Free Republic

While lawmakers in Indiana and Wisconsin continue to violate their oaths of office, senators in Ohio passed a bill to curtail collective bargaining for government employees. Naturally, not a single Democrat voted for the bill because that party has long been a puppet of the unions, bought and paid for decades ago. In Wisconsin, Democratic “lawmakers” remained outside the state in a stalemate that could last for months. Republican Gov. Scott Walker is trying to curb collective bargaining for things such as pension plans and health insurance. And in Indiana, House Democrats were cowering in Illinois, also avoiding their sworn...

MADISON -- The 14 missing Senate Democrats have until 4 p.m. today to return to the Capitol or face apprehension tantamount to arrest “with or without force." GOP Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) ordered the apprehension of the senators who fled the state two weeks ago to Illinois to avoid a vote on Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill. Republicans voted 19-0 to give the Democrats until 4 p.m. Thursday to appear before the Senate. "They have pushed us to the edge of a constitutional crisis," Fitzgerald said. "We simply cannot have democracy be held hostage because the minority wants...

Wisconsin stalemate could drag on for monthsBy: SCOTT BAUER 03/02/11 2:33 PM Associated Press Wisconsin's budget stalemate over union bargaining rights shows no sign of resolution — and it could be a long wait. The governor isn't budging. AWOL Democrats aren't planning to come back. And, despite talk of deadlines and threats of mass layoffs, the state doesn't really have to pass a budget to pay its bills until at least May. Even then, there may be other options that could extend the standoff for months. "This is a battle to the death," said Mordecai Lee, a political scientist at...

The Wisconsin Democratic Party has decided to throw its weight behind a nascent grassroots drive to recall a number of GOP state senators, a move that will considerably increase the pressure on them to break with Governor Scott Walker, the Dem party chair confirms to me. "The proposals and the policies that Republicans are pushing right now are not what they campaigned on, and they're extreme," the party chair, Mike Tate, said in an interview. "Something needs to be done about it now. We're happy to stand with citizens who are filling papers to recall these senators." Previously, Wisconsin Dems...

The 14 Wisconsin Democratic senators who fled to Illinois share more than just political sympathy with the public employees and unions targeted by Gov. Scott Walker's budget-repair bill. The Senate Democrats count on those in the public sector as a key funding source for their campaigns. In fact, one out of every five dollars raised by those Democratic senators in the past two election cycles came from public employees, such as teachers and firefighters, and their unions, a Journal Sentinel analysis of campaign records shows. "It's very simple," said Richard Abelson, executive director of District Council 48 of the American...

After a considerable amount of blowback over Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels cuddly response to the flee-bagging Indiana Democrat legislator's run-and-hide strategy to avoid facing the consequences of their electoral defeat in the 2010 mid-terms, Daniels appeared on Fox News with Neal Cavuto to apologize for misspeaking.

Reuters) - Wisconsin's Republican Gov. Scott Walker said on Monday that absent senate Democrats have 24 hours to return and vote on a measure to reduce the power of public sector unions or the state will miss out on opportunity to refinance its debt. "Now they have one day to return to work before the state loses out on the chance to refinance debt, saving taxpayers $165 million this fiscal year," Walker's spokesman Cullen Werwie said in a statement. "Failure to return to work and cast their votes will lead to more painful and aggressive spending cuts in the very...

When the delinquent state democrats who had illegally abandoned their duties as representatives of the good people of Wisconsin finally showed up for work, Gov. Scott Walker will have won a decisive victory against the public sector unions in his state. But in reality he was fighting for all of us, even those far beyond the cheese curd borders. What the unions were doing to the education of the state of Wisconsin was derelict but what they were doing against the taxpayers of the nation was criminal. The State of Wisconsin had been awarded hefty sums in the Obama stimulus...

Many Americans, perhaps for the first time in their lives, are beginning to recognize the contemptible nature of progressivism. How does one defend the total abandonment of the democratic process, occurring first in Wisconsin and then in Indiana, where Democrats legislators have literally run away from their responsibilities? One can’t—without revealing the bankruptcy of one’s own convictions. The most satisfying aspect of it all? Americans are getting a daily dose of progressivism’s only unalterable tenet: the ends justify the means. For those of us who have long been paying attention, this isn’t news. Yet plenty of Americans scoffed at the...

Labor secretary: GOP governors asking workers to give up their rights By Michael O'Brien - 02/26/11 10:36 AM ET Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) is trying to force workers in his state to give up their rights, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said Saturday. Solis, speaking at the Democratic National Committee's (DNC) Winter Meeting, accosted Walker and Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) for their efforts to reform collective bargaining rights for public workers in their states. "We know that many states are facing tough budget decisions. We know there's room for shared sacrifice," Solis said. "But the governors in Wisconsin and...

I just received the following e-mail. I have reproduced it as best as I can. My comments are in brackets. ******** [name], Join us at a solidarity rally in your state capitol this Saturday. [Sorry, I need to rearrange my sock drawer.] Over 13,000 people signed up to attend a solidarity action this weekend. We've partnered with dozens of great organizations and it promises to be a day you won't soon forget. Sign-up to join today. It's been almost two weeks since SEIU members in Wisconsin joined with other public employees, students and allies to fight back against Governor Walker's...

HARVARD, Ill. -- Wisconsin state Sen. Dave Hansen, the assistant minority leader, thought he was staying at a secret location in Harvard, Ill., just south of the Wisconsin border. That was until a group of picture-taking party activists from the Northern Illinois Tea Party showed up at the Heritage Inn and Suites off of Route 14. Hansen, officially outed, looked like a deer caught in the headlights of a speeding tractor trailer.

The fleeing Democrats in Wisconsin and Indiana say they are protecting state workers, but they have plenty of self-interested reasons to hit the road. Their self-imposed exile and national Democrats' support show just how key Big Labor is to their fortunes. Unions have long been a backbone of support for the Democratic Party. They have become even more important in recent years as they ramped up campaign efforts. Without them, Democrats have no chance of reversing the GOP's 2010 gains. The American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, the top public-sector union, spent a reported $87.5 million nationally in...

The Communist Party USA is promoting widespread protests across the United States in support of leftist and labor protesters in Wisconsin. Reports Ohio Communist Party leader Rick Nagin reported from Columbus; Former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, the state AFL-CIO and its affiliates have called for a massive turnout for a rally Tuesday at the Statehouse in Columbus to protest a Republican bill to repeal collective bargaining for public employees. In robocalls and emails sent throughout the state, Strickland said "the fate of Ohio's middle class is on the line" and urged people "to join with the thousands who will gather...

To make sense of what's going on in Wisconsin, it helps to understand that the left in America lives in an ideological fantasy world. The dispute between the state government and the unions representing its employees is "about power," Paul Krugman of the New York Times observes accurately, before going off the rails: What [Gov. Scott] Walker and his backers are trying to do is to make Wisconsin--and eventually, America--less of a functioning democracy and more of a third-world-style oligarchy. And that's why anyone who believes that we need some counterweight to the political power of big money should be...

INDIANAPOLIS -- Republican leaders at the Statehouse conceded Wednesday, killing so-called right-to-work legislation that prompted House Democrats to leave the state in protest. Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma confirmed that the legislation would not come back this session, and that he would not allow right-to-work language to be amended into another bill in the House, 6News' Norman Cox reported. Senate Leader David Long made the same commitment for the Senate. Right-to-work legislation, which prevents unions and companies from negotiating contracts that require non-union members pay a fee to be represented, had been at the top of the list of Democrats'...

Progressive Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) said Wednesday that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is acting like a “dictator.” Ellison said that Walker, a Republican, should negotiate with union workers, who have agreed to pay more for health benefits as long as they can keep collective bargaining rights. Walker is “basically taking on the position of a dictator,” he told reporters. “Because he says he won’t negotiate. That is something that is not in the spirit of a public servant, who just won’t even talk. He is putting himself in a position of being extreme, radical and reckless. And he’s...

Everyone has priorities. During the past week Barack Obama has found no time to condemn the attacks that Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi has launched on the Libyan people. But he did find time to be interviewed by a Wisconsin television station and weigh in on the dispute between Republican Gov. Scott Walker and the state's public employee unions. Walker was staging "an assault on unions," he said, and added that "public employee unions make enormous contributions to our states and our citizens." Enormous contributions, yes -- to the Democratic Party and the Obama campaign. Unions, most of whose members are...

First lady Michelle Obama said, "Let's Move!" Who knew Democratic politicians in Wisconsin and Indiana would take her literally? Faced with stifling debt, bloated pensions and intractable government unions, liberal Midwestern legislators have fled those states -- paralyzing Republican fiscal reform efforts. Like Monty Python's Brave Sir Robin and his band of quivering knights, these elected officials have only one plan when confronted with political hardship or economic peril: Run away, run away, run away. Scores of Fleebagger Democrats are now in hiding in neighboring Illinois, the nation's sanctuary for political crooks and corruptocrats. Soon, area hotels will be announcing...