Yesterday was the last day of the special session.  Unless it wasn’t.

It wasn’t.

Neither chamber called an end to things.  A few lawmakers will show up for technical sessions next week that are necessary to keep the clock running.  But the chambers will be empty until somebody on one side or another decides to do something.

Right now they’re going to the petulance phase.

The governor is, in effect, going, “tsk, tsk, tsk, fellows and girls.  You should play nicer.”

We’ve seen this process many times in legislative sessions.  When the pressure is applied by the clock, the calendar, or outside interests for the legislature to get something done, the members have to go through the phases of blaming each other, of threatening to walk out, of demanding no compromises (the our way or the highway approach) and then when enough people realize none of this sandbox behavior is working, the leaders start talking a little bit more and the next thing you know some other people have turned down the rhetorical wick a little, and soon the two sides are talking to each other in public, and before long a small group gets together and hashes something out, and things move.

This special session can last until early November. The longer it does, the easier it might become to just decide to work on these things in the session that starts in January.

For right now, both sides won’t give in.  And that means neither side wants to give up.