(EXCERPT OF VIDEO CLIP) MITCH DANIELS: In survey after survey, by margins of two to one or more, Hoosiers support the principle known as "Right to Work." After a year of studying the proposal, I agree.
OLBERMANN: And he's saying Hoosiers, not Hooters. The Republicans today roll out part two of the same plan they tried in Wisconsin and Ohio. The GOP Speaker upping the fines on 13 absent Democrats to $4,000 each. Let's bring in state Democratic rep. Matt Pierce of Indiana. Representative Pierce, thanks for your time tonight.
MATT PIERCE: Good evening, Keith.
OLBERMANN: I'm guessing that you don't think it's a coincidence that Governor Daniels is delivering the GOP response to the State of the Union tonight?
PIERCE: No, I think he's done a really good public relations job nationally making people believe there's some kind of oasis here in Indiana as far as his fiscal management of the state and his business friendly environment, and that all feeds totally into the, into the Republican message.
OLBERMANN: I'm also assuming that, that, your Republicans do not think, particularly Governor Daniels, they do not think that residents of Indiana can get the news from Wisconsin or from Ohio. Why are they trying this and where would you, in an honest assessment, place your efforts to fight it?
PIERCE: Well, it's an unbelievable arrogance of power. After the last election, you know, in the House of Representatives where I served, out of the 100 members, 60 are Republicans. There's more than two thirds, in the Senate, so the only place you can put any breaks on this un-checked power now that Republicans control all the Government of Indiana, is for House Democrats to break a quorum, deny a quorum, and that forces the process to slow down. And, in fact, when we arrived here the first week of January to start doing business, it became very clear to us that they wanted to roll the "Right to Work" bill through the legislature in about one week before the public could really understand what was at stake. And they're also, I think, a little worried about maybe the Super Bowl here in Indianapolis getting a little messed up by some controversy.
OLBERMANN: That, not to make too bad of a pun here, that is, in fact, partially at least one of your goal lines in this, is it not? I mean, the Super Bowl is in Indianapolis 12 days from now. The head of the NFL Players Association said, let me read the quote, "if the issue is still percolating by the time of the Super Bowl, I can promise you that the players of the National Football League and their union will be up front about what we think about this and why." Will it still be percolating two weeks from this past Sunday? In what way, and what do you expect from the football players?
PIERCE: Well, it's hard to know what the NFL Players Association will do. They've written some letters. Some of our Hoosier players who are in the NFL and playing have written letters saying they don’t think it’s a good move from their home state. And I think that did catch some people's attention, and the final votes on these bills at the earliest will be next week, and that is Super Bowl week. So I think that there's a possibility it can get mixed together. And I think that is one reason why tried really hard. First they didn't want the public to know what they're really doing. And then secondly, I think they'd like to have this thing off the table before the full spotlight of the nation comes to Indianapolis.
OLBERMANN: Of course, if you're only sending sports writers, there's a distinct possibility they might miss any story that's right in front of them. But I'll let that pass. Let me explain, I asked you to explain one thing about this that jumps out at me. The vote on this bill was 28 to 22, 13 Democrats in opposition, nine Republicans in opposition. What about those nine Republicans?
PIERCE: Well, that's interesting thing, that vote, Keith, was over in the Senate because they have a parallel bill that they're moving, and so, it was interesting that some Republicans peel it off over there. We think probably what was happening is the leadership was just handing out some passes to people because they have such tremendous majorities. They're going to afford to kind of release some people and still have the bill passed. Now over in the House, we've seen up to this point a complete lockdown, because the Democrats in the House basically said "let's let the people decide." If you think this is so popular, this is so great for job creation, let's just put it to the people in the upcoming election, because after all, the Republicans never campaigned on this during the last election. Nobody even knew what "Right to Work" was until this came up. And so, we added an amendment that would have put this to the people in the form of a referendum, and every single Republican in the House voted no.
OLBERMANN: Silly me, I thought those nine votes might have suggested there was some sort of wave of conscience going through the State Senate, but you live and you learn. Uh, State Representative Matt Pierce of Indiana, many thanks for your time and good luck with this.
PIERCE: Thanks Keith.
