 |
| Our Local 200 brothers in Milwaukee at a Fab 14 rally. |
According to today's Green Bay Press Gazette, Sen. Rob Cowles said Republicans should be willing to meet Democrats halfway on aspects of collective bargaining that have little or no monetary impact. The Press Gazette reported
Cowles didn’t rule out making changes to the budget repair bill before sending it to the governor's desk.
“You have to be flexible because some way, some how there will be an amendment modifying the collective bargaining,” he said. “It’s an incredible situation (the Democrats leaving) that none of us ever thought would happen. So negotiations on this are critical to move past this and move on to the budget, which also has a number of dilemmas.”David Dayen at firedoglake has already reported another Republican senator -- Dale Schultz -- is willing to compromise and said he'd oppose the bill.
Dayen notes
Cowles still said he would vote for the budget repair bill, but this is a game of inches, and it’s the Republicans who are moving and becoming more flexible (a word Cowles used more than once).
It so happens that Cowles is one of the Republican 8 who are facing a recall election. I don’t recall him ever speaking this candidly before, and it comes right after a weekend of organizing in his district. Someone should check in with all of the Republican 8, particularly Sen. Alberta Darling, the co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee, who saw 600 volunteers collecting signatures in her district over the weekend, mainly recruited based on a Facebook page and a dogged organizer named Kristopher Rowe.It doesn't sound like the Fab 14 (Dem senators who fled the state rather than vote on
I think it’s pretty clear these recall threats are having an impact.
