The enemies of working families have taken their loathsome cause to Arizona. 

Just this week, Gov. Jan Brewer and her GOP cronies in the state legislature unleashed the latest in an ever-lengthening series of extremist attacks on organized labor and working families. 

At issue is a sweeping series of restrictions that would, among other things, ban unions that represent workers in state, county or city governments from engaging in any type of negotiations that affect the terms of their employment. That includes teachers, prison workers and the state’s powerful police and firefighters unions. The move would take away much of the power those unions have and turn them into something more akin to trade groups. 

The bills have one more Senate committee to clear before the full chamber can vote on the measures. Thanks in part to gerrymandering, Democrats are badly outnumbered in the Arizona state Senate, so the bills will almost certainly pass and be taken up by the GOP-controlled House by the end of next week. 

Arizona Democrats are outraged not only by the attacks themselves, but also by the scurrilous smears against public employees conservatives are using as justification for these ugly bills. 

``The Republican majority has established themselves to be very much anti-employee,'' said Sen. David Lujan, D-Phoenix. ``It's just another strike at those who choose to be public service employees. Their voice is not valued.'' 

Representatives of teachers, firefighters, and police in the state are -- understandably --extremely worried about the effects of these bills, should they become law. 

[Head of the Arizona Police Association Brian] Livingston said he thought the senators had been fed “misinformation” by the Goldwater Institute, a conservative think tank in Phoenix that helped write the bills.

But Livingston said the lawmakers needed to be reminded of the facts on the ground, like the dangers of police work and the reality that unions in Arizona aren’t as powerful as many of their critics make them out to be.

Still, Livingston didn’t know what exactly his organization would do if the bills become law.

“It would cause utter chaos,” he said. “You will see a devastating effect to employee moral[e]. You will see, I believe, a hampering of the good services that our services provide to the public as we know it.” 

While it’s tempting to compare the Arizona GOP’s new assault on collective bargaining and working families to the brutal attack by Gov. Scott Walker and Wisconsin Republicans last year, it’s worth noting that the Arizona proposals are even worse. Wisconsin’s law rendered public sector unions effectively irrelevant by limiting the issues over which a government and an employee group could bargain. Arizona’s bills seek to do away with collective bargaining entirely. The Arizona bills also include public safety unions (police, firefighters), which are exempted by the Wisconsin law. 

After last year’s epic battles over workers’ rights in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Indiana, we’d hoped these fights were behind us, and that even GOP-controlled state legislatures would get down to the business of creating jobs and opportunity for their citizens. 

Instead, Indiana just became the 23^rd so-called “right to work” state in the country. New Hampshire Republicans are broadening their assault on collective bargaining to include special attacks on public workers. Minnesota Republicans are trying to avoid the Democratic governor’s inevitable veto by placing a so-called “right to work” law on the ballot in November. 

Voters in Wisconsin and Ohio have already firmly rebuked these extreme attacks on workers’ rights. GOP overreach nationwide has helped fuel a positive trend in special elections around the country. As this trend continues, Republican state legislators across the country should consider themselves on notice: voters are repeatedly and thoroughly rejecting the brand of right-wing extremism the GOP is pushing in statehouses. 

Republicans clearly have no interest in setting their extremism aside to promote policies that actually help those hit hardest by high unemployment and state budget cuts. Working families in Arizona, Indiana, Minnesota, and all across the country deserve better.

A campaign embezzlement scandal has now cost a Maine state Representative not one, but two jobs on the public payroll.

Two weeks ago, GOP state Rep. David Burns resigned his position on the town of Alfred’s Board of Selectmen, after the Maine Ethics Commission found Burns guilty of, quote, “mind-boggling” ethics violations and referred the matter for criminal prosecution:

Ethics commission chairman Walter McKee, during the November hearing, called Burns’ actions “mind-boggling.”

“I certainly have never seen anything at this level in terms of severity,” said McKee at the hearing.

As well as finding Burns guilty of violating campaign finance laws, the ethics commission referred the matter to the attorney general’s office for possible prosecution.

This week, the second shoe fell for Rep. Burns, who elected to resign his seat in the Maine House once it became apparent that criminal prosecution was unavoidable. House Minority Leader Emily Cain stressed the seriousness of the charges and the real damage they could do to Maine’s unique system of clean elections:

“The Clean Elections system is not an ATM for lawmakers and it shouldn’t be treated that way,” Cain said. “The system has been effective in keeping special interests out of elections and any abuse of it must be addressed swiftly.”

She added, “If Burns was a member of my caucus, I would have asked him to resign immediately once the ethics commission found him in violation of ethics law and the matter was referred to the attorney general for a criminal investigation.”

Rep. Burns’ alleged misdeeds might have gone unnoticed had his campaign finance reports not been randomly selected for post-election auditing. Once they were, certain discrepancies immediately caught ethics watchdogs’ attention.

His reports listed mileage reimbursements (paid to himself) for driving 4,289 miles – which is the rough equivalent of driving from Burns’ Alfred, Maine home to Moscow. That distance also “significantly exceeds the claim of any other House candidate,” according to the Ethics Commission, including candidates with districts far larger than Burns’ 20-mile-across 138th District.

Ethics Commission investigators dug deeper, and they quickly “determined that Rep. Burns spent at least $2,500 of public funds for personal purposes and that expenditures totaling at least $1,295 were falsely reported in his campaign finance reports.” As a Clean Elections candidate, those funds originally came from the taxpayers, as part of the Maine Clean Elections Act, which makes Burns’ alleged actions even more egregious.

Burns’ 138th district – which he won by fewer than 200 votes in 2010 – will likely be filled by a special election.

[h/t Dirigo Blue]

One Republican state Senator has a message for restaurants and food processors in his state: fetuses are not OK on Oklahoma menus.

Not that they were on the menu to begin with. Indeed, that was the Food and Drug Administration’s reaction to GOP state Sen. Ralph Shortey’s SB 1418: a bill “prohibiting the sale or manufacture of food or products which contain aborted human fetuses.” This clearly isn’t something that’s actually happening, so what would this bill really accomplish?

Some have speculated that Sen. Shortey’s bill is part of a larger statement against embryonic stem cell research – that like a modern-day Jonathan Swift, Shortey’s real argument is that if it’s so obviously outrageous to use fetuses in food-related research, we shouldn’t allow the use of discarded embryos in medical research, either.

Except that argument wouldn’t make any sense, because there are plenty of materials used in medical research that would never be slapped between two hamburger buns. No one would seriously argue that western taste buds are the appropriate bright line for medical ethics.

No – Shortey’s bill was conceived not through high-minded parody, but rather through the Tea Party movement’s most defining characteristic: conspiracy theories. It turns out Shortey really does think fetus-food might be happening, and he sees it as part of a much larger conspiracy of forced organ harvesting:

“But the fact is that there is a potential that there are companies that are using aborted human babies in their research and development of basically enhancing flavor for artificial flavors. And if that is happening — because it is a possibility — and if it’s happening then I just don’t think it should even be an option for a company.”

Shortey added that if you took this idea to its logical conclusion, you could “force every human being” to be an organ donor, “and that’s kind of what we’re doing with these children. Before they’re born, we’re going to kill them and then we can do anything we want to with your body.”

[emphasis added]

This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Really, it shouldn’t – as the primary author of Oklahoma’s version of the “birther bill,” this is not the first time Sen. Shortey has embraced a bizarre conspiracy theory.

What is a surprise, however, is Shortey’s ineptitude as a legislator. His fetus-food bill has an effective date of November 1st, 2012 – which means if there really are restaurants in Oklahoma where, let’s say, you are what you eat, Shortey wants to give them nine more months before they have to stop. Even Mr. Swift would cringe at the irony in that.

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, already caught in two lies in recent weeks, is revealed to have been peddling yet another falsehood—on the very day he’ll give the GOP response to President Obama’s State of the Union address. 

Throughout the long debate over Right to Work, Governor Mitch Daniels has argued that Indiana can't grow jobs without busting up the unions. He says it's for workers' own good. "The good news is when Indiana gets a chance to compete for new jobs, we're winning -- two thirds of the time. But we get cut out of a third of all deals because we don't provide workers the protection known as Right to Work," he said, in one ad. 

But new data reveal that Indiana is doing pretty well without a so-called “right to work” measure in place. Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released new figures for employment in the states. How’s Indiana doing? 

After getting slammed senseless during the recession, the federal government says Indiana gained 15,100 jobs last month (much of it from the private sector, in the state's best month for job growth in a decade). 

So contrary to Gov. Daniels’ unsubstantiated insistence that the so-called “right to work” bill his Republican cronies are attempting to ram through the state legislature is necessary to create Indiana jobs, the state is nearly leading the nation in job creation AND protecting workers’ rights and paychecks. 

Now Gov. Daniels is peddling a new story. He alleges that Indiana lost a Volkswagen plant to Tennessee because of their “right to work” status. 

Interestingly, news coverage of the VW plant’s opening mentions specifically that Alabama and Michigan were considered as alternative sites for the plant. Volkswagen Group of America’s own press release specifically lists Tennessee, Michigan, and Alabama as the three states under consideration.  

How do you lose a bid for an auto plant when you were never even in the running? 

So many lies, so little time. Will he slip a few into his GOP response to the State of the Union? Or will he simply attack President Obama for the country’s fiscal woes—woes that Mitch Daniels helped create? 

Daniels comes to such a discussion with baggage, however, having headed the Office of Management and Budget under George W. Bush from 2001 to 2003, when the country’s projected budget surplus of $236 billion ran down a sink hole where it became a $400 billion deficit. 

… When the economy dipped, Bush’s expanding deficit ballooned. Some fiscal conservatives at the time howled, including New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, who pointed at Daniels as a major part of the problem, saying that he had “carried water for some of the Bush administration’s more egregious budgets [and...] made dubious public arguments in support of his boss’s agenda.” That agenda included the war in Iraq, which appeared on the books under Daniels as an invasion without longterm estimates accounting for the inevitable occupation. 

Will Gov. Daniels will stick to the facts tonight, for a change?

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels got caught last week breaking a promise he’d made in writing to not pursue so-called “right to work” legislation. 

And now we’ve got him on video. 

"I'm not interested in changing any of it. Not the prevailing wage laws, and certainly not the right to work law. We can succeed in Indiana with the laws we have, respecting the rights of labor, and fair and free competition for everybody." 

Gov. Daniels made this pronouncement before a group of Teamsters at a 2006 dinner. Now he disavows his promise with both words and actions, spearheading a shameless assault on workers’ rights and middle class values with the aid of his GOP cronies in the statehouse. 

Now that we know Gov. Daniels will be delivering the Republican response to the President’s State of the Union Address next week, can we trust a word that comes out of his mouth? 

Democrats in the state legislature continue their fight to give Hoosiers a voice in the debate over the so-called “right to work” measure, but not only are Republicans trying to shut down discussion and ram the bill through the legislature, but they’re also attempting to levy oppressive fines on their political opponents. 

Majority Republicans voted for a third straight day to impose $1,000-a-day fines on the boycotting Democrats, even though a Marion County judge issued an order Thursday blocking those fines from being deducted from the state paychecks of three boycotters who have sued. 

Most of the other members of the Democratic Caucus have joined the suit since the issuing of this temporary restraining order. 

Democratic Leader Bauer has pledged to return to the state House floor at “high noon” on Monday to continue fighting for a statewide referendum on this controversial legislation-- a referendum clearly supported by the vast majority of Hoosiers. 

By an overwhelming margin, Hoosiers want state lawmakers to let voters decide whether Indiana should become a right-to-work state, according to a new poll sponsored by the Indiana AFL-CIO.

The survey of 500 randomly selected registered voters found 71 percent support a statewide referendum on right-to-work, while 23 percent oppose a public vote. 

Support for a referendum was strongest among Democrats (89 percent) and independents (79 percent), but even half (50 percent) of Republicans say they want a referendum.

Will Gov. Daniels and Indiana Republicans allow Hoosiers to have their say? 

And can anything Gov. Daniels says next Tuesday in his State of the Union response be trusted? 

We’ll know soon enough.

As the battle against the GOP’s odious anti-middle class policies rages on in Indiana, two recent developments merit special note.

First, Gov. Mitch Daniels has been caught in a lie. When he first ran for governor of Indiana in 2004, he promised – in writing – to a union supporting him that he would not pursue so-called “right to work” legislation during his tenure. 

In seeking an endorsement in 2004 from the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150, Daniels sent a letter to former union President William Dugan that he would not pursue right-to-work legislation. The union sent The Times a copy of the letter dated July 30, 2004; it has "Mitch for Governor Campaign Committee" as its letterhead and Daniels' signature at the bottom. 

The letter said, "As I have indicated to you in person, I understand your membership's support for the current Indiana law providing a common construction (prevailing) wage for many state contracts, as well as your viewpoint that no need exists to enact a 'right to work' statute in our state. I'm in agreement on both counts." 

At best, Gov. Daniels broke a promise he took the trouble to commit to paper. At worst, Gov. Daniels engaged in an opportunistic fiction and had no qualms about lying in writing to win a valuable campaign endorsement. 

Second, and speaking of endorsements, Indiana House Democrats and friends of working families everywhere are getting a bit of a boost from some noteworthy NFL players.

Quarterbacks Jay Cutler of the Chicago Bears and Rex Grossman of the Washington Redskins are among six NFL players urging Indiana lawmakers to oppose right-to-work legislation.

Cutler, from Santa Claus, Ind., and Grossman, from Bloomington, joined New Orleans' Courtney Roby, Pittsburgh's Trai Essex, St. Louis' Mark Clayton and San Diego's Kris Dielman in sending letters to Indiana House members Monday. Days earlier, the NFL Players Association came out against the measure that would ban private contracts that require workers to pay union fees for representation.

Cutler called it a "political ploy'' against workers.

Yesterday, Democratic House Leader Pat Bauer struck a temporary deal with the Republicans: Democrats will be present for quorum until Tuesday, and the GOP will not bring up the so-called “right to work” legislation before then.

Good thing this deal was struck with a House Republican. Clearly Gov. Daniels’ promises can’t be trusted.

As the GOP assault on working families continues in Indianapolis, the NFL Players Association has weighed in. 

To win, we have to work together and look out for one another. Today, even as the city of Indianapolis
is exemplifying that teamwork in preparing to host the Super Bowl, politicians are looking to destroy it trying to ram through so-called “right-to-work” legislation. 

“Right-to-work” is a political ploy designed to destroy basic workers’ rights. It’s not about jobs or rights, and it’s the wrong priority for Indiana. … 

So-called “right-to-work” bills divide working families at a time when communities need to stand united. We need unity—not division. We urge legislators in Indiana to ... focus instead on job creation. 

As Indianapolis proudly prepares to host the Super Bowl it should be a time to shine in the national spotlight and highlight the hard-working families that make Indiana run instead of launching political attacks on their basic rights. It is important to keep in mind the plight of the average Indiana worker and not let them get lost in the ceremony and spectacle of such a special event. This Super Bowl should be about celebrating the best of what Indianapolis has to offer, not about legislation that hurts the people of Indiana. 

Indiana Republicans would like nothing better than to ram their so called “right to work” legislation through the statehouse and bring an end to this fight before the Super Bowl draws the eyes of the nation to their capital city. One GOP Representative even admitted publicly that the big game on February 5 factored into their rush. 

"Some people did raise that concern," said Rep. Jerry Torr, the Carmel Republican who is the chief sponsor of the labor legislation. "I expect that has played into folks' thoughts a little bit, trying to move this along." 

Perhaps Gov. Mitch Daniels and his GOP cronies in the legislature fear their war on workers’ rights won’t stand up to national
scrutiny. 

Speaking of national scrutiny, last night MSNBC prime time was filled with coverage of the Democrats’ fight for middle-class values. 

Check out Democratic Leader Pat Bauer on The Ed Show after his second day of preventing a quorum in the state House, halting the
progress of this heinous legislation:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Rachel Maddow featured a great segment, as well:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Despite the Republicans’ rush, the Democrats’ fight in Indiana is far from over. Stay tuned!

Yesterday marked the first day of the legislative session in Indiana, home to last year's historic Democratic boycott of the General Assembly (only Texas Democrats' protest of the 1993 DeLay-mander lasted longer). Gov. Mitch Daniels and his Republican cronies in the statehouse are scheming to bring back so-called "right to work" legislation after tabling it last year because of Democrats' and citizens' protests.

GOP Speaker Brian Bosma has already used lies to promote the measure on the airwaves (GOP Lawmaker Uses Lies to Push Union-Busting Agenda). Last Friday, the Daniels administration attempted to drastically limit Hoosiers’ access to their state capitol, which would effectively prevent demonstrations resembling the huge protests against union-busting bills in the Wisconsin and Ohio statehouses last year. Democratic Leader Pat Bauer took the Governor to task. 

"This policy is designed specifically to prevent working Hoosiers from coming to the Indiana Statehouse to register their concerns about implementation of a 'right to work for less' policy that will give them fewer jobs at lower pay in unsafe workplaces," said Indiana House Democratic Leader B. Patrick Bauer in a statement. "It now appears the governor will do anything to silence the thousands of Hoosiers who oppose this plan, including abandoning concepts of free speech and assembly that are the founding principles of government."

After intense pressure from legislative Democrats and tremendous public outcry, Gov. Daniels finally backed down.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) rescinded rules limiting how many people can be inside the statehouse at any one time on Wednesday, a victory for Democrats and labor leaders who protested the restrictions as an attempt to quash the size of protests. …

Daniels said he was swayed by Democrats and labor unions who argued against the new policy, noting they "made good points."

Now the first day of the Indiana General Assembly has come and gone, and Democrats are doing everything in their power to prevent this so-called “right to work” bill from being rammed through the legislature without adequate public input and careful legislative deliberation.

Lawmakers from the state House had last year blocked the bill — which would bar businesses and private unions from mandating that workers pay union fees for representation — through a five-week boycott during which they left the state. That denied Republicans the two-thirds attendance needed to conduct business.

House Democratic Leader Patrick Bauer said Wednesday that Republicans were "railroading" the revived measure through the chamber and more public hearings should be held.

"What's the urgency?" said Bauer, who led last year's walkout. "They are ignoring the public input."

Most Indiana House Democrats were no-shows on the floor Wednesday when House Speaker Brian Bosma tried three times to gavel the House into order. He plans to try again Thursday, and said a Democratic boycott won't lead Republicans to back off on the bill. …

Some Democrats broke ranks throughout the day and joined Republicans in the House. Up to six Democrats could return to their seats and there would still not be enough lawmakers to conduct business.

Instead the vast majority of Democrats holed up inside a conference room just steps from the House chamber and spent more than three hours debating tactics on the first day of the 2012 session.

Only time will tell if the Indiana GOP will decide to place the interests of hardworking, middle-class Hoosiers above corporate welfare.

Meanwhile, the Democrat who led his caucus in a five week boycott of Indiana Republicans’ extreme, right-wing agenda last year remains committed to slowing the process and accommodating public input. Any Republican expecting Rep. Bauer to blink should keep that in mind.

TruTV certainly didn’t shortchange Tea Party state legislators when they published their list of the “50 Worst Politicians in America.” Their list takes plenty of shots at both parties, but when it comes to America’s 7,000+ sitting state legislators, five prominent Republicans were the only ones judged “worthy” of this dubious honor:

• Arkansas — Loy Mauch
  The newly elected state lawmaker says the Confederate flag is "a symbol of Jesus Christ above all else." He's also in the League of the South, a group that advocates for Southern secession [and is listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center].

• Idaho — John McGee
  After getting drunk at a golf clubhouse, the state's Majority Caucus Chairman went on a wee-hours barefoot walk when he happened on a Ford Excursion with a travel trailer attached and the keys inside. Police alleged he hopped in and took a joy ride, only to botch a k-turn and jackknife the truck in someone's driveway. The cops were called and the politician was arrested for grand theft and driving under the influence. He was sentenced to 180 days in jail for DUI, but the theft charges were dropped. But it wasn't over yet: he was censured in the state legislature for blocking an investigation into his medical claims... and then sending it to die in a committee... which he also chaired.

• Oklahoma — Sally Kern
  Arguing in support of a 2011 bill to end affirmative action, the state representative said women usually don't want to work as hard as men because they want to stay at home and that prisons have a high percentage of blacks because they didn't want to study hard in school. Fortunately, she's used to the flavor of her own foot, as she first gained notoriety in 2008 for saying gay people posed a greater risk to the country than terrorism.

• South Carolina — Jake Knotts
  The state senator said this of then-candidate/now Governor Nikki Haley: "We already got one raghead in the White House, we don't need a raghead in the Governor's Mansion." Haley immigrated to the U.S. from India as a child, while Knotts clearly immigrated up his own butt.

• South Dakota — Hal Wick
  The state representative introduced a bill that would require anyone over 21 to buy a gun. But it was just a stunt masterminded by the rascally Republican to prove the government can't force you to buy health care. (No word on his feelings about car insurance… or about the state being burdened with the costs of treating the uninsured.)

The list, appropriately categorized in the “conspiracy” section of TruTV.com, leaves out at least a few of the biggest names in right-wing craziness. Bill O’Brien is an excellent possibility – in fact, New Hampshire GOP legislators probably could have filled about a dozen spaces all by themselves. And no list like this one is complete without at least one dishonorable mention of Virginia’s Bob Marshall.

But one thing’s for sure: when it comes to cataloging the misdeeds and outrageous antics of politicians over the past year, 2011’s statehouse Republicans are providing an embarrassment of riches for political writers – and an embarrassment, period, for the voters back home.

Minnesota Republicans are having a rough month. 

Just a few weeks ago, the state Republican Party Chairman resigned, reportedly leaving the party more than $1 million in debt. Soon after, a leading candidate to take the helm of the Minnesota GOP ended his bid after a confrontation with airport authorities over unpaid vehicle license tabs and reports of a “previously settled sexual harassment allegation.” 

Late last week, the then-Majority Leader of the Minnesota Senate abruptly resigned from her leadership position and announced she would not run for reelection. Shocking details surrounding Republican Sen. Amy Koch’s stunning announcement surfaced
quickly. 

The party was still adjusting Friday to Thursday's news that Sen. Majority Leader Amy Koch had resigned her leadership position when it was disclosed that the resignation came shortly after fellow legislators confronted her about allegations that she'd had an improper relationship with a male staff member who she supervised directly. That same day, Michael Brodkorb, a former deputy party chairman and Koch's communications chief, abruptly left his Senate post. Senate leaders wouldn't say whether the two resignations were linked. 

Sen. Koch has a husband and a daughter, but her Senate colleagues are most concerned about the implications and ramifications of carrying on an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate. 

Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen, R-Alexandria, a member of the Senate subcommittee on ethical conduct, said he takes seriously the issue of inappropriate relations with subordinates. He said Koch's alleged relationship could become a matter for the subcommittee to look at. 

As a former Douglas County sheriff, he said, he was instructed on the serious legal ramifications when a supervisor has a relationship with someone under their command. 

"There's a real difference between that and just having some kind of affair, if you will,'' Ingebrigtsen said. … 

If the allegations are true, he said, Koch should resign from the Senate. "I seriously feel I certainly would step down,'' he said. "If it were me, I would in a heartbeat. It's too damaging to the public, first and foremost." 

Some observers point out the hypocrisy inherent in Sen. Koch’s support for Minnesota’s proposed anti-marriage equality amendment, which will appear on the 2012 ballot. Her alleged* affair could undermine conservative claims that the amendment is needed to “protect[] the sanctity of marriage.” 

Next Tuesday, state Republican lawmakers will scramble to replace their leadership and get their political ducks in a row for the legislative session, which convenes just a few weeks later. 

After a year in which the Minnesota GOP shut down state government, found themselves without a single statewide officeholder, have failed to recruit a formidable opponent for Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, and drove their party deeply into debt, this scandal taking down state Senate leadership further damages an already-tarnished Republican brand. The Republican Party may preach the tenets of “fiscal responsibility” and so-called “family values,” but their practice needs a little work.

*Late Wednesday, Sen. Koch admitted to "engaging in a relationship with a Senate staffer."