Once again, Governor Walker courageously sits back and asks others to do his heavy lifting.
As hopes faded Wednesday for a $1.5 billion northern Wisconsin iron mine and its 700 jobs, the finger pointing began.When it comes to tough issues, Scott Walker is the Republican Barack Obama. "Hey, you guys do all the hard work, and when you've got an answer, I'm going to stand at this podium and pretend I did something to make it all happen."
Republicans blamed Democrats. And Democrats blamed Republicans. Just about everybody seemed to be blaming somebody else after the mine company, Gogebic Taconite, announced late Tuesday that it will shut down its operation in the state because of the Legislature's failure earlier in the day to pass a bill to make mine permitting easier.
Most seemed doubtful that the legislation could be resuscitated before the Legislature ends its session next week. But some also seemed reluctant to completely let go of the possibility.
In a statement released Wednesday, Gov. Scott Walker left open the door to more negotiations but seemed to place the burden for initiating those talks on the Democrats and on state Sen. Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center, the lone Republican who voted against the GOP-authored mining legislation.
"While it seems like a long shot," Walker said, "there is still time for those who opposed mining reform to change their mind. We are still hopeful that in the future we can provide certainty to the mine permitting process so we can get more Wisconsinites back to work."
5 comments:
The alternative might also be worth exploring: how much sway does Walker wield?
A functioning governor would have pulled out all the stops to get Schultz's vote or to pick off one of the waffling Milwaukee-area Dems, but Walker doesn't seem to have any such tools left in the kit. If this report is accurate, then one can reasonably assume that Carpenter reneged at the last second because of the inevitable fallout that would have come with being associated with Walker. That would mean the most counterproductive element to Walker's agenda would be Walker himself.
Just think about the consequences of that going into 2013. If the Dems win control of one of either the Assembly or the Senate and Walker fights off recall -- which is looking more and more like the most likely outcome -- then how the hell is a budget going to get passed?
A Dem majority in one house would have no incentive to pass a budget without public promises by Walker not to veto certain programs. It's a recipe for an extended state gov't shutdown, one that could reignite another holy war like the one last winter, only this time it's not about collective bargaining rights but something much more simple: does state government matter at all?
Except that in Wisconsin, government doesn't shut down if there is no budget passed, like it does in Minnesota and on the federal level. Funding would just continue at 2012 levels indefinitely. So it would basically just have the effect of an across the board cut of whatever the inflation level is.
Different anonymous here.
I don't know the particulars and as much as I assume it's the case, I hope Dems didn't oppose it purely for partisan reasons. I have to assume the bill must have really sucked for Schultz to oppose it.
What I have to add though is that I was dumb enough to listen to Jay Weber on the way into work this morning and about a minute of Belling on the way home. Both were complaining about the Dems not voting for anything that might make Walker look successful.
The irony of that complaint could easily have torn a hole in the space time continuum.
Why cannot those damn Democrats save the incompent Republican Governor from himself? Afterall he has worked so hard to be a total jerk repeatedly to Democrats, ignored every bit of advice from lobbyists to Republican loyalists to old Democrats to work with them. Job numbers look like tech stocks after the Internet bubble, Republicans like Grothman are starting to look the other way, the budget has hit an iceberg, there is no Susan Goodwin or Jim Klauser to act as Micheal Clayton to clean things up, the fresh ideas are as bare as a college freshman's fridge, most days the Governor's Office is dark and vacant by 3:30 pm with less signs of life than Mars, Walker's campaign gets an A for raising money, but a D- for it's meaningless commercials and the Governor still has no clear logical story for what happened in his county office for the liquid
drain-o that is being poured on his administration. The fact that Tim Russell, who is a giant all weekend long Dateline special gets kid gloves, but Dale Schultz gets
Coldness says it all.
The last anonymous is right. This is Walker as Milwaukee County Executive all over again, except there the County Board prevented train wrecks by passing slight tax increases over Walker's vetoes. Everybody won: Walker could remain "pure" in the eyes of his base, while those who actually cared about keeping government functioning kept it going.
But Democrats in the legislature (and Schultz) have no interest in bailing Walker out.
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