Documentary filmmaker Brad Lichtenstein videotaped this conversation in which Gov. Scott Walker says he would use “divide and conquer” as a strategy against unions. Video courtesy of Brad Lichtenstein…

The Republican Party in Indiana will not be sending Dick Lugar into the fray this year. His candidacy for the US Senate has been put aside in favor of a Tea Party activist Richard Mourdock. Mordock won handily with 60% of the vote.

This could mean a shift in the Senate, as Murdock probably has a much lower chance of defeating the Democratic nominee, Joe Donnelly, than did Lugar, who has held that seat since shortly after Indiana became a state. Or at least some think so:

The polling has long shown that moderate Democratic candidate Joe Donnelly, a former small business owner and House member from the South Bend area, had no shot against Lugar but does stand a chance against Mourdock, a tea party favorite with big-dollar support from the Club for Growth, the National Rifle Association and FreedomWorks.

This could be a game changer. There are only 10 Senators. Remember last election?

Santorum and Romney actually disagree on a number of issues, especially if you compare Romney the Centrist Republican Governor of Taxachussetts with Santroum the Senator Before He Got Tossed Out of Washington. But they do agree on one issue: No more Black Guys in the White House!!! And on that basis, Santorum had endorsed Romney, this very evening:

Santorum on Monday urged his supporters to join him in working with the effective Republican nominee to deny President Barack Obama a second term. In his message, Santorum reminded his supporters of areas where he disagreed with Romney during their slog of a primary.

Yet Santorum says that, in his words, “above all else, we both agree that President Obama must be defeated.”

Yup, that’s all they’ve got.

Can anyone tell me what this means?

From now until November, President Obama and GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney will emphasize their differences. But the two men’s lives actually coincide in a striking number of ways: Both attended Harvard. Both have been heavily influenced by their respective churches. Each descended from polygamists.

This is the preface for a piece by Ari Shapiro. I’m trying to ask Shapiro what is meant by this. Since it is preface text this is probably from an editor, but I would think it is in the piece somewhere (it is a multipart series).

Are we talking about his Kenyan background, and simply labeling Kenyans as Polygynous? Or are we talking about his generalized African background? Or the fact that he comes from an Abrahamic religion and all those people in the Old Testament were polygynous? Or what?

And if so, then why are we not comparing Romney to, say, Every other person running for office who has at some point in their background a society that does not enforce monogamy … because when you don’t enforce monogamy you get overt polygyny and occassionally polyandry (both forms of polygamy). (When you do enforce the monogamy you get way less, and not overt.)

… and ….

The world’s productivity revolution is outpacing the political will of rich societies to fairly distribute its benefits. The result is widening inequality coupled with slow growth and stubbornly high unemployment.

I think Robert Reich has some interesting things to day in his essay: The Answer Isn’t Socialism; It’s Capitalism That Better Spreads the Benefits of the Productivity Revolution

Although I also think he’s kind of playing on the word “socialism” ina way that is not fully necessary, but that’s OK.

A resurgent right insists on even more tax breaks for corporations and the rich, massive cuts in public spending that will destroy what’s left of our safety nets, including Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid, fewer rights for organized labor, more deregulation of labor markets, and a lower (or no) minimum wage.

This is, quite simply, nuts.

And this is why a second Obama administration, should there be one, must focus its attention on more broadly distributing the gains from growth. This doesn’t mean “redistributing” from rich to poor, as in a zero-sum game. To the contrary, the rich will do far better with a smaller share of a robust, growing economy than they’re doing with a large share of an economy that’s barely moving forward.

As in the “Keep the money moving” theory of making for a stronger economy.

From the Tea Party.

Romney is expected to win today’s GOP primary in Wisconsin, though a good Santorum showing is not impossible. Romney will also do well in other April races (Connecticut, Delaware, New York and Rhode Island). However, Santorum is expected to do reasonably well in May (Texas, Arkansas, Kentucky, Indiana and West Virginia). Santorum is predicting a nearly even race by the end of that process. We’ll see.

Meantime, in all of the major general election battleground states, Obama is beating the Republicans in head-to-heat polling. However, the two parties are about evenly divided among men, with women very strongly leaning towards the Democratic candidate and away from the Republican candidate.

Apparently several months of crapping on women has its effects.

The Gingrich Campaign is suddenly cutting one third of its full-time staff and swapping out its campaign manger. They are out of money.

“We’re readying the campaign for the convention floor,” Hammond said, citing the campaign’s commitment to stay in the race until the end.

Yeah, we’ll see.