Mitt Romney, not one to be outdone by Tim Pawlenty, has gone beyond making a slick web ad for his own list building purposes and actually donated $5000 to Scott Walker.
Eddie Vale of the AFL-CIO sends along this statement in response to Romney's bailout of Walker:
It's no surpise that multimillionaire outsourcer Mitt Romney is sending $5000 to his buddes in Wisconsin. But what's even more impressive is thousands of people all across country, in small dollar amounts online, have raised over $400k for senators defending their rights.Vale is right - the $419,271 and counting raised for the fourteen Wisconsin Democratic State Senators on ActBlue is a hell of a lot more impressive and impactful than Romney's check. State senate races are usually inexpensive affairs, making the donations more important than gifts for a statewide campaign. Moreover, every dollar those Democratic senators get is a statement to them about the volume of support for their decision to leave Wisconsin and prevent a union-busting bill from being passed on their watch.
The Wisconsin fight is clearly becoming an important place for Republican presidential candidates to show...um...solidarity with Scott Walker and his union busting efforts. Romney has a history of outsourcing, so it's not exactly much of a reach for him to make common cause with Walker. Actually, come to think of it, from a policy level, there isn't any reason every GOP presidential hopeful wouldn't cut a check to Walker. After all, he's likely going to need the money come next January, when he will almost certainly face a recall election. Today may well turn out to be a banner day for Scott Walker's political fundraising efforts. Sadly, it will likely come on the backs of public servants and the most vulnerable.
Update Mitt Romney is so predictable, when I saw MBH's post, I thought to myself: "How much do you want to bet this guy sought the support of teachers unions in the past?" A Google search nine seconds later:
Boston Globe, 10/13/02: "Romney courts teachers union."
And a month later, after the election was over:
Boston Globe, 11/6/02: "Party base deserted O'Brien; urban, union voters went for Romney."
On every side of every issue, Multiple Choice Mitt strikes again.
--Matt Ortega