It was more than a little hypocritical, however, coming from a Legislature that has acted for two years as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Bush administration. That legislature, he did not point out, beheaded its sovereign. This one doesn't even say boo. There's not an single line that Bush has drawn that the House has even thought about crossing. The career service issue is, throughout, a classic failure of the separation of powers.
History is instructive.
Public employees had to sue, twice, to get the present collective bargaining machinery. The 1970 Legislature did, but Claude R. Kirk Jr., vetoed the efforts. In 1972, with a Democrat in the mansion, the Legislature tried again, but only for the sake of firefighters. A constitution would be a meaningless instrument without some responsible agency of government having authority to enforce it. The Legislature passed the bill in 1973.