We have pals in both parties at both ends of the State House, so things like what happened in June is a bit like watching cousins fight (we would say siblings, but we were the only child — birth control, FTW). But it’s an old story. When Lyndon Johnson was elected to the U.S. House, he went to one of the grand poobahs of the Democrats and was showed around to the other powerful Dems in the chamber. Then, LBJ asked when he was going to meet the enemy, meaning the Republicans. The gentleman responded that the enemy wasn’t the Republicans, it was the U.S. Senate.

So in June, after a long period of talks and compromises, the Senate sent the voter ID/early voting bill to the House. The House, not too thrilled with the concessions given to Senate Democrats, shortened the time for early voting and limited the locations, among other changes. Senate Dems were so pissed with this development that when they came back for the first time to debate Gov. Mark Sanford‘s ill-considered vetoes, Sen. Brad Hutto went on an epic filibuster.

But after some machinations, there was still a chance to get the bill passed this year. We’re on the record as saying that however it works out, the legislation is a pretty good compromise. And compromise is how effective legislation gets passed. But the last day the Senate had to act on it, it didn’t happen. And because of the way the rules are in South Carolina, the bill is dead, and will have to be refiled next year (or prefiled this year) for legislators to get another shot at it.

The House, naturally, isn’t happy, and sent out a news release on Wednesday saying so.

“It is unfortunate that the Senate term will once again be remembered for inaction, rather than the successes we all worked on together,” [House Majority Leader Kenny] Bingham said.

“The House Republicans worked hard, broke multiple filibusters, and approved the Voter ID legislation three times in 15 months. When the chips were down, the 27-member Senate Republican Caucus couldn’t muster the 24 votes needed to approve this vital conservative reform.

“Securing the integrity of our elections is critical to the viability of our democracy. The House worked in good faith with the Senate to create an early voting period to increase participation and close a major loophole in the process.

“The House Republican Caucus — along with the leadership of our party — will come back next session reinvigorated and ready to fight this battle again. It will not get easier for the Senate Republicans.”

Ouch. We’re all for the “crawdads in a Ziplock bag battle royale” that is the General Assembly, but that’s harsh.

The desire of Republicans in the General Assembly to get a voter ID law, and the desire of Democrats to have “no excuse” early voting combined in the bill addressing both concerns that was passed — again — by the House this week. It had gone through the Senate, where early voting was lengthened to 12 days. Going back through the House, it was shortened to three, which actually seems perfectly reasonable, since it has to be possible to find time in four days to cast one’s ballot.

People complain all the time about lack of cooperation between elected officials in getting things done. This bill gives a little to both sides, which is the general rule when people of differing policy ideas craft legislation. But Democrats in the House went on another one of those filibuster-by-amendment runs that never work, then the bill passed. Now, the bill moves back to the Senate, again, and we’ll see if the senators are OK with three days of early voting or if this thing gets hung up again before finally passing, again.

Whether it’ll be vetoed by Gov. Mark Sanford is up in the air at this point, so we imagine it would be unlikely for the GOP leadership to have to give up some things, or move the voting days back out to 12, to get a super-majority once the bill hits the floor. However, an AP story says that the changes likely won’t keep, and it’ll be a conference committee special.

Funnily enough, men from two parties can talk to each other and work out a deal, even in South Carolina. The voter ID/early voting bill, H. 3418, was in such a mess of debate and amendments that it was set on Wednesday for third reading, but allowing for amendments, which is highly unusual. However, cooler heads prevailed.

Before Wednesday’s session, Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell and Senate Minority Leader John Land got together to work out a compromise on the legislation to minimize the pain the Senate would have to endure in knocking down amendments before the inevitability of voting the bill through. It’s a tribute to both men that they got it done.

Gubernatorial candidate and Sen. Vince Sheheen was not down with the plan, and still kept several amendments on the desk. Land showed his leadership by saying he empathized with Sheheen but had to object to his amendments. In the end, the bill passed.

McConnell, before the debate, said, “Ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, I want to bring some clarity to the debate from yesterday, and the questions that were raised. I subsequently had the opportunity to talk to the senator from Clarendon about the dialogue that he and I had regarding, would amendments be allowed on the third. And, here is what was intended and he will confirm it: yes, we would allow amendments on third that are an exception to the rule. Something that we left out and intended to put in, something that misstated that we should have stated a different way, and clarifications.”

Yes, Virginia, progress can happen in the General Assembly.

It seemed like a sure thing last week when the voter ID/early voting bill, H. 3418, passed on second reading. In most occasions, that’s the green light to seeing legislation move on. Not this time. Senate Democrats protested, with gubernatorial candidate and Sen. Vince Sheheen said in The State, “We need to change it.”

This seems insane. After a very contentious debate, and what seemed like a reasonable compromise under the circumstances, we’re back at the beginning, on third reading, no less. Sen. Larry Martin said of the situation, “I hope the harmony and good will of last week and move this across the hall.” Maybe so, but it didn’t extend to the very chamber the harmony and good will came from.

Wednesday, the third reading of the bill, which was interrupted on Tuesday, will look suspiciously like a second reading rodeo. We still think the bill will pass, but only the insiders know what will be going down in the Senate.

Thursday’s brokered end to the battle over the Voter ID/early voting bill in the Senate showed a brief glimpse of a change in the atmosphere of the General Assembly this year. If one thing has been at the forefront, it’s been Republican red meat bills and Democratic obstruction. There ends up being a lot of talking from the left side of either chamber, and when a enough legislators finally have enough of the mess, debate is adjourned with the hope of fixing the problem later.

The same thing was going on in the Senate, which had just come out of filibustering over the state sovereignty resolution. Then came H. 3418, the bill chief sponsored by Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell that passed the lower chamber last year. The Democrats, who get cheeky in their role in opposition, showed up with 1,001 amendments to the bill. Take that into account — you have to have so much commitment to fucking with the majority party that you have staff go through and write hundreds of amendments.

Fortunately, Sens. Chip Campsen and Gerald Malloy came together and worked out the kinks to get the bill passed. It’s what legislation is about, and that’s compromise to reach an equitable solution. Republicans get voter ID, Democrats get more on early voting.

In a statement, Senate Minority Leader John Land said, “This is a good compromise that protects the voter’s access to the polls and the integrity of our elections. Democrats’ priority from the beginning of this debate was to ensure that all registered voters would have uninterrupted access to the polls. I believe this plan keeps the polls open to all citizens and goes a long way to making voting more efficient in our state.”

In The State, Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell had a similar opinion. “It’s something everybody can look at,” He said. “It is a bipartisan effort.”

Before the bill made it through, Sen. Larry Martin said to the AP, “The integrity of the voting process is one of the most important rights of citizenship that we have, and when that in any way is jeopardized, it stands to suffer.”