Appleton Post-Crescent: "That's no way to run a legislature"

The editorial is here:

Editorial: A bad day in Assembly is bad for all of us
Just when you thought you'd probably seen the worst the state Legislature had to offer, along came Thursday — and early Friday.

Specifically, the Republicans who hold the majority in the Assembly gave us two more reasons to believe they're in their jobs for themselves and not their constituents.

They rejected an ethics reform bill out of the public eye in a closed party caucus — just take a moment to consider the irony of that. Then, they passed a hastily concocted resolution to amend the state constitution — the state constitution! — in the middle of the night.

We've said it before and, sadly, we must say it again: That's no way to run a legislature.

The shenanigans started when Assembly Republicans went into their caucus — a closed meeting — to discuss a bill that would merge the state Ethics and Elections boards into a Government Accountability Board. The new board would have stronger enforcement authority and more resources to use it.

Critics of the bill within that group said they're opposed to it because they're afraid of the prosecutorial powers it allows. They're afraid of an investigator going on a witch hunt against a legislator.

One of them, Rep. Mark Gundrum, R-New Berlin, also said the bill hadn't gotten enough public input. This despite that fact that it was introduced in January 2005 and was the subject of two public hearings since. Gundrum's call for a task force to study the bill sounds more like stonewalling.

Things got heated and personal in the caucus, those who were there told the media. Sen. Michael Ellis, R-Neenah, the bill's author, and Rep. Steve Freese, R-Dodgeville, who pushed for the bill and another campaign finance reform bill he authored, were the main targets.

There's no love lost between Ellis, the Legislature's most vocal force for reform, and legislators who want things to stay as they are. And the bill's chances in the caucus certainly weren't helped by the 8th District congressional primary race between Assembly Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo, and Rep. Terri McCormick, R-Greenville, the bill's lead Assembly sponsor.

In the end, a vote in the caucus was nearly unanimous against bringing the bill to the full Assembly.

Later in the day, the Assembly met in session, with Gard on a mission to pass some version — any version, apparently — of the Taxpayers Protection Amendment.

A stricter version that limits revenue for state and local government spending failed that night, but a weaker version that only sets limits on growth of the state's general fund passed 50-48 — at 4:35 a.m. Friday.

In fact, the entire resolution was discussed, amended and voted on in the span of about four hours in the middle of the night.

It's funny that Gundrum didn't object to a lack of a public hearing this time. Well, it's only the state constitution, right?

So a resolution that could set the course for a new constitutional amendment — it would have to pass the Assembly and Senate twice before going to a statewide referendum — was started by a slim majority of bleary-eyed legislators who will say they did it for "the taxpayers."

Come on. The Republican caucus killed the ethics and elections bill to try to keep their jobs the way they are now. And 50 legislators voted for the Taxpayers Protection Amendment well after bar time and without the public knowing about it in advance to try to keep their jobs.

That's our Legislature at work. It has most certainly had better days.