WI Senate Leader comes clean: This isn't about the economy, we just want to hurt the unions

[ck4829]

A prank call from a man purporting to be petrochemical billionaire David Koch to Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) a few weeks ago revealed that Walker had crafted his “budget repair” bill in a bid to crush the labor unions. The revelation was at odds with the GOP’s public argument, that removing collective bargaining rights has something to do with the state’s budget deficit.

In an interview with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly moments ago, State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI), one of Walker’s closest allies in the legislature, confirmed the true political motive of Walker’s anti-union push. Fitzgerald explained that “this battle” is about eliminating unions so that “the money is not there” for the labor movement. Specifically, he said that the destruction of unions will make it “much more difficult” for President Obama to win reelection in Wisconsin:

FITZGERALD: Well if they flip the state senate, which is obviously their goal with eight recalls going on right now, they can take control of the labor unions. If we win this battle, and the money is not there under the auspices of the unions, certainly what you’re going to find is President Obama is going to have a much difficult, much more difficult time getting elected and winning the state of Wisconsin.

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/09/scott-fitzgerald-obama

[Lifelong Protester]

1. Ok, then, we pretty much figured that out from the cards you WERE

showing... we pretty much knew the other cards were in your hand also.

[malaise]

2. ReTHUGS don't give a flying fuck

about ordinary Americans - it's all politics all of the time.

[drm604]

3. He's just confirming the obvious.

Still, it seems kind of stupid of him to admit it publicly.

[eleny]

4. Those don't sound like words he can ever take back as "misspoken"

It's one thing for us to believe that this is what has been happening. But to hear him spill the beans like this sets it all in stone. This is the goods.

[louis-t]

7. "Taken out of context", "heavily edited", "yer all against me"

Expect all of that and more.

[Jokinomx]

5. Duh... but it's good to see he told the truth...for once...nt

:kick:

[tavalon]

6. I guess this would be why I didn't find much so far in the Wikileaks documents that I felt were

jawdropping. Anyone with half a brain or more (that includes everyone here), already knew these things.

What scares me a bit is how brazen they are getting. They seem to know that the facade is soon coming down so why bother pretending anymore. As long as they were pretending, we still had time to try to stop them. I think we don't have so much time now. We've been living under slowly unfolding fascism for quite a while now but if they don't care about the window dressing anymore, then it's worse than I think any of us thought.

[warren pease]

8. Frank Zappa on the great pretense of freedom in America...

"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater."

[tavalon]

9. I couldn't remember who said it, but I knew I was paraphrasing someone

Frank Zappa - aware before the rest of us and sadly, dead too early.

[iwishiwas]

10. YUP!! We know that for sure NOW (after the sneaky vote)