Taylor, who has worked hard to expose and challenge the influence of ALEC and its corporate sponsors on the Wisconsin Legislature, notes: “The Convention of States project, led by a founder of the Tea Party Patriots, aims to curtail the power of the federal government to protect the environment, consumers and workers.”

Taylor says: “AJR 81 comes right out of the Convention of States workshop and materials presented at ALEC, where state legislators were promised bundled campaign contributions and grass-roots support if they joined this effort to amend the federal Constitution. I am alarmed that this effort is now making its way through the Wisconsin Legislature.”

She is right to be alarmed.

She is equally right to point out the irony of the fact that, as Republican legislators were promoting the balanced budget amendment scheme with pious talk about “fiscal responsibility,” they were also considering proposals to increase Wisconsin’s structural deficit.

The cynicism and hypocrisy of the legislators who pulled a page from the playbook of a national organization and placed it on the Assembly agenda should unsettle Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives.