"If you’re not on the bus, we’ll run over you with the bus," he said. "And I’m not kidding."
Kasich, August 2011:
Gov. John Kasich pleaded with organized labor leaders today to compromise on Senate Bill 5 and cancel a fall referendum on the controversial bill that peels back public employee collective bargaining rights.Kasich said avoiding a fight over state Issue 2 is in "best interest of everyone, including public employee unions." He asked the unions to "set aside political agendas and past offenses."
What could possibly have changed between November 2010 when it was get on the bus or get run over by the bus, compromise not an option, and August 2011 when Kasich suddenly became a major advocate of compromise?
Well, first, Republicans had a tough time getting enough of their own members to vote for SB 5, a bill eliminating collective bargaining rights for public employees, to get it passed. But finally, after shenanigans like pulling a Republican opponent of the bill off the committee voting on it, they got SB 5 passed.
Then, the people of Ohio developed an astonishing case of buyer's remorse about Kasich.
And finally, repeal of SB 5 vaulted onto the November ballot with several times the number of required signatures, and polling showed repeal leading by around 20 points.
One, two, three, and suddenly John Kasich is all wounded and aggrieved that the people he came into office attacking won't compromise with him. For the good of the state, don't you know. Because he's a "believer in talking," not because he's a bully who's afraid he's going to lose. Compromise had previously been floated by his allies at the Columbus Dispatch, but when that didn't do the trick, Kasich decided to give it a shot himself. Apparently he doesn't get that when everyone in your state hates you, it's hard to convince them to blame the other guys for one of the things that made you so unpopular to begin with.
We Are Ohio, the coalition pushing repeal of SB 5, is having none of it. Hopefully they're having a good laugh about it, though.