WISCONSIN BOILING – AT 8:16 P.M. ET:  Things are hopping in Wisconsin.  The public employee unions are revolting, in many ways, and Dem legislators have fled across state lines to avoid having to vote on critical issues involving the state's collapsing finances.  From Fox:

The fate of a contentious anti-union bill in Wisconsin was hanging in the balance Friday as Senate Republicans called in the state police to capture fugitive Democratic lawmakers who fled the state in protest, and who appear in no hurry to return.

Democratic state Sen. Jon Erpenbach who is staying at a Chicago hotel, said that he and his 13 fellow Democrats could stay out of Wisconsin for days or even weeks. They have been missing from the Capitol for a day and a half.

Republican Gov. Scott Walker dispatched two state troopers to Democratic leader Mark Miller's home in Montana at the request of Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald.

Senate Sergeant-At-Arms Ted Blazel said troopers knocked on Miller's door and rang his doorbell, but no one answered.

The Wisconsin Constitution prohibits police from arresting state lawmakers while the Legislature is in session, except in cases of felonies, breaches of the peace or treason. Fitzgerald said he's not looking to have Miller arrested, but he wants to send a signal about the circumstances at the Capitol.

Jesse Jackson has rushed to Wisconsin to add his two cents.  Well, his half a cent.  There are rumors that Lenin will be arriving in Madison in a sealed train later tonight.  The University of Wisconsin faculty can't wait to greet him.

Thousands of teachers are calling in sick, closing schools in Milwaukee. 

Republicans charge that the Democratic National Committee is involved in organizing the public-employee-union protests.  President Obama has made clear his sympathies lie with the unions, prompting a sharp response from Governor Walker, who politely suggested that the president might mind his own business.

Walker, if he prevails, might come out of this a major national figure. 

Nancy Pelosi has declared herself on the side of the Wisconsin unions, although there's no evidence she's ever been there. 

We are watching developments carefully.  If the unions can succeed in shutting down Wisconsin, they might try it in other states.  This confrontation reminds some commentators of President Reagan firing the air traffic controllers when they went on strike soon after he took office.

February 18, 2011