Democratic senators walked out of the meeting to go meet with Transportation Secretary Joe Prather about the Louisville bridges project, missing the discussion on an education bill that Senate republicans consider their top priority of the 2008 session. The walkout also left the committee without a quorum, and no way to vote the bill out of committee. Senate Minority Leader Ed Worley says the dems support the bill, but had to go to the transportation meeting, and told the committee chairman that was the case. But Senate President David Williams says the dems were disrespecting their GOP counterparts, even placing some of the blame on Governor Beshear.

So during the session of the full senate, Williams appointed GOP senators Elizabeth Tori and Dan Kelly to the Education Committee, ensuring that the committee will always have quorum even without the democrats.

Worley called that action a "spanking" and accused Sen. Alice Forgy Kerr of disrespecting the democrats by saying during the meeting that the republicans would stick around to hear the testimony, implying that the democrats had walked out. Kerr said she had no idea the democrats were headed to another meeting and didn't know what Worley was talking about. Kerr went up to talk to Worley after the senate adjourned and left in tears. I don't know what was said between the two. But suffice it to say, today was not one of the better days for the grown ups in the senate, republican or democrat.