Star Editorial Slams Democratic Walkout

Star editorial writers offer a stinging rebuke today of Indiana Democratic legislators who walked off the job and fled to the Land of Lincoln in order to block legislation their minority caucus opposes.

It becomes harder by the day to take Indiana House Democrats seriously.


First, they went on strike to protest legislation they didn't like -- the so-called right-to-work bill. Then they fled the state, holing up in an Urbana, Ill., hotel, where they continue to draw paychecks courtesy of Indiana taxpayers but do no real work.

And now, after Republicans gave in and agreed to pull the right-to- work legislation from the agenda, House Minority Leader Pat Bauer and his caucus have demanded that as many as 10 other bills be killed. Their demands are so absurd that they even included one bill that the General Assembly already has approved and sent to Gov. Mitch Daniels for his signature.

What's next? Asking Daniels to personally deliver room service?

Whatever arguments House Democrats had going for them, principally that Republicans had sprung the right-to-work legislation on Hoosiers by surprise, they've now squandered . . .

Voters rewarded the GOP with a landslide victory that included a supermajority in the state Senate and 60 seats in the House. Bauer, who decried the reform efforts, was resoundingly dumped as Speaker.


Now, after having been swept into a distinct minority in the Statehouse, those Democrats who remain in office are trying to block through childish antics what they couldn't win through democratic action . . .

If Democrats don't return to work in the next day or two, when key legislative deadlines will expire, they will deserve even worse than a hefty bill for the time and money they've wasted. They also should be turned out of office en masse on Election Day 2012 as voters ensure that this type of fiasco doesn't happen again.

Ouch.