Feb. 1--Former House Speaker Lance Cargill, soon after ascending to that post, heralded his upcoming legislative session as the "Year of Ideas." The next year, the Harrah Republican dubbed the session the "Year of Solutions" -- an effort cut short when Cargill abruptly resigned in the midst of an overdue-tax scandal.

Now that the GOP has taken over both chambers of the Legislature, perhaps the long-suffering Republicans might want to make this the "Year of Getting Even."

About the only silver lining for Democrats is, as some old-timers were oft heard muttering in recent years, that now "the Republicans will have to govern."

We'll soon know if they can govern any better than the Democrats.

State Sen. President Pro Tem Glenn Coffee, R-Oklahoma City, got off to a rocky and aggressive start with controversial actions over committee appointments and new Senate rules, and developments have been flying fast and furious since. Democrats keep crying foul, while Republicans insist they're only changing things for the better. There also has been mention made of the nature of payback.

RULES IS RULES: Among early developments raising Democratic hackles were Coffee's actions regarding Senate rules and committee assignments. Coffee refused to accept three Democratic appointees, seen by Democrats as a flagrant departure from longtime rules. For nearly three decades, the minority party has gotten to select its own committee members.

The new rules give the Senate

president and his leadership team control of committee appointments and also enhanced power to control debate on the floor. Under the new rules, the majority leader can determine whether a fellow senator will be allowed to speak, and for how long.

In a recent visit to the Tulsa World, Coffee and his majority leader, Sen. Todd Lamb of Edmond, brushed aside the controversy, saying the new rules basically codify years-long practices -- a contention hotly denied by some Democrats.

Coffee added other explanations for the new rules. They'll enable the floor leader to enforce "orderly discussion," and they'll serve as a "pressure valve release" when controversial committee choices are floated.

"It's simply a way to let order prevail. There are practical reasons you have to stop (debate) at certain times. We have no intention of muzzling them (Democrats)," Coffee said. Democrats, of course, think that's exactly what the GOP leadership has in mind.

Still, Coffee bordered on admitting politics played a role in the recent rules flap when he discussed the individuals he booted from committees. He said he found Sen. Tom Adelson, D-Tulsa, to be "counter-productive in some ways." Sen. Richard Lerblance, D-Hartshorne, "has been very difficult to work with on the sentencing commission; he just wouldn't negotiate." And Sen. Kenneth Corn, D-Poteau, also fit "some of those same sets of circumstances."

"I felt like I was backed into a corner," Coffee added.

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THIS: In another procedure move that shocked some observers, Coffee and House Speaker Chris Benge, R-Tulsa, announced they would file a "friendly" lawsuit aiming to clarify the governor's line-item veto authority. GOP leaders believe Gov. Brad Henry erred last year in his line-item vetoes of measures in two budget-limitations bills. They believe the governor can only use his line-item veto in appropriations bills.

Some clarification might be helpful on this front; after all, as Coffee and Benge noted, what the governor did was veto the purposes of the spending while leaving the money in the agencies' budgets to be spent elsewhere.

But suspicious cynics think the lawsuit could pave the way for greatly weakening the veto power.