Where's "Family Values" When We Need Them?

The Denver Post reports on a bill being pushed by Colorado progressives that would mandate businesses "grant workers unpaid time off to attend their children's parent-teacher meetings" and deal with family emergencies. Sounds like a nice piece of bipartisan legislation, right? Sounds like something the "family values" conservatives could support, right?

Wrong. "Republicans have lined up to argue against it," the Post notes, even though "eight states plus Washington, D.C., already give parents some unpaid leave to attend children's activities." These right-wingers apparently fear that letting people attend to their children and deal with family emergencies might hurt Corporate America's bottom line.

But even that rationale doesn't hold water. Small businessowner Mark Callahan told the paper that he sees value in allowing an employee paid leave to attend school functions. "We depend on the people working for us, so it's important to keep them happy," Callahan said (that's the same rationale that Costco uses to justify providing its workers far better wages/benefits than places like Wal-Mart).

Keep an eye on this legislation - it pits conservatives' flowery "family values" rhetoric against their shameless corporate shilling. We'll see which wins out.