Remember my rule of headlines: No. Scott Walker is not being a hypocrite when he beseeches the NFL to “return the real refs.” It’s simplistic to say that Walker is “against unions,” and that he’s only talking up the refs because it’s politically popular. Never question a Wisconsinite’s anger when the Packers have been wrong. It is pure; it is beyond reason.
Also, Walker’s not currently working to dismantle private sector unions. A famous 2011 video captured Walker talking to Diane Hendricks, a mega-donor who would become the biggest single funder for a candidate in Wisconsin history.
“Any chance we’ll ever get to be a completely red state and work on these unions -“
“Oh, yeah,” Walker broke in.
“- and become a right-to-work?” Hendricks continued. “What can we do to help you?”
“Well, we’re going to start in a couple weeks with our budget adjustment bill,” Walker said. “The first step is we’re going to deal with collective bargaining for all public employee unions, because you use divide and conquer.”
Walker was telling a nice rich person that, no, he was going to focus on weakening public sector unions – not all of them, it would turn out – because those were the ones that cost voters money. The refs’ unions? Not on his radar. But notice how Walker’s tweet-of-rage about the NFL made no suggestion for how the parties should resolve their standoff.
