WSJ, “Indiana Democrats Come Home”:
Indiana House Democrats ended a nearly six-week boycott of the legislature Monday after Republicans agreed to shelve three bills opposed by unions, including a measure that would have forbidden labor contracts requiring private-sector workers to join unions.
House Republican Speaker Brian Bosma downplayed the political deal, saying “these accommodations were really relatively minor, and most of them were given weeks ago.”
Indiana House Democratic Leader B. Patrick Bauer said he was pleased with the deal and defended his party’s walkout, saying it had given state residents “an opportunity to examine the radical agenda being attempted in Indiana.”
The 39 Indiana Democrats—one stayed behind—fled to Illinois on Feb. 22 to deny the two-thirds quorum needed to act on legislation. They opposed about a dozen bills, including the union-membership measure.
Under the deal announced Monday, that measure would be taken off the table this year. The two sides also struck a compromise on a bill offering private-school vouchers to students, which Democrats and teachers unions wanted eliminated. Republicans agreed to phase in the program more slowly.
Another compromise relates to government construction projects that pay union wage rates. Republicans initially wanted any project with a price tag under $1 million to be free of the requirement to use a union wage rate, but agreed to lower that to $250,000 in the first year, and $350,000 thereafter.
Governor Mitch Daniels issued a statement urging the state to make up “lost time” now that the Democrats had returned.
“Our pro-jobs agenda of low spending, low taxes, and educational improvement is squarely in the Hoosier mainstream,” he said. “The only thing ‘radical’ about this session has been the decision by one caucus to walk off the job for five weeks.”
Well, that, and the fact that you caved.
So, let’s take a tally, shall we? Democrats walk off the job, thwart the democratic process, and are ultimately rewarded for their behavior. The voters of Indiana, on the other hand, are still compelled to join certain unions (and pay those dues), their children are blocked from educational competition that might have exposed public schools and the teachers’ union, and they will be forced — forced — to overpay for construction projects, rewarding unions that already enjoy compulsory dues collecting.
Too, voters have learned that it matters not if they vote to change the composition of the legislature or the state house. The minority party — when that party is the Democrats — will simply walk of the job and refuse to do the people’s business, essentially disenfranchising those voters who didn’t vote with the minority.
We live in a soft tyranny. Our liberty is a fiction — and this is largely because one political party is being successfully guided by its leftwing ideology, while the opposition party is so soft that it visibly bruises every time it’s hit with even the most hackneyed accusation.
Or maybe I’m wrong. Maybe the GOP caved so that they can win elections. Then, having taken power, they will surrender to the Democrats rather than enact the policies they ran on. So that they can win elections.
In some corners of GOP punditry, this is actually considered victory.
Ggghah.
(thanks to TerryH)
Tar, feathers rail? Not anymore.
Now it needs to be “Tar, feathers, rail, fire.”
Pour encourager les autres.
This is very frustrating.
Pussies. They should have taken steps to remove the missing Democrats from office for dereliction of duty. There must be some provision for removing representatives for non-performance and replacing them with others.
I find their lack of staunch disturbing.
The worst part is that this isn’t the first time that they’ve done it. And now we know it won’t be the last.
Some details.
And the views on it by each side. Republicans,
Democrats,
As I have said, Democrats view politics as the only true war and behave accordingly.
If the Republicans did this when they were in the minority, we’d never hear the end of it. I guess we’ll be waiting a little longer for some people with feck and list.
I think in every state where the republicans are the minority they should use this tactic whenever possible. It seems very effective.
Absolutely, Lee. I think they should start immediately, as long as doing so will keep bills from passing. In some cases it wouldn’t, depending on the rules governing the procedures in question.
Get them in the building, lock the doors, and go back and pass your original agenda. Pass everything in one session and then ship them back to Illinois.
Get them in the building, lock the doors, and go back and pass your original agenda.
That would require an indifference to caterwauling that is sorely lacking.
When you see the enemy fastening their bayonets, it’s okay to take the padded gloves off.
No, really.
Teddy Roosevelt was one of the founding Progressives and a Republican.
Nixon was a Progressive, as were both Bushes and most Republicans today. We have’t a true opposition party for decades, just two ideas of how fast the hat basket should decend.
These treacherous bastards are utterly and completely addicted to power, they aren’t going to ever do anything but crave more like all wretched junkies.
When it all collapses there may be enough smart folks around to try to do it right the next time, but I wonder.
Nein.
Tar, feathers, high-speed rail.
Tar, feathers, rail gun.
That’s as high-speed as it gets.
We just need bigger majorities. Get those 2/3 quorums and make the Dems really suffer. As the major fiscal disaster(s) looms or breaks over the next two years this will be doable.
Speaking of unions, and backbone, I’m looking forward to this movie.
‘Atlas Shrugged’ — Dagny Confronts the Union.
You know, if you choose to live as if there is nothing worth dying or killing for, you pretty much live at the mercy of any potential small group of people that will.
Perhaps ironically, perhaps not – seems to me that Democrats understand this from a political strategy point of view and Republicans do not.
It bodes ill.
Oh, here’s a better link.
The “M” in Gov. Daniels’ first name is pronounced like a “B.”
Now sdferr will never come back.
That saddens me.
Have you corresponded with him since he stopped commenting? Was his leaving Daniels related?
I emailed him once in a group reply. He didn’t respond.
I suspect it has more to do with my horrific treatment of happyfeet. Because I’m a hostile person.
What’s with the new orange paragraph on the bottom of the site full of links? Just noticed it this morning. Maybe an open tag somewhere?
“I suspect it has more to do with my horrific treatment of happyfeet. Because I’m a hostile person.”
Not to criticize a guy on his own blog, but shouldn’t you have made that comment on the “voting with their feet” thread?
Badda-boom!
I’m not seeing it, Stephanie.
I don’t have a way to contact sdferr directly, maybe Ernst, bh, or geoffb do. I did try contacting happyfeet via twitter to tell him he was no longer blocked, but have yet to hear back from him.
Hostile is such a violent word, I think of you as passionate in your convictions, or at times strident at worst.
But I may have been assimilated into the hive mind.
I’m not seeing any orange paragraphs either Stephanie. Maybe you have a rare, southern, golf related, or lack thereof, disease!
I see it. At the bottom of the page there are hundreds (maybe a thousand!) of links, all starting with http://pulse.yahoo.com/
Some are really nasty sounding too. Like this: Milla Jovovich crotch shot.
Chuckie’s in love. But not with you.
I didn’t even realize sdferr was pissed. But my ADD made it hard for me to follow what he wrote a lot of the time.
Nothing wrong on the mobile version.
Can’t understand why Sdferr walked. Hope he’s OK in meatspace.
“Hope he’s OK in meatspace”
Yeah, Sdferr is a thoughtful commenter. Happyfeet used to be, a couple years ago.
I would be sad if it turns out Sdferr’s disapearance was over hf.
And a half. Though, sometimes trying to follow the threads he was leading felt like what grad school must be like — and dammit, there’s a reason I never took the GRE.
If I’m gonna go through all that I ought to at least see the chance of a master’s degree at the end of it.
“And a half. Though, sometimes trying to follow the threads he was leading felt like what grad school must be like”
Much like JHo. Sometimes I confess I wish both of them would learn from Ric Locke how to be thoughtful and clear.
I regard that as my failing though.
Think I’ll stick with my Zen notion of the blogosphere.
All of the individual stories have just that attached, individual stories. Interesting in their particulars, sure. But, in the aggregate, blogs and commenters come and go, like waves, seagulls and other hippy shit that fits into this image I have. Also, the tide.
I like sdferr. Learned a ton from him. (Still do.) If he’s not here? Can’t say I think that’s optimal but most of the time things degrade and fall apart. Then… they start up again in a different way. It’s happened here over a few different cycles already.
Altogether, we’re not near heat death quite yet. It’ll just be the repetition of these patterns for another few billion years, I suppose. It’ll bore us long before it actually breaks our hearts.
I feel pretty confident about that.
[…] Jeff defines it: So, let’s take a tally, shall we? Democrats walk off the job, thwart the democratic process, and are ultimately rewarded for their behavior. The voters of Indiana, on the other hand, are still compelled to join certain unions (and pay those dues), their children are blocked from educational competition that might have exposed public schools and the teachers’ union, and they will be forced — forced — to overpay for construction projects, rewarding unions that already enjoy compulsory dues collecting. […]