The budget vetoes have been overridden, for the most part, and that is no surprise. My biggest regret, however, is that I was prevented from casting my votes, nearly all of which would have been to sustain the vetoes. I say that I was prevented because on the day that vetoes were to be taken up the Senate instead chose to engage in what more resembled junior high school drama than serious public policy. I came to the Senate on Tuesday, the 17th, prepared to take up and vote on the vetoes of the governor and finish that day like the House of Representatives did. I found instead that my colleagues were embroiled in the fight over who would get to be Lieutenant Governor for a day. I won’t bore you with that inside baseball (please do contact me if you want the details), but suffice it to say that we adjourned before taking up the first veto. My business required me to be away on Wed and Thu, and so I was not able to support the vetoes as I had planned. This is another example of the backward priorities in Columbia and how they are set by legislators with nothing to do and nowhere to be. This is a big part of the problem in Columbia.