Republicans in the Wisconsin senate are threatening to pass legislation that would require photo identification at polling places if the Democrats don’t return to vote on public employee union reforms. The photo ID bill, which apparently can be passed sans quorum, is anathema to Democrats, and the GOP is using it as bait to get them back to the capitol, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel today reports.
It’s a bad idea. Republicans have the upper hand on the union reform legislation; they should stick to that issue. Momentum and public opinion are on their side. So are the facts.
Just look at the fishing expedition Democrats in the Wisconsin Assembly are on, again according to the Journal-Sentinel:
Among the amendments Democrats will offer is one to ensure transit workers retain their collective bargaining rights because they say the U.S. Department of Labor could pull millions of dollars in federal aid from Wisconsin if those laws are changed. Rep. Robin Vos (R-Rochester), co-chairman of the Joint Finance Committee, said he opposed that change because the issue of whether federal aid would be lost was a “gray area.”
Assembly Democrats said they also were worried the bill could affect the certification of state forests as being managed sustainably, because the groups that certify them require that foresters adhere to international labor standards. Losing the sustainability certification could hurt an important niche market, they said.
Clearly they’ve got nothing. These are desperate grasps at straws.
As Margaret Thatcher famously told President George Bush 41, “Don’t go wobbly.”
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