group. >> lisa graves with the center for media and democracy. thanks for guiding us through this and joining us tonight. have the last word on our block, the lastword.msnbc.com. follow my tweets @lawrence. "the ed show" is up next. show". good evening, americans, and welcome to "the ed show" live from columbus, ohio, where workers rights are the big issue in america and a big issue here tonight. it's the eve of the historic election to determine the fate of middle class americans and in the state of ohio. republicans are trying to cheat their way to the upset. other news tonight, the herman cain story will not quit. we now center a name and face accusing herman cain of sexual misconduct. his accusations are graphic and explosive. the cain camp is denying them. we'll bring you the story later

in the show. the real story is here in ohio. this is the only place you're going to see it. this is "the ed show." let's get to work. good evening, folks. it's one of the most important stories of the year, the attack on workers' rights approximate by republican-controlled statehouses across this country. from wisconsin to florida to right here in ohio, the middle class is being squeezed by lawmakers and governors who want to do away with public unions for political gain. it is about power. john kasich made his intentions clear. he said we need to break the back of organized labor in the schools.

he also made clear what he thinks of public safety workers like police officers. >> have you ever been stopped by a policeman who was an idiot? i have this idiot pull me over on 315, goes back to the car, comes back and gives me a ticket and says you must report to court. if you don't we're putting a warrant out for your arrest. he's an idiot. >> kasich came pained on economic development, but when he took office early this year, ohio republicans basically staged an attack on organized labor. senate bill 5 was signed into law by governor kasich on march 31st. it limits collective bargaining for public employees in the state of ohio. kasiched it was needed to fill an $8 billion budget gap, but the savings weren't specified. he didn't skip any opportunities to brag about what he did.

>> froeprobably nobody in this thought it could be done. you heard it before, campaign rhetoric. baloney. the members of the legislature along with the team in my administration have done something the people in washington ought to understand. we look problems square in the eye, and we didn't blink. >> kasich senate bill 5 changes the way more than 360,000 public employees negotiate their contracts in this state. it bans collective bargaining for benefits. it eliminating auto maukt pay increases and makes it illegal to strike and it does away with arbitration. how in the hell can you have collective bargaining whether you don't have an arbitrator with an issue at the table. these people are fired up about that. the bill forces public safety workers to beg for important resources. kasich's politics have the ultimate say on approving requests for safety equipment

and staffing levels, which doesn't sit well with state rescue workers. >> when i leave home for my shift, i want my kids to know that i have every bit of safety equipment i need to come home the next day. >> the firefighters here, we didn't cause the economic downturn in ohio. i know that the teachers didn't. i know the police officers didn't. i know all the other hard-working public employees did not cause the economic problems here in the state of ohio. >> so what do they do here in ohio? well, a grassroots coalition of senate bill 5 opponents launched the we are ohio campaign on april 9th. more than 10,000 people attended a rally in columbus. in less than three months they delivered the signatures to the ohio secretary of state. 1 million more signatures needed to put it on the ballot.

it put senate bill 5 on the ballot this november, and it is written up as issue number two giving voters tomorrow the final say on where they're going to go on this issue. kasich tried to boost support for issue 2 by running to his former employer, fox news. >> you're getting demonized and beaten up. you have literally millions of dollars in ads now, $60 million to run ads. >> i would think it would be close to that. >> they're busing in union people around the country. i know because i met one of the bus drivers and unions give free weekends in ohio to come and protest you. >> not even sean hannity's made-up numbers are helping kasich. even prominent republicans are against it in the state. republicans like the republican mayor of lancaster, ohio, david smith and retired ohio supreme court judge republican andy douglas are opponents of senate bill 5. even right wing talk show bill

cunningham says he's voting no on issue 2. a recent survey by ohio voters shows issue 2 losing by 25 points. so this is where we stand at this hour. this isn't a pro-union or anti-union issue. this is an attack on the middle class workers of america. it affects you and your state as well, because it sets the template on what is going to happen in other states around this country. here's where we are. i take you right back to the chart that we have seen so many times. you have a radical governor here in ohio who is asking middle class workers, give me a little more. give me your pension. give me your health care, and by the way, don't bother me at the negotiating table. i'm going to fix those rules, too. we went into a couple of wars that weren't paid for. we had big bush tax cuts, so now we fast forward ten years later

and now the radical governor, not only kasich but walker and schneider and scott and christie, they want the middle class workers to suck it up and pay more. i want you to look at this graph i show quite often. this is the income gap we have seen over the last 30 years in this country. the red liners is where the republican governors are. they want legislation and tax breaks for corporation and the wealthiest americans that is going to help thoed red liners? middle classers are down on the blue line. that's where their income has gone over the last 30 years. if you want to make it a union issue, we'll do that tonight, too. we'll show you how important unions are to the country. here's another graph. union household membership. over the last 30 years it has declined in america. that's the red line. the blue line shows you where the income has followed along with the lack of union membership across america. so you can say it's all about,

you know, union membership, fine. but you know the bigger picture here is karl rove even said it. this is the last bash-in for the liberals in the country to stand up. if they can knock down the foundation of organized labor in this country, they will put up the sign that says mission accomplished. they did it with the supreme court ruling of citizens united. let me tell you something, folks. this is how you fight back against citizens united. you come together and you work it out. and we want you to get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. how would you vote on issue 2 here in ohio? text a for yes, text b for no to it 622639. you can go to our blog. we want to hear from you on twitter. tell us what you think @edshow.

we'll have a tweet live at the screen. this gentleman is going to starts tweeting right now because he wants to see it on the screen. we'll deliver. joining me tonight is richard trumka, harold shade burger of the international association of firefighters and former governor of the state of ohio mr. ted strickland. >> gentlemen, great to have you with us tonight. governor, let's visit with you first. i appreciate you being here. why didn't ohio see this coming in 2010? what was it? where was the disconnect? >> people were hurting and are hurting, and i understand that. we all understand that. i met a young man on the sidewalk walking here this evening who is homeless and hungry, and across this country people have lost their jobs.

let me tell you, ed, the firefighters and the nurses and the teachers and the police officers didn't cause this dilemma. it was human greed, and it emanated from wall street. and now that these good folks surrounding us and across our state are being made scapegoats, and we're putting a stop to it in ohio and we want to send a message across this country that they pushed us as far as they can push us, and they're going to be pushing back. >> senate bill 5. i mean, is it a deliberate attempt to undermine the unions and organization and really knock down the final wall now that we have seen citizens united pass? >> there's no question about it. they know these people have a voice. when he they come together and they talk, they can change things, and see, that's what this is really all about, ed. this isn't just about kasich. this isn't about ohio.

this is about whether typical people can change this economy for the better so that we can all make a decent living. that's what this is all about. bill 5 was to try to stop that, prevent us having power and break our back so they could have the playing field all to themselves. they have a surprise. >> isn't the most agreej yus thing about is it ends arbitration? >> without collective bargaining you don't have a ladder into the middle class. yes, it doesn't couple nature an arbitrati arbitration, but once you take bar fwaning a way and give kasich absolute right to control firefighters, nurses, to control police officers, you end up with a system that doesn't work. middle class america gets hurt badly. this bill will hurt public safety. it will hurt public education and hurt the middle class. >> talking about safety. what are the safety concerns here connects to this bill.

>> first of all, this bill prevents our members to be able to negotiate the kind of turnout gear and equipment that allows them to do the very difficult and tough job they perform every single day in communities all over the state. it prevents them from being able to make sure that we have enough firefighters riding on the rigs to do an adequate jobs and also go home safe after their shift. this goes right to the heart of being able to make sure that we can maintain good, essential, public safety services in these communities. >> your men and women have been banging on doors here down the stretch. when you go to a home in ohio, do they know what the issue is? do the people get it? >> they do get it, because they understand now that this really -- what this really is all about is those who really want all of the power. that those who really are trying to take this country back 100 years where all the wealth, all the rich, all the power was in the hands of a very few. the people of ohio are listening

to all of our members, all of these workers. they're listening to these firefighters out here telling them this is about trying to keep our neighborhoods safe. this is about a strong middle class, and this is about giving average workers the dignity of work. >> governor strickland, one of the things that governor kasich told the media time and time again, that if this stays in place it will help him make up the budget gap. what will it do to the budget? you know the numbers. >> first of all, he did not have an $8 billion budget gap to fill. that's the beginning. but listen. these are good folks here. firefighters, nurses, you know, they don't make a lot of money. they just want to make enough to have a middle class lifestyle. >> let's cut to the chase on that. we're talking the average firefighter in this state makes just over $40,000 a year. harold, is that correct? >> that's correct. >> so basically the governor is

asking middle class americans to pay more. i mean, to cut on the health care, cut on the pension, also you don't get the raises that you would get in the past. he thinks that he's going to balance the budget in this state on the backs of middle classers. could it be done if this stays in place? >> no, there's a double-stand here, ed. when this governor came to office he gave his chief of staff $50,000 more than i gave my chief of staff. he gave his staff raises, some of them up to 40%, and at the same time he wants more from firefighters and nurses and teachers and police officers. it's just simply out of balance. there's no fairness in what they're proposing to be done through this draconian legislation. >> while the governor is suggesting that the problems are in the cities with the revenues, what he really did is take his budget and take $700 million away from local communities, communities that now are facing

layoffs, putting people out of work. >> what has this done for the union movement in america? has it galvanized a lot of workers you haven't seen in the past? >> this has brought workers together like we've never been together before. they understand. he wants these people to pay for tax cuts for the rich. we've already gin too much. it's brought us altogether, and we're all saying that the economy works fine for the top 1%, but it needs to work for us and formiddle class america, and we won't settle for less until it does. >> richard, harold shafer, governor strickland, thanks for joining us tonight. i appreciate your time. remember to answer tonight's question at the bottom of the screen and share your thoughts on twitter using the hash tag code issue 2. governor kasich still gets a pay raise? i'll tell you why republicans think shared sacrifice doesn't

apply to them. in other big news today, a fourth woman accusing herman cain of sexual harassment goes public. she's giving specifics, and she wants the republican front-runner to come clean and fess up. this is "the ed show" live in ohio. stay with us. ♪ sen♪ co-signed her credit card - "buy books, not beer!" ♪ ♪ut the second at she shut the door ♪ ♪ girl started blowing up their credit score ♪ ♪ she bought a pizza party for the whole dorm floor ♪ ♪ hundred pounds of makeup at the makeup store ♪ ♪ and a ticket down to spring break in mexico ♪ ♪ but her folks didn't know 'cause her folks didn't go ♪ ♪ to free-credit-score-dot-com hard times for daddy and mom. ♪ v.o.: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com big, big. big big big big?

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inchts coming up, republicans are pulling out all the stops. dirty tricks are being played down to the wire. while union-busting governors are taking it out on the middle class, republicans in congress aren't doing anything to help. anybody here think john boehner is doing his job right now? well, he says he is. we'll ask congressman tim ryan and congresswoman betty sutton

bha they think. a fourth woman comes forward with a sexual harassment claim against herman cain. she's speaking out. this is "the ed show" live from columbus. stay with us. we'll be right back. i'm just a piece of dirt stuck here in a rut. ever since that ol' broom dumped me here... oh, oh. oooh! will love ever come my way? oh my! ♪ i believe in miracles [ male announcer ] swiffer attracts dirt. swiffer sweeper's new, thicker cloths get deep into ridges picking up more dirt, dust and hair than a broom to help leave your floor up to three times cleaner. you sure are a pick-me-up! [ male announcer ] swiffer cleans better or your money back. what is this shorty? uh, tissues sir, i'm sick. you don't cough, you don't show defeat. give me your war face! raaah! [ male announcer ] halls. a pep talk in every drop.

welcome back to "the ed show" from columbus, ohio. not only is governor kasich undermining the middle class until the state, republicans in congress aren't doing anything. ohio's john boehner, speak of the house, seems to think

everything is just great. >> the founders gave us a committee of 535 people. frankly, it was designed not to work. my job is to make it work. it is working. >> speaker boehner, the people here in ohio don't think it's working. the american people know republicans are willing to sabotage the economy to hurt this president. by a 50 to 44% americans agree republicans in congress are playing politics by blocking obama's proposals. among independents the percentage is even greater. the numbers are strag aggering. let's bring in betty sutton and congressman tim o'brien from ohio. great to have you both here tonight. congresswoman, is this a do nothing congress in your opinion? >> congress isn't focused on what it needs to be focused on, and that is putting america back to work. >> is this a strategy? do you believe they're trying to

sabotage the economy? >> i think they've said as much. their main goal is to keep this president from getting laektded, and the way they're going about it is letting people fall off the cliff. it's not acceptable. tomorrow in ohio we're going to send a message. we're going to send them packing. >> tim, i'll ask you the same question. is this the plan being played outs by the republicans to sabotage the economy? >> this is what mitch mcconnell said they were going to do from the beginning. we're going to make obama a one-termer regardless of what it does to anyone else in the country. that's what they're doing. no jobs bill. try to pass something for teachers and firefighters in the senate. nada. and right down the line. anytime there's an attempt to try to get the economy moving again, the republicans are sitting on their hands because they know at the end of the day it may help them politically regardless of who goes down with the ship. >> is this the way it's going to be for the next year? it's this bickering back and forth going into november 2012

and nothing is done, if they're out to sabotage the economy? >> i think tomorrow when we win with maybe 60%. this may -- this may -- this may shift the agenda. if we get our people out to vote tomorrow, if the people that are as energized as this tonight tomorrow and they get to vote, we have a huge vote. we will reshape the debate not only in ohio but in the country. there will be a lot of representatives who have to go up for re-election next year that will be police, fire, teachers, social workers and everyone else. >> congresswoman, do you think this will get speaker boehner's attention? >> absolutely. at a time when elected officials from the congress to the statehouse should be working on putting america back to work, kasich has decided to attack our firefighters, our police officers, our teachers, our nurses? these people are not the enemy. our workers are our heroes, they're our neighbors and friends. we need to get people back to

work, and it this is the day that we make our stand. tomorrow we make our stand for the middle class. >> earlier today white house press secretary jay carney was asked about president obama's position on this. this is the answer. >> the president strongly supports the collective bargaining rights of americans and strongly believes that voters should vote no on 2. >> is this going to have any effect on 2012, congressman? >> without a doubt. the last 30 years as you showed the stats they've divided middle america. who is in a union, who is in a public union and a private union, who is black, white, gay, straight. they divided up down the middle, but we're now united. >> we've been in a class war for a long time, but it's only been the upper 1% that's using all their power and money to look out for themselves. it's time that the 99% speak up. >> the country is watching ohio.

no doubt. congresswoman betty sutton and congressman tim o'brien from ohio. next, the latest on today's explosive development for the herman cain campaign. since republicans are down in the polls heading into tomorrow's vote, they're trying every dirty trick in the book. john nicholls of "the nation" joins me. stay with us. ♪

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welcome back to "the ed show" live from columbus, ohio where republican governor john kasich is trying to spin his assault on public workers as something positive. more on that coming up. there is other news of day. how will republican presidential candidate herman cain spin this one? today sharon bylek became the first woman accusing herman cain of sexual misconduct to go public and provide allegations against him. she worked for the foundation and says she sought mr. cain's help to find work after she was fired from the group in the summer of 1997. cain agreed to meet with her in washington and following dinner and drinks, she says cain grabbed her in a sexual aggressive manner. >> he suddenly reached over and he put his hand on my leg under

my skirt and reached for my genitals. he also grabbed my head and brought it towards his crotch. i was very, very surprised and very shocked. i said what are you doing? you know i have a boyfriend. this isn't what i came here for. mr. cain said, you want a job, right? >> the cain campaign denies all allegations of harassment. joining me now is democratic strategist and former candidate for congress crystal ball and republican strategist joe watkins. great to have you with us tonight. joe, you first. when does herman cain became collateral damage for the republicans? how many more women have to come out before this is a problem for the party? what do you think? >> well, clearly if you're a candidate for the republican nomination for the presidency, you don't want this to be your daily exercise. answering the newest allegation. what makes this more difficult is the fact there's a face on

the allegation. it is still an allegation. it's her word against his. we haven't heard his side of the story yet. if you're a candidate you want to talk about how to put americans back to work. this puts herman cain in a difficult position, but we'll wait to see what he has to say tomorrow with regard to her allegation. >> crystal, this accuser says she wants to give a voice to other women who might have been harassed by cain. is her statement today a game changer in your opinion? >> absolutely. keep in mind, ed, i mean, herman cain's favorability has dropped nine points among republican voters the past week. his narrative that he was holding steady and having great fund-raising results was not really true. people were already starting to sour on him. now he can no longer play the role of the victim, because we have an actual victim. we have actual allegations. he can no longer say -- >> this is an allegation, crystal. >> we can no longer say he was hiding behind the fact these

were anonymous women. they weren't willing to come forward. now we have a face, a name, we have specific allegations. i think that it's game over for herman cain. >> i don't know that it's game over yet, ed. this kind of thing has happened to candidates in the past. candidate bill clinton faced serious allegations when he was a candidate for the presidency in 1992 and a woman came up and held a news conference similar to this one. he dealt with those charges and was able to move on and successfully win the democratic nomination and win the election for president. i wouldn't say this is a game changer. >> so we move on from this. are we going to focus on his flip-flopping on abortion? are we go to move on to flip-flopping to ngtsing with terrorists, his economic plan, which is devastating for middle class americans. his rhetoric it if don't have a job blame yourself. is that what we move on to? i think in that scenario it's not very good for herman cain, either. >> ed, you raise a good point

when you talk about family values and the republican party caring deeply about it. i think a lot of americans care about family values, and we care about fairness. we don't want anybody to be wronged. we like justice as americans. again, these are allegations and we have to see whether or not -- what the candidate has to say about them. >> i'll tell you what, there was certainly a certain standard for anthony weiner he had to get out right away. now that you've got one of your own, i mean, it's one, then, two, now, three, now four and a press conference. how do the republicans get the media and the rest of the country talking about jobs when they have a herman cain story, joe, coming out every day? >> it's tough. you don't want this to dominate the news media. it's better to talk about how ut put americans back to work. we have 13 million americans not working right now. much rather see them working and plans to get them back to work

rather than this. >> nobody is throwing herman cain under the bus. they're willing to say, well, this is just a private matter and it doesn't matter. when do they start becoming credible? i think that is the key question at this point. crystal ball, joe watkins, great to have you both with us tonight. i appreciate your time. one ohio republican says he shouldn't have to share in sacrifice because he earns his paycheck. i have a lot of ohioans here with me that earn their paychecks, too. we'll hear from them coming up. stay with us.

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could help improve your lung function. get your first full prescription free and save on refills at advaircopd.com. why didn't you support the idea of legislators cutting their pay 5%? >> because it's not merited. i earn my pay. i think that was just political baloney so they can say in an ad, gee, they didn't support a

pay cut. no, i don't support a pay cut. republicans earn their money. apparently democrats don't, and they feel they should be paid less. that may be true. maybe we'll just cut the democrats' pay. >> that was ohio state representative lou blessing says republican state legislators shouldn't have to participate in shared sacrifice because they earn their pay. what do you think? do lou blessing and his republican buddies earn their pay more than these folks sitting behind me? more than firefighters, more than police officers, more than teachers, more than nurses? mr. blessing is more than happy it to force working americans to participate in shared sacrifice by making them pay more and taking away rights. meanwhile, members of the general assembly earn a minimum of $60,584 and 62 of the 70 members who voted for senate bill 5 earn more than the minimum because they get leadership bonuses as much as

$34,000. governor john kasich earns almost $150,000 a year. taets $10,000 more than what ted strickland was earning when he was governor. kasich is still eligible forp an automatic 3% annual raises which senate bill 5 eliminated for public union workers. republicans in ohio are no different than any of the other republicans across this country. they think shared sacrifice means sacrificing middle class americans, they need to do more than the top 1 or 2%. joining me now is sue taylor, the president of the ohio federation of teachers and jack reel is the president of the columbus firefighters union local 67, jim gilbert, the president of the fraternal order of police, capital city, lodge number 9 and sean greyson, the general counsel for afscme number 8. great to have you both with us

tonight. sue, i want to know. do you think those republican legislators earn their pay as opposed to your folks? >> i don't know one teacher or one children's service workers who went into our job to get rich. if merit pay and pay for performance is based on whether i believe i'm doing my job like it is for governor kasich, then there's something wrong with their system of merit pay because we go into teaching and go into working with children from troubled homes because we want to make a difference in their lives and want to make society better. >> jim, what about the arrogance of that sound bite, of that republican saying that democrats apparently don't earn what they make? >> i would welcome them to come out and work on any of our streets in the inner city of columbus, cincinnati, or dayton. come and ride in a police car and deal with what we deal with. >> what will this do to the forces? >> i think it's a huge concern

for me. in fact, one of the lies they talk about is they're not changing collective bargaining for police officers and firefighters. it eliminating collect irbargaining for supervisors alongside fellow officers and firefighters doing the same job ensuring the safety of the citizens of ohio. >> jack reel, you and i have talked quite a bit about this. as it comes down to the wire, what is the most agreej juyus thing in this bill? >> it takes away any of our ability to have take voice with our employer. you know, we lose collective bargaining, we lose the opportunity to binding arbitration. we lose opportunity to sit down with our employer about anything and discuss it. most of the time for us, that's a safety issue, staffing. >> what does it say about the demeanor of this issue when you hear an elected republican say something like that? >> he's out of touch. that's what it boils down to. as we heard earlier, the average

firefighter in the state of ohio makes $42,000 a year and works 25% more than every other worker in the country. those guys are making $60,000 a year plus for part-time employment. he is out of touch with what the working class has. >> sean grgreyson, your thought on the way kasich has handled the whole thing. if he had to do it all over again, do you think he would? >> the leadership of the ohio house has said they're going to ignore this vote and ignore the vote of the people. even if issue 2 is defeated, they're going to come back with more of the same in the next legislative session. we have to make this victory large enough to make that something that they don't even contemplate let alone try. >> what about that comment about he earns his and democrats don't? >> collective bargaining works. collective bargaining has worked in this state since 2008.

public servants have given back taxpayers over $8 billion in losses in pay and benefits and unpaid furlough days and increases in health insurance costs. they know that ohio is hurting, and they have sacrificed. this comment says we don't have to sacrifice. public employees are not an atm machine. you can't keep going back to their wallet time and time again. they have to perform their jobs. >> thanks so much. folks, what it all comes down to, no matter what side of the issue, if you're a fair-minded american, this is about fairness. this is about who is pulling their weight in our economy. pro-issue 2 groups are getting so desperate they're lying to ohioans. john nicholls has the latest on that. stay with us. we're right back in columbus. [ artis brown ] america is facing some tough challenges right now.

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and our economy. you're waumping "the ed show" live from columbus, ohio. we're talking about voter suppression in the state. he'll tell you what to expect in the polls tomorrow, and we'll hear from the crowd here in ohio. stay tuned. it's coming up on "the ed show."

welcome back to "the ed show." we're coming to you live outside the firefighter union hall in columbus, ohio. the anti-collective bargaining folks have been using every dirty trick in the book to try to win the vote. the latest offense is this flyer, which appears to be a nonpartisan advertisement for a new hot line to fight

misinformation about issue 2. when you call the hot line, this is what you're going to hear. >> welcome to the issue 2 answer line. after this message you can speak with a real person, approximate but only if you choose to. our state legislature recently reformed ohio law to protect our public services. a yes vote issue 2 keeps this important update. a no vote repeals the change and leads to higher taxes and layoffs of public workers. >> let's bring in john nicholls, washington correspondent to "the nation" magazine. what do you make of the hot line gimmick? >> it's part and parcel of everything they've done in this campaign. there's one gimmick after another to try and deceive the people. when you file 1.3 million signatures, it's obvious where the sentiments are. so its only deception. >> what other tricks are they playing to fool the voters? >> almost every newspaper in ohio has called out the

advertising done on television by the yes on 2 folks. also, liz cheney, dick cheney's daughter has called those mailings again and again and again. they make deceptive claims, and they go right into people's homes with those deceptive mailings. >> what do we see as far as voter suppression? >> shutting down early votes in ohio is a big deal. they have had early voting for a long time. people know to vote on friday, saturday, sunday and monday. they haven't been able. people in toledo went to the location election board and knocked on the door and found the door locked on saturday. >> great to have you with us as always. let's bring in maureen ready, she's the teacher of the year and david cokie who is president of the teachers union. great to have some teachers tonight on "the ed show," near and dear to my heart.

what does it do to the teacher in the classroom? >> the issue here is silence and suppressing the teacher's voice. i've been teaching for 29 years, and my voice is my students a voice. my students don't go to the administration to advocate for what they need. i do. i talk about increased needs for technology to prepare my students for the 21st century. more resources for special needs students. you know, really our voice is our student's voice, and to silence and suppress us is taking away our student's voice as well. >> mr. cokie, you're the president of the cleveland teachers union. governor kay sick made it very clear how he felt about teachers union, and he wants to get organized labor out of the classroom. would it be a better product if organized labor was out of the classroom? absolutely not. you know, maureen said it best.

teachers are the professional advocates for kids. whether it is class size or services for kids with disabilities, i would tell you, nothing is hand-given to us. these are things we fight for and advocate for. kids learning environments are those working conditions. >> what's the average teacher in cleveland, ohio make? >> the average teacher is around $50,000 a year. >> so this would, obviously, force them to lose discretionary income and also bargaining rights, correct? >> correct, correct. it is basically aimed at taking away the voice of the teachers and balancing the budget on their backs. >> maureen, i've seen some commercials in ohio. governor kasich has commercials running with all the kids saying if we keep kids in ohio, we have to support senate bill 5. what's your response to that? >> i'd like to say if you want to keep quality teachers in ohio, you need to stroet no on issue 2 to repeal senate bill 5.

>> do you think the governor has been an honest broker through all of this? >> i think the governor has made a broad sweep in taking away the voice of teachers, the experts in the classroom. you know, we're on the front lines with students every day. we deal with the vulnerable students, the fragile students. sometimes our classrooms are the only safe and secure place for students during their day. so he's attempting to take our voice away, take the voice of the expert away from advocating for what our students need to best learn and bha we need to best teach. that's wrong. >> maureen ready and david cokie, appreciate your time tonight. thanks for coming in. >> thanks. >> rush limbaugh has thrown his weight behind the pro-issue 2 effort. we'll see what this crowd thinks of his anti-union rant. stay with us f. rz . tdd# 1-800-345-2550 let's talk about fees.

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tonight in our survey i asked how would you vote on issue 2 in ohio? 4% of you said yes, 96% of you said no. here's a note for you twitter fans. "the ed show" is trending in columbus. coming up, rush limbaugh weighs in on issue 2, and not only is he offensive, his facts are flat-out wrong again. we'll be right back. maou wwer e abte wme re maou wwer what is this shorty? uh, tissues sir, i'm sick. you don't cough, you don't show defeat. give me your war face! raaah!

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we can help you go there on the wings of lunesta. polling indicates that ohioans by a substantial margin want to overturn the new law, which means if this is true, that people in ohio want to rape themselves. people in ohio want to pay higher taxes to pay higher salaries to state workers, state workers who will earn twice what their private sector counterparts do. this is what the polling is telling us. you live in ohio and make $45,000 a year, you are in favor of paying taxes sufficiently high enough to pay a public sector work $90,000 a year plus a lifetime pension. >> there you have it. rush limbaugh, the biggest conservative talk is lying through his teeth about issue 2. he's pushing the right wing

talking point that public sector workers earn significantly more than those in the private sector, but the economic policy institute found that when you factor in total compensation including wages and benefits, public employees in ohio earn 3.5% less on an hourly basis than their private sector counterparts. governor kasich, now, the last time we were here in ohio, i asked you to come over here and get on the program. you never even called me back! you never even -- i mean -- i mean, you could have used a fax machine. you could have used old technology. you could have sent me an e-mail or tweeted me or done anything. you could have gone over to sean hannity's program for the umptenth time and said, i'm afraid of ed. i don't want to talk to him. governor, this is reserved for you, reserved for governor john

kasich. you missed tonight, but we'll be here tomorrow night not only at 8:00 but at 11:00 eastern time. so, governor, here's what i need you to do, governor kasich. be a man. stand up. win, lose, or draw. if your side wins, we'll interview you. come on, dude. tell us where it's all going. are you still under contract with fox news? that's what it is. i got it. doggone contracts will do it every time, won't they? joining me now governor is rob barrett a police officer in columbus who you called an idiot. rob. >> hi. >> i got to ask you, have you gotten any smarter since