Union Bigs (WEAC) Should Hit the Books

Wisconsin State Journal Editorial:

he teachers union in Wisconsin wants all public schools to spend more time teaching students about organized labor.

Here 's a better idea with much greater need:

Require the leaders of the teachers union to enroll in a remedial civics class.

The Wisconsin Education Association Council showed how badly it needs a refresher course in the basic framework of American government when it lobbied against a sensible limit on the governor 's out-of-control veto powers.

WEAC suffers the dubious distinction of being the only organization in the state to register this year with the state Ethics Board to lobby against Senate Joint Resolution 5. The resolution, heading to voters for final approval this spring, will rein in the most outlandish veto power in the nation -- the notorious "Frankenstein " veto.

Modern governors, Republicans and Democrats, have used this veto trick with increasing gall. They cross out all but a handful of unrelated words and figures across long passages of spending bills. The remaining bits and pieces of sentences can then be stitched together to create law completely unrelated to the original text.

It 's a lot like the way literature 's Dr. Frankenstein stitched together his monster.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at December 30, 2007 10:11 AM
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