We all get that President Obama is for the unions and against Governor Walker and the Wisconsin Republicans (and other Republicans). He has said so. Well and good. But his side is behaving despicably in Wisconsin, threatening the well-being of Republican legislators, who are merely doing the jobs the people elected them to do.
As you can see in the below interview, Republican senators are not saying whether they are sleeping in their own houses, and are working with law enforcement to keep themselves and their families safe.
Couldn’t Obama say something? Couldn’t he pretend he’s president — president of all the people — and say, “We have political disagreements, but we’re going to work them out peacefully and democratically. For example, massing at lawmakers’ homes, to shout and threaten, is out of bounds.”
Wouldn’t that be kind of . . . big of him? But in my observation — and he has been president for two years now — he is small. He was willing to speak out after Tucson. That was relatively easy. To speak out now would be exceptional, and exceptionally helpful. It would be helpful to Obama politically, too.
Who are the unionists going to support instead come ’12? Angela Davis?
P.S. A couple of years ago, a South Carolina congressman shouted at Obama, “You lie.” This was a federal case — a huge media cause — for weeks. In Wisconsin, the Democratic side, generally speaking, is making Republican legislators coordinate with law enforcement to keep themselves safe. A Republican won’t even tell a reporter whether he is driving home tonight.
This is disgusting.