But will will those Dems notice? From Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly's Political Animal:
THE KIND OF VOTE TO BUILD AN ELECTION AROUND
Note that House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) was asked on ABC yesterday how his party would have saved these thousands of jobs, including 3,600 in his home state of Indiana. Pence didn't answer, because he couldn't -- the Republican plan was to let those jobs disappear, and then blame President Obama when the economy got worse. (It's the same with the rescue of the American auto industry -- the GOP plan wasn't to save it in some other way; the GOP plan was to let it die.)
The campaign ads seem to write themselves in a situation like this. Indeed, this is a debate to build an election around -- with a struggling economy, Democrats proposed a fiscally-responsible plan to save hundreds of thousands of jobs, specifically helping our local schools. Republicans said we can afford tax cuts for billionaires, but not teachers' jobs.
It's not every day the two parties' approaches to government get spelled out so clearly, giving the public a stark choice between two very different ideologies.
Emphasis mine and Digby has a lot to say, excerpted below the fold, on this as well.
I do hope the Democrats are paying close attention to this because it might just save their bacon if they play their cards right. Here's the lugubrious GOP star Mike Pence on the passage of the emergency state teacher, cop and firefighter funding:
Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) picked up on that theme today on ABC’s Top Line, calling it a “massive state bailout.” When host Z. Byron Wolf asked what the GOP plan would be to help teachers who are about to lose their jobs — particularly the 3,600 in Indiana, Pence didn’t have much to offer:
PENCE: Well, look I’m married to a school teacher. My wife spent more than a decade in a public school classroom. So I love teachers! Teachers, firefighters, policemen are all Americans and they all know that the economic policies of bailouts and handouts have failed to create jobs.
Can you spot the fear and dissonance there? I knew that you could.
I'm telling you, this is where the vulnerable underbelly of their "just say no" campaign is. They are voting against nice, white, suburban middle class Americans this time (along with nice brown and black suburban middle class Americans) with this crusade. And going after teachers, cops and firefighters is a very, very dangerous thing to do. And as I wrote before, the Democrats should throw it right in their face.