Tomorrow is the first day on the job for our new Capitol Hill reporter Benjy Sarlin. That brings the headcount in our DC Bureau to six — five reporters and TPM’s Managing Editor and DC Bureau Chief David Kurtz. We’ll be adding more reporters to our DC team over the course of this year.

It’s important to note that this new poll is sponsored by the AFL-CIO. But it’s done by a respected polling firm. And it suggests that Gov. Walker (R-WI) holds a weak and weakening hand in his battle against his state public employees unions.

We’re going to post fuller results of the poll later this morning. But key takeaways include the following.

Reaction to the specifics of Walker’s Proposals include overwhelming opposition from Democrats, majority support from Republicans and sizable opposition from independents. Walker has a 10% net disapproval — 39% approve, 49% disapprove.

It goes without saying that this poll is sponsored by an interested party, though as I said it’s done by a highly credible polling organization and is not loaded with leading questions — specifically, neutral support/opposition questions come first and are only later followed by so-called ‘messaging’ questions. I’d still like to see a few more independent polls of this situation. And I understand that at least one more is to be released shortly. But it is worth noting that these results are broadly in line the results released a few days ago by the GOP-aligned group WeAskAmerica. Read More

Jon Stewart: Is Wisconsin most like Egypt, 9/11, or crack cocaine? Watch.

Indiana House Democrats fleeing the state à la Wisconsin? More soon …

Scratch Sen. John Thune (R-SD) off the list of GOP presidential hopefuls for 2012.

Tell me again why none of the first tier candidates are willing to run in 2012?

Working on list of differences between Fox News and Libyan state television. Anybody got any?

Qaddafi says he will die at the end of the struggle.

Does that mean the government and the protestors are moving toward a consensus on a path forward?

Gov. Walker (R-WI) now says, deep six the union or I start laying people off next week.

The key point is that the unions in questions have already agreed to all the benefit cuts Walker has requested in his budget repair bill. So it’s only about collective bargaining. If the unions don’t agree to terminate their existence, he’ll start laying people off. Not even clear it’s the same people. But he’ll give them pink slips to force an end to collective bargaining.

Because of the Great Recession, tax revenues are down dramatically and public services costs have soared. Ergo, we have no choice but to permanently eliminate union rights for public employees. Because we’re out of money.