According to national news reports, along with some information on madison.com, the republicans in the Wisconsin legislature used some very questionable parliamentary moves to attempt to pass the union busting bill without the democrats present.

The manuevers that took place were based on some kind of republican determination that they took all financial aspects out of the bill and thus, didn't need the super quorum to pass the bill. How they came to that determination is mystifying, because they cut public employees' pay and did some other things that involve the state budget.

Also, some folks are questioning whether or not hastily called meetings of the legislature violated the open meetings act of the state. In any case, undoubtedly there will be court challenges.

The one thing that this action makes perfectly clear is that for the republicans, this was not about balancing the budget. The whole legal basis for the bill passing is that it was not about the state's finances at all. This was a union busting vendetta by the republicans and it has and will backfire.