OLYMPIA -- It's not scarlet, and it's not a letter, but a bill before the state Legislature that would require drunk drivers to put florescent yellow license plates on their cars makes quite a few think of author Nathaniel Hawthorne's tale of Hester Prynne wearing the scarlet letter A for adultery... and wearing the shame.

Republican senator Mike Carroll of Lakewood says this would be another tool to get people to stop drinking and driving.

If the jail time and expense won't do it, perhaps the public shame will.

"There are some people who don't believe we should have shame in our community; that things are so bad that people should know that they've done them," Carroll said.

We found a Seattle driver who was all on board with the plan.

"Definitely. Why not?" said Kate Pitell. "I have absolutely no objection."

But another driver wonders where it would all stop.

"Why don't they put forward a bill that anyone who's ever been to prison has to wear convict clothes for the rest of their lives? So everyone knows they committed a crime in the past?" wondered Martin Marriot.

Still, other lawmakers worry about those not convicted of DUI who have to drive that car.

"I do not want the spouse of somebody who is guilty of drunken driving to be embarrassed driving around with this license plate," said State Sen. Brian Weinstein (D-Mercer Island). "It's not fair to them."

The Washington State Patrol says it hasn't taken a side on the Yellow License Plate bill yet, nor has the governor.

"I don't know yet," Gov. Chris Gregoire said. "I don't know how much we'll accomplish by that and I need to talk with my experts in the state patrol and the chief and those in the sheriff's and chiefs."

The governor failed in her attempt to set up random DUI checkpoints to go after drunks, but she's not sure this scarlet letter approach is the way to go.

The bill passed one committee, and now is in another.

So far, only Ohio has the bright yellow DUI plates.