WISCONSIN TRAVEL NEWS – AT 8:17 A.M. ET:  As we reported yesterday, the Wisconsin state senate has ordered the arrest of Dem senators who escaped to Illinois to avoid voting on the governor's budget reform plan.  The order, though, is only valid in Wisconsin. 

Some senators are apparently risking the trip back to their native soil.  You know, it's so important to have clean shirts.  From the Washington Examiner:

One of the reasons Wisconsin Republican senators voted to place warrants on what are now called the fugitive Democratic senators is that at least some of those Democrats -- the same ones who vowed to stay out of state until they prevail in the controversy over Gov. Scott Walker's budget proposal -- have in fact been returning to Wisconsin for personal visits.

"We know that certain senators have been coming back on the weekends and spending time with their families or coming back at night," Republican Sen. Randy Hopper told me Thursday night. In an interview with Fox News' Greta van Susteren, Majority Leader Sen. Scott Fitzgerald said much the same thing. "There's no doubt that the Democratic senators have been sneaking back and forth," Fitzgerald told Fox, "and some being as bold as to stay overnight in their own homes."

After Thursday's action in the Senate, coming back to Wisconsin will be considerably riskier for the 14 Democratic fugitives. "They will now have warrants on them that if they come back into the state at all, law enforcement will have the authority to detain them," says Hopper. "Before, law enforcement could just say, 'You need to get back to the Capitol.' If the Democrats say, 'We're going to stay away until we get what they want,' then this will tell them, you better stay away." Hopper says the warrants are not criminal or civil, and state police will "not be actively searching" for the fugitive Democrats, but law enforcement will have the authority to detain the lawmakers and take them to the Capitol if they are spotted in Wisconsin.

COMMENT:  I'd love to see one of these birds spotted by a state trooper and arrested.  What's the culprit going to say?  He can always rely on the standard line of politicians when they run from office:  "I wanted to spend more time with my family."

Of course, if law enforcement becomes more active, and can't find the escaped senators, they can do what we all do.  Send them a FedEx package.  FedEx finds everyone.

Governor Scott Walker has warned that, unless a budget deal is in place by today, he will announce the start of layoffs.  That might concentrate the minds of those who think he's joking.

March 3, 2011