In interviews with national networks, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker has tried to spin the fantasy that the crowds that have surrounded the capitol for almost two weeks aren’t made up of real Wisconsinites. That was a lie, coming from a politician who has spun a web of deception in recent days. But it did generate plenty of mocking signs: “Walker: Governor of Wall Street, Not Wisconsin”; “I’m From Wisconsin, What Planet Is Walker From?” “Beam Scotty Back to Outer Space.”

When times are tough and you pick on public sector unions, Reagan showed, it hardly means that the working- and middle class masses will rise up against you. In fact, a good number of them might just rally around you. No wonder Gov. Scott Walker, in an unguarded moment last week, seemed to admit that his collective bargaining push isn't really about balancing Wisconsin's budget, as he's claimed publicly. It's about staging a Ronald Reagan moment of his own.

Few news stories better spoke to the destruction of union solidarity and the realization that even those public employees collectively bargaining in Wisconsin were going to have to give something back, than the New York Times’ piece a week ago tomorrow titled “Union Bonds In Wisconsin Begin To Fray.” Problem is, A.G. Sulzberger’s featured disillusioned unionist interviewee . . . wasn’t in a union.