Wisconsin: Democrats Unify While Another Republican Nudges Toward Compromise

[highplainsdem]

http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/03/08/wisconsin-democrats-unify-while-another-republican-nudges-toward-compromise/

By: David Dayen Tuesday March 8, 2011 6:40 am

Dane 101 (one of the great sites of the Cheddarsphere, all of which have been invaluable to covering the Wisconsin story) has collected statements from 11 out of the Fab 14 Senate Democrats, all of which announce their unity of purpose and their desire to meet with the Governor to move this forward. Scott Walker’s contention that Mark Miller was holding up things does not fit with these statements.

Meanwhile, on the Republican side, another state Senator has stressed his willingness to be flexible. As you know, Republicans control the Senate 19-14, so a shift of only three on this issue would change the balance of power. Sen. Dale Schultz (R) has already called for compromise and basically said he’d oppose the bill. Now we have Sen. Rob Cowles.

Republicans should be willing to meet Democrats halfway on aspects of collective bargaining that have little or no monetary impact, longtime Republican Sen. Rob Cowles said Monday evening.

In a telephone conversation with the Green Bay Press-Gazette, Cowles, R-Allouez, said Republicans already got the lion’s share of what they were looking for from unions in pension and health care contributions, and a compromise with Democrats on the rest of Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill is expected soon.-snip-

-snip-

[HereSince1628]

1. If you meet them half-way on collective bargaining you lose

half of collective bargaining...sounds like a poor compromise.

How about ALL those aspects of the bill that have nothing to do with budget balancing get dropped from the bill?

[northoftheborder]

3. Yes...

....besides the union compromising, there are other terrible aspects of that bill, that should not be compromised.

[LynneSin]

2. I wonder if the Senator Recall has some of these republicans rethinking their stance

I read where a few of these republicans senators won their seats by a few hundred votes which means they could be vulnerable in a recall