The Audacity of Mobs

by Kevin McCullough


There she was in a moment of serious, genuine indignation.

Rachel Maddow on MSNBC this last week bemoaning the "horrific reality" that not only were abortions NOT being performed in south central Kansas since the death of George Tiller, abortion practitioner, but that pro-life protesters had the nerve to go to the home of the woman and hold signs in silence encouraging her to not open up her new practice.

The sin these people had committed was the brute, horrific, intimidation that their mere presence would signal to any and all who sought the opportunity to kill children while still preborn.

I wonder what Ms. Maddow believes about the rent-a-mobs that President Obama had bussed to Madison, Wisconsin this week.

Late on Friday the news cycle was abuzz that both President Obama's campaign organization as well as the Democratic National Committee were both utilizing significant resources to bring tens of thousands of out-of-state protesters to march on the capital grounds in Madison, Wisconsin to interfere in what amounts to a state matter. Some of those protestors were dispatched to the private home of the Wisconsin Governor. Others to the homes of Republican state legislators.

To be specific the protesters were objecting to ending the ability for union leadership to stifle the attempts for the state to work alongside the union to achieve extremely modest compromises, so that no state workers would lose their job.

What was the Governor asking the state employees to give up? A little bit of money.

How little? 5% towards retirement pensions and 12% towards health care coverage.

In other words the state of Wisconsin was still willing to guarantee 95% of the pension, and 88% of the health care costs for state employees, and in doing so would be able to keep all current state employees, in a word, employed.

In New York City, Mayor Bloomberg has been unable to get local teachers' unions to make similar compromises and on Friday announced the city would be slashing the employee count by thousands. Ohio, California, New York, New Jersey and other states all face similar dilemmas.

But let's understand this clearly. A governor of a state, who was elected on a promise of trying to bring fiscal discipline to a state budget process, asks for small sacrifices while still guaranteeing full employment and between 88%-95% of the original benefits promised, is being protested--by largely protestors who were bussed in by the president and all parties who are loyal to him.

Hey - it's Chicago brute politics at its best!