SOMETIMES A GOOD OFFENSE IS BEST POLICY

Last weekend's Associated Press article, datelined Jefferson City, was one that is best read between the lines:

"Gov. Mel Carnahan has no plan to issue an executive order requiring the state to bargain with labor unions representing state workers, his chief of staff said Friday.

"Chris Sifford said the Democratic governor, who personally supports collective bargaining for government workers, had not seen a proposed executive order that apparently originated with labor unions representing thousands of state employees.

"The proposed order has been circulated among unions. Its very existence prompted two influential groups that oppose collective bargaining to call publicly on Carnahan not to sign the document." The two groups are the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and the Missouri Farm Bureau, which put out a joint letter opposing the proposed order.

The AP story, again: "But Sifford said the Chamber ... and Farm Bureau had `jumped the gun. We get sent proposed executive orders all the time. To intimate the governor was considering it or that he proposed it is, at the very least, irresponsible and even deceitful.'"

That's one way to look at it. Another is that this proposed order was being circulated in the governor's office and was on the verge of being approved. Even Sifford admitted that it had been delivered to a staff lawyer in the governor's office. Speaking for the hard-pressed taxpayers of this state, we're glad the Chamber and Farm Bureau were on their toes and awakened us all to what might be going down.

Carnahan chose this year to make a major push for passage of collective bargaining for public employees. He featured it in his January state-of-the-state message and lobbied hard for passage. Notwithstanding the strong effort he led alongside the bosses of Big Labor, the Democratic-majority House of Representatives soundly rejected this ill-advised proposal yet again. Now we have had this near-miss in the executive order that almost was -- but wasn't. Missourians will be keeping these issues in mind as we consider the governor's bid to go to Washington to represent us in the U.S. Senate.