A Story About Remaining Senatorial Courtesy And Sanity In Madison

I don't know how veteran Republican Senator Mike Ellis is going to vote on the budget repair bill, but you will want to read this anecdote about Ellis - - buried in a Wisconsin State Journal timeline story - -  his big heart, and how with some common sense guidance the State Senate can work in a most non-Walker way - - it it wants.

I'm hoping against hope that Ellis can be the history-making moderating force that helps avoid a history-making Wisconsin catastrophe, presaged by closing the Capitol in advance of Walker-delivered harsh news.

Walker can and will always be Walker: Ellis can be Solomon. 

Ellis came often to Milwaukee when I worked for Mayor John Norquist to check in and talk about politics and government and urban issues.

He and Norquist had served in the legislature together; the Neenah Republican was old school, and had none of the anger and antipathy towards Milwaukee that is widespread in the Republican caucus now.

And which Scott Walker carried to Madison from his days in Milwaukee County government and is about to unleash in his budget against the City of Milwaukee and specifically against MPS to bury it, the teachers union and public education in the state's largest city.