Governor Mitch Daniels, recently encouraged others to bolster his name as a Presidential possibility. That is all snuffed. Sadly, somewhere deep in the Republican psyche there is a strand that allows some to melt into oblivion under pressure. We’ve seen this regularly amongst some Republican legislators for the last 20 — probably longer– years.
These Republicans who cave into union or democrat pressure, come from a variety of backgrounds. All too often, they see themselves as pragmatists or ‘problem solvers’. In fact, they are ‘situationists’ —much like Arnold Schwarzenegger. They believe in very little, excepting compromise. Values are relative. They accomplish very little. Their lives are literally meaningless. Think Doris Allen or Paul Horcher. Sad pathetic individuals.
MItch Daniels is descending into the unremarkable.
PORTRAIT OF A MEANINGLESS MODERATE — GOV MITCH DANIELS
While the upper mid west is brimming with enthusiastic conservatives forces that will restore some balance to the oversized government unions, Daniels’ is in full retreat, in ripe for action, Indiana.
Behavior is always a better measure of a person’s future conduct than his stated intentions.
As soon as Daniels became Indiana governor, he immediately raised taxes. All the usual bromides were used to blame the previous governor’s debt etc. What Daniels missed was a comprehenswive understanding that most government ‘services’ are vastly more expensive when compared to the private sector. Government by its nature is necessarily morbidly obese. It needs radical lab-band surgery. Daniels didn’t even try.
So, with union reform Victory so close in Indiana for the first time in maybe 100 years–he does what moderates do—seizes defeat in the face of victory.
Mr. Daniels, please retire from public life–and enjoy your pension.
John Fund has a nice piece below in Wall Street Journal On-line below :
The Republican governor told reporters yesterday that he had no plans to use state troopers to compel attendance by the AWOL Democrats. "Even the smallest minority, and that’s what we’ve heard from in the last couple days, has every right to express the strength of its views and I salute those who did," he said. His office later had to clarify that he was referring to union protestors rather than legislators shirking their duty.
Indiana’s right-to-work legislation, which would have made it the 23rd state to bar requiring private sector workers to join a union, died last night with the failure of the legislature to act. Mr. Daniels never opposed the bill but made it clear he thought it would distract from other parts of his legislative agenda. "There was a better time and place to have this very important and legitimate issue raised."
But Mark Mix of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Fund says conservatives will remember that Mr. Daniels chose to be a non-combatant in a fight that was almost won. "We had a clear majority of both the House and Senate ready to vote in favor of the bill," Mr. Mix told me. "The governor would certainly have signed it, but his willingness to let right-to-work die when Republicans had overwhelming majorities in the legislature makes one wonder just how stalwart he would be in pursuit of conservative issues."
Mr. Daniels is expected to make up his mind about a presidential run in the next few weeks.
— John Fund
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