Rep. Kurt Wright learned a few things in Albany, N.Y., yesterday.

1) That the Legislature there does a lot of sitting around and waiting.

2) That they get paid a heck of a lot more to do it, plus they get offices and staffs.

3) That he won't be able to point to New York as a shining example in his pitch for civil commitment, at least not yet.

Wright and fellow Republican Reps. Patti Komline and Rick Hube went to the New York state capitol in hopes of watching the Legislature pass a civil confinement law that would allow the state to keep some untreated sex offenders locked up beyond their criminal sentences. They'd like to see Vermont pass a similar law.

New York legislators left the one-day special session without an agreement on the bill, however. Democrats in the Assembly are leery, as are their counterparts in Vermont. You can read about it here.

Wright will find even more resistance to the idea in the Vermont Legislature next year. Though he and Gov. Jim Douglas have both said they plan to persist in trying to introduce civil commitment legislation, Democrats who control the Legislature say they've been there, considered that, and decided to combat sex crimes in other ways.

"We looked at it very, very carefully," said Rep. Bill Lippert, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. "It was not supported by the majority."

Perhaps, he suggested, if the issue is going to come up in the Legislature, it's the Senate's turn to hash it out. Senators were no more eager for it than he was last session.

- Terri Hallenbeck