wisconsin. brian, your initial thoughts on what s gone on here today? what we ve witnessed today san absolute travesty. these republicans and governor walker have taken a baseball bat to the head of democracy. they are trying to silence workers and they re doing it for one reason and one reason only, and that is because they want to deliver this state to the republican nominee in 2012. senator fitzgerald said so on a fox news interview just yesterday. this was never about the money, it was always about silencing the workers so they could monopolize the political agenda for the next few years. what do you think this will do to the strike? there has been essentially a lot of talk that it s union busting. do you think that s what s going to happen in reality when you see how this bill will kind of play out in real life, if you will? well, you know, we don t have to bargain contracts to show the strength of our movement. what we re seeing, and you can see the thousands of people that
miller is asking for to be done in the future. we did it yesterday. that s why the letter is ridiculous. time and time again, we met the very person who wrote this letter to myself and senator fitzgerald. mark miller is the person standing in the way of that process we didn t have a change. miller said unfortunately the response from the governor and republican leaders has been to declare at press conferences that there is zero flexibility on the bill in question. democrats remain united in the filt to protect the priorities of the people of wisconsin and showing the responsible leadership necessary to get the job done. more bad news for governor walker as the state democratic party of wisconsin filed a complaint with the state s government accountability board accusing walker of violating ethics and finance laws during a
to face meeting that would take place along the illinois-wisconsin border. mike tobin is live in the state capitol of madison for us right now. so mike, i guess things are getting ugly. you know jon, for the first time we have seen some real emotion and frustration come out of governor scott walker and he directed his frustration at the senate minority leader, a guy named mark miller, the governor says through all of the meetings, all the communications, all the deals to bring the senate democrats back to madison, ultimately senator miller stood in the way, then yesterday sen senate imagine ord leader and governor received this letter from senator miller requesting the face 20 face to face meeting. that s why this letter is just absolutely ridiculous, because tile and time again we have met, the very person who wrote this letter to myself and senator fitzgerald, mark miller, is the person standing in the way of that progress and we need to have a change so that we can move this
gallon of gas now is $3.51. compare that to prices at this time last year for the same amount of money, you re now getting about a quarter of a tank less in gas. that adds up. meantime, in libya today, muammar el-qaddafi s war planes firing at rebel targets. france and britain pushing for a no-fly zone. qaddafi reportedly offered to talk with the rebels about making a deal but the rebels rejected that move. wisconsin governor scott walker rejecting a request by the missing state democrats to meet near the border. walker says that meeting wanted by senate minority leader mark miller will not resolve a thing. now, that senator miller is misleading the public like he misled us and that s why this letter is just absolutely ridiculous because time and time again, we have met. the very person who wrote this letter to myself and senator fitzgerald, mark miller is the person standing in the way of that progress. all right. let s go down to florida now where more than 40 demonstrations are
the senate have been in closed door meetings all day. and joining me on the phone, wisconsin senate majority leader, republican scott fitzgerald. representative mason, i want to get your reaction to the news conference today where the governor is basically saying that senator miller s letter is bogus because what he s asking for is something that they already did over the course of the weekend. i think what the senate is asking for is for the governor to come to the table and actually negotiate, and negotiate in good faith, might find a resolution on the bill that gets to the governor s fiscal concerns in the budget repair bill without taking away 50 years of bargaining rights. it is nice they had a meeting, but you have to be willing to negotiate if we find resolution to this. i would hope that they would bear that in mind. republicans talk about taking away negotiation rights. but i think they could learn something from the rights they