The Legislative session ends not with a bang, but with a whimper. Which sounds suspiciously like a certain Governor we know.

With the Governor MIA and the opinion of the legislators toward her (on both sides of the aisle) worsening by the minute, the end of session comes today with virtually nothing accomplished.

There was a Saturday blowup when Fairbanks Republican Rep. Mike Kelly objected to appropriating state energy assistance money and suggested people in rural Alaska should cut wood rather than rely on the proposed state aid. Members of the Republican-led majority in the state House later huddled behind closed doors for much of the day, with lawmakers saying there were internal conflicts over personalities, bills that have not moved and what to do about $9 million that Palin wants for pursuing an in-state natural gas pipeline.

There was less drama in the state Senate. But the session is nearing an end with no conclusion in sight to the war that's dragged on for weeks between Palin and Senate Democrats over a vacant Juneau state Senate seat.

The governor's chief of staff sent senators a letter Saturday saying she's standing behind an appointee that's already been rejected and wants to have a meeting about it.

(What did Einstein say about the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? It is like he actually met our Governor isn't it?)

Saturday began with a confrontation in the House Finance Committee about what to do in regard to high energy costs in rural Alaska. The Legislature is poised to appropriate $9 million statewide for low-income heating assistance programs to assist. But Fairbanks Rep. Kelly said he thought it was supposed to be a one-time appropriation last year, and state revenues have dropped.

He said there are other programs for people who are needy and "not for any layabouts."

"I'd rather tell the guy, go out there and cut your own wood or do something for yourself. ... I don't know how many of the 200-plus villages have a wood supply within a rock toss, but there's a lot of them because I've been to a lot of them," he said.

"I've been to a lot of them." Well if that were true than this idiot would realize that the area around many of the villages have been picked clean of wood for burning, and if he had bothered to enter some of the homes he may have noticed that some have furnaces that use heating oil or propane exclusively and cannot burn wood in times of need. The dependency on these modern energy sources means that these rural communities cannot easily go back to the way their grandparents dealt with the harsh Alaskan winters.

There's another set of questions about a different $9 million Palin wants to help development of a proposed in-state gas pipeline from the North Slope to Southcentral Alaska.

The governor's request caused a furor this week when House leaders dropped it in the budget to the surprise of their colleagues on the House Finance Committee. Several of the committee members objected that it was the first they'd heard of it and complained that Palin officials never spoke to them.

That $9 million was then pulled from the budget. Most of it is expected to come back today in a different bill. But there is a lot of closed door debate over what restrictions to put on what the governor can do with the money. Some legislators advocate letting Palin do what she wants, but North Pole Republican Rep. John Coghill said confidence in the governor is "so low right now."

Now THAT is an understatement if ever I have heard one.

I don't blame the legislators one bit for not wanting to write the Governor a blank check. We have already seen that her judgement cannot be trusted and that she needs grownups around to help her make the right choices. In this case the legislators must serve as those grownups.

But surely she at least has learned her lesson about who to appoint to the Senate seat from Juneau.

Palin has re-appointed one of her rejected appointees, Tim Grussendorf, and wants a new vote on him. But the Senate Democrats have their own legal opinions from legislative lawyers that says their rejection of Grussendorf was legal.

Sen. Johnny Ellis, D-Anchorage, said there are no plans to vote on Grussendorf again.

"I don't consider it a valid appointment," said Ellis, the Senate majority leader. "He was rejected."

Bad Governor, bad! Stop trying to change the rules to get your way! Learn the rules and follow them. I mean who respects a leader who cannot follow simple guidelines?

I'm sorry I almost forgot that the GOP has a different set of standards than the rest of us. My bad!

Well this Alaskan is very frustrated that the Palin soap opera has rendered the legislature incapable of passing simple laws and that very little was accomplished this session in large part because the interference and lack of respect demonstrated by Sarah Palin.

What does it take to get our state functioning again?


Well there is always that.