Tension between legislative and executive branches?

On Monday during an interview with WHO-TV Governor Chet Culver, a Democrat, offered a different version of events than House Speaker Pat Murphy (D-Dubuque) outlined last week for reporters who were quizzing Murphy about progress (or lack thereof) on the bill that would revamp Iowa's income tax system.  Read the details here.

This afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal (D-Council Bluffs) offered this cryptic comment during a conversation with Senator Merlin Bartz (R-Grafton): "For all I know, we're coming back for a special session, Senator Bartz."

A special session, of course, would be called by the governor — Chet Culver — if he vetoes major bills and "invites" legislators back to Des Moines for a special legislative session to resolve the differences between the executive and legislative branches.  Governor Tom Vilsack, a Democrat, used special sessions as a management tool when Republicans were in control of the legislative branch of state government.  Today, though, Democrats are in control of the executive and legislative branches of state government.  A special session would truly be extraordinary in that circumstance because it would be a public battle among Democrats.