The Clock Tower 14

Lesson of the day -- don't make categorical statements. Why? Because they can bite you in the butt. Earlier today I made a quick post about what's going on in Wisconsin and wrote the following: No matter what happens in the end, the worst sin committed here was having the teachers bring their students down to protest.

What I didn't count on was this -- the Democrats in the state senate taking their ball and going off in a huff:

Democratic State Senators who protested the budget repair bill by leaving the state have been found.

The lawmakers are in the Best Western Clock Tower Resort in Rockford, Illinois.

They went to the Clock Tower because they must realize what time it is. They are also, apparently, immune from understanding how risible they sound:

According to the Twitter account of Democrat State Senator Chris Larson from Bay View, "For those looking for us, we are right here, standing with the people of Wisconsin."

Hey, if you're going to stand for Wisconsin, who doesn't think of doing it in Illinois? Who doesn't remember the stirring vision of Fighting Bob La Follette, progressive icon and pride of the Badger State, defending his handiwork from the parking lot of Ike's Motel in Beloit, just steps from the southern border? Our modern solons have taken matters to the next level, 20 miles south!

Meanwhile, Profile in Courage Larson has more to say on the matter:

When asked by TODAY'S TMJ4's Tom Murray why he would not divulge his location, he said "I don't want those details to take away from the message being sent by the people of Wisconsin."

The people of Wisconsin are getting Larson's message loud and clear, all right. Meanwhile, back at the Capitol, the reasoned behavior of the protesters is reassuring to those who are left behind:

Walker and Republican leaders have said they have the votes to pass the plan.

That didn't stop thousands of protesters from clogging the hallway outside the Senate chamber beating on drums, holding signs deriding Walker and pleading for lawmakers to kill the bill. Protesters also demonstrated outside the homes of some lawmakers.

Emphasis mine on that last part. The "we know where you live" gambit is always an especially attractive move.

It's not difficult to understand how things came to this pass. If Scott Walker succeeds in his quest to take back some of the power of the union, it will signal to every other governor facing a budget crisis, which is most of them, that it is possible to scale back the power of the public sector unions. Ohio Governor John Kasich is watching carefully, as is Nikki Haley in South Carolina. Governors who see the disaster that looms are taking action, with Walker in the lead. The whole world is watching.

Besides that, the Senate Dems in Wisconsin are hiding because they are utterly beholden to the swells who have spent the day pestering people in the state capitol. They cannot accept the defeat they received at the polls in November because they must continue to feed the beast. They must either come home carrying their shields and Walker's scalp, or they must be brought home carried on their shields. Given that choice, hiding out at a Best Western in Rockford probably looks pretty good.

Meanwhile in Minnesota, Gov. Brave Sir Mark Dayton is sipping his kombucha and pretending that he can rip $6.2 billion out of the hides of the most affluent wage-earning Minnesotans through a diabolically clever combination of his halting rhetoric, magical thinking and mesmerizing Marty Feldman stare. Or something. But that's another post.