Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett is not happy with Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act. He’s so unhappy that he actually took to the pages of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to register his outrage for the record.

Indianapolis will welcome the Wisconsin men’s basketball team this week, but that state is not sending a welcoming message to others. Last week, Indiana enacted a harsh new law that sends an inhospitable message.

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed legislation that invites discrimination based on the discriminator’s religious beliefs. State law there explicitly sides with religious extremists over the civil rights of gays, lesbians or others who do not embrace the religious views of those empowered to discriminate.

The Indiana law, like those in a number of other states, coincides with an increasing recognition of the rights of same-sex couples. Those who disagree with such rights are actively engaged in strategies to undermine them.

Leaving the blatant falsehoods aside, for Tom Barrett to suggest that the RFRA is somehow “inhospitable” and empowers “religious extremists” to discriminate is the height of hypocrisy.

In 1993, then-Congressman Tom Barrett not only voted for the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, but was actually a co-sponsor of the legislation. Nowhere does Barrett explain his vote, or voice regret.

And Barrett wasn’t the only notable Wisconsin Democrat to vote in favor of the federal RFRA. Both Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl voted ‘aye’ when the RFRA passed the Senate 97-3. Both were even among the 60 co-sponsors to the Senate companion bill, S. 578.

Just for a kicker, here are celebrated Democrats Bill Clinton and Al Gore endorsing and signing the very legislation that Tom Barrett co-sponsored to protect religious freedom. Can you even imagine a Democrat today uttering these words?