February 18, 2011 02:18 AM UTC

Wyoming, Nebraska or Kansas...D'Oh!

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• by: Colorado Pols

From Talking Points Memo:

Following a walkout by [Wisconsin] Senate Democrats, depriving Republicans of the three-fifths majority needed to pass the budget and its controversial anti-public union provisions, the NBC affiliate in Madison now reports that sources say the Dems have left the state entirely.

…Under Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s plan, as TPM has posted, most state workers would no longer be able to negotiate for better pensions or health benefits or anything other than higher salaries, which couldn’t rise at a quicker pace than the Consumer Price Index. Walker and state Republican leaders have said the plan to limit the collective bargaining rights of state employees is necessary to deal with the state’s budget shortfall.

This is an interesting, if a bit silly, maneuver by the minority party–it reminds us of the move by Texas Senate Democrats to flee that state during their redistricting fight with Gov. Rick Perry in 2003. After a month, the Democrats quietly returned from exile and the measures passed.

But to pull it off in Colorado, you’d have to take the quickest route out of the state…which means you’d have to actually stay somewhere in Wyoming, Nebraska or Kansas.

That makes the Capitol seem like the Four Seasons.