Indiana: Next week critical for RTW battle

We just don't know what's going to happen next week in Indiana, where the state's Republican leadership is trying to ram a right-to-work-for-less bill through the Legislature like shit through a goose quickly. We believe next week will be pivotal.

Here are a few things we do know:

• Teamsters, the Indiana AFL-CIO and union supporters brought more than 10,000 people to the Statehouse over three days, shamed the governor into keeping the Statehouse open to the people and are continuing to fight House and Senate Republicans trying to pass the bill without public input. 
• A Senate committee voted 6-4 to approve the steaming pile of dogshit legislation, and the full Senate is expected to vote on it next week.
• House Democrats filibustered the bill, but Speaker Brian Bosma is imposing fines of $1,000 a day on each of them. There's a fund to help them pay their fines (they got hit with about a half-million dollars worth of fines last year for leaving the state to prevent right-to-work from passing). Whether the Democrats will break the filibuster next week is unknown, but Bosma would like the House to vote on it by Friday.
• The NFL Players Association put out a statement slamming the proposal in light of the upcoming sporting event in Indianapolis. The statement said, in part, "This Super Bowl should be about celebrating the best of what Indianapolis has to offer, not about legislation that hurts the people of Indiana."
• Democrats are holding field hearings on the bill this weekend in Fort Wayne, Gary (at the Teamsters Hall) and Evansville.
• Union members and supporters will continue to flood the Statehouse with calls, e-mails, postcards and their own darn selves next week. 

Chris Bowers at DailyKos writes that the Democrats may be able to defeat the steaming pile of dogshit legislation:

...Democrats and unions are within striking distance of stopping the bill.

A source close to the process has told Daily Kos that Indiana Democrats are "very close to having the votes to defeat the bill on the floor." A total of 51 votes is needed to defeat the bill, and while Democrats are united in opposition, Republicans are divided.

This information is based on an anonymous source, so obviously take it with a grain of salt. Still, there is an intuitive logic backing it up. With multiple members of the Democratic caucus actually facing the possibility of losing their homes over this, at this point they would not be staying out of the chamber if the fight was hopeless.

Let's hope he's right. Here's something you can do: send an e-mail supporting the Indiana Democrats here. It'll just take a minute.