After two years of acrimony under Johnnie Byrd and Jim King, the state House and Senate are back in synch.
By STEVE BOUSQUET
Published December 17, 2004
TALLAHASSEE - For the first time in nearly two years, the Legislature's top two leaders took part Thursday in the handkerchief drop signifying the end of the session.
It was a small gesture that spoke volumes about the changed atmosphere in the Capitol. The tradition was abandoned last spring because of bitterness between the previous leaders, Sen. Jim King and former Rep. Johnnie Byrd.
Senate President Tom Lee of Brandon and House Speaker Allan Bense of Panama City, both Republicans, greeted each other warmly in the Capitol rotunda after finishing their work a day early.
"I like this a lot better than the past," said Gov. Jeb Bush, also a Republican.
Lee suggested the improved tone wasn't hard to achieve. "You've got to be willing to cooperate, and be goal-oriented," Lee said. "We've seen some of the digression of the past, and we didn't want to return to that."
Criticism of the pre-kindergarten program and insurance changes will linger. But the atmosphere is no longer corrosive.
Even though most House Democrats voted against the Republicans' pre-K plan, they gave Bense a standing ovation as the session came to a close.
"The sun is shining in the Florida House again, and I thank you for a good start," said Rep. Chris Smith, D-Fort Lauderdale, the minority leader, in a tribute to Bense.
Bense credited Smith for proposing changes making it easier for parents to comply with the paperwork requirements in the KidCare insurance program.
As they walked out of the chamber together behind their leader, even rank-and-file House members marveled at the change.
"I never saw us all walk out like this," said Rep. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, a House member for six years. "It's a new day."
Lee and Bense say they were troubled by the way their predecessors sullied the Legislature's image. They were determined to be different.
Bense acknowledged that a four-day special session just before Christmas was "a small test" of leadership, and that things will be more complicated in the regular, two-month session that begins March 8. Bense said he knows this was the easy part.
"There will be tough times," the speaker said. "I want to lower expectations."
The 120-member House is less collegial than the 40-member Senate. Bense is a stickler for efficiency but says he also wants to be inclusive and bipartisan, two goals that may conflict over the next two years.
Lee saved his strongest criticism for Rep. Bruce Kyle, R-Fort Myers, who tried to get last-minute approval to create 20 new judgeships. He got the bill added to the House calendar Wednesday, but senators, aware of Kyle's past interest in becoming a judge, refused to consider it.
"I thought it was terribly unfair, and terribly disrespectful of the process, for a member to bring an issue up in the middle of the week, and put the other chamber on the spot," said Lee. He called Kyle's maneuver "a partisan play" because the bill would have given Bush the power to appoint all of the new judges, rather than a mix of appointments and elections.
Special sessions can be politically treacherous because of the lack of time and difficulty in finding a consensus in a hurry. Lee and Bense managed to keep things working smoothly. "It starts from the leadership and percolates down," Bush said. "The games that individual members might have played against one of their fellow colleagues from the other side of the Capitol, I didn't see any of that. It was all serious work."
Times staff writer Joni James contributed to this report.
