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It's degraded to a child's game of hide and seek, with the Democrats hiding outside the very State in which they were voted to serve. How long can they stay gone? When does the session end? Will they be home for Christmas ?

Wis. Assembly passes bill taking away union rights

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly took the first significant action on their plan to strip collective bargaining rights from most public workers, abruptly passing the measure early Friday morning before sleep-deprived Democrats realized what was happening. ...

The Assembly's vote sent the bill on to the Senate, but minority Democrats in that house have fled to Illinois to prevent a vote. No one knows when they will return from hiding. Republicans who control the chamber sent state troopers out looking for them at their homes on Thursday, but they turned up nothing. ...

Tens of thousands of people have jammed the Capitol since last week to protest, pounding on drums and chanting so loudly that police providing security have resorted to ear plugs. Hundreds have taken to sleeping in the building overnight, dragging in air mattresses and blankets.

With the Senate immobilized, Assembly Republicans decided to act and convened the chamber Tuesday morning.

Democrats launched a filibuster, throwing out dozens of amendments and delivering rambling speeches. Each time Republicans tried to speed up the proceedings, Democrats rose from their seats and wailed that the GOP was stifling them.

Debate had gone on for 60 hours and 15 Democrats were still waiting to speak when the vote started around 1 a.m. Friday. Speaker Pro Tem Bill Kramer, R-Waukesha, opened the roll and closed it within seconds.

Democrats looked around, bewildered. Only 13 of the 38 Democratic members managed to vote in time. ...

Democratic Sen. Jon Erpenbach said he and his colleagues wouldn't return until Walker compromised.

Did someone mention Wisconsin Senator Jon Erpenbach? Why, I just happen to have a picture of him, right here. He's the one on the right (I think).

Clever Jon Erpenbach hiding, hiding.

Frustrated by the delay, Senate Republican Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, Jeff Fitzgerald's brother, ordered state troopers to find the missing Democrats, but they came up empty. Wisconsin law doesn't allow police to arrest the lawmakers, but Fitzgerald said he hoped the show of authority would have pressured them to return.

Erpenbach, who was in the Chicago area, said all 14 senators remained outside of Wisconsin.

"It's not so much the Democrats holding things up," Erpenbach said. "It's really a matter of Gov. Walker holding things up."

No, asshole, it's you and your cowardly colleagues hiding in the bushes in Illinois what are holding up the process, and if you stay gone, teachers will be laid off.

You want to stay hidden, out of town? Then stay gone for a long, long time.

Or, better...

Calling Dog the Bounty Hunter.

That is all.

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