Today Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker will hold a “Beer and Brat Summit,” fulfilling his recall-election-night promise to proactively repair the state, reeling after months of partisanship and rancor.
“We’ve got some fantastic, authentic Wisconsin products that we will be sharing with legislators of both political parties and their staff. I am hopeful this get-together will forge relationships that will make it easier to work together to help create jobs,” said Walker in a statement.
On the night of his victory, Walker had said:
Tomorrow we are no longer opponents…Bringing our state together will take some time, but I want to start right away….with some brats and some burgers, to start, and maybe some good Wisconsin beer.
So today, he has invited all Wisconsin legislators and staff to join him for a cookout from 3 to 5pm, exactly one week after he overcame a recall challenge. While most are attending–according to one account, 98 legislators out of 132 had said yes–some cannot attend, and others are boycotting the summit:
Democratic state Senator Jon Erpenbach is taking a pass on the summit, saying it’s no disrespect to Governor Walker, but a beer and brat summit doesn’t really tackle the state’s issues. “Working together at the Capitol will send a louder message (than a brat and beer summit),” argued Erpenbach to Newsradio 620 WTMJ’s Wisconsin’s Afternoon News.
Walker has been criticized for several tactics during his administration — including his inability to extend an olive branch to Democrats.
Erpenbach was considered the de facto leader of the “Wisconsin 14”, who decamped for Illinois when the Budget Repair Bill was in the legislature — to avoid a vote on the legislation.
The menu includes local Wisconsin products such as Sprecher root beer, a variety of brats, cheeses, and, of course, beer.
UPDATE: Big Labor protested the Beer and Brat summit, video from MacIver Institute:
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Comments
Yeah, sure. He’ll have the beer and put the brats in time-out.
Sprecher root beer is the best! It is a shame these law makers won’t even try to get along.
**Erpenbach was considered the de facto leader of the “Wisconsin 14″, who decamped for Illinois when the Budget Repair Bill was in the legislature — to avoid a vote on the legislation.**
OK, I call BS on this euphemism-fest!
The FLEEBAGGERING OUTLAWS RAN to Illinois to DEFEAT DEMOCRACY and its expression according to law…and their oaths of office.
And, are we surprised some of these Collectivist pukes won’t meet with their GOP counterparts? They’ve been calling them every name in the book, and inciting to violence against them, for how long? They are steeped in their hate-twisted delusions, and are not about to let go of that white-knuckled rage.
Having made gains in the legislative recall, the Democrats took back the WI Senate in the most recent election. Iirc Krauthammer wrote that the Senate doesn’t convene again before November, but there is no assurance that the GOP will regain control.
Walker’s gesture is good politics. It’s the right way to govern and it’s the right way to campaign.
Actually, there is. Allegedly the redistricting done in Wisconsin is almost surely going to put the Senate back in the hands of Republicans.
…the Senate doesn’t convene again before November, but
there is no assurance, notwithstanding the advantage of a favorable redistricting, it is not assured that the GOP will regain control.Thanks for your insight. You sound like you know what you’re talking about, but I’d appreciate a hyperlink.
Leave aside the Senate , it’s in the future. l agree with your second point re: smart politics. Walkers summit is not aimed at dems , they’ll do what they’ll do. lts aimed at the people of Wisc. who have just given hiim a pretty big endorsement. Who are also tired of all the rancor , turmoil & expense. lf the stuck on stupid faction of the dems persist in their hissy fit , all the better. lt simply sharpens the contrast. We must admit it is enjoyable to watch a long held dem stronghold discintegrate in a fit of self indulgent petulism.
Too bad the kind of “cooperation” this FLEABAGGER is looking for is just not going to happen. What an absolute TOOL.
So much for the new civility. Does this mean that they hate obama for his beer summit?
Yep. Echo your comment and those that follow amount to this guy coming across as a “sore-head.” Walker comes across as a “class act.”
Spoiled brat.
“cooperation” is what got them into the mess that Walker just bailed them out again.
I don’t want my law makers cooperating.
Mark Pocan wants cooperation and compromise? After his team left town instead of doing their jobs? Why doesn’t he just come right out and say it: he wants from Governor Walker nothing less than surrender.
The Gov whips the Dems ass and HE has to compromise? The Senate is in recess until the end of the year and HE has to compromise?
What a bunch of maroons!
Reaganesque magnanimity in triumph is never amiss.
Feed ’em brats and beer, but never, ever let ’em forget who the grown ups are…
and who the PEOPLE support.
The Happy Warrior could laugh with his beaten enemies. ESPECIALLY his beaten enemies.
Magnanimity is one thing, but when the other person is an asshat like Pocan, it’s not worth the breath it takes to be magnanimous.
Except that Pocan was given a tar-baby to punch, and he eagerly demonstrated his ass-hattedness for all to see. ALLLL good…!!!
Remember, a BIG part of our job is education of the uninformed. Walker looks GREAT here.
“Cooperation and compromise” is Democrat for what we want. The only way this is going to be fixed in WI, CA, NY, IL, and DC is to vote them out one by one by one. In the mean time, when these places go under, no bailouts. There is no place left to go.
Google is your friend. Do your own due diligence.
Democrats continued intransigence will simply give the nascent GOP Reborn(WI) to get a grassroots movement rolling.
Somewhere down the line they will either be rolled into the TEAs at large or lead a Mau Mau uprising and behead Jebbie and Karl, et al.
Why would anyone want to extend an olive branch to a democrat? I want them beaten to a pulp on every issue.
Governor Walker has no more reason to offer “cooperation and compromise” to the Democrats in Wisconsin than General Patton had to offer “cooperation and compromise” to Oberst-Gruppenführer Sepp Dietrich after the relief of Bastogne. In both cases, the opponents have diametrically opposed views of the future, and no compromise is possible.
Subotai Bahadur
Dem-O-Lingo Speak
Compromise: “Let’s go me and you, 70-30 on this.”
Reconcile: “Turn around. Put your hands against the wall and spread your feet.”
Cooperation: “We’re doing it our way. Period.”
Bipartisanship:” “Sit down. Shut up. When we do a photo-op, we’ll call you.”
Transparency: “We need to vote on the bill to find out what’s in it.”
Integrity: “Mr. Chairman, I have no recollection of that event.”
Democrats just can’t help themselves. They are sore losers to their roots.
Frankly speaking, Walker’s party is/ will be full of sore wieners of the very wurst kind.
Walker is responsible for making the gesture. He is not responsible for how it is received. It is also a good political move. If the Dems accept graciously, it neither helps nor hurts them. But if they get snotty about it… it hurts them. Walker did the right thing with the gesture and can’t lose politically no matter how it goes.
Will the beer & brats bear the union label is what I want to know.
Gov Walker is a gracious and professional Governor, politician, and patriot, but those defeated liberals have no honor, respect, integrity, or professionalism, let alone any intention to be generous in return to Gov Walker’s gracious peace offering olive branch of brats and beer gesture.
Those people on the liberal left have only contempt, arrogance, and insidiousness in their hearts, as that’s what they are to the core, radical anti-American leftist marxists, and want only to see the nation and people under their insidious corrupt control by whatever means.
Now yes, not all on the left side of the political spectrum are like that, but a majority are, as to them, vitriolic animosity and absolute venomous deep seated hatred is all they know, and all they are, and all they ever will be. That’s the truth of it. And we should never be so naive and delusional to believe and think other wise, for to do so, would dangerous, consequential, and detrimental to our way of life of Freedom, Liberty, Democracy, with govt “Of the People, By the People, For the People.