Bob Costa’s report on assembly Democrats in Wisconsin (and the video on the homepage) reminded me of a story I heard back in December. The (then) Democratic-controlled state legislature in Wisconsin was attempting to jam through a serious of labor contracts for public employees before Gov. Scott Walker could be sworn in and start fulfilling his campaign promises. After passing the state assembly, the contracts were blocked in the state senate, albeit just barely (by a 16-16 tie vote), and not before Democrats had pulled out all the stops to get their way. Here’s the story:

In the Assembly, all but one of the contracts were approved on votes of 48-47, with the deciding vote cast by Rep. Jeff Wood, a Chippewa Falls independent who was released from jail Wednesday so he could attend the legislative session.
[…]
Wood is serving a 60-day jail sentence in Chippewa County for a fourth offense of driving under the influence of an intoxicant. He has work-release privileges and was released from his job at a ShopKo around 1 p.m. Wednesday so he could go to Madison for the vote, said Chippewa County Sheriff’s Lt. Blaine Prou. He must return to jail on Thursday.
Wood, who declined comment, did not run for re-election this year and will leave office Jan. 3.
Republican Leader Jeff Fitzgerald of Horicon expressed shock that Democrats sought to pass contracts just before losing power and “pulled a guy out of jail” to do it.
“This just shows how far the Democrats will go to get union support,” Fitzgerald said

Credit where credit is due. The Democratic effort failed in large part because the Senate Majority Leader at the time, Russ Decker (D) argued that the “people have spoken” and he could not in good conscious support the new labor contracts. Decker was voted out in November, and could have easily green-lighted the reckless push, but opted for the honorable path instead. It’s a shame more of his colleagues don’t share his sensibility.