Unions

Today is the Wisconsin recall election. If Republican governor Scott Walker prevails, so will conservatives, since his reforms of collective bargaining will survive, and he shall have curbed some of the worst excesses of the American labor movement.

The Republican presidential candidates have spent the past year saying little about education. When they have addressed the issue, it has often been in terse calls to “turn off the lights” at the U.S. Department of Education.

An interesting thing happened in the Wisconsin recall primary yesterday: Governor Scott Walker received more votes than Tom Barrett and Kathleen Falk combined, the two leading Democrats fighting to challeng him on June 5. Walker won the votes of 626,538 Wisconsinites, despite the fact that he had only token opposition. The two leading Democrats together had 619,049 votes.

Last year, in an article for THE WEEKLY STANDARD I discussed the growing number of existential threats to unions. One of the major challenges facing unions is that their multi-employer pension plans are deep in the hole, and the problems were being masked by accounting standards that allowed them to hide their debt:

Last week, the New York Times reported that “labor leaders say they will mount their biggest campaign effort, with far more union members than ever before—at least 400,000, they say—knocking on voters’ doors to counter the well-endowed ‘super-PACs’ backing Republicans.”

Jonathan Collegio: "Who’s the Biggest ‘Outside Group’ in the 2012 Elections? Big Labor"

Politico: "White House to Congress Dems: Expect no money"

By now the Chrysler Super Bowl advertisement has become well known. And not surprisingly it’s gotten political. “Powerful spot,” said David Axelrod. “Extremely well-done,” said Karl Rove, adding:

I've already written at length on the major media's "fact checkers" and, alas, it's a never ending game of whack-a-mole to point out the absurdity of the arguments employed by these self-appointed guardians of veracity.

Byron York: "Santorum good day could scramble race again"

Washington Free Beacon: "Chinese Communists Influence U.S. Policy Through Ex-Military Officials"

Here's one of the commercials played during last night's Super Bowl, from the Center for Union Facts:

According to the Associated Press, Governor Mitch Daniels just signed legislation making Indiana a right-to-work state: