Here's how it worked: When a pair of education bills were defeated and a third failed to gain traction in the House this month, Senate leaders lumped them into Senate Bill 2, a package of proposals considered as a single piece of legislation in the final hours of the session. It forced lawmakers to either reject vital public education funding, a move the electorate could hold as a strike against them, or approve the bad with the good.

For example, if lawmakers wanted to give school teachers a much-needed $1,700 raise, they also had to vote for a provision that gave science and math teachers more money than their peers, a proposal that had died in committee.

If they wanted to improve our schools by increasing per-pupil spending by 2.5 percent, they also had to pay for an unpopular at-home software pilot program for pre-school children that the House had rejected.

If they wanted to address our teacher shortage by making money available for signing bonuses, they also had to approve a measure to require school districts to help pay for charter schools, a plan that had died on the House floor.

Worse, by mixing statutory legislation with fiscal appropriations, legislative leaders took the line-item veto bat out of Gov. Jon Huntsman's hands. Line-item vetoes can only be used on bills that deal strictly with appropriations.

Still, Huntsman, whose veto power allows him to serve as an umpire, could have called his own Republican Party out, and forced a rematch. He could have and should have vetoed the entire bill, then called for a special session where lawmakers could consider each proposal one pitch at a time. Instead, he signed the bill last week and set a dangerous precedent, one that likely will be repeated to move unpopular legislation in sessions to come.

For fans of political gamesmanship, the legislative maneuvering amounted to a masterstroke. But for those who value good government, and the right of their representatives to vote on bills a la carte, the omnibus bill amounts to dirty politics. The tactic should be removed from the Republican playbook.