Republicans Feeling Confident About Wisconsin

Although there are a couple of RINOs with trembling knees, most Republicans in Wisconsin are feeling confident that they're winning the battle for the hearts and minds of Wisconsin voters:

"They've painted themselves in a corner," Wisconsin Republican state senator Randy Hopper says of his Democratic colleagues. "There's no way for them to get out of it."

Democratic senators last week fled Wisconsin rather than allow a vote on Republican Gov. Scott Walker's new budget bill, with its curtailments of some public-sector unions' right to bargain collectively. The bill surely would have passed given the Republicans' 19 to 14 advantage in the Senate. So Democrats, deeply dependent on union money and support, ran away to avoid a vote.

Walker has stood firm in the fight, but the truth is a lot of Republicans were nervous last week when crowds of protesters showed up and Democrats headed for the hills. What if the public supported the unions? After going home to their districts over the weekend, Republicans are feeling better. Many heard from constituents telling them to hang tough, and voters were especially unhappy with Democrats for hightailing it out of state. "We think public opinion is with us on the budget issue, and we're sure public opinion is with us on the Democrats' not showing up for work and doing their job," says Mark Jefferson, executive director of the state Republican Party.

In fact, for many Republican supporters, the big question is not whether the fight is worth the trouble but whether there's some way the GOP can steamroll over the Democrats. But that's not going to happen, at least for now. Republicans believe they are going to win without using extraordinary measures.

If you're doing the right thing for the state it doesn't matter how many malcontents show up at the capital to bang their drums and chant their insipid union slogans.  The number of protesters is meaningless.  The unions have always been able to whip their people into line when they needed them.  The people who back Gov. Walker aren't going to show up in Madison in large numbers.  They're too busy working and contributing to the economy.