WHEN STATE SENATORS ACT LIKE CHILDREN...

It makes for interesting humour, as the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group's Tallahassee reporter Joe Follick notes today in the Lakeland Ledger:

For a few hours Wednesday morning, the Florida Senate looked like an elementary school classroom, with the doors locked so no senators could leave and nobody could enter. Representing the fourth-largest state in the nation, senators who arose were ordered back to their seats to listen to a droning recitation of lengthy bills. The virtual house arrest led senators to create a mock bathroom pass featuring the picture of the chamber's headmaster, Senate President Tom Lee, R-Brandon.

The weirdness was just the latest twist in political intrigue that's consumed the Senate in recent months.

The reason for the particular action Wednesday was a Democratic stall tactic to prevent bringing up another school voucher bill after defeat of a proposed constitutional amendment earlier in the week concerning the restoration of a voucher programme.

But the Republicans have brought many of their problems upon themselves with their infighting over who will lead the Senate two or three years from now. That's allright...just another reason to put Democrats back in control of the Legislature ASAP. If they can't handle their own house, how can the people of Florida expect them to do the people's business?