Gov. Douglas today criticized the Legislature for being too slow on some of the items that matter to him – property taxes, college scholarships, the e-state initiative that would bring broadband and cell coverage to every corner of Vermont by 2010.

"I just haven’t seen any action," he said at his weekly news conference. "What I’m talking about is the urgency I don’t see to move key issues forward."

Just two days earlier, Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin had a news conference of his own to criticize the governor for being too slow to do come up with a new Vermont State Hospital. Legislators had similar criticisms of the administration’s urgency on the Bennington State Office Building.

"We’re concerned about the lack of leadership," Shumlin said. "We’re concerned about the lack of direction."

So goes the see-saw.

Douglas said he doesn’t know Shumlin as well as he knew former Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Welch. There may be some revisionist history there. Welch and Douglas didn’t love each other every step of the way last session (the governor had some pretty harsh things to say about the Legislature at the end of the 2005 session), but they did manage after a few years of working together to play tug-of-war without either one sending the other flying into the mud pit.

Of course, there was a different political dynamic at work, particularly last year. Welch was running for Congress, which meant he was under pressure to produce legislation that would be palatable to a cross-section of voters. He must have said a thousand times during the campaign that he worked in a bipartisan manner with the governor. He couldn’t afford not to.

Shumlin no doubt has his eyes on higher office, but first he has to re-establish himself after four years away from politics licking his political wounds from his Lt. Gov. loss. He is walking a line by which he is on the one hand promising to work with the governor ("because that’s what Vermonters want") while also making his own imprint ("We’re concerned about the lack of leadership.")

This see-saw will probably keep going up and down through the session. It may look like pure political gamesmanship, but it has an impact on policy. Each side lights a fire under the other. The Legislature pushes the administration on the Bennington state office building. The governor forces the Legislature to do something about broadband and cell coverage. The Legislature suggests a tax to help farmers. The governor pushes them to find the money in the existing budget.

I can’t say that I played on see-saws much as a kid, but I recall that if one side has a lot more bulk than the other does, they pretty much leave the other side hanging up in the air. We don’t know yet if that’s going to happen on this see-saw, or if both sides will hold their own.

- Terri Hallenbeck