Parties trade blame for bill stalling

INDIANAPOLIS -- Republicans and Democrats spent the initial hours of a several-day break before the second half of the legislative session casting partisan blame for how the first half ended.\nRepublican Gov. Mitch Daniels used the harshest words Wednesday, accusing House Democrats of "car bombing" his attempted drive to reform Indiana government and create jobs.\nHe accused them of trying to block his agenda for purely political reasons and cast doubt on whether they could regain his trust any time soon as being true statesmen and stateswomen.\n"I like to assume the best about folks until they prove you can't," Daniels told reporters at his Statehouse office. "These people liked being in charge and they liked business as usual, and they're not about to let a little thing like the people voting for change make a difference."\nHis verbal lashing followed Tuesday's walkout by House Democrats, who refused to take the floor to vote on even one of about 130 bills that faced a midnight deadline to pass and advance to the Senate.\nHouse Democrats, out of power for the first time in eight years, said they had legitimate objections to bills they considered to be GOP power grabs. They said they were only representing their constituents by staying off the floor.\n"We will continue to stand for issues that we believe are important to the 3 million people we represent in the state of Indiana," said House Minority Floor Leader Russ Stilwell, D-Boonville.\nHouse Democrats are outnumbered 52-48, but it takes 67 members to conduct business in the House, and Democrats never provided the quorum needed to act.\nThe partisan meltdown derailed -- at least temporarily -- about 130 bills. They included ones to mandate statewide observance of daylight-saving time, give Daniels' inspector general prosecutorial powers and require voters to show government-issued IDs to cast ballots.\nIt is possible many bills will be revived by amending them into legislation that's still alive, but procedural Senate rules make resurrection of the daylight-time proposal seem unlikely. That and the inspector general bill are two of Daniels' top priorities.\nDaniels said that bill is needed to root out government corruption, but House Democrats say it would give the governor unprecedented power to stage partisan witch hunts. Republicans say the voter ID bill would curb election fraud, but Democrats say it would disenfranchise voters to the GOP's benefit.\nDaniels said he met Wednesday with Senate President Pro Tem Robert Garton, R-Columbus, and House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, to start looking for new homes for derailed bills. The effort would involve salvaging proposals to finance a new stadium for the NFL's Colts, and create jobs statewide.\nBut much of the fallout Wednesday was a blame-game of words over the legislative meltdown.\n"Indiana's drive for growth and reform was car bombed yesterday by the Indiana House minority," Daniels said.\nHe blamed that mostly on Democratic House Minority Leader Patrick Bauer of South Bend, saying he was not surprised a "throwback politician" would put party over jobs and nonpartisan interests.\n"But it's harder to understand why not one House Democrat had the courage or conscience to stay at work when he told them to walk off the job," Daniels said. "I guess they were just following orders."\nBauer was ill Wednesday and unavailable for comment.\nBosma said the floor boycott was motivated by postelection resentment.\n"The election last November was about reform, and this General Assembly has been about reform as well, and the Democrats don't like it," he said.\nRep. Robert Kuzman of Crown Point said he and his House Democrat colleagues did not want to be obstructionists, but the GOP had to take them seriously.\n"I think that's been our message from the beginning, that we're not just going to fold over and let things roll through this House," he said. "We want our input, we want our message out, we want our stuff to be listened to and considered"