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Friday: Oh-Dark-Hundred
posted at 2007-06-29 01:06 | Last modified 2007-11-14 10:38
Well, looks like the state won't have turn all its prisoners loose come Monday. H2044, the continuing resolution, sailed through third reading in the Senate tonight and is off to the Governor's desk. That'll keep the lights on while House and Senate negotiators continue to duke it out over the budget.
There was one tense moment, though, thanks to the Senate tradition of "pairing." In the House, if you miss a vote, you miss a vote. In the Senate, if you have an excused absence, you can try to pair - that is, find someone who would've voted against you who's willing to have his/her vote erased by reporting what you would've voted had you been there.
Anyway, the Senate had so many pairs - and so many absences - for the 12:01am session that the clerk had to refigure the count a couple of times. It didn't help that four Senators who requested pairs hadn't bothered to fill out the paperwork for the excused absence (if you're counting, the four were Clodfelter, Blake, Tillman, and East).
It all came out okay, of course - 21 to 6. But it took a while.
Punchy?
Whenever you keep these folks up past their bedtime, they get a little punchy. Tonight's best late-night lines:
"I have a memorializin’ resolution for my junior high school bowling team. I was wondering if we could hear it now?" - Sen. David Hoyle, 12:15am
"We got to hustle on. Senator Apodaca’s cousin needs a bail bond. He’s downtown waitin' on him." - Sen. Marc Basnight, 12:20am
"House Republicans will caucus 15 minutes after session, where Representative Stam will speak on the finer points of the Magna Carta and several other Latin words." - Rep. David Lewis (R-Harnett), 12:33am.
Full stop
After today's complete breakdown in the budget talks, negotiators say they have no plans to get back to work till next week sometime. So tomorrow should be a very, very quiet day at the Legislature. More over the weekend...if it's warranted.
Comments? Drop me a line.
