OLYMPIA --Bob McCaslin scored 100 percent on the state Labor Council's legislative report card.

Which is a little like Bart Simpson scoring 100 percent on the SATs. You gotta know something strange is going on.

But organized labor's report of the late legislative session does give the Spokane Valley Republican, who has a lifetime score of 10 percent on votes the unions pick as their most important, a 100 percent for 2010. No liberal Democrat had a percentage that high.

You think the Labor Council is just trying to cheer McCaslin up during his recovery from heart surgery? Not exactly, although that's a couple steps down the road to the real explanation. Turns out because McCaslin had to miss much of the session because of cardiac surgery and recovery, he was only around for one of the unions' key votes, a Jan. 22 roll call involving furloughs for state workers. McCaslin and most Republicans voted no, while most Democrats voted yes. Shortly after that, McCaslin was hospitalized and excused from other votes. The seven other tracked votes don't count against his score, so he's 1-for-1, not 1-for-8.

Come to think of it, the shock of getting a perfect score from the unions might not be the best thing for McCaslin. Maybe next time the AFL-CIO could just send a card?

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