Here We Go Again, Cry Baby Democrats Take Their Ball And Go Home

House Democratic Leader Pat Bauer

This conduct is completely unacceptable for people who take an oath of office to uphold the state's constitution and are paid to show up and do their elected jobs as representatives of their districts. For the second year in a row, House Democrats are refusing to show up for work at the State House in an effort to block consideration of legislation they oppose, right to work, by denying a quorum to conduct business. I said it last year, and I will say it again. The number one priority of the Republican-controlled legislature should have been to amend the state's constitution to lower the quorum for conducting legislative business to a simple majority instead of the super majority provided currently instead of pissing away their time on the passage of a mean-spirited, unnecessary amendment to deprive same-sex couples of the same rights afforded to opposite sex couples under Indiana law. This madness must be put to an end. It is simply unacceptable that a minority of the legislators can simply walk off the job and bring the entire legislative process to a complete halt every time they object to legislation pursued by the elected majority. It's tyranny by a minority.

House Minority Leader Pat Bauer should have been put out to pasture long ago. The guy has been in office since the days when Lyndon Johnson was president. He's a dictatorial tyrant with a rude disposition who wears a dime store wig to boot that no good wife should ever let her husband walk out of the house wearing. Bauer and his merry band of malcontents in the House shut down the legislature for more than five weeks last year until their extortionist demand to take right to work off the table was met. Bauer now complains that the issue that has been studied endlessly during the intervening months between last year's legislative session and the start of this session is being rushed. WRTV reports on Bauer's latest antics:

House Minority Leader Pat Bauer said Wednesday that Democrats will stay out of the chamber until the public is better informed about proposed right-to-work legislation.

Republican Speaker Brian Bosma tried three times Wednesday afternoon to gavel the House into order, but each time no more than five of the 40 Democratic members were on the floor, RTV6's Norman Cox reported.

Democrats are pushing for hearings on right-to-work across the state, saying the public needs to be more informed about the legislation.

"It's the quick hit. It's rushing it through," Bauer said. "We're willing to sit down and try to work out a reasonable agenda for the state."

Attorney General Greg Zoeller must be held partly accountable for this spectacle playing out again this year. He shirked his legal duty to hold the Democrats accountable for flagrantly breaking two laws last year during their walkout. The Democrats violated a state law prohibiting lawmakers from soliciting contributions during the legislative session when the Democratic Party solicited campaign contributions to fund the Democrats' walkout last year. That fundraising effort violated yet a second law prohibiting legislators from accepting payments from lobbyists for the cost of their out-of-state travel. Labor lobbyists coughed up large contributions to cover the cost of the House Democrats' out-of-state travel while they held up at a hotel in Urbana, Illinois during last year's walkout in clear violation of that law. Nobody even bothered to ask Zoeller why he neglected his duty to enforce those two laws. If he had, you can bet the Democrats wouldn't be playing their game of extortion once again this year.