One of the things that sticks out to me about the anti-union actions that Gov. Walker is taking in Wisconsin is the absence of a cohesive strategy on his part to outright defeat the unions in the long as well as the short run. No question that this whole confrontation could just be Walker's attempt to get the unions to concede the givebacks and strip the collective bargaining language from the bill, but if he is going for only a stripping of their collective bargaining rights for everything save wages, I think he has really screwed himself politically when he comes up for re-election, and for not much of a lasting political upside.
In short, if Walker really wants to have some long-term success in undermining the Democratic party in the state, he would suspend ALL collective bargaining rights for the non-police/fire/EMS unions, not even on the basis of wages. That would, of course, probably be a lot harder to pass through the legislature, even with moderate GOP support, so that concession was probably tossed in at the last minute.
So with that in mind, let's play this scenario out - the Dems come back, Walker gets the bill passed through the Legislature, and collective bargaining rights are partially stripped.
Given that he left the unions with their wage-based collective bargaining rights intact (albeit more limited), he has left the unions themselves with an honest to god toehold and a right to exist. So what does that mean?
They're still alive. And they're strengthened with a resolve they haven't had in years. What does that mean? They will be on Walker's ass, along with the police/fire/EMS unions too, because, as the police union head in Milwaukee said, "you can't divide labor".
They will pound the pavement for the President in 2012 harder and faster than ever before. They will shell the shit out of the GOP for all time.
As the great Omar Little in The Wire once said, "If you come at the king, you best not miss." My guess is that even though this might raise his national profile a little, he came at a powerful enemy without a plan to destroy it completely. This will, in the long run, prove to be a grievous mistake for him and for all other GOP governors in swing states who attempt it.