Imagine my surprise to find myself featured on Wisconsin Public Radio‘s news Monday morning:

Now that the state Supreme Court has affirmed Act 10, a Wisconsin journalist and blogger says that right-to-work legislation could possibly be introduced in the Legislature in 2015.

Right-to-work laws make it illegal for an employee to ever be required to pay union fees and dues, even if their contract has been union-negotiated.

“There are a lot of Republicans — not in the Legislature — but a lot of Republican-leaning voters who do favor legislation to allow people to not join a union,” said Steve Prestegard on Friday.

Consider Prestegard one of those voters: “If it’s a fundamental right to join a union, it should be a fundamental right to not join a union and to not have your paycheck carved up by the union,” he said.

One lawmaker who backs right-to-work is Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Burlington). Following the Supreme Court’s 5-2 ruling on Act 10, which limits collective bargaining for most public workers, he restated his support for right-to-work. However, he added that he does not intend to pursue legislation next session. The next Legislation convenes in January – well after the November elections.

If Gov. Scott Walker does not win a second term, any chance of right-to-work will likely die, since Mary Burke, Walker’s expected Democratic opponent, is an opponent of such a measure.

As someone used to being the one scribbling in the notebook, I find this amusing, though this is nothing more than my personal application of Yogi Berra’s axiom, “You can learn a lot just by watching.”

Back in December 2012, WPR reported that …

Governor Scott Walker says right-to-work legislation would be too distracting for the legislature next session, but says there are forces pushing for it in Madison. He made the comments on the same day Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed into law right-to-work legislation for both public and private employees. …

“Things like what’s happening in Michigan might be good for them, but for us it would be a huge distraction from those priorities and we’re going to stay focused,” he says.

But Walker says there are forces and people in Madison that would like to see right-to-work in Wisconsin.

“I don’t think there’s a majority there,” he says. “I think the vast majority of us realize what we did was important to balance our budget two years ago, but I think most people are ready to move forward.”

… and that Walker “has no plans to change state labor laws” …

The governor has in the past supported a right to work law like the one that was just signed in Michigan and some Republicans think now is the time for Wisconsin to follow suit. Other GOP lawmakers think Walker’s collective bargaining law should be expanded to curb union rights for police and firefighters. But the governor says now’s not the time, “And even, I think some of those who support right-to-work understand why I’m pushing this. And that is after a year of protests, a year of recalls and this year another year of at least part of the year of recalls, for employers in the state, particularly small businesses, even though they overwhelmingly like what we’re doing, they don’t need any distractions. They don’t need anything that creates a huge amount of uncertainty. And debates, discussions over issues like this would go down that path. And as a leader, I just don’t want us doing that.”

… which could be construed as a convenient dodge. (A dodge that has been used in the news media — in 1994 or 1995, the then-publisher of the Milwaukee Sentinel announced that there were no plans to merge The Milwaukee Journal and the Milwaukee Sentinel. In April, the Journal and the Sentinel merged. The publisher’s statement could have been technically correct at that time that there were no firm plans to merge the Journal and the Sentinel, or that the plans weren’t completed yet. Is that ridiculous parsing? To quote a friend of mine, what’s your point?)

Any legislator can introduce a bill in the Legislature, irrespective of what the governor wants. Every session of the Legislature included a bill sponsored by Sen. Alan Lasee (R–De Pere) to reintroduce the death penalty. At one point, Gov. Tommy Thompson said he would sign a death penalty bill if it got to his desk. You may notice Wisconsin doesn’t have the death penalty. probably because Thompson instructed Republican legislative leaders (when they controlled the Legislature) to see that it never got to his desk. Wisconsin Democrats oppose the death penalty anyway, so that didn’t pose a problem for Thompson.

Is this “news” (which, I was reminded by a TV news director years ago, is the plural of “new”)? That’s up to the listener. I have enough Friends on Facebook that think the state GOP should immediately pass a right-to-work bill. And yes, Wisconsin should be a right-to-work state, because, as I said, if there is a right to join a union, there should be a right to not join a union. There also should be a right to not have your union dues go to political candidates you do not support.