A Great Tradition Flies Out The Window On Sine Die Night

(4/9/08) One of the great traditions of sine die night in the Georgia Legislature fell by the wayside last Friday in the chaos and rancor of Day 40 when the House adjourned abruptly and left the Senate soldiering on for a few more minutes until the stroke of midnight.

Custom dictates what’s supposed to happen: the center doors of the two chambers are thrown open so that the presiding officers can stare each other down across the rotunda ... they pick up their podium telephones and get each other on the line ... with telephones to their ears, they raise their gavels at the same time and both shout “sine die” simultaneously as shredded bills are tossed into the air and come showering down in a multi-colored shower of confetti.

It happened that way in 2007, the first session in which Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle wielded the Senate gavel opposite Speaker Glenn Richardson in the House. And it happened throughout the time Speaker Tom Murphy and a number of lieutenant governors wielded the gavels. But it didn’t happen Friday.

Best we can piece it together, the Senate sergeant at arms was the first to notice that the center doors of the House had been thrown open, and he then opened the center doors of the Senate chamber just in time for senators to see the House erupting in sine die cheers.

And with that, it was goodbye until next year.

So who’s supposed to call who? Apparently, custom doesn’t specify that. But given the other events of the evening, the betting here is that if there had been a telephone call between the two podiums, the conversation would have been pretty chilly.