Gamesmanship

From the NY Times:

Republicans in the Wisconsin Senate voted Wednesday night to
strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from public
workers after discovering a way to bypass the chamber's
missing Democrats.

All 14 Senate Democrats fled to Illinois nearly three weeks
ago, preventing the chamber from having enough members
present to consider Gov. Scott Walker's so-called "budget
repair bill" -- a proposal introduced to plug a $137 million
budget shortfall.

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.

I hear a lot of bitching and moaning this morning about a "trick" pulled by Republicans to pass this legislation. What trick? The Democrats in Wisconsin are the ones who chose to make a game out of the legislative process by leaving the state. They threw a tantrum because they couldn't get their way and now they're throwing another tantrum because their ploy didn't work. Kudos to the Republicans for finding a way to play the silly game the Democrats had set up and to win.