“Q. I’m fleeing the state to avoid my elected duties. What should I pack?”
At the Tatler, David Steinberg replies:
The Wisconsin Dems spring break appeared much more spontaneous, but you just know an email like this with a pithy signoff (“Stay strong!”) circulated amongst the Indiana Dems last night.
AdvertisementI’m looking into how quickly I could FOIA their state email accounts, because I feel a patriotic duty to uncover any material with the potential to entertain American taxpayers, and because I’m fascinated by this phenomenon as none other. I want to know the inner machinations — what drives these nitwits to think this is a real stand-up move? Do they think there is career advancement in politics after this?
Seriously! How can the guy who fled the state — FLED THE STATE — to avoid losing a vote survive a debate or an attack commercial next election? Does he really think statewide office might still be in his future?
Will he be sipping brandy in twenty years, pondering his freshman legislator photo: “It was the right thing to do, son. They had the votes … ”?
Absolutely. It’s a just a matter of who will be paying for his Remy. Or as this patented Small Dead Animals juxtaposition highlights:
In an amusing exchange in the comments to J.P. Friere’s article at the Washington Examiner about the Wisconsin impasse, someone named “Holyshiiite” wrote reprovingly,
“Union members ARE taxpayers, you freakin’ idiots.”
“Sistersuzey” deftly clarified the matter:
“They are payed with our tax dollars in the first place, so the taxes they pay are payed with our tax dollars. So basically we are paying their taxes for them.”
No wonder “Paul Krugman wants a check on the power of Big Taxpayer,” as John Sexton writes at Hot Air.
Incidentally, I disagree slightly with this suggestion from David’s post at the Tatler, though:
If it was me, I would pack a lot of cash, dark sunglasses, and an Applebee’s gift card.
Applebee’s? I thought the Tilted Kilt was the preferred hideout of choice among the savvy liberals on the lam; if only because of the tasteful outfits in which their waitresses female serving staff are clad. They’re certainly NOW-approved, right?
Update: “State senators who miss two or more session days will no longer get paid through direct deposit. They’ll have to pick up their checks in person on the Senate floor during a session,” a Wisconsin Fox affiliate reports. “The new rule is aimed at forcing the return of 14 Senate Democrats who have been hiding in Illinois since Thursday.”
In contrast, as Drew M. Writes at Ace of Spades, I guess Mitch Daniels of Indiana “really doesn’t want to run for the GOP nomination.”
Listen up, Ohio legislators.
I am planning to flee my state to avoid my spineless elected officials … and the overweening unionized public sector employees they support (and/or fear).
Sistersuzey nails it. As a small business owner, I pay the salaries, benefits and perqs these weasels are complaining about. It’s my money and yours that translates into their tax dollars for the feds, state, counties and cities. I provide them with the exemplary healthcare, retirement, vacations and holidays that my small business (and none that I know) can afford for itself and its employees. Meanwhile, I’m working round the clock to keep my business afloat so I can … pay even more for their whiny abuse? Get real.
Why should we continue to support these parasites? We shouldn’t, and we won’t. Many small businesses (mine included) are formulating plans to exit this sorry state as quickly as possible. Ohio, formerly a manufacturing and innovation giant (some parts of Ohio have more patents per capita than any other region in the world), has evolved from innovator to rust belt to home of the public sector parasite. To quote Stephen Green: Crybabies.
Meanwhile, former Gov. Strickland (D) is protesting on the steps of the state house. Obumble is in Cleveland, reading his teleprompter, and telling small business it’s the backbone of the economy. Way too little, way too scripted, way too late …
The Dems hiding in Illinois will run on the Fleebagger ticket.
Daniels’ argument apparently is since he already eliminated collective bargaining in Indiana for public sector unions, he’s ahead of the game compared to Gov. Walker in Wisconsin. The problem is for a charismatically-challenged candidate like Mitch Daniels, he not only blew a chance to get conservative voters emotionally fired up about him in a positive way, he managed to push their emotional buttons in the same way Mitt Romney pushes their buttons every time he fails to apologize for helping pass Commonwealth Care. That’s not a winning strategy, especially when it’s clear the other side has a nationally coordinated effort to go for the throat when it comes to trying to lock in the unions’ rights to tell state politicians what they have to do with their taxpayers’ money (on the way to forcing Washington to bail out the most union-friendly states).