lol ur quorum

I don't often have occasion to be proud of politicians from Indiana, which tends to produce Republicans like Dan Quayle and Democrats like Evan Bayh, but the Democrats of the Indiana State legislature are, without much national note or fanfare, managing to successfully hold a Republican majority with a radically conservative agenda at bay:

Republicans control every Statehouse power base -- governor, Senate and House -- but they remain virtually powerless to enact laws so long as 39 House Democrats remain holed up in an Urbana, Ill., hotel.

For now, at least, Indiana's GOP majority has been outmaneuvered.

Those 39 Democrats managed to shut down the House for a month and win concessions from Republicans on labor and education bills -- and they're angling for more.

As long as they hang together -- and thus far the House Democrats are withstanding fines, the threat of censure and blistering accusations that they are derelict in their duty -- the legislature is at an impasse.

Without them, the House lacks the quorum it needs to do business.

As the stalemate headed toward its fifth week Thursday, Republicans said they were done playing around. They're going to move on without the House Democrats. The Senate will take control to salvage bills that have been caught up in the House ruckus.

But they can't get around the one inescapable truth:

Nothing that hasn't already passed the House can become law unless House Democrats return. Not a budget. Not new legislative maps. Not the education reforms that Gov. Mitch Daniels calls his top priority.

The need for a quorum is the Democrats' trump card. Republicans can shame them, fine them and ignore them. They can cut off their ability to offer amendments. But unlike Wisconsin, where Democrats also fled the state in a showdown over collective bargaining, they can't pass bills without them.

Emphasis mine. I'm really, really proud of my state Democrats right now, not just because they're standing up for Hoosiers, but because they know this as well as anyone else:

The fear that House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, and Senate President Pro Tempore David Long share: If Democrats, outnumbered 60-40 in the House and 37-13 in the Senate, think they are winning this battle of wills, boycotts could become a regular legislative tactic across the nation.

The Indiana Democrats are playing hardball. They're showing spine. They're defending their principles. They're refusing to play the GOP's rigged game anymore. These are the droids Dems we've been looking for.

Sign the petition to show your support for Indiana Democrats.