What a wuss! Mitch Daniels: Indiana Republicans should drop right to work bill

National Review: Gov. Mitch Daniels signaled this afternoon that Republicans should to drop the right-to-work bill that has brought the Indiana House to a standstill for two days and imperiled other measures.

Daniels told reporters this afternoon that he expects House Democrats will return to work if the bill dies. It would be unfortunate if other bills are caught up in the turmoil, he said.

He will not send out state police to corral the Democrats, the Republican governor said. The Democrat minority has right to express its views, he added.

The governor clung to his view that this is not the year to tackle right to work.

If Mitch Daniels was seriously considering running for president next year, he can now pretty much forget about it.  Weak Republicans are so 2008.

Jeff G at Protein Wisdom states the obvious ramifications from Daniels weakness.

Protein Wisdom:  In taking this positionn, Daniels puts pressure on Gov Walker to “compromise” with public union employees in Wisconsin, and problematizes the conservative position on public sector unions and collective bargaining. He further puts pressure on any other Republican governors who may have been poised to push similar reform bills — which the vast majority of people support (and which independents and conservatives overwhelmingly support). He is the “reasonable” “conservative” foil the mainstream press, union leadership, and Obama will use to push back against the surging classical liberal momentum.

Thanks Mitch, for nothing!


Click over to National Review to read Daniels Q and A responses (if you can stomach it).


Via: Memeorandum
Via: National Review
Via: Protein Wisdom

Indiana Dems go AWOL too

The sore loser syndrome is spreading to Indiana.

Indianapolis Star: Seats on one side of the Indiana House were nearly empty today as House Democrats departed the the state rather than vote on anti-union legislation.

A source tells the Indianapolis Star that Democrats are headed to Illinois, though it was possible some also might go to Kentucky. They need to go to a state with a Democratic governor to avoid being taken into police custody and returned to Indiana.

The House was came into session twice this morning, with only three of the 40 Democrats present. Those were needed to make a motion, and a seconding motion, for any procedural steps Democrats would want to take to ensure Republicans don’t do anything official without quorum.

With only 58 legislators present, there was no quorum present to do business. The House needs 67 of its members to be present.
Today’s fight was triggered by Republicans pushing a bill that would bar unions and companies from negotiating a contract that requires non-union members to kick-in fees for representation. It’s become the latest in what is becoming a national fight over Republican attempts to eliminate or limit collective bargaining.

Is this the new democracy? When you lose an election you just walk out when the victors propose something you don't like.  It seems Democrats are more than willing to trash their brand further for the sake of the unions.


I also want to point out something from the article about Mitch Daniels.

Gov. Mitch Daniels had warned his party late last year against pursuing so-called “right to work” legislation. While he agreed with it philosophically, he said it was a big issue that needed a state-wide debate and noted no Republican had run on this in the November election.

But now that his party is pursuing it, Daniels has not spoken against it. He has so far issued no statement, has held no news conference and has not been interviewed by any Indiana reporters in the Statehouse. Daniels did do a radio interview Monday with National Public Radio in which he discussed the labor fight which has caused a government stalemate in Wisconsin — where Senate Democrats have fled to Illinois to prevent a vote on a bill that limits collective bargaining --a now, apparently, his state.

That sounds rather timid to me. Could someone please tell me why some people find Mitch Daniels ideal for 2012?

Via: Memeorandum

Via: Indianapolis Star

A RINO Roars. Richard Lugar to Tea Party: "Get Real"

Lugar to Tea Party: "Get real.": wane.com

 

WANE-TV: [...] Lugar has been a Member of Congress for almost 12,500 days, the longest in Indiana history. Some members of the Tea Party movement say that's long enough.

They [The Tea Party] want a more conservative candidate, and met in central Indiana last month to start the process of uniting behind a single opponent for Lugar in the 2012 Republican primary.

"[We're saying to Lugar] thank you for what you've done. We respect you greatly as a person and for what you've done in the past. But to go forward, we feel it's going to need to be a different candidate," Tea Party activist Pat Miller told NewsChannel 15 in January.

Among other criticisms, Tea Party activists have taken Lugar to task for supporting the new START nuclear arms treaty with Russia, claiming the U.S. is giving up too much and Russia is not giving up enough.

"I've been working systematically for 20 years going to Russia trying to help direct a situation in which we're taking warheads off of missiles every day, destroying missiles that were aimed at us; destroying submarines that carried misslies up and down our coast," said Lugar. "I've got to say 'Get real'. I hear Tea Party or other people talking about they were against START. I said 'Well, now, hang on here.'"

Lugar continued, "If you want to get into START, let's talk about it, but realistically as Americans, not as some Republican renegade. [I'm] trying to take warheads of Russia [out of circulation] so they won't hit Indiana." 

RINO attributes aside, I wonder if it ever dawned on Lugar that being in the Senate since 1977 might make him a wee bit out of touch with the real world.  Even if Lugar was a stanch conservative, this concept of life long careers in Congress really has to start coming to an end.  I find that these long stays in Washington creates a very stale group think.  It also gives these Congress Critters an overblown sense of entitlement.

Allahpundit at Hot Air points out that challenging Lugar could risking turning a safe Red seat Blue.  I say, so what.  The thing about keeping RINOs because they can win, is that you end up losing in the end when they choose to go rogue on important issues.  

We are going to have only one shot at legislatively repealing ObamaCare after 2012.  It will be in our best interest to make sure that the Senate is populated with as few RINOs as possible.  There are 23 Democrats up for reelection in 2012, Republicans only need four seats to gain a majority, therefore we can afford to be picky.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: WANE-TV

Via: Hot Air