Great op-ed out this morning in the Orange County Register about the stakes of what’s going on Wisconsin.  The public employee unions are trying to recall  Governor Scott Walker (R) after losing a pitched battle with him last year over pension and other work-rule reforms. If you’ll recall, public employee unions across the country, aided directly by the White House, poured into Wisconsin during the fight, physically taking over the Wisconsin State House. Badger State Senate Democrats fled the state to deny Republicans quorum, preventing them from voting on reform bills.  The Democrats camped out in an Illinois hotel for more than a month. Such was democracy 2011. 

The unions — using dues paid by taxpayers — are now leading in their recall effort against Governor Walker 52-48. They are determined to smash Walker as a show of force to governors and legislatures across the country. Cross us, they are saying, and we will take you down. 

Here’s the OCR: 

“When Mr. Walker took office in January 2011 he did something rare among political candidates and office-holders: He kept his promises. He campaigned on a platform that emphasized heavy-handed and assertive reform of public employee unions and made promises to oust special interests from the capitol in Madison. He, thus far, has kept those promises.

Mr. Walker’s approach was bold, perhaps even brazen, and because he moved so fast to keep his campaign pledges some questioned his reforms. As Chris Cillizza wrote for the Washington Post, because of Scott Walker, “[t]he Badger State has the most polarized electorate in the country.”

The recall campaign, though, transcends Wisconsin and, as noted before, if the recall effort succeeds against Mr. Walker, efforts nationwide at reforming pensions and other issues pitting the interests of taxpayers against those of public-sector unions will be damaged. It is not only most critical that he prevail – it is essential.”

 Indeed it is.