It seems that the art of sufficient compromise may be lost on lawmakers this session. One of the most glaring examples: Our state lawmakers are now in the middle of a special session over two items that could have very well been dealt with in the regular session.

Interestingly enough, to put the blame on just the Senate or just the House would not fly here. While both issues under consideration &8212; tort reform and voter ID &8212; are being championed by Gov. Haley Barbour and his Republican counterparts, Democrats are not the reason our state is wasting more money on further legislative discussion.

On voter ID, Senate Republicans are the ones who pushed into a trash can a House-backed bill with special language exempting older Mississippians. During a conference committee, three senators demanded the language be stripped, though they were demanding it from three rural House members who didn&8217;t care if voter ID got passed in any shape, form or fashion anyway.

For Sen. Charlie Ross, R-Brandon, to lead the way demanding an ideal voter ID bill when a solid compromise was on the table is almost ludicrous. Was the voter ID bill perfect? No. Was it better than nothing? You bet.

And House Republicans worked double-time to prevail to their Senate counterparts&8217; cooler heads.

What would have happened during former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove&8217;s special session on tort reform had Republicans not compromised on caps for non-economic damages? Lawmakers today would still be beating the same dead horse, and after the polarizing campaign of last year, the odds of anything coming to fruition would have been nil.

Truth be told, that&8217;s still the case with both issues. Barbour has signalled his willingness to drop the push for voter ID if the Legislature can pass his version of tort reform. That, however, has one major stumbling stone &8212; Rep. Ed Blackmon, D-Canton, who chairs the House Judiciary A Committee.

So is there wiggle room for compromise? Yes, in the form of giving in to the majority. This issue is where House Democrats are being stubborn.

For Blackmon&8217;s part, he is protecting his bread and butter and the bread and butter of his trial lawyer friends and Democratic fund-raisers. If they lose the ability to sue for high rewards, then life ain&8217;t as sweet anymore.

And Blackmon is being given political cover from the top, House Speaker Billy McCoy, D-Rienzi. With McCoy it&8217;s personal as well, but not because of money. He&8217;s sticking it to the pro-tort reform activists who tried to stick it to him in his home legislative race.

And while McCoy and Blackmon are well within their granted powers to stall tort reform, to do so in the face of overwhelming support in their own chamber is ridiculous. If the Barbour version of tort reform made it to the House floor for and up-or-down vote, conventional wisdom is that it would most likely pass.

So, what we&8217;ve got here are a bunch of hard-headed lawmakers who seem more interested in political positioning than in getting down to the brass tacks of getting the people&8217;s work done and going home.

It might be a simple observation to trade off limited voter ID for full tort reform, but that won&8217;t work. Tort reform is a much bigger prize to trial lawyer Democrats, as is evidenced by Barbour&8217;s overtures to drop voter ID altogether.

In the end, Republicans are hoping they can outlast House Democrats &8212; mainly McCoy and Blackmon &8212; during a special session to the point where public outcry is to pass tort reform and stop wasting taxpayer money.

The likelihood of that happening, however, could be slim. We all know how Blackmon feels about snowballs.

Sam R. Hall

can be reached by e-mail to

shall@sctonline.net

.