MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT



It's enough to make one of those goofy triangular Swiss cheese head foam hats that Wisconsin sports fans wear twirl around six times and curdle before your eyes.

Image by Ratterrell

Upset with a call by a non-union referee that resulted in the Green Bay Packers losing a Monday night football game, the Koch brothers' anointed lead union buster, Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, called for only union refs to call NFL games. According to Gannett News,

Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who made a national name for himself by going after public employee unions last year, posted a message on Twitter calling for the return of the NFL’s locked-out unionized officials after a disputed call led to a Seattle Seahawks 14-12 victory over the Packers on Monday night.

“After catching a few hours of sleep, the (hash)Packers game is still just as painful. (hash)Returntherealrefs,” Walker tweeted early Tuesday….

Walker’s spokesman Cullen Werwie tried to spin the governor’s post on Tuesday, saying it wasn’t meant as a pro-union political statement. Walker’s tweet was being widely mocked on Twitter in light of his push last year that effectively ended collective bargaining for teachers, nurses and most other public workers.

“I don’t think this anything to do with unions, but has everything to do with refs making bad calls,” Werwie said.

Okay, so the governor who broke the back of public union collective bargaining in Wisconsin – and would crush all unions if he could, by many accounts, is implying that the union refs are better at their jobs. Well, maybe he's got a point – and that applies to many public employees who have long years of training and experience.

One of the great ironies here is that the Green Bay Packers are the only team in the NFL owned by a city: the people of Green Bay. They are non-profit as a result of this. So this, if you are a Tea Party kind of guy, makes them a "socialist football" team, right?

Not only that, but during the Wisconsin uprising against Walker's anti-collective bargaining legislation, many of the most prominent Green Bay Packer players sided with the public unions. Why? Because the gridiron athletes are members of a union: the National Football League Players Association.

So Governor Scott Walker, the go-to man of GOP billionaires for busting unions and dismantling government, supports union refs, a union football team, and ownership of that team, the Green Bay Packers, by the community – without a profit incentive.

Next time there is a recall effort against Walker, he should be targeted as a promoter of sports socialism – because he is.

The Gannett headline, after all, is, "Union-buster Scott Walker calls for return of union refs."

Yes, indeed.