The Republicans were salivating coming in this January while more than a few Democrats were wavering. Gov. O’Malley had called what they described as an excessive and unnecessary special session to initiate across-the-board tax increases. The GOP took the package to court, hoping to invalidate it over a clerical error, just so the Democrats would have to pass it again. That effort languished and died, as it seems opposition to special session has as well. When the GOP introduced their “alternative budget,” they happily used the funds from those very taxes – with half embracing the new revenue in the real life budget vote. Their window of attack on the special session seems to have closed.

Comptroller Peter Franchot knocked Mike Miller off guard when out of nowhere he charges the Senate President with trying to eliminate the jobs of his top aides in an act of political retaliation. Miller denies it, but then launches an offensive about their salaries and Franchot’s penchant for hogging the limelight. Miller got off some good lines in the press, but Franchot kept his deputies and came away with a record 22 new positions. You tell me who got the better deal there.

This ambitious plank of the O’Malley platform began to splinter when the economy took a turn for the worse, and there was no longer the political capital nor the capital capital to make it happen. Carbon emission standards in the global warming solutions bill were gutted (despite an enthusiastic rally in the wintry mix), energy efficiency got the short shrift, as did restrictions on development on the Chesapeake Bay waterfront.

This was an important achievement for the O’Malley administration, by successfully enacting a hefty package of legislation to prevent foreclosures through safeguards for consumers and crackdowns on predatory lenders. It shows that O’Malley is more capable of working with the Assembly in a timely fashion than any governor in recent memory.

Even with the official designation, the desert is still vying to become a state icon. It sure got enough press to make an impression.

Things got testy in the House Judiciary Committee took up the subject of illegal immigration. The opposition group Maryland Coalition for Immigration Reform knew Chairman Joe Vallario was against them, so they circulated a flier with Vallario dressed like a mariachi band member under the words, “WANTED FOR AIDING & ABETTING.” This so irked the Chair that he cut their testimony short, labeling the group, “offensive.”

This could be a memorable moment, if a tradition like this actually takes hold. Observers couldn’t stop talking about how it would rival the Governor’s ‘State of the State,’ but Maybe it’s because it took place in the lobby at Chevy Chase Bank headquarters. Ike Leggett definitely had the quote in the Washington Post when asked about its precedence, "We have not had a comptroller by the name of Peter Franchot.”