machine organizing for america, part of the dnc rushing into wisconsin, trying to help the unions. so far they are still on the defensive and the governor walker of wisconsin is out giving a bunch of interviews, not backing down and even scolding president obama for getting involved, saying he has enough problems in d.c. he should be worried about his own deficit, not wisconsin s issues. this is a huge, huge issue. yep. for unions. this is i won t say the last stand but it is the beginning of the comeback. or the beginning of the comeback. the roots of this i think you can trace to ronald ragen in terms of the air traffic controllers and the fact that so many members of unions opted not to vote with the union, they voted for reagan. if unions come back, like they were back in the early 70s and before that, it can only be because of america s manufacturing base comes back. that s a good point. i m not saying that can t happen.
i was waiting for mika to introduce it. i ll introduce the stories on driving the week. this is say big story right now, libya s important, wisconsin is important but how the two sides are setting the stage for the big confrontation next week. this will be a tough baby to split to figure out how to avoid a shutdown, because the republicans in the house are demanding there be big cuts are before they extend does either side want to shut down? does the president think he gains by a shutdown? maybe they want one if the other side is to blame. i think republicans have to worry about the specter of what happened in 1959 when republicans shut down the government and got blamed for it it s easy for the president to say essential services are being cut because republicans won t compromise. finding the compromise in a short period of time left is going to be hard to do. do you think the white house might say this hurt republicans in 95 let s try it again? i think democrats wo
is he one person fighting against a number of democratic legislators and union leaders. it s always easier to command the bully pulpit if you re one person. that s why the president has an advantage as bill clinton did in a potential government shutdown. one guy can drive a message better. from a distance we look at wisconsin, we think it s a progressive state, yet he won handily. republicans won the senate seat. they have a senate advantage. outside the cities it s a rural state with a lot of relatively conservative people. tommy thompson was a conservative governor there for a really long time. it is not just a liberal state. it s not a massachusetts. one of the most fascinating states. you shun understatement how big the state legislative changes were in the last election. there were 700 seats picked up by republicans. largest ever. largest since the great depression. wow. that means a lot of things have been put in place. in some of those cases those are not nec
budget. he s setting out to break a union. that is a major move in terms of american history. i believe the president should have weighed in. i think we should all weigh in, do the right thing for wisconsin s budget but do not destroy decades of work to establish the rights of workers to speak for themselves. the president did weigh in, talked about the quota on unions. this is interesting. should he have done that while he has so much on his own plate back in washington? the democratic party is so dependent on labor unions for support that he had no choice politically. he had to take what was becoming a national issue and engage on it. politically i think he didn t have a choice. i read something new york times in the that public unions gave democrats $200 million in 201? i don t know if they gave them that but they spent that much. to help democrats. $200 million. that s astounding.
to chris christie say it would be leaving money on the table to not form a leadership pack like this. it s a sign of national interest and a big part of his national support is exactly what we re talking about. his willingness to take on these unions. the way he said it to me very colorfully is the governors who came before me tried to make friends with the boy in the school yard. i left him bleeding. oh. what does this mean for the democratic party? we re talking about this morn g morning. and for president boom? what is their next move in the unions up in wisconsin have already given a lot of con sessions. what s next? they have. these are parts of the country where the democratic party is strong. the west, upper midwest, northeast, is where unions are strong. that s why democrats see this as such a threat to their political base. any local or political reporter can tell you, the unions are the most reliable of democratic constituencies and that s why you see the president pol