Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tells the tale...the Walker winter protest!

Here's a sample of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's summary of the voter blow back to the heavy handed radical Republican agenda being forced down our throats in just 6 months. Don't be mislead the article portrayal of Sen. Mike Ellis, who still voted for the Walker plan:

It was winter in Madison, and Gov. Scott Walker was poised to reorder the state's fiscal and political landscape, perhaps for a generation. Tucked in the legislation was language to curtail collective bargaining for most public employees.

In the two weeks before Walker unveiled it, two veteran lawmakers - one a Republican and the other a Democrat - tried to dissuade Walker from a frontal assault on the unions. In early February, Walker met with Senate President Mike Ellis, an independent and cantankerous Republican, fiscal hawk ... Ellis wasn't shy. He implored Walker to drop the collective-bargaining piece of the bill before it went public and undermined Walker's early legislative successes. "My God, this is going to cause a firestorm," Ellis told Walker.

On the morning of Feb. 11, the day the budget-repair bill was released, Walker briefed his Democratic rivals ... Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca old Walker that he had not mentioned a word of such a radical move during the governor's campaign. Walker bristled and sought to reassure Barca that every contingency was planned for, telling the lawmaker he had been consulting with the National Guard for a couple of months. "You're making a huge mistake, and this is going to be met with massive resistance," Barca said. The prediction came true.

Within days, Madison became the epicenter of protest, with demonstrators flooding the Capitol and filling the Square, thrusting a statewide story onto the national stage.

Mike Ellis has been around Madison and political power for a long time. But he had never before encountered anything like the plan Walker and his team were writing up. Ellis caught wind of what was happening when he spoke with Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau), who already had been talking with the administration. "Fitzgerald came in to tell me and said, 'You better sit down, you're not going to believe what I'm going to tell you,'" Ellis said.

"'He's going to do away with all unions,'" Ellis quoted Fitzgerald saying.

Republicans were stunned at the reach and secrecy of Walker's plan, Ellis said, and behind-the-scenes objections erupted as soon as Walker introduced it to his party's legislative leaders as well as caucuses. 

"If you can't identify fiscal savings from a collective-bargaining item, why not leave it alone?" Ellis told Walker. Ellis told Walker his plan would lead to the demise of private-sector unions as well. "'No, no, that won't happen,'" Ellis said Walker responded.