Michael Bloomberg:
Correcting this imbalance is not easy, but in a growing number of states, budget deficits are being used to justify efforts to scale back not only labor costs, but labor rights. The impulse is understandable; public sector unions all too often stand in the way of reform. But unions also play a vital role in protecting against abuses in the workplace, and in my experience they are integral to training, deploying and managing a professional work force.
EJ Dionne:
That is the background for the confrontation between Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker and the state's public-employee unions. Private-sector workers are taking it on the chin, and conservatives now see a chance to cripple organized labor altogether by killing off public-sector unions, the most vibrant part of the movement. The underlying argument is actually insidious: If workers in the private sector have it bad, shouldn't workers in the public sector have it bad, too?
"The game goes like this," according to one pro-union political consultant I spoke with. "Destroy private-sector unions, reduce private-sector health and retirement benefits, then say 'Hey, how come those public employees get such [relatively] good benefits? That's not fair.' " He scoffed at those now insisting that they like private but not public-sector unions: "Private-sector unions are only 'okay' once they are completely emasculated."
NY Times:
MADISON, Wis. — In a victory — at least a symbolic one — for Wisconsin’s public employee unions, the Capitol authorities announced on Sunday that demonstrators could continue their all-night sleepovers in the building and would not be forcibly ejected or arrested.
Dana Milbank:
"He's not one of us."
That phrase, uttered in the fourth minute of what Scott Walker believed to be a private phone conversation, tells you everything you need to know about the rookie governor of Wisconsin.
Walker thought he was talking to a patron, conservative billionaire David Koch, but thanks to the amateurish management that seems to be a hallmark of his governorship, he was instead being punked by an impostor from a liberal Web site...
These are not the words of a statesman. These are the words of a hooligan.
If Republicans think this is their new superstar, God help us. Then again, they adore Sarah Palin.
Richard D. Kahlenberg:
But Walker's argument - that greedy teachers are putting their own interests over the interests of the public - resonates in part because in recent years, many Democrats have made that argument as well.
Exhibit A is former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee. Under Democratic mayor Adrian Fenty, she repeatedly clashed with the Washington Teachers' Union, which she said put the interests of adults over those of children. "Cooperation, collaboration, and consensus-building are way overrated," Rhee said at the Aspen Institute's education summit in 2008. She told journalist John Merrow it is imperative that teachers-union bargaining rights exclude issues such as devising a fair teacher-evaluation system.
The Hill:
South Carolina's new Republican governor sent a signal on Sunday that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) might not expect candidates she endorsed in the 2010 elections to necessarily return the favor in 2012.
S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley (R) said that she doesn't feel any special obligation to Palin, who endorsed Haley at a critical juncture of last year's Republican gubernatorial primary.
Paul Krugman:
Now, politicians — and especially, in my experience, conservative politicians — always claim to be deeply concerned about the nation’s children. Back during the 2000 campaign, then-candidate George W. Bush, touting the “Texas miracle” of dramatically lower dropout rates, declared that he wanted to be the “education president.” Today, advocates of big spending cuts often claim that their greatest concern is the burden of debt our children will face.
In practice, however, when advocates of lower spending get a chance to put their ideas into practice, the burden always seems to fall disproportionately on those very children they claim to hold so dear.
Consider, as a case in point, what’s happening in Texas, which more and more seems to be where America’s political future happens first.
OK, so maybe it means nothing to you,
but to me...
Duke Snider, the Hall of Fame center fielder renowned for his home run drives and superb defensive play in the Brooklyn Dodgers’ glory years, died Sunday in Escondido, Calif. He was 84.
Who was better... Mickey (Bronx), Willie (Manhattan) or the Duke (Brooklyn)? They were all great, but for Brooklyn fans like my family, the Duke was the best.
