The GOP holds 22 seats in the Oklahoma Senate, and Democrats hold the other 26. Because of this, like in the US Senate, the Republicans don't control the daily agenda of the Senate, and can't force the chair to recognize them or bring their bills to the floor.

The GOP-controlled state House and the Democratic-controlled state Senate are at odds over reforming Oklahoma's workers' compensation system this year. The Senate has passed a plan mostly authored by Democratic Gov. Brad Henry, which reduces costs by limiting medical expenses. The GOP has passed their own bill, authored by the state's business interests, that instead limits legal fees so that workers who dont' get compensation can't sue, or if they do, can't recover much.

These bills should be resolved in conference committee, but in the same spirit we've seen nationwide, the GOP refuses to broach any compromise. They want to force the Senate to vote on their bill, even though it didn't pass its a Senate committee hearing.

They came up with a novel way to do it. The state's Lieutenant Governor, one Mary Fallin, is a three-term Republican. On Thursday, the GOP Senators brought her to the Senate chamber and, claiming that she's constitutionally authorized to lead the Senate, put her in the chair and had her call the Senate to order.

This would put a Republican in charge of the Senate and allow her to set the agenda, recognize debate, call bills to the floor - in essence, run the chamber. Even though the Democrats own the Senate majority, they'd have to give in to the Lt. Gov. every time she wanted to preside over the Senate.

That's why the Democrats refused to go along with it, leaving the building and not answering about 10 hours of quorum calls. The GOP fumed and fussed that the Democrats were refusing to "work," but can you just imagine what the GOP would have done nationwide if Al Gore had gone to the Senate in 1998 and said to Trent Lott, "Step down, I'm running things now?"

Fallin showed back up again today to pull the same trick, but the Democrats had a trick of their own ready. They filed into the chamber at 1:30, and majority leader Mike Morgan took control from the floor:

After Monday's effort by Fallin to preside over the Senate, Senate President Pro Tempore Mike Morgan, D-Stillwater, made an adjournment motion from the floor after noting no bills were on the agenda.

A voice vote followed between Democrats and Republicans and Morgan declared that "the ayes have it. The Senate shall stand adjourned until 1:30 tomorrow."

Fallin said later she was disappointed that only Morgan and the majority leader's microphones were turned on and that she was not allowed to perform her constitutional right to preside. Democrats have called Fallin's presence in the Senate a "political stunt" and have said workers' comp reform should be worked out in a House-Senate conference committee.

Sore losers as always, the state GOP is now asserting that as long as a Republican is the Lieutenant Governor, the GOP controls the Senate agenda, even if they're the minority party. This is ludicrous on its face, and they know it, but they'll break any rule they have to break to get their way. Majority leader Morgan says he's checked with several attorneys, who all say that Fallin has no Constitutional obligation or right to take the chair over the Senate's objection. Section V-28 of the Oklahoma Constitution agrees with them (emphasis added):

The Senate shall, at the beginning of each regular session and at such other times as may be necessary, elect one of its members President pro tempore, who shall preside over its deliberations in the absence or place of the Lieutenant Governor; and the Senate shall provide for all its standing committees and, by a majority vote, elect the members thereof.

No other provision of the Constitution gives Fallin any more authority than that.

Nationally, the GOP (including two Oklahoma Senators and four Oklahoma Representatives) insists that, when they're the majority, they don't have to give the minority any rights. On the state level, the same party insists that they can ignore the majority by having the Lieutenant Governor quite literally take over the Senate. The Democrats here are smart enough not to let her have a quorum, because if she chairs the chamber once, they're going to claim she can do it whenever she wants - and that will be whenever the GOP can't get its agenda passed.

It's been going on for five days now - I don't understand why Kos and Atrios and the national Democrats haven't used this to point out the hypocrisy that is today's GOP. It's a fun and instructive example.

Update: Mike has now posted about this at Political State Report.

Update 2: C.G. Hill has added his views at Dustbury.com. On Tuesday, both the Republicans and Democrats pretended they had control of the Senate simultaneously, but only the Democrats had the microphones. The Democrats think they came to order, dispatched about 100 bills to committee without amendments, and adjourned; the Republicans think that Fallin called the chamber to order and that they adjourned before doing anything. Both of these actions happened concurrently.