She woke up Thursday morning feeling antsy. This is the day she said.. After seven years it was the day for all to come to a head…

The same old bullshit thrown from Adam’s way, over and over and over and over… she was just tired of all it.

Know one knew what was to come… well almost no one…. the author of a surprise Senate Bill recently laid on the table, did get some forewarning, and that premonition turned out to have immeasurable consequences..

She waited for business to wind down in the Senate at the end of Thursday’s session. The clerks were packing up their massive folders, the Senators were saying their goodbyes, and she stood up and shouted “I request to suspend the rules of the Senate and force consideration of HB 1″, and she half turned around so the departing Senators could hear, “that’s the open govenment bill, HB 1.”

Tony DeLuca turned bug eyed and purple, shot up on his feet and shouted “I object”…

“I request a vote to suspend the rules of the Senate”… she said again.

DeLuca shouted “I request we immediately break for caucus.”

At that both she and Sokola shot up: “I object” each said….

The Senators were stunned, some still unaware of what was happening. Upstairs the lobbyists who had lingered and not left early, raced up and then down the tiny steps of the upstairs gallery leading out to the grand hallway, half whispering, half shouting “Get in here… G E T B A C K I N H E R E, gesticulating wildly at their colleagues who were so intent on leaving…

A voice vote was taken and out of 21 Senators…. these voted to force the bill... Sens. Colin Bonini, R-Dover South; George Bunting, D-Bethany Beach; Brian Bushweller, D-Dover North; Catherine Cloutier, R-Heatherbrooke; Dori Connor, R-Penn Acres; Margaret Rose Henry, D-Wilmington East; Michael Katz, D-Centreville; Robert Marshall, D-Wilmington West; David Sokola, D-Newark, and Liane Sorenson, R-Hockessin.

She had the votes.

Next they voted on moving to caucus… The roll went down the same way… except for Michael Katz. She turned to see his backside disappearing out the door…. WTF? Isn’t that why we put him in? DeLuca won 11-9 and off into caucus went all the Senatorse…

The caucus was heated. DeLuca was three shades of red. His eyeballs which usually appear twice their size because of his prescription, were now four times their normal shape! He began the caucus yelling “what do you mean pulling a stunt like that without telling anyone” The proper response was: “what do you mean by holding this bill hostage in committee without letting it go on the floor, especially since it was overwhelmingly passed in the other chamber?… (Old Thurman had to be awakened and told something was going on, so DeLuca was the only one standing defending his position…)

Tony pulled the usual leadership threat about tabling all of a certain legislators bills from seeing action…. But that threat was trumped by the rising Democratic leadership now beginning to fulfill the public’s expectation of them in the House… “Well, I have it on the Speaker’s Authority that IF this bill is not passed as is, … NO SENATE BILL WILL SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY IN THE HOUSE!” “That’s bullshit” said an apoplectic DeLuca, now crimson with rage. “Gilligan never said that.. He and I have an agreement that we can water, change this bill in committee…”

“That’s not true. He has talked to me. He never said that!”

DeLuca stormed out of the caucus… ” I’m going to talk to him myself!”…..
Someone leaned over to Karen and asked… “Do you trust him talking to Gilligan alone?” After a brief second, “No”, and out the door she went after him…

Speaker of the House Gilligan was speaking at the time, and Karen went up to the Clerk and asked if she could interrupt. “Sure, go ahead, said the clerk”.. Are you sure? “Yeah, no problem… you can go” and so she did…

“Speaker Gilligan, did you promise Tony that you would water down the content of HB1 in conference after it had passed both Houses?”… That little tuft of hair over the speaker’s left eye, twinkled upward? WTF? “Of course not, was the answer.” After repeated assurances the Houses business continued and the Senator returned to caucus… When she got there DeLuca was already back there.waiting for her.

“I talked to Gilligan…” ” I know, I know! I was waiting in the back to be recognized and YOU JUST WENT RIGHT UP THERE!”

“Yes I did”, …

Tony then offered to bring up the legislation first thing, June 2nd… “No, we had the vote to do it now…” But the arguing continued… finally Karen said that she would accept the majority vote of the caucus since we were, after all a Democracy. The vote was to postpone the vote until June 2nd.

She acquiesced…. All along she was worried some trick was in play. Come June 2nd, something would come up and table the legislation….

But instead, it went as planned. The first item of business on June 2nd was the passage of HB 1 which opens up the General Assembly to public scrutiny.

The Delaware Senate voted unanimously to allow open government throughout all functions of the General Assembly of the state of Delaware…

Bob Venebles came up to our hero and said in what has become his notoriously pompous demeanor: ” I don’t approve of how you handled that bill” he said disapprovingly.

“You mean like suspend the rules as you yourself did just two weeks ago, and have repeatedly done so over your tenure here?” You mean to say you disapprove of THAT method?”

“I don’t approve of how you handled that bill” said the dinosaur…..

Reading between the lines we are beginning to see that the passage of this bill so easily through the Senate, portends that the current leadership is very worried that HB 5 may pass and was willing to give this up to insure that HB 5 gets voted down…. It’s that important to them that non heterosexuals do not have rights at work…