Wisconsin Puts
Obama Between Competing Desires
Published: February 20, 2011 - New York Times
WASHINGTON — The battle in Wisconsin over public employee unions has left President
Obama facing a tricky balance between showing solidarity with longtime
political supporters and projecting a message in favor of deep spending cuts to
reduce the debt.
Over the weekend, the White House and Democratic
Party officials pushed back against criticism from Republicans that Mr.
Obama and his political network were meddling in the Wisconsin dispute.
Administration officials said Sunday that the White House had done nothing to
encourage the demonstrations in Wisconsin — nor was it doing so in Ohio, Florida
and other states where new Republican governors are trying to make deep cuts to
balance their budgets.
And, officials and union leaders said, reports of the involvement of the Democratic
National Committee — specifically Organizing for America, the grass-roots
network born of Mr. Obamafs 2008 campaign — were overblown to start with and
were being inflated by Republicans sensing political advantage.
gThis is a Wisconsin story, not a Washington one,h said Dan
Pfeiffer, the White House communications director. gFalse claims of White
House involvement are attempts to distract from the organic grass-roots
opposition that is happening in Wisconsin.h
Before Mr. Obama complained late last week of an gassaulth on the unions by
the Republican governor in Wisconsin, Scott Walker, the Democratic Party had
alerted its volunteers in Organizing for America to support the protests there
and elsewhere, seeing an opening to show solidarity with the labor movement and
rev up the partyfs liberal base ahead of the 2012 elections.
By the weekend, national party officials were taking credit for encouraging
the protests, especially through the use of Twitter
and other online social networks.
But the party got involved, officials say, without consulting the political
team at the White House, which is wary of getting distracted from Mr. Obamafs
own budget confrontations with Republicans in Washington and upsetting his
carefully nurtured position as an advocate for serious measures to address
deficits.
On Sunday, Republicans continued to censure Mr. Obama for weighing in on the
Madison fight. In an interview with a Milwaukee television station on Thursday,
the president criticized Mr. Walker for his proposal to restrict the bargaining
rights of public employee unions. Republicans also said that political
organizers at Democratic headquarters were stoking the protests.
Among Mr. Obamafs critics was Governor Walker. gThe president ultimately
should stay focused on fixing the federal
budget because theyfve got a huge deficit and, believe me, they got their
hands full,h Mr. Walker said on gFox News Sunday.h He also said gmore and moreh
protesters were coming from other states.
At issue in Madison is less Mr. Walkerfs proposed reduction in public
employeesf pay and benefits and more his proposal to limit their collective
bargaining rights. But people familiar with the protests say the national
Democratic Party got engaged days after the demonstrations began and mostly
after union officials, liberals and Wisconsin Democrats complained that the
Obama organization was missing
in action.
Mr. Obama has had strained relations with unions in general, and many do not
believe he fights hard enough for their issues; public employee unions have been
especially critical lately, since he proposed a two-year freeze of federal
employeesf pay.
The Milwaukee television interview that was Mr. Obamafs first involvement in
the Madison budget war was sought by the White House not to interject the
president into the statefs fight but to promote his separate message concerning
his own national budget-cutting drama: the station broadcasts into the district
of the Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee, Representative Paul
D. Ryan.
In the interview, the president sought to thread the needle between
supporting the need for public employees to sacrifice while defending their
bargaining rights: gSome of what Ifve heard coming out of Wisconsin, where
theyfre just making it harder for public employees to collectively bargain
generally, seems like more of an assault on unions.h
That comment was ginappropriate,h Senator Lindsey
Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said on the NBC
program gMeet the Pressh on Sunday.
gThe governor of Wisconsin is doing what he campaigned on,h Mr. Graham added.
Senator Richard
J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, disagreed. gI believe the president should
have weighed in,h he said on the same program. gI think we should all weigh in
and say, eDo the right thing for Wisconsinfs budget but do not destroy decades
of work to establish the rights of workers to speak for themselves.f h
While Republicans seized the opportunity to depict Mr. Obama as siding
against deficit-cutting efforts, some Democrats and union organizers said the
political benefit ultimately could be theirs.
gThis has really kind of put a shot in the arm of the unions and Democratic
base,h said Eddie Vale, the political communications director at the A.F.L.-C.I.O.,
who is returning to Madison on Monday, when even bigger demonstrations are
expected on a federal holiday. gIf Republicans keep trying to do the same thing
in state after state, theyfre just going to be building the 2012
get-out-the-vote operationh for Democrats.