Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, the Mad City Machiavelli

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I thought that reporters were supposed to present an unbiased accounting of a story!!! Since when do reporters get to foist their opinions on readers?

TJ of OK 9:22AM March 02, 2011

What? The "teachers" protest int he face of democracy. You must have gone to a private school because protesting the government peacefully is a right guaranteed by The Constitution.
Further you say "Abolish Public Education. Let us have our "choice" in how we want to educate our children, not kill them !" Let see the folly of such a statement. You decide, as well as many in the right wing party, that creationism is the truth in science, math is not important, only what you believe in true in History (Obama was not born in Hawaii), corporations are owned by people who really care about the little people of this country and will treat us fair, etc.
Well, that is real intelligent, the USA would become a Third World Country faster than it already is.
To be honest, I am sick and tired of you self-righteous Teabaggers (Bill Hedges) who can't see your nose on your face. This country became great because of all our ancestors, not just yours. They worked together to compromise and make our country livable with clean air and water, good working conditions with living wages, vacations, retirements, medical care, etc.
Get over it already! This country will not succeed as a First World Country if the belief is It Is All About Me!

Tree Hugger of CO 9:22AM March 02, 2011

What has happened to US News? At one time, we could count on honest reporting and critically written, incisive commentary. Now we get biased reporting and liberal hit jobs masked as opinion.
The author of this piece, who has a limited pedigree herself based on the attached biography, opens this column with a hit job on the governor's education. Let's hope that she isn't implying that we should hire college professors (or lecturers) for everything.
That said, what Governor Walker is attempting to do is not only important, but necessary. Right now the public sector unions can negotiate against the Taxpayer. How fair is that. If they can continue with their power to collectively bargain, it won't matter about the givebacks they have already promised (although still lower than the private sector), with collective bargaining (as well as tenure, cost of living increases, gold plated health care, pensions mostly paid for, etc.), they will just give themselves more perks when this contract ends. Worse, they will force everyone to join a union--and to pay into Democratic coffers with their dues even if an individual is a Republican. The government worker bargaining hammer has to be taken away from government unions--or we will never, ever rein in these budgets.

Sherlock Holmes of NH 9:18AM March 02, 2011

Sort of like barry exempting car union employees from Cadillac health care tax for some years. "Kind of sissy, don't you think?".
Sort of like exempting 220 companies of obamacare regulation. Many being unions. Thus, not spreading the cost. "Kind of sissy, don't you think?".
Liberals, love to quote them...

Bill Hedges of MO 4:40AM March 02, 2011

I don't care if he got his college degree or not. Walker is very well-spoken, very focused, and is not afraid of the union thugs. He's accomplished more in a short period of time than most.
Look at all those teachers with degrees--- they can't even speak for themselves -- they need uneducated union thugs to speak for them! How did their degrees help them?
Our education system is a Failure; I guess it doesn't matter how many degrees you have, if you're not effective! Our schools and our kids are FAILING, so all those degrees made no difference, did they?

Paul of OH 4:04PM March 01, 2011

Watching these "teachers" protest in the face of democracy sickens most of America. They are blinded by their own arrogance. The people VOTED. The people want smaller government. THE ULTIMATE POLL IS A VOTE !
Abolish Public Education. Let us have our "choice" in how we want to educate our children, not kill them !

Frank of WI 1:37PM March 01, 2011

We need Scott Walker as President !

Edward of WI 1:31PM March 01, 2011

"So Scott Walker never graduated from college? Neither did Bill Gates, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, John D Rockefeller, Steven Speilberg, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, James Cameron, Frank Lloyd Wright...shall I continue?"
The difference is...unlike Walker, all those brilliant men still had respect for education, knowledge, research, and teachers.
Sadly, Walker's own educational failures are obviously feeding a personal resentment against the hardworking middle-class teachers of this great nation.
And Walker's real agenda is beginning to emerge: he wants to gut public education so that our children are under the tutelage of evolution-denying homeschooling wackos.
Meanwhile, China is laughing at our self-destructive worship of mediocrity and ignorance!

murdoch loves a commie of WI 12:22PM March 01, 2011

The government is the one of the union's last "free meals", which is why they are pouring money (our taxpayer $$$, BTW) into the mainstream media, and to the two-cent protesting slugs who are camping out in the Wisconsin state capitol!
Lay them off, Governor Walker! Let these "primadonnas" know what it's like in the real world!

Frank Nagel of CA 12:06PM March 01, 2011

Yes, the people of Wisconsin have produced some fine progressives, like La Follette and Feingold, but they've also produced gangsters, like Joe McCarthy and now this Walker character.
There must be some kind of upstate-downstate dialectic going on, I guess between the Eloi and Walker's constituency, the Morlocks.

Jack of CA 11:20AM March 01, 2011