The (final) week that was…

Here’s a link to the final, 17th week of this year’s legislative session in photos as a slide show . And you can click below to read the various limericks and haiku in which I chronicled events of the final, tumultuous week.

May 7:
With the House at ease over legal flaws Rep. Lynn Luker, R-Boise, identified in HB 374, the new education bill from Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, and other new bills showing holes with a bit of poking, here’s a late-session thought:

When last-minute versions of law
Are rushed out half-cooked or still raw
Is it any wonder
There might be a blunder
And looking close turns up a flaw?

On Legislative Day 116…

When all of the deals have been paid
And promises all start to fade
The roads may be rough
The school budgets tough
But that’s how our laws here are made.

May 6: Ah, negotiations…

If lawmakers do as they should
And it’s all for the public good
Then some middle ground
Must be there to be found
Unless you ask Rep. JoAn Wood.

And on the 115th day…

In honor of the legislative session’s 115th day, I humbly offer this legislative haiku:

What price leadership?
Endless waves of strident words
Hurry up and wait.

May 5: Sunshine and showers…

That gun in your car is OK
And don’t mind the cut in your pay
We don’t have much money
But springtime is sunny
And lawmaking’s still under way.

It’s stuffy in here…

The annex is humid and hot
Political battles are fought
The carpenters chant
The long-winded rant
The rest of us simply are caught.

For those paying the bills…

It seems that it never will end
And few on the House side will bend
Though vetoes rain down
And Butch wears a frown
Still $30K a day we will spend…

Toil and trouble…

With all due apologies, here’s an ode to the 114th day:

A product more precious than oil

Eludes them for all of their toil

To fix up the roads

They’d compromise loads

But all that they’re left with is Moyle.