Walker Wins

Bill Frezza explains why Scott Walker's recall victory spells doom for the illegitimate political influence of the public sector unions:

Best of all, the myth that union bosses represent their members' interests has been exposed as a lie. Now that union dues are voluntary, tens of thousands of union members have stopped paying them.  Membership in the Wisconsin chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union (AFSCME) has dropped by half. Membership in the state's American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is down by over a third. Given unions' influential role in most elections, the national implications of this trend are staggering.

Walker's message is clear: The key to bringing balance back to public sector labor relations and balance state budgets is to break the iron triangle of closed-shop mandatory unionization, compulsory dues collection, and oversized campaign donations to politicians that promise to do the unions' bidding. If other governors take his cue and take up the cause, that giant sucking sound you hear will be the air coming out of union bosses' bloated political action budgets.

Read the whole thing, though. Frezza notes that Walker's reforms need repairs as parts have been struck down in federal court. He also seems optimistic that Barack Obama's non-support the recall effort might hurt him in November, but I am not so sure it will.

Predictably, leftists are blaming their loss on being outspent and the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. But if you want to skip the venom at Salon for a moment (and get a laugh in), this guy will give you an executive summary:

I can't do better than Dismuke in describing the video, so I'll just quote his email: "'The Man' has struck again and beat some poor Leftist who hoped to recall Scott Walker..."

-- CAV