Walking out the door, the former GOP senate leader confided that former Gov. Jennifer Granholm never treated the legislature as a co-equal.  Now she would disagree with her "buddy" Mike Bishop but it's an important lesson to learn.

        And if Gov. Rick Snyder has not received the message, he got a dose of it from his own House GOP caucus.

        Speaker Jase Bolger (R-Marshall) was very careful to say this was not a disagreement, but it sure had that feel.

        Gov. Snyder has set the clock for 180 days and by July first he wants his co-equals to finish a budget and revamp the state's business tax.

        Mr. Bolger revealed that the business tax stuff may take a might longer; there would be no rush to judgment on this puppy. 

        To make matters more interesting, there is also some grumbling, even though no Republican would dare use that term. They are not ready to move in lock-step on the Governors's must touted 6% flat-tax. He wants that to replace the widely unpopular Michigan Business Tax.

        It's not that R's oppose it; they don't have the details to support it and won't until they do.

        That plays directly into the mounting criticism from Democrats that so far, the new governor has been really long on the rhetoric and painfully short on the specifics.

        "How 'bout some details," observed the House Democratic leader Rick Hammel the other day when asked what he wanted to see from the governor.

         House Republicans were saying the exact same thing.

         "I want to see the details," Rep. Jud Gilbert checks in on the flat rate tax "before I critique it."

         "Six percent on what?" asked small business man and Rep. Bill Rogers of Brighton.

         Even Speaker Bolger tip-toed around it: "We want to vet it" which is code for "We don't have the foggiest notion what's in this thing so don't ask us to embrace it."

         All of them are spot on.

         It is now time to end all the "stop looking in the rear-view mirror" stuff and get on with the details.

         The Snyder administration's lobbyist Dick Posthumus says hold your horses.  The "meat" is coming in the State of the State set for Wednesday.

         Pass the fork.