Legitimacy be damned

Mary Spicuzza and Clay Barbour of The Wisconsin State Journal report:

In a surprise move late Wednesday, Senate Republicans used a series of parliamentary maneuvers to overcome a three-week stalemate with Democrats and pass an amended version of the governor’s controversial budget repair bill.

With a crowd of protesters chanting outside their chambers, Senators approved an amended version of Gov. Scott Walker’s bill, which would strip most collective bargaining rights from public employees.

The new bill removes fiscal elements of the proposal but still curbs collective bargaining and increases employee payments in pension and health benefits. The changes would amount to an approximate 8 percent pay cut for public workers.

The House will pass the amended bill tomorrow. But the law will likely need to pass a number of legal and political tests. These tests may include: A general strike, new demonstrations and multiple legal challenges based upon the legally suspect parliamentary maneuvering that enabled the Senate to overcome the quorum problem created by the Democrats.

This event also reveals with undeniable clarity Wisconsin Republicans to be shameless hypocrites. It shows that the union-busting component of Walker’s Budget Repair Bill was a non-fiscal and decidedly political goal.

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