House and Senate Democrats held a joint press conference just now to announce that the "slowdown showdown" is over - House Democrats won't continue to demand full reading of bills before they're considered in the House - but that they're anything but happy over the outcome of the session and the GOP supermajority's refusal to hear bills on a cigarette tax increase or an advisory vote on school reform. "Republican leadership squelches discussion of any ideas that a handful of people might disagree with," said House Minority Leader John Rusche, D-Lewiston. "No state should make policy in this way. Serious policy ideas deserve a debate and should be done in the open, with public input."

House Minority Caucus Chairman Brian Cronin, D-Boise, said, "The reason we are still here today, the 85th day of the legislative session, is because the Republican's don't want the shenanigans to end. In the exercise of absolute power, the Republicans continue to introduce new bills, many of which are half baked and hastily slapped together." Cronin said just in the last two weeks in the House, 36 new bills have been introduced, 21 of those in the last week and three this morning in the Education Committee; the criticism was aimed at GOP reactions to the Democrats' "slowdown showdown" that included blaming the minority for extending the session and increasing costs to taxpayers. Lawmakers expect the legislative session to end this week; Rusche said that depends on the majority.

After the press conference, he said, "I didn't know how important it was to be a bully, and they showed that they're big enough that they can do it. What's the next best thing? Well, let's get out of town before they can do any more harm." He did say the Dems' protest drew positive feedback from around the state. "I think there's a lot more concern about closed government, about using power inappropriately," he said.