This Might be a Good Time to Send for the Packing Boxes

There are some sure signs that it's about time for our state lawmakers to start thinking about wrapping things up.

One, the daffodils and forsythia are just starting to bloom. So pretty.

Second, there was a debate Tuesday over unplugging a heated sidewalk at the Capitol.

Oh, and they've started fighting about who can use the women's bathroom in the House chamber.

Plus, Chickenman and AFSCME are locked in combat. Yeah.

The pages should be told to - very, very quietly - go around  to each desk and pick up all the scissors. No sudden movements. Nice and easy now.

The heated sidewalk spat was a leftover from the 2010 campaign, when Republicans targeted several Dems who supposedly supported a budget bill that paid for heated sidewalks in West Union. The heated sidewalks were actually just a concept that never happened, but you can't let the truth get in the way of a potent symbolic jab at government waste, even if it's fantasy government waste.

It turns out the Statehouse has its own heated sidewalk, apparently funded in 2006 when the GOP ran the House. It's under a sidewalk that leads into the east side of the building. It was once a public entrance, but now is accessed only by lawmakers and staff.

It was meant to keep the sidewalk clean to benefit disabled folks, which makes a lot of sense. It also made sense for West Union folks to consider using heat from city's new geothermal heating system to melt ice and snow on sidewalks. With trout streams nearby, locals hoped to cut down on the use of salt. It was a small part of a larger downtown project that received state funds, but heating the sidewalks was deemed not feasible and was scrapped.

Sense has no place in point-scoring politics. So Republicans whacked Democrats with a bogus charge, and now Democrats have taken a measure of paved revenge, saving a whopping $1,700. The only loser is the janitor who now has some extra shoveling to do.

But it's another rousing victory for a brand of politics that assumes we're as dumb and disconnected as that sidewalk. Hooray.

As for the women's bathroom fight, I'm not going anywhere near it. And Chickenman can take care of himself.