Full Tank of Gas, It's Dark, Sunglasses, Etc., Etc.

It appears that Indiana legislative Democrats have followed the lead of their Wisconsin fellow legislators and fled to Illinois to prevent a quorum in their state House of Representatives. Wisconsin Democrats lit out across the border last week.

In the interests of full disclosure, I must confess that, during my time in Evanston, I too crossed the Illinois-Wisconsin border from time to time to further my avoidance of certain residency-based requirements. In my case, these requirements were age-based and involved something known as "Blatz." You need not know more, except that the cheeseheads across the line soon matched the oppressive, fascist and un-American restrictions of both my adopted and my native state. At least, that's how I saw it at the time.

This situation is probably confusing to Illinois Democrats, influenced heavily over the years by the power wielded from the so-called Chicago "Machine," centered in Cook County. They are, of course, used to one person voting for more than one legislator or more than one alderman -- although, technically, they are used to one person voting more than once for the same legislator or alderman, rather than different ones. But the idea of a state having more that one state legislature at a time must seem strange to them.

According to the Indiana paper, the legislators went to Illinois -- and some, perhaps, to Kentucky -- because these states have Democratic governors. Republican governors might order state police to find the rambling lawmakers and return them to the state line, where their own state police will take custody of them. Our own Oklahoma Democrats would have three options to be able to flee the state safely should they try this tactic: Missouri, Arkansas and Colorado, all of which have Democratic governors.

I don't remember that wrinkle being raised before, either with Wisconsin or with the Texas Democrats who did the same thing back in 2003. Of course, if it is true, it fits well with the history of our nation and the Republican party. Law enforcement officials have long been used to escort undesirables to the border and there bid them farewell, and who could be less desirable than politicians from somewhere else that you can't even vote against? And it would be just like those killjoy Republicans to arrest someone and then send them to work without even a giddy little de-lousing session for fun.