Smoking Pants Video: Walker Talked Up Bargaining Table Before Election

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"I support Walker because he did exactly what he said he was going to do." -- Confused Wisconsin Voter or Willful Liar

How many times have you seen or heard that line?

Most us in the battlefield would retort with fact-check articles and video evidence of Walker campaign events that show an absence of the statements that he and his loyal supporters claim existed about collective bargaining. Proof enough in the court of public opinion, but we were only able to prove a negative - that Walker never said he was going to end collective bargaining rights.

But now with the help from a video just released by the Northwestern, we are able to not only provide more evidence for what Walker did not say, but to show exactly what he DID say about collective bargaining rights just one week before election. He not only talked up a strategy using collective bargaining to balance the state's budget, but he went on to convey that he was open to whatever compromise is necessary to get the job done.

Transcript excerpt from video:

Editorial Board Member: Before, we were talking about state employees contributing to their plan, paying their share of the pension plan. Collective bargaining come into that?

Walker: Yep (nodding yes)

Editorial Board Member: How do you get that negotiated and accepted by the state employee unions?

Walker: You still have to negotiate it. I did that at the county as well.

Uppity Wisconsin Excerpt:

Walker then goes on to say that he has used furloughs as a bargaining tool at the county level and that "we'd approach a similar strategy for the state," but said that he was open to compromise, saying "we're not locked into saying it has to be exactly the same" and that if unions could provide alternative routes to saving money he would be willing to explore those ideas.

The truth is, as this video clearly shows, is when it came to balancing the budget using the negotiating table of collective bargaining, Walker wanted voters to know that he was more flexible than Gumby.

The video below is a nice mash-up of the story provided by the folks at Uppity Wisconsin. Watch it:

Quote from Walker After the Election.
"If anyone doesn't know what's coming, they've been asleep for the past two years." -- Scott Walker. What he really meant to say is you had to be asleep - to believe him.

Watch entire hour-long Northwestern editorial video here.