….Both sides in this sorry affair have opened wide the door to extremism. The Democrats should not have fled the state. The Republicans did not need to resort to the petty contrivances of the Fitzgerald brothers – Scott in the Senate, Jeff in the Assembly – who called votes without Democrats in the room, played games with Democratic paychecks and even resorted to fining their absent colleagues.
Republicans, in the end, did what they had said they would not do: They cast aside provisions in the “budget-repair” bill that actually dealt with the budget and took an up-or-down vote on ending most collective bargaining. Fiscal matters require a Senate quorum of 20; the Republicans have only 19 members….
Walker never campaigned on disenfranchising public-employee unions. If he had, he would not have been elected. He got a spare 52% of the vote – hardly a mandate for what he is trying to do.
But it’s long been true that fire-eaters love to keep the blazes burning – even at the risk of consuming good government.
Via JSOnline.