Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker revealed pressure tactics, unwillingness to compromise, views on protesting crowds and his inspiration in tough budget talks in a call with a prank caller prentending to be a conservative billionaire activist on Tuesday.
The call, which lasted at least 20 minutes took place with Ian Murphy, a writer for a website called the Buffalo Beast, who pretended to be political financier David Koch. Audio was posted online.
Walker spoke of tentative ways to pressure Senate Democrats absent from their jobs, efforts to assuage lawmakers concerned about huge crowds of protesters, thinking about but ultimately deciding against placing troublemakers among the protesters, and drawing inspiration from former President Ronald Reagan's tough actions against striking federal employees at the beginning of his presidency.
During the call, Walker said he was looking to increase pressure on Wisconsin Senate Democrats.He said the top Senate Republican would pass a rule to ensure Senators would not get their checks if they were absent for two consecutive days on a session day, except in person.
“[The] Senate Organization Committee is going to meet and pass a rule that says if you don't show up, for two consecutive days on a session day in the state senate, the senate chief clerk, it's a little procedural thing here, but can actually have your payroll stopped from being automatically deducted into your checking account,” Walker said.
“And, instead, you still get a check but the check has to be personally picked up and he's instructing them, which we just loved, to lock them in their desks on the floor of the state senate,” Walker added.
REUTERSHe also spoke of another strategy that he said he would “probably announce in the next day or two.” He said he has been working with the Republican legislature to find out if unions were paying for Democratic Senators to stay outside the state.“[If] the unions are paying the 14 senators, if they’re paying for their food, their lodging, anything like that, we believe at a minimum it’s an ethics code violation, and it may very well be a felony misconduct in office because see technically, it’s not just a political contribution,” he said.
He said the attorney general’s office was looking into the matter to see if that was the case.REUTERSWalker emphasized that he would not be backing down or compromising with Democrats. Senate Minority leader Mark Miller has previously said that Democrats would return if Walker would accept a compromise on the collective bargaining issue, saying that Democrats were willing to concede on requiring that state workers contribute a higher amount to their health and pension plans.“If they think I'm caving, they've been asleep for the last eight years 'cause I've taken on every major battle in Milwaukee County, and won even in a county where I'm overwhelmingly overpowered, politically because we don't budge,” Walker said.“You're doing the right thing, you stay firm and in this case, we say we'll wait it out. If they want to start sacrificing thousands of public workers will be laid off, sooner or later they're going to put pressure on the senators to come back. We're not compromising, we're not,” Walker said.Walker said in a press conference on Tuesday that up to 6,000 state jobs could be lost if there is no vote on the bill by July 1.REUTERSWalker said another idea being considered was to call Miller and other Democrats to speak with Walker.“Talk, not negotiate, and listen to what they have to say if they will in turn, I’ll only do it if all 14 of them come back and sit down in the state assembly, they can recess it to come back and talk to me but they have to come back here,” Walker said.“The reason for that is we’re verifying it this afternoon, but legally we believe once they've gone into session, they don't physically have to be there. If they actually in session that day and they take a recess, the 19 senate republicans could then go into action and they'd have a quorum because they started out that way,” he said.“And my sense is, hell, I'll talk to them-you want to yell at me for an hour, you know, I'm used to that. I can deal with that but I'm not negotiating,” Walker added.Murphy, posing as Koch, said “Bring a baseball bat. That’s what I do.”
“I have one in my office here,” Walker said. “You’d be happy with that. I’ve got a slugger with my name on it.”REUTERSAt one point, later in the conversation, Walker remarked on the size of the crowds and reaction from lawmakers supporting the bill.“[O]ur members originally got freaked out by all the bodies here,” Walker said.
After explaining about an incident during his tenure as Milwaukee County Executive when only one of 40 to 50 people showed disapproval for a “pretty bold, aggressive” budget he put through, he said he told lawmakers favoring the bill to “stop worrying” over the thousands of protesters in the capital.“I remind all our lawmakers that there’s five and a half million people in this state and just because a bunch of guys who can jump off of work because their union rules doesn’t mean that the rest of the people in your district are with them,” he said.REUTERSAt one point after saying he would support Walker, Murphy made a suggestion.
“We’ll back you anyway we can. But uh, what we were thinking about the crowds was, was planting some troublemakers,” Murphy said.Walker replied that “we thought about that,” but said his “gut reaction” was to “let ‘em protest” because eventually “the media stops finding them interesting.”
“You know the -- well -- the only problem with -- because we thought about that. The problem with -- my only gut reaction to that would be right now the, the lawmakers I've talked to have just completely had it with them,” Walker said.He explained that according to teacher union polls of some focus groups, the public is against teachers for closing schools for more than a few days. He said the people left protesting were mostly from out of state, and he is dismissing them.“My only fear would be is if there was a ruckus caused, it is that that would scare the public into thinking that maybe the governor has got to settle to avoid all these problems. Where as I’ve said, hey, you know, we can handle this, people can protest, this is Madison, you know, full of the 60s liberal, let ‘em protest,” he said.“So that’s my gut reaction, is I think it’s actually good if they’re constant, they’re noisy, but they’re quiet, nothing happens, ‘cause sooner or later the media stops finding them interesting,” he said.REUTERSAs the conversation wound down, Walker told a story about how he attempted to inspire his cabinet, reminding them about former President Ronald Reagan’s decision to fire air traffic controllers in a labor dispute. In the 1981 incident, Reagan fired thousands of air traffic controllers who ignored an order to return to work.That event, Walker said, was a defining moment in Reagan’s political career.
“I said to me that moment was more important than just for labor relations and or even the federal budget. That was the first crack in the Berlin Wall and the fall of Communism because from that point forward the Soviets and the Communists knew that Ronald Reagan wasn't a pushover,” Walker said.“I said this may not have as broad a world implications but in Wisconsin's history-little did I know how big it would be nationally, in Wisconsin's history, I said, this is our moment, this is our time to change the course of history and this is why it's so important that they were all there,” Walker said.REUTERS
