Leno: Rachel Maddow - Video - February 22, 2011

On Tuesday, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow was on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno to talk politics.

Is that entertainment?

Actually, it is in a way.

Much of what Maddow had to say was absolutely ludicrous, and watching Leno accept what she had to say as intelligent analysis was rather amusing.



Maddow's comments on Ronald Reagan and the Republicans were crazy.

Transcript

RACHEL MADDOW: Politics shift every year further and further to the Right. The conservative movement sort of tugs the Republican Party to the Right, and the Democrats follow. And so, you know, if Ronald Reagan were running for president today, he would be drafting, like, Dennis Kucinich to be his running mate. Politics have shifted so far.

She wasn't kidding. For the most part, it was a very serious segment.

Maddow was seriously saying Ronald Reagan was a Dennis Kucinich-type liberal compared to today's Republicans.

Sorry, but that's really ridiculous.

Maddow spent a good deal of time talking about the upheaval in the Middle East, specifically Libya.

Then, discussion turned to Wisconsin.

JAY LENO: How about what's going on in Wisconsin? Like you said, you have Egypt, Tunisia, Libya - now Wisconsin. What's happening? Tell me about Madison, I mean, that is really the battleground. What happens in Madison will pretty much decide what happens in the rest of the country as far as dealing with unions and all. This is like ground zero for this, isn't it?

MADDOW: It is. Whatever happens in Madison, and we saw it in Indiana today and Ohio, similar things happening. We were talking about the '50s. In the '50s, 30-something percent of the country was in a union. Now, that's only true in the public sector. And in the private sector, it's about 7 percent that are in unions. So, you know, business interests have always wanted to get rid of the unions. That's the whole idea. They don't want the competition.

But, if you look at the last election cycle, of the top ten people donating money in that election, seven of them were giving to Republicans, those were all corporate interests and Right-wing PACs and stuff. Seven of the ten were all Right-wing, and the only three that weren't were unions.

So, if Republicans can get rid of the unions, particularly these public sector unions, they can run the table in every election from here on out. This is the only competition they have for actual big contributors in politics. So, they want to get rid of the unions for partisan reasons.

What's happening in Wisconsin, why Governor Scott Walker has proposed the budget he has, is not some grand scheme to get rid of unions.

The state is broke. We have no money. He's trying to prevent layoffs, spare people from unemployment, not bust the unions so the Republicans "can run the table in every election from here on out."

That's what the battle may appear to be to her and her liberal cohorts -- eliminating unions. But Maddow is ignoring the fact that we have a fiscal crisis in Wisconsin. Governor Walker is addressing the crisis in his budget repair plan. That's getting lost in this national debate and the union power struggle.

The state of Wisconsin has to deal with its problems. For us, this isn't about the entire country. I'm concerned about my taxes, what I pay to government and how it's spent.

LENO: Our middle class came about because of all these unions and everything, 'cause unions aren't so much about how much you can pay people, it's about how little you can pay people.

MADDOW: That's right.

LENO: Isn't that sort of it really, how little we have to pay you to do a job?

MADDOW: Yeah. Unions don't set the wages for everybody but they sort of set the standard for what's an expectation of how to make a living and a job. And it's the way we got a middle class in this country. There were 30-something percent of the country in unions in the '50s and that's what we built the middle class on. And so you can have problems with unions and stuff, but it's a real attack on the idea that people ought to be able to make a living if they work full-time. And that's an American idea that I still really believe in.

The notion that today unions are a necessity to allow people to work full-time and make a living is silly. The existence of the middle class in America doesn't depend on unions.

I also think it's important to recognize the role of free enterprise in the rise of the middle class.

Back to what's happening in Wisconsin--

LENO: The Democrats left the state. This is something I find a little confusing. I think a lot of people do. They just left. They're gone. Now they can't vote without them, is that it? How long do they stay away?

MADDOW: That's a question. When do you guys start getting restless, or bored or something? I mean, they, as long as they're out of the state, then the state law enforcement authorities in Wisconsin can't compel them to go to the state house. And if they don't go to the state house, there's no quorum. There aren't enough people there to vote, and so it can't proceed.

LENO: OK, here's my question: If the Democrats came back and they voted, would they lose?

MADDOW: Yes.

LENO: OK. Well, is that the will of the people of Wisconsin, to be devil's advocate? I mean, if they voted this man in, this is what he wanted, the majority of the people want this....

MADDOW: What they're saying is the thing that, the reason that they have left is because it is a reasonable demand - no matter how big your majority is - it is a reasonable demand to say we want to renegotiate the contracts under which people who work for the state work. It is not a reasonable demand to say you will never be negotiated with again, and we are taking away your rights.

Oh, good grief!

What a load!

It is completely unreasonable for the Democrats to flee the state. That is not how democracy works.

We have elections and we don't expect the minority party to run away when it's time to vote.

There is NO way Maddow would defend Republicans if they pulled such a cowardly stunt and obstructed the will of the people in such a brazen fashion.

Furthermore, it's completely inaccurate for Maddow to say the bill means "you will never be negotiated with again and we are taking away your rights."

Politifact would rate that claim as a "pants on fire" lie. (Well, with Politifact's Leftist bias, I suppose it would be rated as "false," but it definitely deserves a "pants on fire" rating.)

Government employees can still negotiate on salaries and they have protections under state laws.

MADDOW: It's kind of amazing for the government to say, 'We, the government, know best. And if you guys want to be in a union, we're taking away your rights to be in a union. We're taking away that choice from you, because the government needs to do what it wants, and you guys are getting in the way.'

For the Tea Partiers to come in and say, 'You know what? Government does know best. The people ought to lose this right because government needs something here.' When did that become a conservative idea? I mean, talk about a big government! So to see the Tea Partiers here taking the side of the government taking away the people's rights, I think calls into question the whole idea of conservatism.

Maddow is spreading so much disinformation here.

No "rights" are being taken away. When it comes to "choice," the bill gives people the ability to choose to join a union rather than being forced or bullied into paying dues to the bosses.

Certainly in that sense, the bill gives workers choice and is empowering.

Governor Walker's budget repair plan reins in government. It doesn't expand it.

Maddow really didn't know what she was talking about.

Will Leno give equal time to a conservative to speak on the Wisconsin issue?

Not a chance.
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