SB 5 Passes By A Dirty Hair; Niehaus & Bacon May Need A Change Of Shorts

(Buster's been in a deep blue funk about this for two days, but you had to know I'd have something to say eventually.)

Well, the bastards did it, barely. The Ohio Senate passed SB 5 by a single vote. Seventeen close-minded, hearing-impaired, mean-spirited Republicans decided to radically change the game for tens of thousands of public sector workers. To do it, they resorted to a slimy, little-used procedural manuever nonetheless allowable by Senate rules.

To move forward, a bill must be OK'd by the appropriate committee. SB 5 went to the Commerce & Labor Committee, chaired by fat freshman tub of goo, Kevin Bacon of Minerva Park. This committee has 8 Republicans and 4 Democrats, but 2 of the R's had said they'd vote no. So the committee is deadlocked 6-6 and the thing goes nowhere? No, there's some arcane rule which allows any (uncooperative) committee member to be temporarily removed and replaced by another senator. So Senate President Tom Niehaus and Bacon told intransigent Republican Bill Seitz to hit the showers and went to their bullpen for a stooge that would vote their way. Voila, it passed committee 7-5. Niehaus then rushed the piece of shit to the Senate floor for a full vote before any more Republicans could shake off the ether, where it passed 17-16.

(To their credit and to my great surprise, 6 R's voted no, including my own little douchebag senator, Jim Hughes. Jimmy Boy, I didn't know ya had it in ya!)

Now it moves on to the Ohio House, where the outnumbered D's will try (and probably fail) to amend the hell out the thing. When it passes the House and Kay-Sick signs it, then the D's will launch regional hearings and try for a statewide referendum. And there will certainly be a flurry of lawsuits. Oh joy!

Best story in this whole jerk-off exercise may have come yesterday. Niehaus, Bacon and some other R senators went to a German village cafe for a bite. They were trailed by a group SB 5 opponents who charged into the place and angrily confronted them, yelling and cursing. There was a little scuffle but no punches were thrown, and the police escorted the protesters out of there.

Buster does not condone violent intimidation, but I can't help wishing that the moment those pissed-off Teamsters started hollering, Niehaus and Bacon started squirting wet farts into their BVD's. Would serve 'em right!