On Wednesday, after Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels signed into the Right To Work law, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow squirmed in her chair with excitement as she showed the Super Bowl Village being invaded by Big Labor activists. [see update at bottom of post]

Rather than seeing the Super Bowl as a big event for Indiana, Maddow’s guest, Indiana State Rep. Scott Pelath, sees it as a “national platform” for Big Labor “education” through disruption.

Indiana AFL-CIO union boss Nancy Guyott pulls no punches describing the chaos she intends to create; she has declared war on Super Bowl spectators. From Sterling Wong at Minyanville.com:

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Big Labor backed Indiana Senate Democrats shrilly-repeated inaccurate talking points as they made last efforts to let union bosses know that they tried their best to stop worker freedom from coming to Indiana.  But, they failed.  Indiana passed Right To Work – union bosses will no longer be able to force most private sector employees to pay them without their willful consent.

From the National Right To Work Committee release:

Today, Mark Mix, President of the 2.6 million-member National Right to Work Committee, praised the Indiana House and Senate for passage of the Indiana Right to Work Law.

Mr. Mix said, “This is a great day for Indiana’s workers and taxpayers.

“After a ten-year struggle involving hundreds of thousands of mobilized Hoosiers, Indiana will finally be able to enjoy all the benefits of a Right to Work law,” said Mr. Mix.

“Today, the Indiana Senate passed the Right to Work Bill by a vote of 28 to 22. The bill has already passed the House, so it now goes straight to Governor Daniels, who has vowed to sign it, making Indiana America’s 23rd Right to Work state,” continued Mix.

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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Lawmakers put Indiana on the verge of becoming the Rust Belt’s first right-to-work state, passing legislation Wednesday that prohibits labor contracts requiring workers to pay union representation fees.

Hundreds of union members gathered at the Statehouse chanted “Shame on you!” and “See you at the Super Bowl!” as the vote was announced. As the streets of Indianapolis bustled with Super Bowl festivities, protesters planned a downtown rally that they hoped would point a national spotlight on the state.

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When it was announced that Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniel’s would give the response to the State of the Union address, hopes were high that he might take it to Obama–that he might meet the rhetoric of class warfare with an exposition of free markets, personal responsibility, smaller government, etc. But instead, what we heard last night from Daniels was more class warfare aimed at the rich.

For example, after saying some good things, even some great things, about the debt President Obama’s reckless spending has put us in—“an unprecedented explosion of spending has added trillions to an already unaffordable national debt”—Daniels went after the wealthy in this county in much the same way we’d expect Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid to do.

Consider the way he spoke of reviving Medicare and social security:

We must unite to save the safety net. Medicare and social security have served us well [and] we can preserve them unchanged and untouched for those in or near retirement, but we must fashion a new safety net so future Americans are protected too.

Decades ago we could afford to send millionaires pension checks and pay medical bills for even the wealthiest among us, now we can’t. So the dollars we have should be devoted to those who need them most.

Do you see that? According to Daniels, people who are wealthy shouldn’t receive social security “pension” checks or Medicare benefits. And what’s the difference between what Daniels is saying and what Obama says when he tells the wealthy to “pay their fair share”? It’s like Daniels took a page straight out of Class Warfare 101.

And what’s worse, Daniels is completely overlooking the fact that “the wealthy” receive social security checks because they paid into social security: it’s not like they’re receiving checks for something they didn’t earn. So in a real sense, Daniels is saying that the money the wealthy paid into social security should go to others instead. It’s like a whole new entitlement.

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Mitt Romney’s weekend interview in the Wall Street Journal seems to add weight to conservative doubts about his candidacy.

Romney doesn’t seem to get it: the 2012 election is about the size and cost of government.

We already have a “smart” president with ambitious plans who thinks he knows better. That hasn’t worked for our economy, and has damaged trust in our democracy.

Romney says “America doesn’t need a manager,” but his plans reflect what the Journal euphemistically calls “positive technocratic thinking.”

Though Romney may be more “sober” than his rival Newt Gingrich (or, less charitably, more timid than the former Speaker), he evidently shares with Gingrich an enthusiasm for what the federal government could do, if only he were put in control.

Given that Ron Paul’s radical foreign policy is a non-starter, and that several other candidates–however well-meaning–could not manage the mundane task of qualifying for the Virginia ballot, or withstand the media scrutiny of a long campaign, Republicans are feeling new doubts about the current field.

They are all better than Obama; the question is–are they the best Republicans can offer?

As Republicans have wrestled with that question, a few have floated the idea of a “brokered convention,” at which the party’s nominee would be chosen through back-room negotiations and contested ballots instead of the pro forma roll calls of recent decades.

Given Romney’s struggle to provide the clear alternative to Obama that Americans so desperately need, the party should consider whether a brokered convention is feasible as a fallback option.

Here, then, are the top ten Republicans who could be nominated at a brokered convention. Some declined to run earlier, and should reconsider; all would provide a stronger contrast to President Obama than Romney or Gingrich is providing at the moment.

***

10. Rep. Eric Cantor

The Whip united the caucus against the disastrous stimulus in 2009. In the debt ceiling debate, he reportedly held out against new taxes in any final agreement. Moreover, he has made clear that his vision for the country’s future is plainly different from Obama’s.

***

9. Sen. Jim DeMint

The conservative stalwart has provided key support to Tea Party candidates, and has challenged the compromise politics of the Republican establishment.

***

8. Gov. Bobby Jindal

Recently elected in a landslide to a second term, he has fought political corruption and brought competence and leadership to a state long lacking both. Despite a rocky national TV debut in 2009, Jindal is a ruthless and effective campaigner.

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Last week, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels (R-IN) reviewed the reforms Indiana has instituted since he took office in a wide-ranging speech at The Heritage Foundation. From education reform to challenging public employee unions, Daniels has strived to make government work well. In an interview following his speech, Daniels discussed the reforms he made to state government, the Democrats’ walkout from the legislature this year, and what the federal government can learn from Indiana.

And the effort seems to have paid off. As we discussed in the interview, a recent Manhattan Institute poll revealed that 77 percent of Hoosiers rate Indiana’s government as “efficient.” That’s the highest percentage of any state surveyed and a stark contrast to neighboring Illinois’ 23 percent.

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Planned Parenthood’s legal team has been extremely busy these days trying to stop various states from defunding their group. Texas, Wisconsin and New Hampshire joined Indiana, Kansas and North Carolina this week as they decided that taxpayer dollars should not fund the mega abortion chain.

But Indiana is Ground Zero in the fight to strip Planned Parenthood of its taxpayer dollars. After Indiana defunded the abortion group in May, President Obama has threatened to withhold billions of dollars in Medicaid funds from the state of Indiana if the state does not continue to funding Planned Parenthood. To make matters worse, an Obama-appointed judge ruled late last week that Indiana had to reinstate funding to Planned Parenthood because it would not be in the public interest if President Obama withheld billions of dollars from the state of Indiana and consequently hurt over a million patients on Medicaid. Forget the merits of that case!

Planned Parenthood emphatically defends its public funding by arguing that women have no other place to go for their healthcare needs.  According to an official Planned Parenthood press release, the legislation would “take away health care from thousands of women in Indiana, leaving them at greater risk for undetected cancers, untreated infections and unintended pregnancies.”

Oh really? Planned Parenthood in Indiana serves 9,300 Medicaid patients, which only accounts for less than 1% of the total Medicaid patients in the state. And in the counties with Planned Parenthood clinics alone, women can choose from over  800 other qualified Medicaid providers.

Live Action is releasing an undercover video today showing that Planned Parenthood’s claims of Medicaid women losing their healthcare if they are defunded are bogus and unfounded. View here:

Our undercover investigators called 16 of the 28 Indiana Planned Parenthood clinics posing as women on Medicaid concerned about where they could receive services if Planned Parenthood’s funding was not restored.

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Last week, I told you about an Indiana teacher who compared the state’s new education reform initiatives to the Holocaust.

My organization, the Education Action Group, responded to this teacher’s email, and told him in no uncertain terms that he was a “dope” for comparing charter schools and vouchers to the Nazi ovens and gas chambers.

Charter schools and vouchers equal this? Yes, says Indiana teacher.

That teacher wrote back to defended his Holocaust comparison this way:

“The reason that this is a holocaust is that it is attacking innocent and in this case defenseless people just because someone or some group can push their own agenda through the political system and those most affected by it cannot do anything about it.  I really do not like to reflect upon the atrocities that were done to my family members.  However, I must admit that extermination is finite, whereby, suppressing a generation that will be generational does not help them or any of us. (emphasis added)

“My true feelings are that I want the best for the children I teach, my own children and all of the children not only of Indiana but of the world.  The actions of the governor are highly offensive to me.  I have always taken my job seriously and aforementioned want the best for them.  As a lifetime Republican, I am offended and embarrassed by this last political session.  Obviously, someone must like what is happening.  I have talked to several people that mirror my feelings that they will really scrutinize who they will vote for in the future.

“Now that you have responded to my e-mail and insulted me and I hope that you feel better for that. Perhaps now you can put aside our differences and stop the mud slinging….”

This teacher (who identifies himself as an agriscience and agribusiness instructor, a Future Farmers of America advisor, and an assistant track and field coach) has clarified his position on why Gov. Mitch Daniels is perpetuating a “holocaust” over in Indiana, and it is this: the Holocaust was bad, but the damage was limited, whereas giving kids vouchers will cause generational damage.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the Greek debt crisis and Francis’ thoughts on the 2012 race for President.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

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So, with Mitch Daniels out of the Presidential race, what do we make of the GOP field? Daniels, despite some possible quibbles, had a very compelling argument for his candidacy. First and foremost was his solid record as Governor. He cut government, curtailed the power of public sector unions and, just in the last few weeks, won groundbreaking education reform. Sure, he was a bit boring and something of a technocrat, but after 3+ years of flim-flammy flash and dash, a little adult supervision seemed in order.

A more compelling case, I believed, was where Daniels was from. Indiana sits in that great swath of the industrial heartland of America. Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee, among many other cities and towns are the bed-rock of America’s industrial might. The West Coast may have the glitz and the East Coast may have the financial power, but neither is possible without the hard toil of the lunchbox crowd in the Midwest. It is the “America that works.” Unfortunately, the Midwest is also the region that has been most battered by the failed policies of the last few decades. Look no further than Detroit to see what happens when progressivism’s “best intentions” crash upon the rocks of economic reality.

It has been a long time since America had a President who knew and understand our industrial heartland. (Yes, I realize Barack Obama is from Illinois, but c’mon…is there any evidence his presidency-as-academic-symposium understands the first thing about how the private sector works?) A candidate from this region would not only have an innate understanding of the proverbial “Joe Six Pack”, he or she would also appreciate how over-taxation and over-regulation can stifle an economic engine. A candidate who has lived among abandoned factories and shuttered steel mills would understand that the policy whims of the mandarins in DC have real-world consequences.

Daniels understood this world. But, he’s out. However, based on growing on-line chatter, someone else from America’s shop-floor may be about to enter the race: Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, from Michigan.

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From the Associated Press:

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said early Sunday that he won’t run for president because of family considerations, narrowing the field in the race for the GOP nomination.

“In the end, I was able to resolve every competing consideration but one,” Daniels said, disclosing his decision in an e-mail to supporters. “The interests and wishes of my family, is the most important consideration of all. If I have disappointed you, I will always be sorry.”

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Republican Presidential contenders are melting like tourists on the Vegas Strip, without sunscreen, on a 117 degree day in July. Doesn’t anyone in the GOP actually want to run against the worst President in modern American history?

It can’t be Obama’s record that’s scaring Republicans. Obama is overseeing the worst economy since 1929…contributed heavily to the worst sovereign debt crisis in history…presiding over the worst collapse in real estate ever…helping to ensure the highest gas prices in history by refusing to allow oil drilling until recently…the list goes on and on. You’d think the Republican contenders would be licking their lips at running against that record? Instead they are falling by the wayside.

Let’s examine the carnage. This analyst and political pundit predicted Donald Trump’s political career was over three weeks ago when “The Donald” played casino pit boss and F-bombed his way through a Vegas speech. Have you ever heard of multiple F-bombs in a major political speech in by a Presidential contender? Unimaginable.

Forget the birth certificate controversy. Trump was still sitting high in the polls even after Obama released his birth certificate. But there was no escaping using multiple F-bombs on the biggest political stage. Not in a GOP filled with evangelical Christian voters, and parents who wash their children’s mouth out with soap for using that same word. Donald “F-bomb” Trump’s political career ended that day in Vegas.

What about Huckabee? A Presidential frontrunner, this former man of God couldn’t turn down fame and money. Huckabee proves even the Presidency isn’t as lucrative as a TV show on Fox News.

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Last week, my organization praised the Indiana lawmakers for passing some of the nation’s most significant education reforms.  In one of Education Action Group’s weekly newsletters, we said that Indiana’s new voucher program and its decision to lift the cap on charter schools will transform the state’s public education system, to the benefit of all Hoosier families and students. (An EAGtv report that details Indiana’s education reforms can be found here.)

Well, EAG’s audacity in celebrating the idea of school choice generated a number of hateful email responses – from unionized Indiana teachers.

The writers (all with the telltale “k12.in.us” in the email address) accused us of “attacking public education” and “bashing” teachers. One writer blamed us for demoralizing “those of us in the trenches and on the front lines of the classroom.”

Anyone who dares challenge the status quo of Big Education can expect such name calling.

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Of all the states currently working on serious education reform, Indiana may deserve the gold medal.

Gov. Mitch Daniels and state Superintendent Tony Bennett fearlessly led the charge to dramatically reform the state’s education system.

“Are we about funding the education of children or funding the education system,” Bennett often said.

To that end, perhaps the most incredible of the reforms was the establishment of the broadest school voucher program in the country.  Within the next few years, the vast majority of Indiana students will be able to go to the school of their choice and the state-allotted funding will follow them.  Among other reforms includes increasing the number of charter schools, creating a performance pay system for teachers and restricting collective bargaining to pay and benefits.

Restricting collective bargaining was a major component of the reform effort. As Education Action Group has chronicled many times, union collective bargaining agreements have become ridiculous, with numerous provisions that cost schools millions of dollars and cumbersome rules that prevent schools from innovating and improving.

Daniels’ reforms do away with all of that nonsense and allow school officials to make decisions that prioritize students and their needs.

Daniels and Bennett, along with many state legislators, withstood the attacks from unions, school administrators and others in the educational establishment.  They fought back against “misinformation” campaigns.

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Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels signed an expansive new voucher law today. It’s a disaster for educational freedom. Read the full explanation here.

The voucher program has been widely praised as a momentous victory for school choice and Gov. Mitch Daniels on the brink of his long-awaited presidential campaign announcement. In reality, the voucher program is a tactical victory for highly constrained choice won at the price of a broad strategic defeat for educational freedom. This program will greatly expand state regulation of and authority over participating private schools.

In our efforts to expand educational choice across the country, we can’t lose sight of what makes that choice valuable; educational freedom and the diversity of choices it allows to develop. School choice is meaningless if all the choices are the same.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson is joined by Pejman Yousefzadeh to discus the war in Libya, a union plan to bring America to its knees, and the 2012 presidential campaign.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

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Great question by Fox News’ Neal Cavuto to Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels: “I am wondering if you just got punked?”  Daniels responded that he did not understand the question, and then proceeded to answer his own question. (transcript)

Yes, the governor and Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma were punked by Big Labor Democrats in several ways:

• The Governor tossed aside a law providing every Hoosier the right to choose whether or not to belong to a union, better known as the Right To Work. With f Democrats rattling sabers, Daniels chose to discard Right To Work and got nothing in return.
• For months prior to the Democrats’ fleeing the legislature and the job for which they were elected, Daniels and Speaker Bosma went from meeting to meeting predicting that introducing Right To Work would cause Democrats to throw a legislative tantrum.  They telegraphed that they were not going to fight for this employee emancipation issue. Democrats knew that Daniels would quickly give them what they wanted most:  dropping Right To Work, and Daniels delivered.
• Because Daniels and Bosma said that they intended to blame the Democrats’ childish behavior on the Right To Work bill, the Governor handed Democrats an excuse to justify their actions.  Worse, Daniels continues to repeat his “blame Right To Work game” every chance he gets. Daniels’ actions provide cover for the scurrying Democrats.  But, as Cavuto pointed out, the Governor’s team quickly caved on Right To Work, and yet, the Democrats did not return.
• Sadly, the Governor weakened his own bargaining hand.  Because Right To Work was quickly tossed, Democrats have every reason to believe the Governor and Bosma will cave on everything else.  And, having already caved, it will be harder for Governor to justify standing his ground.  This is why Democrats aren’t back in Indiana yet!

Yep, Daniels was “punked,” if Cavuto means losing the battle before it began. Indiana gave public teachers the Right to Work in 1995, but Gov. Daniels refused to even fight for freedom for private sector employees. (more…)

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In American politics, all eyes this week have been turned toward Wisconsin, where the clash over the bargaining process and entitlements for public employee unions has sparked protests and legislator walkouts. Today on Coffee and Markets we’re talking with Mark Mix, head of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, about his views on the battle in Wisconsin and elsewhere over public employee unions. We also talk about Mitch Daniels’ surprising attitude towards right to work laws in Indiana.

We’re brought to you as always by Stephen Clouse and Associates. You can find our iTunes feed at CoffeeandMarkets.com. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

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First, I need to start with a confession and a plea for forgiveness. For the last two years, when the DC parlor game of “who should run in 2012″ came up, I had one answer: Mitch Daniels. Sure, he was kind of boring. But, I thought that after four years of the “flash and dash”, “hope and change” flimflammery of the Obama Administration, boring would be right up the voters’ alley. Daniels was competent, in precisely the kind of way you trust-and want-your accountant to be competent. He was, I thought, the man for the times.

I was wrong. I am sorry.

It turns out Mitch Daniels is a 1990s conservative; hesitant, afraid to stand on principle, desperate to be loved by editorial writers from the dying newspaper industry. (Newt Daniels?) He needs everybody to support him and stands ready to jettison any principled policy position for an extra few points bump in the polls. No doubt, he wants to ‘rise above’ politics, but he has personally risen so far above it that one wonders why he even bothers. He wasn’t pressed into service as Governor and presumptive presidential candidate. He chose that path, presumably, because he had a vision for how to lead. Again, and I will say this a lot, I was wrong.

Yesterday, Indiana House Democrats took a page from the Wisconsin Senate ‘fleebagger’ playbook and fled the state to avoid a vote on legislation to curtail union privileges. At even a basic level, it is an unbelievable abdication of responsibility. We are a representative democracy. We have elections and those elections have consequences. You don’t get to simply pick up your ball and go home when you don’t like the results. That’s a temper tantrum, not responsible, adult behavior.

But, Mitch Daniels endorsed it.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Benjamin Zycher to discuss Obamacare, the FDA and the importance of competition in health care, then Pejman Yousefzadeh talks about Mitch Daniels and CPAC.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

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(more…)