What President Obama can learn from the Walker/Beast phone call

Walker explains the Republican view on negotiations, on compromise:

Walker: …I would be willing to sit down and talk to him, the assembly Democrat leader, plus the other two Republican leaders—talk, not negotiate and listen to what they have to say if they will in turn—but I’ll only do it if all 14 of them will come back and sit down in the state assembly…legally, we believe, once they’ve gone into session, they don’t physically have to be there. If they’re actually in session for that day, and they take a recess, the 19 Senate Republicans could then go into action and they’d have quorum…so we’re double checking that. If you heard I was going to talk to them that’s the only reason why. We’d only do it if they came back to the capital with all 14 of them…

Koch: Bring a baseball bat. That’s what I’d do.

Walker: I have one in my office; you’d be happy with that. I have a slugger with my name on it.

http://www.buffalobeast.com/?p=5045

President Obama and DUers who criticize those of us who have given up on negotiating with Republicans.

Please read that excerpt from the Beast/Walker phone call several times. There is a lesson to be learned.

Republicans view negotiations as just another opportunity to do dirty tricks. That is all they are about -- dirty tricks. Trying to hoodwink and fool people.

YOU CANNOT NEGOTIATE WITH REPUBLICANS. You have to expose them and beat them in elections and humiliate them and make them crawl to the negotiating table.

I don't like it any better than anyone else. Negotiating differences in good faith is always my first choice. But the Republicans have shown over and over that they do not negotiate, not really.

President Obama, please stop trying to negotiate with Republicans. You cannot do it.

If they close down the government for a couple of years, let them take the blame all by themselves. Shutting down the government will not really reduce the deficit. It will just create chaos.

Don't negotiate until the Republicans are really willing to negotiate in good faith.

for the entire transcript, but that link didn't work either. Then I see this:


Buffalo Beast Website Goes Down Following Walker, Koch Prank Call

The online news site Buffalo Beast has gone offline after publishing a prank phone call between Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and a Buffalo Beast editor who posed as David Koch.

Buffalo Beast Publisher Paul Fallon told The Huffington Post that the audio is "absolutely legit" (listen to it here).

The Buffalo Beast website seems to be suffering from traffic overload, causing many to see this message: "Error establishing a database connection." Some pages also say, "The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable."

It's not the first time the Web has made the news in the Wisconsin protests. A pro-union website was blocked at the Capitol Building in Madison./snip

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/23/buffalo-beast-website-down_n_827243.html

You can't negotiate in good faith with someone sees negotiation as just one more tactic to put something over on you. The President is a very intelligent man. Why can't he see that?

this time I expect three... that is as far as they will go