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Republican Gov. Scott Walker and Democratic state senators sought a negotiated compromise to their standoff over collective-bargaining rights this week, with each side offering concessions.

Some of the 14 Democrats who fled the state on Feb. 17 hinted that they were prepared to return, restoring the quorum Walker needs to pass a bill to plug a $3.6 billion hole in the state

budget. Before doing so, however, they wanted to meet Walker near the Illinois border to negotiate changes. He refused, but in e-mails to the absent Democrats, offered to amend his proposal

to allow public unions to negotiate over salary increases and issues such as mandatory overtime, hazardous-duty pay, and classroom size for teachers. But Walker still insists on stripping

unions of power to bargain over benefits. In a similar battle in Indiana, Democratic legislators stayed in Illinois for a third week to deny Republicans a quorum to pass anti-union

legislation. And in Ohio unionists protested outside the capitol as the Republican-controlled legislature was poised to support a senate bill blunting collective-bargaining powers. “We’re

broke! We’re broke!” said _The New York Times_ in an editorial. That’s the “scare tactic” Gov. Walker and fellow SUBSCRIBE TO THE WEEK Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the

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best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. Republicans use

to “break unions and kill programs they never liked in flush years.” Americans aren’t fooled. A poll last week found that 61 percent oppose Walker’s attempt to strip public unions of their

bargaining rights. The Republican Party’s union-busting image will cost it many votes in the next election. Gov. Walker “shouldn’t sweat’’ the results of polls, which also show his own

popularity dropping, said Spencer Abraham in _The Weekly Standard._ Slashing taxes and public-sector spending doesn’t win popularity contests in the short term. But if “Walker and those who

stand with him” finally put Wisconsin in the black, they’ll be more popular than ever. We won’t know who won this fight until the next election, said Andrew Leonard in _Salon.com._ But at

least the stalemate has given “the entire nation the time to take a close look” at the role of unions. It’s hard not to conclude that public-sector workers in particular are “taking a

politically motivated fall for state budget woes that are largely the result of the recession.” A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from

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