A rally crowd and those who address it can interact in a magical way. They build upon one another. Together, they can put a human face to a seemingly abstract concept like eliminating state revenue sharing.

That’s what happened March 12, when nearly a thousand fire fighters, AFSCME members and community leaders gathered in Madison to tell state government to find a better way to erase the state budget deficit than to penalize county and local government employees.

All the  local leaders who addressed the crowd shared that awareness. They all had been personally wounded. And the fight was only between rounds.

These weren’t the kids of the anti-war era, righteously indignant at the actions of a remote federal government fighting an even more remote war. These were the kids of the anti-war era grown up along with their children, two generations of Americans with house payments and car payments, with hopes and with dreams. They had been spat upon by their state leaders. They each had a story to tell about hard work and dedication and commitment to public service. But each made an eloquent statement just standing in the sunlight at a perfect rally on a perfect day.

News coverage on budget

Assembly Republicans were seeking the votes necessary to pass their budget bill as this newsletter went on line. For up-to-date developments, please go to wispolitics.com or the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

For the Journal Sentinel story on Assembly GOP caucus action on the budget, look here. For a Green Bay Press-Gazette story about the aquifer storage plan in the budget, and its money-saving potential, look here.

For coverage of the shared revenue rally: find the Journal Sentinel story here.  Find the Press-Gazette story here.

There was a Journal Sentinel editorial, "How not to make a budget," which you can see here, and a cartoon that suggests that Gov. Scott McCallum may be blown away by the deficit, here