MSNBC's Ed Schultz Puts New Spin on Walker Win in Wisconsin
As my colleague Geoff Dickens recently chronicled, MSNBC’s Ed Schultz actively campaigned with the union movement leading up to the bitter end of the Wisconsin recall election. Following Scott Walker’s decisive victory to retain his post as Wisconsin's governor, Schultz suddenly changed his tune to justify the embarrassing loss Democrats were dealt.
On the Wednesday May 7 broadcast of The Ed Show, Schultz pointed out NBC News exit polls found 70 percent of Wisconsinites disagreed with Tuesday's recall on principle. Only 27 percent said they were appropriate at all and 60 percent said recalls are appropriate only for official misconduct. Schultz argues that the bottom line was, “not enough Wisconsinites were convinced the recall was justified and even though they don’t approve of Scott Walker most Wisconsinites were not convinced he did enough to be removed from office.” [Video follows page break; MP3 audio here.]
Schultz is clearly trying to rewrite the script, downplaying the result by insisting Wisconsinites don't actually support Walker's policies, just that they thought it wasn't right to toss him out of office. But even the Wisconsin Democratic Party in January suggested Governor Scott Walker has been engaged in illegal campaign activity which would justify the use of the recall. Other liberal outlets like Current TV have suggested that Walker is days away from a criminal indictment and Schultz himself, on Tuesday night just after the election was called for Walker held out hope that Walker may be indicted in a few days time
Big Ed’s blatant campaigning for the union efforts in Wisconsin has been well documented but his attempts to cover up their failures on voters dissatisfaction with the recall efforts is icing on the cake. Schultz can’t admit that Walker’s win might be a because voters believe his reform efforts are working in Wisconsin. Ever the partisan organizer, Schultz has come up with a new talking point to rally his Big Labor buddies after a devastating loss.
Below is the relevant transcript.
MSNBC
The Ed Show
06/06/2012
8:03 p.m. EST
ED SCHULTZ: All of these Republicans are overlooking a very key fact here. A majority of Wisconsinites, 70%, in fact, said that they disagreed with the recall principle on its terms. NBC News exit polls showed that only 27% of voters said that recalls were appropriate for any reason as long as people signed recall petitions. 60% Said recalls are appropriate only for official misconduct. 10% of Wisconsin voters said recalls are never appropriate. Not enough Wisconsinites, this is the bottom line. Not enough Wisconsinites were convinced the recall was justified. Even if they don't approve of Scott Walker, most Wisconsinites were not convinced he did enough to be removed from office. So the Republicans knew this, and they took advantage of it. Like Walker said, divide and conquer. And now the Republican plan is to diminish organized labor in America, and that is playing out exactly how Karl Rove said it would play out last year.
KARL ROVE: They lost 612,000 union members in 2010 alone. Now, think about it, every one of those 612,000 people had literally perhaps several hundred dollars worth of union dues going into the political coffers of their union to spend on politics. So yeah you keep having couple hundred thousand people each year if half a million people leave the labor union movement every year and pretty soon you start having crimp in the political budgets of these unions, it has a direct effect on the presidential.
SCHULTZ: So you get the reason why Wisconsin is so important? The plan is working and the proof is in the numbers. Take a look at how AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) membership in Wisconsin dropped after the walker law took effect. This is the second largest union in the state and it lost more than half its members. I guess you could put up the banner now, mission accomplished. Folks, there is no way around the reality of what happened in the state of Wisconsin yesterday. You can’t put and you can't buy enough lipstick to put on this political pig for the Democrats. Republicans figured out how to chip away at unions. It hurts the Democratic Party and squeezes the working class, no doubt about it. It happened in Wisconsin and Citizens United makes it likely it's going to happen again. You will never convince me that the outcome of this election would have been the same if the money was equal or near equal on both sides.
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Comments
Is that anything like a bunch
Submitted by motherbelt on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 12:04pm.
Is that anything like a bunch of Americans believing that Bill Clinton did do the nasty with Monica in the Oval Office, and and lied about it to a judge, but didn't think that was reason enough to impeach him?
No, Really?
Submitted by CobraMan on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 12:21pm.
"Not enough Wisconsinites were convinced the recall was justified."
No, really? Wow, who knew?
"Even if they don't approve of Scott Walker, most Wisconsinites were not convinced he did enough to be removed from office."
Hay, idiot, if they didn't approve of him, they wouldn't have voted to keep him in office. It's obvious that a lot of people didn't approve of him and they voted to remove him even though they think the recall was the wrong approach. It's not like he won with 70 percent of the vote. Nearly 25 percent of the voters thought that a recall was the wrong approach, but still voted to remove Walker anyways. How does your theory explain that little discrepancy?
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
Hey dead from the neck up Ed...
Submitted by wahappened on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 12:31pm.
a majority of Wisconsinites voted FOR WALKER!!! And that's what matters!!!
Did it ever cross the vast deserted area of your mind that the reason AFCSME lost half its members was because they were FINALLY able to make their own decision whether or not to be in the union?
if 70% did not think the recall was warrented-
Submitted by JIMMY1660 on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 12:28pm.
why in Gods name did Liberals force it-??
The kool air drinkers are now throwing it up.
The fraud of BHO and Liberals in general have been exposed.
You are done-finished-kaput.
"All of these Republicans are overlooking a very key fact here."
Submitted by Cappmann1962 on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 1:00pm.
And YOU'RE overlooking a very key fact Special Ed (not surprisingly):
Take a look at how AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) membership in Wisconsin dropped after the walker law took effect. This is the second largest union in the state and it lost more than half its members. I guess you could put up the banner now, mission accomplished.
There's a REASON union membership, when not coerced, drops precipitously - PEOPLE DON'T WANT TO BE IN THE UNIONS! And I'd proudly fly that banner!
The plan is working and the proof is in the numbers.
Yes, the numbers don't lie (like YOU do). And what the numbers say is that if people aren't FORCED to be in a union, they CHOOSE not to be. Which is something you, your union masters, and your preferred brand of politicians just can't stand. People actually making their own decisions. Ah, THE HORROR!
And now the Republican plan is to diminish organized labor in America...
What a good plan! Thanks for confirming what most Americans want, and KNOW will reduce or eliminate much of our fiscal difficulty throughout the country.
Suck it up Ed. You, and your union boss thugs, are LOSERS!
so if wisconsinites didn't support it than why did Big Labor
Submitted by Lipton on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 12:30pm.
force this expensive recall on them.
Let's do the math
Submitted by Kingfish17 on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 12:33pm.
If: One Million People signed the petition to recall Scott Walker
And: 2,511,585 votes were cast in the recall election
Yet 70% of those voters, or 1,758,000, disagreed with the recall in principal. That leaves 30%, or 753,000, who favored the recall. Are we suppose to believe that 250,000 people supported the recall and signed the petition to recall Scott Walker but didn't show up to vote against him?
I believe that at least that many names on the voter recall petition are fraudulent. Hell, probably half or more of the "1 million people" who signed the recall petition are in fact fraudulent.
"You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas...on the taxpayer’s dime." Barack Obama
Think
Submitted by grammajane on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 1:12pm.
old fatso is getting threatened by his union thugs for not doing his job of bashing Walker. After all, didn't they pay him 200 grand to "get out the vote" and obviously, he failed big time. Personally, people listening to Fatso probably changed their minds and voted for Walker. Who could possibly listen to or believe a word coming out of his pathetic mug. Fatso..............you failed. Your mouth added up to zero.
Ed, Rachel, Larry, and the Turds
Submitted by CO2Maker on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 2:01pm.
To everything - spin, spin, spin
There is a season - spin, spin, spin
And a time for every purpose in the unions
A time to shill, a time to twist
A time to chide, a time to smear
A time to lie, a time to fudge
A time to cringe, a time to weep
To everything - spin, spin, spin
There is a season - spin, spin, spin
And a time for every purpose for Obama
Every time Ed spins...
Submitted by P. Aaron on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 2:28pm.
...a new angle on Wisconsin, you can bet he's changed his medication too.
Ed spinning = pig on ice
Submitted by CO2Maker on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 4:26pm.
Every word you speak
Every fact you tweak
Every truth you stretch
Every time you fetch
We'll be watching you
Every single Lib
Every word you fib
Every guest you fawn
Every night you're on
We'll be watching you
DATE CORRECTION NEEDED
Submitted by Deskpilot on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 3:12pm.
in paragraph 2, Should read JUNE 6
On Wisconsin! On America!
Submitted by berlet98 on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 5:39pm.
On Wisconsin! On America!
The debacle of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s recall, an exercise in futility and political partisanship, may be over but, as predicted here, by a million other blogsites, and on Fox News, the liberal, literal, weeping and gnashing of teeth have just begun.
In the aftermath of conservative Republican Walker soundly trouncing liberal Democrat Tom Barrett on Tuesday, thereby proving that intelligent voters realize that the Wisconsin is in dire economic straits, liberal Dems have erupted with a cascade of phony charges and threats.
Hurling unsubstantiated allegations that the GOP stole the election, that dastardy rich outsiders unduly influenced the electorate, that union members were bought, that money and not a deep-rooted sense of fiscal responsibility determined Tuesday’s outcome, Big Labor and its civil service lackeys resorted to every possible ploy to defeat Walker.
And they failed.
After shamelessly undermining the democratic process by lodging every slander short of alleging that Walker had fathered a Jesse Jackson-John Edwards-type love child, the Left was united in condemning the closely-monitored election as a fraud.
And they failed.
Wait, they did try that love child canard and it, too, flopped.
Liberals in the Badger State and in Obama’s mass media reacted to the taxpayer repudiation not by graciously accepting defeat but with an amazing display of sour grapes and continued defamation.
In two exceptional examples of disturbed hyperbole, foul-mouth leftist Ed Schultz on Obama’s MSNBC actually predicted Walker could face a criminal indictment “in the next several days” and at least one tearful Barrett supporter called Walker’s win “the end of democracy” and moaned, “democracy died tonight” on CNN.
Democracy hardly died Tuesday . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=25185.)