When the Legislature's Democratic leaders staged a vainglorious debate on the state budget Tuesday – the last official day of the biennial session – Republicans derided it, accurately, as a meaningless political drill.

Ironically, however, the hours of hot air and meaningless votes had the practical effect of empowering Republicans and their business allies. The budget exercise consumed so much time that as the clock ticked toward midnight, GOP legislators could use parliamentary maneuvers and slow-motion floor speeches to imperil Democrats' bills.

Environmentalists, unions and other liberal advocacy groups fumed as time ran out on a spate of bills they had worked months to enact. And privately, they blamed the Democratic leaders, Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, for mismanaging the all-important final day.

Republicans, who routinely receive dismissive, second-class treatment from dominant Democrats, could only chortle as they watched their rivals scramble and argue among themselves over what bills would survive in the hectic final minutes. At one point, Assembly leaders deep-sixed a major gun control bill when Republicans threatened to filibuster it and run out the clock on several other pending Democratic measures.

Over in the Senate, meanwhile, Steinberg had to contend not only with Republican maneuvering but with a shortage of Democrats, who hold 25 of the Senate's 40 seats.

Two liberal Democrats, Patricia Wiggins and Jenny Oropeza, were absent due to illness, which meant 21 of the remaining 23 Democrats would have to vote for bills with sharp partisan divisions.

That effectively handed control of the house to a handful of relatively conservative, business-friendly Democratic senators, which made life infinitely easier for business lobbyists as they worked against bills sponsored by environmentalists, unions and other liberal groups.

As the clock struck midnight, therefore, Democratic bills that could have passed were left on the table.

Some of those leftover bills would have been vetoed by outgoing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had they reached his desk, but he wanted to sign others – such as a landmark shift to renewable energy and a ban on plastic grocery bags.

It's possible that some of those left behind Tuesday night could be resurrected in the next few months, perhaps in a special session or as adjuncts to the still-stalemated state budget. And when the Legislature reconvenes in December after the election, Schwarzenegger will still have a month remaining.

If Republican Meg Whitman is elected as Schwarzenegger's replacement, liberal legislators and their allies will be playing let's-make-a-deal with the lame-duck governor to recoup some of what they lost due to legislative mismanagement this week.

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Call The Bee's Dan Walters, (916) 321-1195. Back columns, www.sacbee.com/ walters.

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