Mark this day.
Spectators in the gallery at the Statehouse in Madison screamed "You are cowards!" as lawmakers took advantage of an obscure parliamentary rule to hold a surprise (and probably illegal) conference committee meeting to ram the bill through.
AP reports that Republicans discovered a way to bypass the chamber's missing Democrats.
...The Senate requires a quorum to take up any measures that spend money. But Republicans on Wednesday split from the legislation the proposal to curtail union rights, which spends no money, and a special conference committee of state lawmakers approved the bill a short time later.
The lone Democrat present on the conference committee, Rep. Tony Barca, shouted that the surprise meeting was a violation of the state's open meetings law but Republicans voted over his objections. The Senate then convened within minutes and passed it without discussion or debate....
Before the sudden votes, Democratic Sens. Bob Jauch said if Republicans "chose to ram this bill through in this fashion, it will be to their political peril. They're changing the rules. They will inflame a very frustrated public."The Koch brothers must be chortling. For now.
