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02.21.11 -- 11:37PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (6)

TPM Team in DC

Tomorrow is the first day on the job for our new Capitol Hill reporter Benjy Sarlin. That brings the headcount in our DC Bureau to six -- five reporters and TPM's Managing Editor and DC Bureau Chief David Kurtz. We'll be adding more reporters to our DC team over the course of this year.

--Josh Marshall

02.21.11 -- 11:00PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (36)

Powerful

If you have a few moments free to watch some really well done documentary reporting, check out this piece from al Jazeera on American helicopter transport medics in Afghanistan. After the jump.

--Josh Marshall

02.21.11 -- 10:01PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (46)

Flailing

Gov. Walker (R-WI) has just announced that tomorrow evening at 6 PM he'll deliver what he's calling a "fireside chat" to discuss the impasse in the state.

--Josh Marshall

02.21.11 -- 8:30PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (195)

Walking Into the Wind

A TPM reporter will be arriving in Wisconsin tomorrow morning. So I'm looking forward to more on the ground reports of events in Madison. But going on what I've seen today, I'll stick with what I said a couple days ago: I don't think this is going well for Gov. Walker (R).

He just gave a late afternoon press conference in which he grandly stated that he won't compromise on union rights to collective bargaining and that it's time for the senate Democrats to come back to Madison. But why would they? Walker appears to be totally hamstrung by their absence. And his ally, the senate Majority Leader, said today that he won't try to push a workaround to get those provisions through before the Democrats come back.

--Josh Marshall

02.21.11 -- 7:00PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (10)

Images

I mentioned earlier the great importance of video and a press presence in the new post-Egypt uprisings, or more specifically the lack of it in countries like Libya. To that end we've put together a package of photographs of protests over the weekend in Libya, Morroco, Bahrain, Algeria and other countries across the region. Take a look.

--Josh Marshall

02.21.11 -- 6:07PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (15)

Libya on Fire

Events are moving rapidly in Libya, so fast that it's difficult to sift the facts from the noise of contradictory reports. But here are a few reports that point to a rapid breakdown of the government's authority. Two high-ranking Libyan Air Force pilots have reportedly defected to Malta after refusing orders to conduct aerial bombing of civilian protestors. Reuters reports, with little detail, that a group of Libyan officers has issues a statement calling on the armed forces to "join the people" and remove Gaddafi from power. And the staff of the country's mission to the UN has in effect defected from the current government. (Not completely sure you can do that; but I guess it's the thought that counts.)

Finally, the country's Ambassador to the United States -- if I'm understanding this post from Ben Smith correctly -- has just called on the Obama administration to more forcefully denounce his government.

Late Update: Actually, we were just able to watch a brief interview with the Ambassador on al Jazeera. He's clearly cut the cord.

Latter Update: Watching the coverage of the Libya situation on al Jazeera English and, honestly, it's pretty embarrassing to compare it to what you get on the US cable nets. Reminds me of what CNN was sometimes like 20 years ago or actually what the BBC used to be like.

--Josh Marshall

02.21.11 -- 5:48PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (7)

Silent Libya

One thing I was curious about was whether there's less news out of Libya because it is a more thoroughly authoritarian state. There just aren't a lot of foreign journalists there. Ever. Certainly nothing like Egypt. Egypt under Mubarak was far from Democratic. But it was full of foreign journalists. And in many ways quite open, at least compared to more intensely repressive states. What I'm hearing is that a number of major international news orgs are simply having immense difficulty getting their reporters into the country. Cooling their heels at border points of entry, unable to get in.

CNN has more on this front.

--Josh Marshall

02.21.11 -- 5:34PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (7)

Off the Bench

Packers star cornerback Charles Woodson comes out in support of state public employees unions.

--Josh Marshall

02.21.11 -- 4:57PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (17)

Quote of the Day

Huckabee says Haley Barbour's record on race is "impeccable."

I guess from one point of view that might be right.

--Josh Marshall

02.21.11 -- 3:49PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (24)

The World of Cable News

The first act of the Egyptian Revolution is over. Mubarak is out of power. But as you can no doubt see, there are now upwards of half a dozen uprisings or mass protests afoot in different Arab countries and in Iran. And at least one of those (Libya) seems to be on its way to a much more jagged, chaotic and violent end than what we saw in Egypt.

But it seems impossible not to note that there's just far, far less coverage of these other uprising. There's coverage. Otherwise, how would we know about it? But there's not that flood the zone, learn the key people's names, the world is watching coverage that we saw with Egypt. So why is that?

--Josh Marshall

02.21.11 -- 2:05PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (62)

Big News Out of Madison

Just a short time ago we brought you word that the state senate Democrats in Wisconsin were worried that the Republicans could manage an end-run and push the union-busting bill through without their being present. The approach would be to take that stuff out of the budget bill, which requires a larger quorum of senators present, and put it into regular legislation they could pass with the Dems still out of state. But now the Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald is saying he won't take the legislation up until the Democrats come back.

The backstory seems to be that there's a moderate faction among the Republican senators. And they are apparently refusing to go ahead with that approach. We don't know that latter point for certain yet. But it seems to be the most logical inference to draw from Fitzgerald's statement. And his clear ruling out of such an option seems to leave the standoff in place, with no clear option for Walker absent some agreement with the Democrats.

--Josh Marshall

02.21.11 -- 1:45PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (10)

Official Cover

It's been pretty clear for a while that that US Embassy worker in Pakistan held for shooting two Pakistanis must have been an intelligence operative of some sort. And now US intelligence officials are conceding that he was in fact working on a CIA covert team in country.

--Josh Marshall

02.21.11 -- 1:22PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (8)

End Run?

Wisconsin state senate Democrat Jon Erpenbach says he's worried that senate Republicans may have found a way to push through their bill to end collective bargaining without them. Meanwhile, the leader of the state senate says, no compromises.

--Josh Marshall

02.21.11 -- 10:25AM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (19)

Key Break?

Moderate Wisconsin Republican floats compromise plan to break Wisconsin impasse.

This is consistent with what I've heard over the weekend from on the ground in Madison. Specifically, state Republicans have been hanging behind Walker in large part because they don't want to undermine a Republican governor early in his term. But there seem to be a number less hard-right Republicans in the state who are not altogether comfortable with Walker's inflexible stand.

--Josh Marshall

02.21.11 -- 10:04AM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (24)

Heading to a Breakdown

At the moment, we still have the standoff in place in Wisconsin. The real question seems to be whether Republicans can get around the effective block state senate Democrats have put on the union-busting bill by leaving the state. There are rumors floating around Madison that senate Republicans could try to move the bill out of the budget process, thus avoiding the need for 3/5 of the members to achieve a quorum. We're looking into that possibility this morning.

--Josh Marshall

02.20.11 -- 8:19PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (35)

Standoff Continues

In Wisconsin, the pro-Walker state troopers union repudiates its earlier endorsement while the state teachers union says teachers will be back on the job on Tuesday.

Late Update: Okay. This one got significantly more complicated. The union head who released the statement was not authorized to withdraw the earlier endorsement and he has since pulled down the statement. We've just posted a new report including an interview with the union president Tracy Fuller.

--Josh Marshall

02.19.11 -- 7:44PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (83)

Punching His Ticket

Former Sen. Santorum (R) releases statement of support for Gov. Walker ....

--Josh Marshall

02.19.11 -- 4:38PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (149)

The Big Tell

In all the swirl and drama of events in Wisconsin and all the competing fiscal accounts, one thing is pretty undeniable: the crux of the fight isn't about reductions in benefits, it's about the future of collective bargaining for public sector employees. Killing collective bargaining rights doesn't do anything to solve the current fiscal crisis. That's why pretty much everyone sees that this is a push to break the unions. There's an active disagreement about whether that's a good thing. But everyone gets that that's what this is about.

But there's another layer of the story that's only gotten cursory attention in the national media. Walker's proposal doesn't apply to all public sector unions in the state. Broadly speaking it targets unions that consistently support Democrats (teachers and other public employees) and exempts those that are often more friendly to Republican candidates (police and firefighters). Walker has been quick to point out that the statewide police and firefighters unions, as opposed to those in Milwaukee, both supported his opponent last year. He claims he makes the exception because the state can't afford any walk-outs from these public safety related employees.

But that doesn't really hold up.

It strains credulity to see this as anything but a political effort to destroy organizations that are critical foot soldiers for Democratic candidates at election time.

--Josh Marshall

02.19.11 -- 2:44PM // RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (18)