From the beginning, the money behind Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (in photo) was intended to turn a once-reliable blue state into a laboratory for Republican ideas, where business could grow free of union fetters, taxes could be cut, and thousands of people could be removed from Medicaid rolls. That’s why David Koch, the billionaire industrialist whose family money was crucial to Walker’s election in 2010, gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Association this year, which, in turn, ran ads supporting Walker. Koch said Walker’s fight against public unions was “critically important.” The tactics worked in Wisconsin, and in several other states. Labor, so long in decline in the private sector, is also losing its clout in states and cities, unable to match or withstand the unfettered bank accounts of industry. The people who kept Walker and his policies in power are just getting started. – New York Times
Now that Scott Walker has decisively won Wisconsin’s recall election, I wonder if we’ll be hearing any expressions of remorse for the smears, false rumors and general vilification that his opponents have hurled at him over the past year and a half. Walker’s foes are now complaining that he bought the election with corporate money from out of state. Of all the excuses being offered, this is the most pathetic. Of course Walker exploited existing state campaign-finance law to raise as much money as possible wherever he could. What the heck did his opponents expect him to do? Unilaterally disarm? The unions and Wisconsin Democrats knew the rules. If they didn’t want Walker to bring a financial gun to their knife fight, they shouldn’t have started it in the first place. – Charles Lane, Washington Post
