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Hannon, Atkinson take action By DANI DODGE By 7 p.m. Friday, when almost all the major budget bills had gotten through the Senate, Sen. Lenn Hannon, R-Ashland, was exhausted. "I've been carrying bills and pushing for votes and getting them pushed out of the Senate," Hannon said. "I'm pooped." It had already been a very long and sometimes difficult day. Hannon said he had to throw one of his famous fist-pounding temper tantrums in caucus to convince fellow Republicans to cut $350 million from the budget. He said some of them wanted to "hold everything harmless and it can't be done." "I said 'By golly it's time you guys show some leadership rather than run around like a bunch of sheep,' " Hannon said. He told them about the time in 1982 when he had to sit in the same chamber and cut $1.4 billion "and you guys don't have the guts to cut 350 million?" "So we had an open, frank discussion," Hannon said. "It's called taking them to the well and having them drink the poison water - that's what leadership is." Hannon even stormed out of the room, but in the end the bills went to the Senate floor and were passed by the majority. Hannon said he knows that the Senate versions will be amended by the House and then changed again in conference committee, "but someone had to make the first move." By the evening, economic stimulus bills, shepherded by Sen. Jason Atkinson, R-Jacksonville, were moving through the Senate. Among the bills was one that set priorities for lottery funds, including targeting money to finish the Southern Oregon University library addition. "We looked at what things can we do tangibly and get on the floor to get people to work," Atkinson said. "The library gets built and there's a contract and people get employed." Atkinson said he hopes the special session will end soon. He arrived at the capitol on Monday with only six clean shirts and is optimistic that the "kumbaya" feeling of the first day will continue. "I'm on shirt five today," Atkinson said. "Soonest we'll be done would be Sunday, but I'll be in a T-shirt." But he said, if the session goes until Monday, he's sure it will last until Friday. And he'll be visiting the dry cleaners. Reach reporter Dani Dodge at 776-4471, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.