In the spring of 2012, with the recall election weeks away, I emailed Chris Rickert and asked if he would write about the then-recent 'smoking gun' video showing Scott Walker promising to negotiate with public sector unions before the election. Here is what Chris wrote back in response:
"I guess if I was interested in ancient history. You all need to get over it.
Breaking news: Politicians lie!" - Chris Rickert
Now, however, pre-election promises in regards to negotiating with public sector workers are all the rage with Mr. Rickert. He compares Mary Burke to a job applicant and says:
The point is to determine not just what workers have done, but what they’ll do — in detail and in advance.
Then Rickert compares Burke pre-campaign rhetoric to Walker in 2010:
It’s also not like the man Burke’s hoping to replace, Scott Walker, was much more revealing when he ran three years ago.
Walker talked up job growth and business friendliness, but he made few specific pledges to Republican party priorities — say, limiting abortion or tightening voting rules, both of which he later supported by signing some pretty specific anti-abortion, vote-restricting legislation
Then the coup de grâce:
Imagine how different things might have been if Walker had been forced to cough up his union-killing plans before the 2010 election.
Yes, Chris, or imagine if there was a recall election and in the run-up to that election reporters like you forced Walker to justify his making a promise to negotiate and then doing the exact opposite. Just imagine how different things might have been.