Paul Ryan Crosses Party Lines to Back Rahm Emanuel on Teachers’ Strike, Didn’t Extend Same Courtesy to President Obama
Mitt Romney’s running mate Paul Ryan crossed party lines this morning to voice his support, saying “we stand with Mayor Rahm Emanuel,” in the fight against the striking teachers’ union. Um, he chose the wrong time to cross party lines. How many opportunities has he had in Congress to show his willingness to reach across the aisle and work with President Obama? Well, like Rahm Emanuel said of Mitt Romney backing his hard-line stance in the strike — nothing more than “lip service.”
“If you turned on the TV this morning or sometime today, you probably saw something about the Chicago teacher’s union strike,” Ryan said at fundraiser at the Governor Hotel here. “I’ve known Rahm Emanuel for years. He’s a former colleague of mine. Rahm and I have not agreed on every issue or on a lot of issues, but Mayor Emanuel is right today in saying that this teacher’s union strike is unnecessary and wrong. We know that Rahm is not going to support our campaign, but on this issue and this day we stand with Mayor Rahm Emanuel.”
“We stand with the children and we stand with the families and the parents of Chicago because education reform, that’s a bipartisan issue,” Ryan continued. “This does not have to divide the two parties. And so, we were going to ask, where does President Obama stand? Does he stand with his former Chief of Staff Mayor Rahm Emanuel, with the children and the parents, or does he stand with the union? On issues like this, we need to speak out and be really clear.” Source
Rahm Emanuel, who was President Obama’s chief of staff, is one of his biggest and most visible supporters, so naturally he would scoff at Mitt Romney’s olive branch Monday afternoon saying he backs his stance. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are trying to tie President Obama to the strike. The problem is, it’s a local matter that should be handled as such. It could be problematic for Obama if they view it from his association with unions. Forgotten in all this political posturing are the 400,000 mostly black and Latino students caught in the line of fire.
This article was cross-posted from The Hinterland Gazette.
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Paul Ryan is so foolish to cross into a State’s business that is not his own State. Like the cousin from Jersey who you havent seen forever, coming into your house unnanounced and uninvited, and telling you he agrees with how awful your wife is …when you’re trying to reconcile.
Wont fly. Will only get worse for Ryan. He’s trying to be cunning, while pretending to be helpful. and in so obvious a way, that here around town, people are laughing at Ryan riding into chi-town undeputized.
Seriously, it’s no wonder Karl Rove has hardly any hair left… Given the odd moves of the GOP nominees.
Dr. Clarissa — Rahm Emanuel called it was it was yesterday — “lip service.” It’s as though the Romney campaign is just looking to throw anything at the Obama campaign in hopes of something sticking. President Obama should stay out of this and let the mayor and the teachers’ union work it out.
I don’t know why Mitt Romney is praising Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton ripped him to shreds last week and will continue to do so on the campaign trail. It’s pretty hypocritical for Paul Ryan to feign a spirit of bipartisanship when he has been one of President Obama’s biggest critics in Congress. They just don’t get it or they think people are so dumb they won’t see through their hypocrisy.
Um, wait. It’s not Ryan who’s crossing party lines, it’s Emanuel. Union-busting is a GOP “thang”.
Although, in reality, both parties have to deal with government unions at the state & local level on a near-daily basis, so either way, it’s an unfair headline.
I agree that some politicos are used to thinking ‘the sheep’ dont think or see what’s happening. Actually lol, sheep have acute senses and they have survived for far more centuries than any single politician. lol
Ok, being serious. My hunch is someone told mitt and paul to try to act counter-intuitively, you know, as in gaming theory. But this isnt a game like chess. It’s a race, like the iditarod– to be cogent, make useful plans, listen carefully to others instead of oneself… and arrive on the scene and in the villages throughout before the other guy. Frankly, I think Ryan was sunk by the infidel in her own marriage of very unfamily values, her highness, Ayn Rand-y, (yes, my gen all read her in high school, and were taken not with the putative and highly questionable ‘high economics’ she wanted gullible non-thinkers to take from her books, but the sex scenes which actually were also barely interesting… and that’s saying alot for teenagers at a catholic high school.
That Ryan loves Rand, who seems to have written novels like L Ron Hubbard in this way: claiming fictive writing as some sturdy reality that must be bowed to… I think Ryan is ok and marches to some different drummer. But, it was a horrible error by Mitt to choose Ryan. He needed a jocular, avuncular, older man than himself to be veep. One that had humor and came from the working class. This is why I do not, for whatever reason, see Rove’s hand in this GOP race. Rove is ace smart and would never have picked the guy who didnt know how long it took him to run a marathon.
Probably both.
A bit off topic, but:
Whenever I hear people talk about Ayn Rand’s fiction books as economic truth, I wonder what would happen if we had a SecDef who’s a fan of Lord of the Rings. “Maybe we could get the Ents to storm Tehran! OK, where do we get some hobbits?”
WIN.
everyone who writes here is a hobbit. they look pretty normal from the ankles up. lol
Barky is on the right track here – Ryan is supporting Emanuel only because Emanuel is in a position traditionally held by Republicans, standing up to a union. I think it’s a smart move by Ryan. There is not a great deal of sympathy right now for public employee unions as the Scott Walker recall attempt showed. Ryan’s statements are consistent with his support of Walker in his home state. Further, this indirectly publicizes the dilemma Obama has with his close colleague Emanuel being at odds with a group that is a strong supporter and donor to his party.
As far as commenting on a non-federal issue or an issue out of their district Obama/Biden and most other politicians do that frequently. If Obama is smart he’ll stay out of this issue as it’s no-win for him, and there’s no compelling reason for him to comment right now.
By the way if you read Tolkien you know that the Ents would probably deliberate for centuries before making any decision on Iran.
If Ryan weren’t on the GOP ticket he wouldn’t be involved with this.
Romney said the other day that he wants to reach across the aisle and work with both parties. This is the Romney/Ryan way of showing they support “Democratic” issues and will be able to fix a broken Congress. The fact that Rahm’s actions are typical GOP will be lost on most Americans.
It’s politics. Election politics.
Which is far better diplomacy then bombing first and discussing second.
Is this proof that Tolkien is a better political scientist than Ayne Rand and Hubbard? Yes.
But it also shows how effective the GOP is.
Make everyone play in the mud. Then talk about how dirty we all are.
“Isn’t it time we take a shower?”
That should have been the GOP convention theme.
It would have been comical to boot, and inflamed many hippy protesters who they wont win over anyway.
Hey, it would be less insulting than calling Obama a foreign-born muslim black socialist gangster. thug.
Why do we even have the GOP anymore?
Given demographics and time, the GOP will be forced to evolve or die of extinction.
More dogwhistle.
[“We will stand with education reform, we will champion bipartisan education reforms,” Ryan said. “This is a critical linchpin to the future of our country, to our economy, to make sure that our children go to the best possible school, and that education reforms revolve around the parents and the child, not the special interest group. This is something that’s critical for all of us.”]
(Read private schools and charter schools run by private companies or churches and able to teach history and political science their way).
….
The marks – wealthy donors (not pesky reporters who keep asking annoying questions).
[Ryan’s comments were made off camera in front of donors who paid between $1,000 and $25,000 to be there, but when asked about the strike before he took off on his campaign plane from Portland to attend more fundraisers in Seattle he declined to repeat the comments.]