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The Spectacle Blog
In another move unlikely to endear him to conservative primary voters should he decide to seek the presidency, the Indianapolis Star reports that:
Gov. Mitch Daniels signaled this afternoon that Republicans should to drop the right-to-work bill that has brought the Indiana House to a standstill for two days and imperiled other measures.
Daniels told reporters this afternoon that he expects House Democrats will return to work if the bill dies. It would be unfortunate if other bills are caught up in the turmoil, he said.
He will not send out state police to corral the Democrats, the Republican governor said.
The Democrat minority has right to express its views, he added.
The governor clung to his view that this is not the year to tackle right to work.
Jim Geraghty is running out of patience with Daniels:
If the Indiana House Democrats get what they want through this tactic, what’s to prevent them from using it again and again every time they think they’ll lose on a big issue?
I had been open-minded about Daniels’ “truce” talk — no matter how much a Republican presidential candidate talks about the importance of social issues, 75 to 90 percent of the president’s time from January 2013 to 2017 will be spent on economic and fiscal crises and managing a dangerous and rapidly changing world. But a concession to Democrats on major reforms like these will spur a lot of talk about Daniels’ toughness, or whether he’s too conciliatory to an opposition that has gone completely off the rails, or more accurately, out of the state….
When it came to the social issues “truce” statement, my attitude was that Daniels was stupid to make the comments if he intended to run for president, but in reality he was merely explicitly stating what most other Republican politicians were also doing implicitly — focusing on economic and fiscal issues. By in large, the GOP message of the 2010 midterms was not big on social issues — the Pledge to America, for instance, barely mentioned them. But my bigger fear with Daniels has been that, like Bush 41, he’d be willing to raise taxes as part of a bargain with Democrats. And this latest cave in adds to that perception.
UPDATE: Transcript of Daniels’ remarks here, his office claiming that his comments were misinterpreted.
UPDATE II: Josh Barro defends Daniels’, arguing that private sector unions are in decline in Indiana and thus the “Right to Work” law isn’t as important as other priorities in Indiana. Also, he notes that Daniels’ has the same position he’s held since December, and thus wasn’t caving under pressure.
View all comments (27) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Philip Klein
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/02/22/daniels-calls-for-truce-in-ind
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ncatty| 2.22.11 @ 4:34PM
Ok so Daniels calls for a "truce' on social issues and now urges a "surrender" on fiscal policy. Why do we need this guy?
Chris| 2.22.11 @ 4:34PM
Ok... he officially lost any hope of my vote in 2012. A truly spineless display!
John - TMF| 2.22.11 @ 4:45PM
I have said it before and will say it again:
"Fiscal Conservatives" who are not "Social Conservatives" are not Conservative at all.
Without the grounding and principle bound up in Social Conservatism, Fiscal Conservatism amounts to being "Bob-dole", a tax collector for the welfare state.
At one time I had hopes for Daniels, but as time and action demonstrate, he is largely an Establishment Republican-lite, and is waving too many white flags. His social truces will rapidly morph into fiscal truces.
One does not fight a war by seeking to parlay before the second volley.... unless one plans to surrender.
r/John - TMF
Interested Conservative| 2.22.11 @ 5:01PM
You may have overshot the mark a bit on this:
"Fiscal Conservatives" who are not "Social Conservatives" are not Conservative at all.
Fiscal Conservatives may be libertarian, as Rand Paul and Sarah Palin discussed, but this move by Gov. Daniels confuses the issues.
I wonder if he's conservative in any sense, or simply a right wing moderate.
He has run Indiana very soundly from the budget side, but that certainly doesn't automatically translate nationally. I suspect he's really showing his Bush-machine lineage - similar to Dan Quayle.
I expect the new governors to even trump him in the fiscal category, as Christie, Walker, Scott and Snyder all seem intent on doing. It's Kasich and Corbett who may have the greatest challenges and rewards, though. Bigger states, tougher problems, greater opportunities and so on.
Randy| 2.22.11 @ 4:52PM
Bye Bye Mitch...... never really a "conservative" were you?
Interested Conservative| 2.22.11 @ 5:02PM
Seems not too much.
Jehu| 2.22.11 @ 5:14PM
I've never been a huge Daniels fan, or overly impressed with his 2012 prospects. The issue is certainly moot now though. Hopefully the GOP legislature will not let his cowardice derail their efforts.
Occam's Tool| 2.22.11 @ 6:28PM
There is Bolton and there is West. Paul is too old and too obnoxious, and Paul is too inexperienced. But either Bolton or West could beat "the One" like a craven pooch.
John - TMF| 2.22.11 @ 7:10PM
I am a Bolton Man, myself... get Bob McDonnell to do the VP Job for the smile, hair, and conservative competence...
Let John Bolton kick some rump...
r/TMF
R Martin| 2.22.11 @ 9:02PM
Bolton would certainly bring some much needed manhood to the job. Imagine if he were president toady: would there be any vessels still afloat in any Somali port?
R Martin| 2.22.11 @ 9:03PM
Sorry, today.
Clint| 2.22.11 @ 5:21PM
Stick A Fork In Daniels. He's Finished.
Start Vetting The Obama Beater Candidates.
The Tea Party Rebellion Escalates.
Rise Up.
Tom Osterman| 2.22.11 @ 6:09PM
If "Right to Work" isn't that important, why are the Indiana Democrats effectively shutting down the Legislature? Anyway, the larger point, as Klein points out, is that this grants the Democrats a veto power they don't and shouldn't have. That Daniels doesn't seem to realize this is appalling.
Curly Smith| 2.22.11 @ 6:28PM
Aren't entitlements the biggest of all the social issues? So isn't Daniels really saying "I refuse to take on entitlement reform"? Doesn't that then relegate him to the dustbin of useless presidential candidates since entitlements will soon consume the entire national budget?
NVA Patriot| 2.22.11 @ 6:54PM
Mitch has been pushed by establishment Republicans (E. Repub, like E. Coli). E. Republican gave us the drug entitlement; Federal control of education through no-child left behind, and offered a kinder gentler capitulation to progressivism.
E. Repub does not understand what is happening because its existence traces its origin to living in the hothouse that is Washington DC. E. Repub keeps trying to grow a candidate to be the Anti-Tea Party, Anti-Palin, Anti-Dr. Romney-care. Any new species and genus of E. Repub will be drowned out in TEA outside the DC Hothouse.
The electorate is seeking the cure of courage for Progressive E. Republicanism. We need men and women of courage who govern with their conservative, Judeo-Christian convictions. The type of courage sought demands more than hyphenated-conservatism. It requires the willingness to identify Right and Left (wrong) and then tell people about the Right, identify the Wrong and make policy in accord with the Right. Mitch flunked on social issues, and now flunked on the courage test to fight against unions and WIN. We need WINNERS. We do not need a new species and genus of E. Repub. That has only hurt our beloved Uncle Sam. Our Uncle needs courage to cure him of Progressive E. Repub disease.
ejp| 2.22.11 @ 7:17PM
I don't give a flying fig whether right-to-work is a priority for Daniels or not. For him to say that what the Dems did today was "legitimate" is the unforgivable element of this. He has just managed to embolden all of those jackasses in Wisconsin and he's given cover for all the media lefties to assail the Wisconsin GOP by saying, "But GOP Governor Daniels of Indiana understands the legitimacy of this kind of tactic." What a first class phony. If this guy runs for President, he doesn't get my vote.
kingsmill| 2.22.11 @ 8:03PM
This guy is "wet" (as the Thatcherites used to say) to the core. A Midwest Huckster w/o the social issues. Huck would also fold like a tent on social issues.
Daniels is a RINO in waiting and he signals to the media elites his true colors whenever possible.
RJ| 2.22.11 @ 8:10PM
While I admire the budgetary work that Governor Daniels has done, positions such as this has changed my mind about wanting him to run for President. We need a leader to push for limiting government, not a conciliator for the status quo.
Dennis Wasserman Schultz| 2.22.11 @ 10:15PM
George Will, Karl Rove and Charles Krauthammer hardest hit. So much for the genius Republicans.
Nite| 2.22.11 @ 10:49PM
He can try to run for President, but he is spineless. I will never vote for him.
Deborah D | 2.23.11 @ 5:54AM
When I heard this, I gasped. He was in the running for me. Wasn't his speech to CPAC a call to arms? So, once the Republicans grow the spine to stand up to Democrat bullying, Daniels disarms them? Sorry, I can't do another Bush term. He hasn't figured out that Democrats don't give a crap about the fiscal health of the nation, so there's no sense in working across the aisle.
I Survived Arlen Specter| 2.23.11 @ 8:19AM
Still waiting to see how the RINOs find a way to blame Palin for Myth Daniels' implosion yesterday. Yet another phony conservative exposed for all Americans to see. The "ruling class" begin to circle Daniels' wagons in 3..2.........
Bob| 2.23.11 @ 8:20AM
Darn, the right has turned against Daniels. I wanted the Indiana dwarf to be the nominee. His cheating wife would have been fodder for Hollywood liberals. But there is always NJ Governor Chunky to amuse me.
Timothy L. Pennell| 2.23.11 @ 9:29AM
He's FINISHED. We need FIGHTERS. The last thing we need is another MILKTOAST COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATIVE.
This bunch, running around the Primary states?
Michelle Bachmann is the only one worth a damn.
Eric Rasmusen| 2.23.11 @ 9:43AM
The same thing will happen with Daniels as with Giulani and Romney. East Coast writers think he's conservative because he's good on fiscal restraint and love it that he's a social liberal who keeps quiet about it, just like them. They push him to run for President, figuring his only problem is that people in Kansas (Iowa, Alaska, Texas, etc.) have never heard of him. Then the Kansas primary comes and it turns out all the Republican voters hate him once they learn about his record in office, and some unknown like Huckabee comes along with 30 cents in advertising and people jump at him because he might actually be a real conservative.
Daniels might well be too smart to get beat up in that disappointing process. It looks like Romney is going for a second round though.
Mick Lee| 2.23.11 @ 11:30AM
The local Indianapolis news-talk radio station, WIBC, reports that the state Democrats have been encouraged that by just not showing up they derailed right-to-work. They now are contemplating using the same tactic to wreck education reform (Daniels’ other “hot button” issue). Will Republicans ever learn?
“Truces” sound neat in the abstract; but the reality is the Left never stops working for what it wants. It will never observe any truce. America can come to a complete economic collapse, the federal government can go bankrupt, and the Chinese may end up foreclosing on Manhattan; but the Left will still try to increase funding for Planned Parenthood, expand Obama care, and throw in hitherto unknown new benefits for Social Security—budget be damned.
Leah| 2.23.11 @ 12:26PM
FANTASTIC COMMENTS ALL! It's most gratifying to see my fellow conservatives truly understand now how careful we have to be in nominations. NO MORE RINOS! They are what brought us to this wretched point.