Well, that was quick.

As soon as the Capitol opened its doors for the current legislative session, state lawmakers in the Assembly took a brief break from their routine bombardment of University of Wisconsin and managed to manipulate the system and finally override one of Gov. Jim Doyle's fabled vetoes.

The controversy began earlier this year when Gov. Doyle vetoed a bill allocating an additional $15 million to nursing homes primarily operating on Medicaid. At first glance it may appear to some that Gov. Doyle's veto appears to have been ripped from the pages of the neo-con handbook, such thoughts are immediately dismissed as one realizes Gov. Doyle directed the money to fund public schools rather than destroy them.

Since Republicans hold 60 of 99 seats in the Assembly, they only need six Democrats to jump ship and vote with them to obtain the desired two-thirds majority needed to override the veto.

Last week only five Democrats voted with them, yet Republicans still proclaimed victory. How could this be?

While Democratic Rep. Pedro Colon was present earlier in the day for the roll call vote, he was immersed in a conversation with a Republican colleague when the vote occurred. Since he was outside of the assembly room when the override attempt came up and thus was not allowed to vote, Republicans had the numbers they needed to override the veto with a 64-32 vote.

Let's forget that the Speaker Pro Tempore conveniently failed to make the traditional announcement alerting all representatives present that a vote is about to take place.

Let's forget that the Assembly Speaker immediately declared victory, proceeded to send the override to the Senate and subsequently refused to permit Rep. Colon to vote when he realized what had just transpired.

Let's not wrack our minds to figure out how the lawmaker speaking to Rep. Colon defied all conventional logic and managed to vote to override the veto.

Instead, let's focus on the political fallout.

The ramifications this vote could potentially have on the state Legislature are tremendous, to say the least. Such tactics only aggravate an environment already plagued by excessive amounts of partisanship and mutual dislike.

Republicans have effectively shot themselves in the foot through actions such as these. If they wish to accomplish anything over the next two years they will need several Democrats to repeatedly join them and override Gov. Doyle's veto. One could suggest Republicans could possibly moderate their social agenda to attract moderate Democrats, but their past actions (mainly passing conceal and carry laws, proposing a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and a certain agitator's attempt to prevent University Health Services from dispensing birth control) make such an option highly unlikely. Instead, Republicans decided the best strategy would be to simply prevent the opposition from voting, a tactic that has been menacingly implemented plenty of times throughout history.

While Republicans have sufficiently infuriated Democrats, it appears likely they have also managed to alienate the general public. Trust in government is hovering about as low as it has ever been, and such feelings will only be intensified when people turn on the news and see how Republicans are treating their colleagues in the Assembly. While this likely will not prompt an avid churchgoer from Neenah to reevaluate her political preferences and join NARAL, it could certainly disenfranchise many citizens to such an extent they will simply tune out all politics and fail to vote in upcoming elections (Republicans currently are doing exactly this with their voter ID bill, but then again that would only serve to disenfranchise key Democratic constituencies).

Fuming over the scandalous override, Democrats in the Assembly in effect shut down all proceedings for the remainder of the week. In response, Republicans borrowed a play from their national counterparts and hastily enacted a special order to prevent Democrats from further discussing the override.

However, the special order proved fruitless as the Senate voted earlier this week to uphold Gov. Doyle's veto of the $15 million. The Assembly also attempted to override several other vetoes with no success, surprising few.

Although the Senate rendered the Assembly's override obsolete, Republicans still have set the stage for one of the nastiest legislative sessions Wisconsin has seen in recent memory.

Robert S. Hunger is the editorial page content editor and is majoring in journalism and political science.