70,000 protesters descend on Madison
Largest Protest Yet Doesn't Sway Wisconsin Lawmakers
by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sometimes they cursed each other, sometimes they shook hands, sometimes they walked away from each other in disgust.
None of it — not the ear-splitting chants, the pounding drums or the back-and-forth debate between 70,000 protesters — changed the minds of Wisconsin lawmakers dug into a stalemate over Republican efforts to scrap union rights for almost all public workers.
"The people who are not around the Capitol square are with us," said Rep. Robin Vos, a Republican from Rochester, Wisconsin, and co-chair of the Legislature's budget committee. "They may have a bunch around the square, but we've got the rest on our side."
After nearly a week of political chaos in Madison, during which tens of thousands of pro-labor protesters turned the Capitol into a campsite that had started to smell like a locker room, supporters of Gov. Scott Walker came out in force Saturday.
They gathered on the muddy east lawn of the Capitol and were soon surrounded by a much larger group of union supporters who countered their chants of "Pass the bill! Pass the bill!" with chants of "Kill the bill! Kill the bill!"
"Go home!" union supporters yelled at Scott Lemke, a 46-year-old machine parts salesman from Cedarburg who wore a hard hat and carried a sign that read "If you don't like it, quit" on one side, and "If you don't like that, try you're fired" on the other.
A lone demonstrator stood between the crowds, saying nothing and holding a sign: "I'm praying that we can all respect each other. Let's try to understand each other."
(Continued here.)
by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sometimes they cursed each other, sometimes they shook hands, sometimes they walked away from each other in disgust.
None of it — not the ear-splitting chants, the pounding drums or the back-and-forth debate between 70,000 protesters — changed the minds of Wisconsin lawmakers dug into a stalemate over Republican efforts to scrap union rights for almost all public workers.
"The people who are not around the Capitol square are with us," said Rep. Robin Vos, a Republican from Rochester, Wisconsin, and co-chair of the Legislature's budget committee. "They may have a bunch around the square, but we've got the rest on our side."
After nearly a week of political chaos in Madison, during which tens of thousands of pro-labor protesters turned the Capitol into a campsite that had started to smell like a locker room, supporters of Gov. Scott Walker came out in force Saturday.
They gathered on the muddy east lawn of the Capitol and were soon surrounded by a much larger group of union supporters who countered their chants of "Pass the bill! Pass the bill!" with chants of "Kill the bill! Kill the bill!"
"Go home!" union supporters yelled at Scott Lemke, a 46-year-old machine parts salesman from Cedarburg who wore a hard hat and carried a sign that read "If you don't like it, quit" on one side, and "If you don't like that, try you're fired" on the other.
A lone demonstrator stood between the crowds, saying nothing and holding a sign: "I'm praying that we can all respect each other. Let's try to understand each other."
(Continued here.)
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