As The Dust Settles, Mitch Daniels Is Looking Much Stronger

By Aaron Reber

In response to Ralph Alter's blog on Mitch Daniel's caving, I must respectfully disagree, as I believe that Mr. Alter responded to misreported events and made a decision about Gov. Daniels before all of the facts came to light.

I am a GOP operative here in Indianapolis, and as such I have been following the standoff closely. Not only did Mr. Alter reference a media source that had misquoted Governor Daniels earlier, but Governor Daniels released the full audio of the quote later that day. Daniels spoke to the protesters' right to make their voice heard. He did not condone the legislators' actions, but instead he emphatically blasted the Democrats for destroying the democratic process of our republic. Stating that he would keep the legislature in session until Christmas if need be, he went as far as to say that the Democratic Party would need to go through a "rebranding" after this, as what they were doing was not democratic at all. Then he made it clear that he would not be bullied into abandoning his agenda.

Furthermore, it was not Daniels who let the right to work bill die, it died due to the deadline in the House, and then Senate Majority Leader Long, who also had not planned to bring the bill up until next session, said that he would put it into an exploratory committee.

Finally, Gov. Daniels refused to send state troopers to retrieve Pat Bauer and his cronies because they do not have the jurisdiction to arrest the Democrats in IL. I don't blame Mr. Alter for the conclusion he came to. I too thought My Man Mitch had caved until the truth was released to the press.

I just ask everyone to now re-evaluate their opinion now that the facts have come to light.

Do I agree with putting the right to work bill to rest in the Senate? Absolutely not. Did I want to see Gov. Daniels pressure Senator long into keeping the bill on the table in the Senate? Absolutely. Is it fair to say that Daniels has caved? Most assuredly no.

Gov. Daniels is following his plan that he laid out for Indiana. Right To Work wasn't in that plan this session, but he isn't going to give up on his agenda, and the bill will be brought up in the future.

I will agree to this point however. When the enemy breaks the law, you cannot even show a hint of backing down, and, once Right To Work was in the arena, he and Senator Long should have backed it. However, that is a disagreement on the policy decisions of what bills to back and when, and it certainly does not constitute "caving" to democrat lawlessness. So far, Daniels has kept a cool head and stuck to his plan. We shall all be watching closely to see how well Mitch handles the situation.