John Nichols: The Tea Party is Coming to Town Tomorrow Because Gov. Walker is Cornered
Click here to view this media Ed Schultz had some of the most amazing coverage of the protests this Friday night as his show went live in Wisconsin instead of MSNBC’s usual edition of Lock Up and this interview with The Nation’s John Nichols was no exception. Schultz and Nichols discussed why the tea party and Breitbart are coming to town in Wisconsin this weekend. They’re afraid labor is winning this battle, and they should be. Nichols: Governor Walker is clearly cornered at this point. I can tell you as somebody who’s covered him for a long time. This man doesn’t want to be where he’s at. He would love to have a way out. That’s one of the reasons why the tea party is coming to town tomorrow. They’re going to rally here. They’re going to do that for a reason. And that is because they’re trying to shore the governor up. They’re trying to scare him from backing down. The fact of the matter is these people are winning. On Thursday, these people are winning. On Thursday, they connected with the state Senate in such a powerful way that 14 Senators made the ultimate sacrifice for Wisconsinites. They went for a weekend in Illinois. Now today, today they connected with the Assembly sufficiently that the Assembly adjourned action. These are victories each day and there’s simply no question. The power here right now is in the streets, not in the capital. If these people stay out here, if they keep bringing these kinds of numbers to the street, I think that you’re going to get to some point where the governor has to back down. Schultz: Has this, this national coverage that has now cast itself upon this protest, has this changed the dichotomy of it, knowing as far as the resolve is concerned that’s it’s almost as if now, they can’t back down? Nichols: Well, that is the great challenge. Look, Walker is cornered. He’s in a very tough position. You’ve seen the polls. You had a poll up showing a 51-43 split, there was one showing a two to one split. Schultz: It did, but he said that he was not going to allow a few thousand protesters make decisions for three million Wisconsins tonight. What about that? Nichols: Well, here’s the challenge Ed. You and I both know that we’re in a spin battle here. And the Walker folks are going to try and spin it that the kind of people, the Wisconites, you look at these people, who will come out on a cold night and stand for four or five hours in the cold, that these somehow are, they’re the bad players. Now what we’ve got to do… what we need to do now is to get these people, get their voices heard. Make sure the best of America sees them and because this is no longer a Wisconsin fight. This is a national fight and the more that Americans see this fight and see Wisconsin, and signal that they’re on the side of the Wisconsites, I think they are more to win. Ed Schultz also showed the protesters there some of Limbaugh’s hate filled rhetoric bashing the workers in Wisconsin and got the reaction from the crowd. Click here to view this media
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John Nichols: The Tea Party is Coming to Town Tomorrow Because Gov. Walker is Cornered
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on February 20, 2011. Filed under