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Ohio's Gov. John Kasich isn't quite the most unpopular governor in the United States. He's number two right behind Florida's Gov. Rick Scott. So who better to sound off this week about how to get our country back on track in the Republicans's Weekly Address?

This is the same governor who, according to polling back in May, would lose a do-over election with his former opponent Ted Strickland by 26 points. And as TPM reported as well, he's another one of these Republican governors who for all of their bluster attacking federal spending, were also quietly accepting those dollars at the same time.

Now that Kasich's union busting law is going to be put up to a referendum this November, Kasich suddenly decided that he now wants to make a deal with the state's public employee unions. To their credit, it appears the unions have said, no thanks -- Kasich Opponents: Repeal Your Anti-Union Law — Then We’ll Talk.

And what are his "solutions" for getting our economy back on track? The same as we've seen from all of these Republicans. More tax cuts, deregulation, privatizing everything, and apparently what he didn't bother to mention during this weekly response, union busting.

Kasich also said Republicans should be willing to compromise with Democrats, but not compromise on their "principles." Which is generally Republican double-speak for we'll compromise after you give us everything we want, maybe. Or maybe you give us everything we want and we still obstruct for the sake of obstructing. Which is something they seem to be particularly good at now that we've got the scary Kenyan usurper in the White House that they'll never acknowledge had a right to be there in the first place.

Transcript via the LA Times below the fold.

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As Rachel pointed out, former Fox News candidate and now Ohio Governor John Kasich may have picked the wrong fight in Ohio. He may not be getting as much attention nationwide for his union busting as Wisconsin's Governor Walker, but he's doing even more damage there and he's going after the police and firefighters as well with his union busting legislation.

Rachel and one of our resident Ohioans on teamcrooks pointed out today that when even the Cincinnati Enquirer is bashing you in op-eds, you've got some real problems.

A shameful performance on Senate Bill 5:

It is shameful that Ohio Republicans pushed the SB5 collective bargaining bill through the Senate on Wednesday using the sort of tactics that congressional Democrats were justly criticized for using during the health-care reform debate.

What's doubly shameful is that this process is tainting an overhaul of public employment practices that is eminently worthwhile and necessary - in fact, long overdue - but should be done in a more reasoned, collaborative manner. The process should produce at least a credible level of buy-in.

We call on Ohio House leaders to step back and see how they can improve the quality of the debate as they take up the measure.

Go read the rest but this is from a paper that heartily endorsed Kasich before the election.

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In what Lawrence O'Donnell described as one of the sleaziest legislative moves he's ever seen, the Republicans in the Ohio Senate jammed through their union busting SB5, but only after removing two Republicans on two separate committees who were opposed to it in order to get it to the Senate floor.

With One-Vote Margin, Ohio State Senate Passes SB 5:

The Ohio State Senate just passed the controversial SB 5, aimed a limiting unionized state employees' ability to collectively bargain or go on strike.

In an indication of how divisive the legislation is in the Buckeye State, the final vote in the Senate was 17-16. The bill now moves to the state House, which like the Senate, is under Republican control.

Gov. John Kasich (R) has endorsed the measure and is expected to sign it when it reaches his desk.

Democrats united against the bill, and they needed seven Republican members to join with them to stop it. In the end they got six.

Pushing the bill through the Senate has been tough for supporters of the plan, with the Republican leader of the state Senate removing two Republicans opposed to the measure to get the bill to the Senate floor today.

Lawrence talked to the Progressive Change Campaign Committee's Adam Green about their campaign to fight back against what these governors are doing in Ohio and Wisconsin and across the country, busting unions and waging class warfare against the poor and what's left of the middle class. You can watch some of their new ads that are airing in Wisconsin or make a donation to help keep them on the air here.

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Here's some hopeful news in Ohio. As Dave Dayden noted, with the protests spreading to other states with these union busting bills being pushed through, it's possible they're doing some good.

Wisconsin remains the main battleground for the broader assault on worker’s rights. But elsewhere in the Big Ten states and across the country, these battles have moved forward. In Ohio, Gov. John Kasich is pushing pretty much the exact same bill as Scott Walker in Wisconsin. Known as SB 5, the bill would strip collective bargaining rights from Ohio public employees. SB 5 is a piece of legislation, so Kasich isn’t trying to implement this under the cover of a budget bill. However, he has said that if he doesn’t get what he wants out of SB 5, he will put those items into the next budget bill. Alternatively, this could go to the ballot. So SB 5 won’t be the last showdown. The Governor, aping Scott Walker, claims this is a fiscal issue, but nobody can explain how much money SB 5 would save.

Senate Republicans may not have the votes to get SB 5 out of committee (unless they work out a deal.):

Yesterday, we wrote about the Columbus Dispatch’s story that indicated that there are seven Republican Senators on the fence on SB 7, enough that if they don’t support the bill could defeat it. Well, I failed to note another key aspect. If the GOP doesn’t get these members on board, they may not even be able to pass SB 5 out of committee.

The Republicans have an 8-4 majority on the Senate Insurance, Commerce, and Labor Committee. However, three of the Republicans on the Committee are Senators Bill Seitz, Bill Beagle, and Jim Hughes.

These just happen to be three of the seven Senators the Dispatch identified as saying that SB 5, as it currently stands, goes too far and they are on the fence over supporting.

So if the GOP cannot get one of these three on board (either by partisan arm twisting or amending the bill), the GOP doesn’t have the votes to approve the bill out of committee.

Ohio Governor Kasich appeared on CNN tonight and is still trying to claim that SB5 is not really about busting the unions. Uh huh. Sure it's not. As Robert Reich wrote yesterday, this is part of an organized strategy by the GOP to destroy what's left of the middle class.

Ohio governor says collective barganing bill not meant to kill unions:

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