Free Republic

Nobody should be more grateful than Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature for the recent holiday weekend, and not just because they needed a break from the stress of budget-writing—though it’s apparent they did. Things closing last Friday for the Saturday holiday gave the other 5.7 million Wisconsinites a chance to miss the Joint Finance Committee’s extraordinarily ill-advised effort to exempt most communications involving state lawmakers from coverage by open records law. This ham-fisted insult to government transparency was walked back before the weekend was half over, in hopes of minimizing the damage. Which is a good thing, but it leaves...