Wisconsin GOPers angered by Republican official's efforts to reach compromise with labor, Dems

[steve2470]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2011/02/wisconsin_republicans_angered.html

By Greg Sargent

Here's a pretty good indicator of just how resistant Republicans allied with Governor Scott Walker have become to reaching a compromise of any kind with labor and Dems to end the standoff in Wisconsin over the Governor's proposal to roll back public employee bargaining rights.

I'm told that some Republicans in the state senate were so angry at fellow Republican senator Dale Schultz for proposing a modest compromise with unions and senate Dems that they actually threatened at a private meeting to kick him out of the state senate GOP caucus.

This comes to me by way of a source close to the situation. While the idea didn't go anywhere, and it didn't appear to have the support of Wisconsin GOP leaders, it shows how high tensions are running among Wisconsin Republicans who are under heavy pressure from unions, Dems and mass demonstrations to break with Walker.

The proposal by Schultz that so angered fellow Republicans was, after all, a modest one: He suggested that unions agree to have their bargaining rights rolled back right now on the understanding that they would be restored in 2013, after the state got its finances under control. Schultz's compromise got national media attention, which further angered his GOP colleagues, the source tells me.