I was thinking about Ezra’s post and it occurred to me — make a few small edits and it looks very different:

He expands on the point at his blog and says the lesson of Virginia isn’t just that the public employees can’t collectively bargain but that they can’t collectively bargain and [that Virginia has a pretty effective state government].
Reihan doesn’t really bring any more evidence to bear on the question than that. As he [suggests], the performance of various state governments is complicated, and it’d take a special kind of foolishness to try to lash it too tightly to collective bargaining arrangements.

The point remains, but the tone changes significantly.