Dragging the Democratic Party on Wisconsin, Kicking and Screaming

The President and national Democratic Party clearly does not want to rise to the level of defending the Wisconsin workers. That became very clear today in Press Secretary Jay Carney's statement on whether or not public and private unions should have the same rights.

What we have said and what the President has said is that with regard to what’s happening in the states now, as the states address their fiscal situations, everybody needs to tighten their belts, everybody needs to sacrifice and work together to bring state budgets into balance, to bring stability to the fiscal situations in the states, much as we need to work together at the federal level. And that’s our position.

Unfortunately, that wasn't today's only scary sign of where national Democrats are at. Democratic Maryland Governor O'Malley, who's in the past come out strong for collective bargaining rights, wasn't so strong on it today, after coming out of a Governor's meeting at the White House.

After a White House meeting with President Obama, Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley was asked if the on-going public employee union dispute was raised in their meeting. "No, not really," O'Malley replied bluntly. "We were focused today on the things that we can do together to create jobs."

"So, we didn't talk about whatever it is they're doing in Wisconsin today," O'Malley reiterated.

"I think most of us see that as distraction, really, from the most important work that we can do, which is creating jobs," he said. "All of us get things done. We're about getting things done. We're not primarily an ideological group of people."

President Obama, who, as a candidate, said he'd get up and picket with the protesters if collective bargaining was on the line, and national Democrats must get on board the Wisconsin workers. Union jobs are the jobs we need in this country most of all, so why the President and other prominent party leaders isn't sticking up for them is a very disturbing question. At the end of the day, the Democratic Party does not win without labor, not to any degree of the success that would deliver a majority -- but it looks like we're going to be dragging them kicking and screaming to this fight. The good news is it's a fight working people are winning, even if Democrats in Bizarro Land (Washington, D.C.) are too scared of the Republican Boogeyman to realize that yet.