By Andrew Spiropoulos The problem with the conventional wisdom is that it is generally more conventional than wise. The story everyone is telling at the Capitol these days is that the Governor and the Senate Democrats are deeply at odds; the Senators were just delighted with the now aborted budget deal while the Governor was betrayed by them. He is now lashing out by vetoing their deal. Nice story, but what if it's not true? The last two years we often heard from the Governor and his minions as well as the Democrat Senate leadership and staff how angry they were at the other and how they would much rather deal with us, the Republicans. My suspicion-and operating assumption-was that this kind of talk was a pretense and that they were really working together to maneuver us into an unwinnable position. I obviously don't know for sure whether they were playing it straight then and I know even less about what is going on now. But I do know this-the veto of the budget deal leaves the House and Senate Republicans in a very tough jam. They are going to be forced to negotiate the deal twice and thus satisfy, out of their hide, the hearty spending appetites of both the Governor and the Senate Democrats. Read more...

Labels: Brad Henry, Budget, OCPA, OK Legislature, Scott Meacham

Posted at 4/02/2007 10:17:00 AM