“A public union employee, a tea party activist and a CEO are sitting at a table with a plate of a dozen cookies in the middle of it. The CEO takes 11 of the cookies, turns to the tea partier and says, ‘Watch out for that union guy. He wants a piece of your cookie.’”

One variation characterizes the treats as Girl Scout cookies, with the CEO hogging the Thin Mints and peanut butter, leaving one measly shortbread for the tea partier and union worker.

The joke is all over the Internet, from the Huffington Post to the Teamsters union website (just google “Wisconsin cookie joke.”) On Tuesday, a speaker at the Minnesota Nurses Association rally in St. Paul related it to the crowd, eliciting laughter.

Which brings to mind that quote from humorist Will Rogers (OK – not the quote about him not being a member of an organized political party and being a Democrat. The other quote): “I have always noticed that people will never laugh at anything that is not based on truth.”

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