madison but around the state? how is this playing out? ed, it s the talk of the state. and you cannot imagine how creative wisconsinites have become with this. unfortunately, i can t repeat all of the slogans that i ve seen on posters and places like stevens point and racine and platteville as i ve been around the state but i can tell you that in stevens point, the home district of senator lassa there were about 3,000 people out tonight for a rally. now, that s a small town and it s happening all over the state. increasingly, while the posters still mostly talk about labor rights and maintaining collective bargaining rights, i d say about every third poster had some reference to mr. koch and also mr. walker. in fact, i can tell you that one poster i ve seen quite a bit is that governor walker, your koch dealer is on line two. well, do you get a sense that this governor has put his
was thinking about sending trouble makers to cause a ruckus into that crowd. what is your response to that? well, i m appalled by it. i think it is very disturbing for the governor of the state of wisconsin to suggest that perhaps they should be disrupting peaceful protests. that s not what wisconsin is about. i think we re showing the nation and the world how to engage in civil discussion of meaningful issues and to do it in a way that is loud, enthusiastic, but that s also civil and appropriate and peaceful and we have the governor of our state suggesting that perhaps those civil protests ought to be disrupted. i think that is very disturbing. mayor, with us tonight from madison, wisconsin, have you had any conversations with governor walker about security? have you had any conversations about the demeanor of the crowds or the protests? because there were upwards of sure. 70,000 people that were in your city last weekend.
earners in america and we re questioning whether the president should get involved or not? no. well, you know, we know that lindsay graham and the republicans are not on the side of the american workers. they hate the american workers. in fact, not one of them has come out and said, hey, you guys over at gm, way to kick some ass. way to go. they can t do that. because, you see, we taxpayers gave them a loan that they re paying back and that s a success story and we just can t have any of that because president obama has his mits all over it. but we re in our liberal locker room tonight and i have to ask the question. mr. president, why don t you go to madison? why don t you go stand up in front of those americans and just tell them to, you don t have to give one of those great speeches that you give, but if you could just go there and say, keep going. i m with you. who cares what the republicans say? who cares what the right wing talkers say? this is about 2012. this is about prioritie
bothered by what he heard onรง those tapes. dave is the mayor of madison, wisconsin. good to have you with us tonight. i appreciate your time. what is your response to the governor saying that he thought about it? well, let me tell you something. i ve been mayor of madison for eight years now and i ve never been more proud of my community. we ve had probably 500,000 people through this square in the last ten days, 80,000 on saturday. and not a single arrest during that entire period. i was in the capitol last night. they cleared out the rotunda so people could sweep and mop and keep the place clean. the folks who take care of the capitol concourse tell me it s the cleanest it s ever been. we re really proud. so with that, a good depiction of the crowd, good description. i was there. you re spot on with all of that. yet the governor. right. was thinking about sending trouble makers to cause a ruckus into that crowd. what is your response to that?
people to come in and cause a disturbance among the protesters. i made it very clear that s not right. you said you thought about it. the protesters have come in from other states. but you thought about it. we did. i even had lawmakers and others suggesting rieling things up. okay. hold it right there. can we get these lawmakers on the air? the madison police chief is disturbed by that defense. chief ray wants to know why the governor thought about putting trouble makers in the madison crowds. in a public statement chief wray said, quote, i would like to hear more of an explanation from governor walker as to what exactly was being considered and to what degree it was discussed by his cabinet members. amen, police chief. i find it very unsettling and troubling that anyone would consider creating safety risks for our citizens and law enforcement officers. yeah. joining me tonight from madison is another city official who was