Walker's Plan Too Disgusting Even For State Senate GOP Moderates?

I always feel a twinge, or perhaps a cringe, when I use the phrase "GOP moderates," but when a proposal was afloat to pull the union-busting language out of the budget bill and craft a bill specifically for it... remember, the budget bill requires a 3/5 vote in Wisconsin, and any other bill would require only a simple majority... I was just certain that the phrase "GOP moderates" was as much an oxymoron as it sounds.

I still feel that way.

But I have to confess that the GOP Senate leader says otherwise. Forbes:

MADISON, Wis. -- The Republican leader of the Wisconsin state Senate says there will be no vote on a bill taking away union rights for government workers until Democrats return.

Fourteen Democrats skipped town on Thursday, delaying indefinitely action on the proposal that has led to protests drawing as many as 68,000 people over the past week. One of those Democrats suggested Monday that Republicans might try to pass the restrictions on collective bargaining as part of another bill on Tuesday.

But Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald says he will not attempt to pass any portions of the bill without Democrats present. The Senate is meeting Tuesday to take up other measures, such as a resolution commending the Green Bay Packers on winning the Super Bowl.

...

Heaven forfend anything so trivial as workers' rights should get in the way of a Senate resolution praising the Packers!

Something is afoot. There's something about that statement, despite its lack of weasel-words that I can see, that raises the hairs on the back of my neck. Stay tuned.