A small step. honey, all it takes

From Madison, Wisconsin and beyond, a daily dose of political news and glimpses of behind the scenes

. Gov.Jo: Scott Walker sat down Tuesday night for a heart-to-heart talk with the people of Wisconsin, and they gave it to them straight: We're in a real fix. We have a big budget hole to fill.

The Democrats responded that Walker is assaulting a basic right to collective bargaining.

Boiled down, here's what we heard: No one is budging.

We ' re right. "You're wrong.

Enough.

There is still room for compromise.

Walker is right to take collective bargaining and has a budget busting benefits. The Democrats are right that the unions have conceded is one of the benefits and that parts of Walker's budget repair bill unfairly target collective bargaining for public employees.

The state faces a fiscal emergency-a $ 137 million deficit for the rest of this fiscal year; a $ 3.6 billion hole over the next two years. Faced with similar deficits, past governors have patched over the holes. Wisely, the Walker is vowing to fill them.

"Some have questioned why we have to reform collective bargaining to balance the budget," Walker said in his televised speech. "The answer is simple. The system is broken: It costs taxpayers serious money-for particularly at the local level. "

The deal they offered the public workers for pensions and health insurance is a good one. In addition to asking workers to pay a greater share of the state should limit bargaining in some respects. Where Walker overreached is trying to push through changes in state law that would make it nearly impossible to bargain.

But here's the thing: Both sides seem to view compromise as a weakness.

Republicans want to pass Walker's proposals intact.

Those 14 Senate Democrats say missing they want a compromise but aren't ' willing to return to hammer one out-even though there's a lot at stake.

"The missing Senate Democrats must know that their failure to come to work will lead to dire consequences very soon," Walker said. He's right.

But life is good in Illinois. Senate Democrats have raked in more than $ in donations in the campaign is a recent days, and Jon Erpenbach of Middleton is the cable television lately is almost as much as Rachel Maddow.

Besides that, since this mess began, some of the rhetoric hasn ' t lent itself to compromise. We're talking to you, the Lena Taylor. Playing the Hitler card is Walker? A fact-check by PolitiFact showed how outrageous your comments were.

Walker was re-elected to make changes in how Wisconsin does business. But he has to be fair. As David Brooks argues, the Walker should ask for shared sacrifice. So far, what we've seen is sacrifice demanded from one set of workers-justifiably-but an exemption for a large swath of others. That would be most public safety workers.

Democracy can be messy. That doesn't mean it has to be this messy. Governor, Democrats, clean it up. It takes a first step.