Representative Steve Smith, tossed in the primaries, gave his last speech as a legislator the other day. Go to the Strib, which cries its crocodile tears at the loss of a “moderate”, to see his remarks.
Rep. Smith: Thanks for the good things you did do during your 22 years in the Legislature, including your solid support for the Minnesota Personal Protection Act.
As a personal aside, as a Republican who’s been a union member? Supporting unions who actually do, as you say, “negotiate for safer working conditions, reasonable benefits, and fair pay in return for their labor”, is a perfectly fine thing.
But government unions “negotiate” with the people that they paid to have elected. That’s a little different. And it’s a distinction you seemed pretty unclear about.
And that cost you.
Rep Smith should be remembered as the anti-Goldwater; moderation when Liberty is being offended is no vice. The Strib reportage of his ouster is a reminder that Democrats only admire Republicans when they are out of office and firing back into the tent – or dead, preferably dead. Hmmm, The Dead Republicans, that would be a good name for a band playing in a Capitol near you.
Good. The first candidate who has the guts to come out and call for the abolition of public employee unions will have my enthusiastic, unconditional support. God bless Governor Walker. The first step down a long road towards solvency.
” Smith has served in the House since 1991″
I’ll shed no tears in his departure. Happy retirement Steve.