Democrats play dirty!

CNN”s Parker-Spitzer last night had interesting coverage of the protests in Madison, Wisconsin. Elliot Spitzer was absent, and in his stead was CNN’s Ali Velshi.

Fourteen Wisconsin Democrats have fled the state rather than face certain passage of of a Republican bill that strips benefits and collective bargain rights from state public employee unions. Their absence means no quorum, and no vote. Velshi was visibly upset about this, and confronted John Nichols, a journalist from the Capital Times, a Madison newspaper. He said that the voters had spoken last year, that there were no surprises going on, and that it was time for the Senators to come back and face the music.

Nichols said not so fast … he had followed then gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker, and nary once during the campaign did he even hint that he had such plans for public employees. The whole thing is a surprise, introduced in a bill last Friday with passage demanded yesterday. Democrats had asked for a slow-down, if only to have some debate on the issue, and Republicans said no – up or down vote only. Now!

Wisconsin is not facing a budget crisis, which makes all of this even more interesting. They are running short about $150 million, all produced by bills passed by the legislature this year to give tax breaks to businesses and wealthy people. It’s almost as if they are following the Bushies’s game plan, which is to create massive deficits through tax breaks and military spending, and then demand a crackdown on social programs to make up for the resulting deficits. It is all Kabuki theater right now in DC, but this also appears to be Obama’s game.

Anyway, I am proud of the Wisconsin Democrats, as they are playing dirty. They are Democrats, of course, and as I’ve often noted, being a Democrat is much like sitting in the center of a bowl of Jello. Will they fold? Most likely. They are, after all, Democrats.

But their gesture also exposes the lie of the Democrats in DC, 2006-2010, that they could not get anything done due to mean old Republicans. They always had plenty of available weapons, among them the ability to play dirty. They chose not to fight hard. This is because, in my view, the leaders of the Democratic party are complicit with Republican ideals. Up at the top, it’s really only one party.