MSNBC's Schultz Lectures Union Members Who Voted for Walker
On Wednesday's The Ed Show, MSNBC host Ed Schultz took a condescending tone toward labor union members who voted for Governor Scott Walker in Tuesday's recall election in Wisconsin as he recounted NBC News exit poll numbers showing that a significant chunk of union voters supported the Wisconsin Republican.
A baffled Schultz relayed the numbers and recounted the decision of some union members to vote for Walker, using a mocking tone of voice:
Despite Walker ending collective bargaining for public employees, 27 percent of union members voted for this guy? Twenty-seven percent of union members said, "Hey, he's our guy. He's taken our voice away in the workplace, but he's our guy." Amazing.
He continued:
And 38 percent of union households voted for Scott Walker. That's even more amazing. I tell you, I don't understand it. I don't get it. This guy has gone after your wages, he has gone after your pension, he wants to limit your voice in the workplace. And union families in Wisconsin, you voted for him?
The MSNBC host then demanded that "you got to explain to the country and to your union why the hell you did that." Schultz:
If this is a smack-up time, so be it. You got to explain to the country and to your union why the hell you did that. This guy is after - he thinks you're the problem. He thinks that the budget is out of whack and you're the problem, and we're going to give tax breaks to corporations, and we're going to give tax breaks to the wealthiest Wisconsinites.
Schultz ended up invoking President Obama's assertion from the 2008 campaign that people in rural areas vote for Republicans because of a tendency to "cling" to guns and religion, and suggested that Obama was correct in his diagnosis of what he viewed as a problem that some union members vote for Republicans instead of sticking with the union line. Schultz:
There's some disconnect here that I think union membership in this country has to get at the war table and figure out what's the problem. What a minute. Wait a second. That's right. President Obama brought this up years ago on the campaign trail when he said folks in rural areas cling to their guns and their religion. And he was criticized for it. Example A right there.
-- Brad Wilmouth is a news analyst at the Media Research Center
