and cut benefits for some union workers.
The Brody File spoke with Governor Walker at his Executive Residence in Madison Wisconsin this past Sunday afternoon for about an hour. We are releasing a few of the video clips from the interview. More will be released on The Brody File Show later this week and a full story will air on The 700 Club in the next couple weeks.
Mandatory Courtesy: CBN News/The Brody File
Watch his comments below with the full transcription.
David Brody: To take a step back to what you have done here in Wisconsin and the uproar that is has received if this is a new wave of what other governors need to look toward in the future.
Governor Scott Walker: “Well, that’s why I think this battle is not just about me and whether I⊃;m the governor or not. I think this is a much larger play for those outside interests. For me, it was just about fixing it. I came in last year kind of like a small business owner, and said here’s a problem, here’s a solution, now just get out and fix it. If I had it to do over again, I⊃;d probably spend more time last January and February making the case for why we needed the change. Good example: for years school districts in our state overwhelmingly had to buy their health insurance from essentially just one company. A company that just so happened to be affiliated with the teachers union. We changed all of that. Now they can bid it out, and they⊃;ve saved tens of millions of dollars. If I had made that case up front, I think people would have gone, hey Governor, you need to fix that. But instead, I fixed it, and then I made my case. I⊃;ve learned from that and education reform, some other things we⊃;ve been working on the past year, we⊃;ve done a better job of making the case up front, bringing people to solve the solution, and then acting on it. But I guess if I had to be accused of one thing or another, I’d rather be accused of fixing something first, and then explaining it, as opposed to explaining and not fixing it at all.”
Governor Scott Walker: “ The message to the governors is I think clearly they want to defeat me, take me out on June 5th, so that no other governor, not just Republican but there⊃;s a number of discerning Democrats who understand these issues have to be dealt with as well, and not just the governors around the country and I think the unions understand that when we prevail, it will send a powerful message across this country that you can take on the tough issues, you can do what people have argued should be done for years, which is get our fiscal house in order, and you⊃;ll be sustained, and they don⊃;t want that. They want people to live in fear of challenging any of these status quo items again in the future.”
Exclusive: Scott Walker Says His Sons "Targeted on Facebook" Over Recall Effort
In an exclusive interview with The Brody File, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker says the vitriol over the effort to recall him has gotten so bad at times that his children have been “targeted on Facebook.”The Brody File spoke with Governor Walker at his Executive Residence in Madison Wisconsin this past Sunday afternoon for about an hour. We are releasing a few of the video clips from the interview. More will be released on The Brody File Show later this week and a full story will air on The 700 Club in the next couple weeks.
Mandatory Courtesy: CBN News/The Brody File
Watch his comments below with the full transcription.
David Brody: What kind of stories have you seen about some folks really kind of getting in your face about this?
Governor Scott Walker: “Well, even more so my personal home where my kids, my parents still live. I have thousands of people bussed in to my home in Wauwatosa where I've got two high school sons living, and I've got parents in their 70s. Last year, my 16 year old and my mother in her 70s were at a grocery store and got yelled at. I've had my kids targeted on Facebook; we've had all those sorts of things. Now, thankfully for every one of them, there's ten fold people that come up to me at a factory or a farm or small business and say, hey Governor, me and my family are praying for you. That never makes the news.” posted @ Wednesday, April 04, 2012 6:39 PM
Exclusive: Scott Walker to Brody File: Unions Trying to "Take Me Out"
In an exclusive interview with The Brody File, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker accuses big government union leaders of intimidation saying they are trying to “take me out.” Walker says if he is recalled as Governor on June 5th, “I think it sets aside any kind of courage in American politics for at least a decade, if not a generation.”The Brody File spoke with Governor Walker at his Executive Residence in Madison Wisconsin this past Sunday afternoon for about an hour. We are releasing a few of the video clips from the interview. More will be released on The Brody File Show later this week and a full story will air on The 700 Club in the next couple weeks.
Mandatory Courtesy: CBN News/The Brody File
Watch his comments below with the full transcription.
David Brody: “How important is your victory on June 5th as it relates to the Tea Party movement? There are going to be a lot of folks that say look, if you lose they⊃;re going to say we took down a tea party guy who tried to do his tea party agenda, And we took him down. What will it say about the tea party if you actually win on June 5th?”
Governor Scott Walker: “I think it goes even beyond, even more fundamental than that. What I think it does is when we prevail it sends a powerful, powerful message not just here in my statehouse, but in Springfield, in Columbus, in Albany and Austin and Tallahassee and state houses all across America, and equally if not more so, it says to Washington DC and people like my friend Paul Ryan and others who are trying to tackle tough issues as well it sends a powerful message that voters are saying, yeah, we do want leaders to stand up and do the right thing. We do want them to tackle the tough issues. Conversely, God help us if we fail, I think it sets aside any kind of courage in American politics for at least a decade, if not a generation and that⊃;s why I say all the time, that⊃;s why we can⊃;t fail.”
Governor Scott Walker: “What I have heard for years are voters saying to me, I get sick and tired of these people getting elected to office and then when they get there, they don⊃;t have the courage, they don⊃;t have the guts to take on these issues. I think people are hungry for leadership, not just Republican leadership, or Democrat leadership, they⊃;re just hungry for leadership. And that⊃;s what we⊃;ve tried to provide.”
Governor Scott Walker: “I think its intimidation. I think it⊃;s flat out about intimidation. I think you see in Washington DC, you see the national big government union leaders are looking at this and saying, last year, they spent tens of millions of dollars trying to take out the State Senate Wisconsin. They’re going to be part of an effort that some say may spend 70-80 million dollars in this state for governor. That’s insane. And yet, I think what they clearly want to show is that if they win, they can take me out, and if they can take me out, they can take anybody out. And again, it⊃;s not just about Republicans, I mean there are plenty of other Democrats across this country. You had the state treasurer, a Democrat in Rhode Island who worked with the governor to try and change pensions. You’ve got Andrew Cuomo talking in New York about changing things. You’ve got Jerry Brown in California talking about pension reform. You’ve got Rahm Emmanuel in Chicago talking about challenging the education bureaucracy down there. In everyone of those cases, I think it is one of those tipping points, not just here in
Wisconsin, but in America, where we say who is really in charge? Do we want people who stand up with the hard working American people who pay taxes making decisions at the local and the state level by people who are duly elected by the citizens at that jurisdiction? Or do we want a handful of big government union bosses continuing to call the shots? And that, to me, is really what it’s about.” posted @ Wednesday, April 04, 2012 3:01 PM
Brody File Exclusive: Scott Walker Says He is Not "Anti-Union"
In an exclusive interview with The Brody File, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker says charges that he is anti-union are “completely wrong.” Walker is facing a recall election on June 5th after a budget bill he championed took away power from some of the unions. “I may be anti-big government union bosses, because I think in the past, one of our problems has been they⊃;ve been the ones calling the shots, instead of the hard working taxpayers in the state of Wisconsin. I put the power back in the hands ofThe taxpayers. What I did is also very pro-worker.”
The Brody File spoke with Governor Walker at his Executive Residence in Madison Wisconsin this past Sunday afternoon for about an hour. We are releasing a few of the video clips from the interview. More will be released on The Brody File Show later this week and a full story will air on The 700 Club in the next couple weeks.
Mandatory Courtesy: CBN News/The Brody File
Watch his comments below with the full transcription.
David Brody: What is your response to folks that say you are anti-Union? When you hear that, what do you think?
Governor Scott Walker: “Well, you know on two counts, it⊃;s just completely wrong. In the private sector, I’ve got great partners in unions. You look at unions like the operating engineers; they endorsed me, they are still very supportive of our efforts. Why? Because their guys are back to work, they’re working again. Unlike my predecessor who made it very difficult for people building infrastructure, roads and bridges and rail and things of that nature we put the money back in that had been raided there. You look at other big issues that we⊃;ve done in terms of infrastructure in the state, we⊃;ve had the support of other private sector unions, because they want work. They want their guys to go back to work, and those unions in the private sector have largely been my partners in economic development. The other part though, even on the public employee standpoint, it is kind of interesting, I may be anti-big government union bosses, because I think in the past, one of our problems has been they⊃;ve been the ones calling the shots, instead of the hard working taxpayers in the state of Wisconsin. I put the power back in the hands of the taxpayers. What I did is also very pro-worker.” posted @ Thursday, April 05, 2012 2:33 PM
Rick Santorum Drinking Beer
The candidate enjoys a pint or two . Especially now that he's in Wisconsin: He started drinking at 11:30 a.m. today. posted
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And some background, from the Huffington Post's account of Santorum's college days: Everybody called him "Rooster." And Rooster liked to chug.Christine Grasso remembered how Santorum taught her the not-so-subtle nuances of chugging during her freshman year, when she was a "Little Sister" at the fraternity house. "Honest to God, he taught me how to chug a beer," Grasso said. "Back then, you used to chug beer and, you know, challenge each other ... He was amazing. He could chug a beer in like one gulp."
Rooster could beat everyone at beer-chugging, Grasso said. She explained the Rooster technique: "You just open your throat."
Republicans Brace For The Romney Pivot
Some Republicans hope, others worry, that with the primary ending, the candidate will turn on his party. Schmidt advises “appropriate distance” from the Republican brand.
Posted
The moment will probably come in the early fall of 2012: Ultra-conservative House Republicans will draw a clear line in the sand, and Mitt Romney will have to choose whether to stand with them, or stand against them.Romney quieted conservative complaints last month by embracing Paul Ryan’s budget and its deep spending cuts. Now President Obama has already begun to cast the plan, and the candidate, as “radical.” Many conservatives are quietly resigned to the expectation that their candidate will betray them, likely in the fall as he pivots toward the center. And some Republican strategists are already urging Romney to make that public break with his party’s conservative Washington leaders, who are as unpopular with the broad electorate as they are beloved by the conservative base.
“There’s no possible way for him to be elected president without at some point distancing himself from Congress,” said Dan Schnur, who was communication director for John McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign. “He signed on to the Ryan Budget and he’s going to need to stick with it for a while, but at some point in late summer or early fall, the budget negotiations are going to take a turn that is going to force him to part ways with the House Republicans.”
The Republican congressional leaders “are deeply, deeply unpopular, and Mitt Romney has no reason why he should run as part of Team Washington, or as the captain of the Washington Red Team,” said Steve Schmidt, a former Bush aide who managed John McCain’s 2008 campaign. “He should run as someone who’s going to come to Washington and clean things up, which means having the appropriate distance between himself and the Republican majority in the House and the Republican minority in the Senate.”
Romney is one of the most cautious national candidates in memory, almost allergic to dramatic gestures. But he’s also a career moderate with few movement conservatives in his circle. And there’s nothing novel about the general election pivot. Indeed, most successful national politicians find a symbolic moment to break with the least popular elements of their parties. Today’s Congressional Leadership, with its approval ratings in the single-digits, can’t actually be much more popular than Sister Souljah, the rapper whose name Bill Clinton made synonymous with that political maneuver.
But for Republicans, it was George W. Bush who set the model.
Already a far stronger Establishment candidate than Romney is now, Bush chose the fall of 1999 to make his break. When Republicans sought to balance the budget by postponing payments of the Earned Income Tax Credit to low-income workers, Bush attacked.
“I don't think they ought to balance their budget on the backs of the poor," he said.
Later that week, he again positioned his “compassionate conservatism” against the anti-government Republicanism that had characterized the opposition of the 1990s. His aggressive education reform measures, he said, would put an end to his own party’s “disdain for government."
This time in 2000, he picked other opportunities to put distance between himself and the Congressional Republicans, on everything from trade in China to Bill Clinton.
When the a top official of the National Rifle Association, a key figure with the party’s base, charged that President Clinton had “blood…on his hands” for failing to enforce existing gun laws, Bush rebuked him.
The group’s executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, had "gone too far, Bush said, citing “ways to debate the issue without casting aspersions on the president like that."
Bush had a profound advantage, however, that Romney lacks. He had the trust of conservative leaders, who went along when he cast his breaks with partisan figures like DeLay as something short of attacks on the conservative movement.
“As far as conservatives were concerned, Bush vs. Delay was just intramurals,” said Schnur, who said it would likely only delay the 2012 nominee’s pivot.
“Romney’s still proving that he’s a member of the club, so he has to wait longer,” he said.
Romney’s own advisers swear he has no plans to betray a party that has, however reluctantly, finally begun to rally around him.
“This race is about bigger things than something like that,” said Kevin Madden, his 2008 spokesman and now a campaign adviser, who said Romney will keep a simple focus on the economy. “Obama owns the Washington status quo brand now, much more than anyone,” he said.
But many conservatives, distrustful of Romney even as the party rallies around him, are also glumly anticipating a pivot, or at least an attempt to wriggle away from the dramatic budget cutting he has embraced in Ryan’s plan.
“I suppose he’ll want to start looking like some kind of a statesman who rises above this stuff, but you can’t really rise above it,” said Dick Armey, the former House Majority Leader, who said he wasn’t sure which way Romney would go.
“Either you’re going to support raising the debt ceiling and keep spending…or you’re going to make the hard budgetary choices,” he said. “If he wants to be friends with the conservatives he’s going to have to start getting tougher and say, 'We won’t raise the debt ceiling [unless] you’ve show us that you’re going to move budgetarily in direction that won’t make this necessary in the future."
Romney may pick a fight with the Congressional leadership, or he may have a fight forced upon him. In particular, some new projections suggest that the next debt ceiling battle — which had been expected in 2013 — could come as soon as September, forcing the Republican candidate to pick a side. September could also see a budget battle, but Congressional leaders may also push that debate until after the election.
Many of those choices are out of Romney’s hands: Either Obama’s allies, or Romney’s own tepid Congressional supporters, could insist on the kind of dramatic showdown that has repeatedly paralyzed Capitol Hill during the Obama Administration. But House Republicans may also seek to smooth Romney’s path.
“I don’t think you’ll see any attempt by Republicans to be creating a crisis or for Romney to be dragged into a crisis,” New York Congressman Peter King told BuzzFeed. “Once Romney is the nominee, he becomes the star of the show.”
But senior Congressional aides also warned that Romney would pay a price for any attempt to triangulate against their leaders, who are — though broadly unpopular — far closer to the conservative Republican grassroots than was the leadership in 2000.
“Mitt Romney is a serious leader with a plan to revitalize the economy and get Americans working again,” said Brad Dayspring, a political advisor to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. “His best chance to accomplish those goals is to establish a strong working relationship with a Republican majority in the House and ideally the Senate.”
“We would be very understanding about running against Washington and Congress in general,” said a top Congressional Leadership aide.” I don’t think it would be smart politics in any way to single out [Speaker John] Boehner or House Republicans.”
Romney’s flexibility may in fact depend on how secure he feels with the Republican base by the fall, and whether his running mate has been able to cement that bond.
“Romney still has a conservative problem so he would only hurt himself with the base that supports House Republicans if he did that,” said another former Bush aide, Ari Fleischer, who added that Boehner and Cantor lack the kind of notoriety that figures like DeLay and Speaker Newt Gingrich and Nancy Pelosi have carried with swing voters.
But Romney's weakness among conservatives has a flip-side: They endorsed him late, and weakly, if at all, and he doesn't owe them much. And the candidate may not enjoy the luxury of keeping both his warm ties to Republican leaders in Washington and a clear message that he stands apart from them.
“Running for president is a hard job,” said Schmidt. “Mitt Romney is going to have to act in his self-interest, not necessarily the Republican Establishment’s self-interest.”
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