Now that we’ve shaken off the slumber that always follows a legislative session as surely as  night follows day, it’s time to get back into the blogging groove. So let’s do some Quick Hits to get caught up, shall we? Here we go!

We see the Review-Journal and the Sun printed their rankings of various politicians over the weekend. Well, we at Various Things & Stuff have some rankings of our own, culled from a big box of stuff we somehow accumulated during our three stays in Carson City for the 2007 session. They are more extensive than the daily papers, but then again, what else would you expect from us? Here we go!

Gov. Jim Gibbons: Winner! He stuck to his no-new-taxes pledge like barnacles to the hull of the ship of state, and with roughly the same purpose, but was able to capitalize on the need to pass a transportation plan and reform of the green building tax break plan to get what he wanted. His latter-day victory tour is a bit much, however.

Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki: Loser! Let’s just say this: When you’re accused by highly professional state auditors of breaking the law, and then your case is referred to the attorney general for possible prosecution, you’re not having a good session. His sportscaster-like presiding over the state Senate wasn’t much beloved, either, but messing with state funds so he could get his face on TV and in fliers makes petulantly stealing office furnishings seem like child’s play. Hey, wait, it was child’s play!

State Sen. Mark Amodei: Winner! He’s smart, well-spoken, he’s no-nonsense. In short, he’s probably a good choice for Republican majority leader once incumbent Bill Raggio (see below) decides to ditch the gig, assuming Democrats’ biennial plans to re-take the majority aren’t successful. He’d be even more fun as minority leader, we think.

State Sen. Bob Beers: Winner! And not just because he’s so good looking. Beers was in every caucus negotiation on taxes, holding feet to fires to make sure the conservative view held sway. He probably did more to irritate Raggio than Minority Leader Dina Titus. His smarts and media savvy also make him a contender for higher office — again.

State Sen. Terry Care: Winner! One of the most thoughtful senators of either party, he got a public records bill past Raggio and Republicans in the Assembly, no mean feat. The former journalist and current lawyer actually reads the bills (we hear) and asks very good questions based on that reading.

State Sen. Maggie Carlton: Winner! She’s a loyal member of her caucus, but don’t try to put her in a box. Although she’s a union member, she came out against that bill to keep Steve Wynn from stealing his dealer’s tips, and as the wife of a state parole officer, she was more law & order than you’d think. She’s feisty, and always willing to mix it up on the floor if necessary.

State Sen. Barbara Cegavske: Loser! Yes, she did finally succeed in getting her "video voyeurism" bill passed and signed by the governor — after 10 years of trying — but it was a stupid bill to begin with, so no points. The problem with Cegavske is the same as with everybody who always thinks they’re right; sometimes they’re wrong. She’s a loyal member of the conservative caucus in the upper house, however.

State Sen. Bob Coffin: Loser! Even before his final-night-of-the-session meltdown, Coffin struggled for respect among his colleagues. He even told Krolicki to "learn the goddamn rules" of Senate procedure, which almost made us put him on the winner list. But the fact is, Coffin made lots of speeches, annoyed lots of people, and even made some damn good points. But he didn’t accomplish anything other than talking, annoying and being right about the truckers dodging taxes. So what? Next time, he should introduce a bill, build coalitions and try to get something done.

State Sen. Joe Heck: Loser! When we asked this doctor why he was against requiring vaccines for the cervical cancer-causing HPV, he replied, "because it’s a mandate." When we asked the perfectly reasonable follow up question, "so what?" he was stunned into silence for several seconds. Pity that silence didn’t keep him from a hyper-patriotic divine endorsement of war on the Senate floor, which Cegavske asked be placed into the Senate journal. We concurred, so as to have proof for later. For the record, senator: God doesn’t like war, or so we’ve heard, and doctors should put keeping people healthy over philosophical hangups every time.

State Sen. Steven Horsford: Winner! They say that even veteran lobbyists get black lawmakers confused. But it’s easy to tell Horsford apart from his colleagues, of all colors: He’s very effective, and yet totally unpretentious. He fought hard for some good bills, and delivered a quick but poignant speech on the Senate floor lamenting the mere adequacy of Nevada’s education system. We smell future leader, and there could even be a "majority" in that title.

State Sen. Dennis Nolan: Loser! Unlike Cegavske, Nolan didn’t get his bad bills into law. (He’s been pushing red-light cameras and the ability of cops to pull you over merely for not wearing your seatbelt for years.) But it’s not just that. He couldn’t even convince his own party in his own house to embrace his ideas. That’s a sure sign of a lack of influence. Will Nolan take that as the final word, and move on to other issues, like finding a real solution to the transportation funding backlog? It wouldn’t be Carson City if he did.

Senate Majority Leader, Sen. Bill Raggio: Loser! Although Raggio declared on the floor of the Senate — after the clock had run out on the 2007 session — that it was nobody’s fault the Legislature once again missed its deadline, he was wrong. It was his fault, or so say most observers of the process. Raggio was holding hearings and introducing brand new bills just two hours before the clock would toll one, the passage of which is impossible under almost any timeline. As a master of the Senate, he should have known better. Add to that the fact that he was more vexed by the conservatives this year than in any year past, and the report that he threatened to turn budget negotiations over to Beers if it went to special session, and it adds up to bad session. The questions now: Will Raggio run again? If he does, will he try to stay on as majority leader? And chairman of the Finance Committee?

State Sen. Michael Schneider: Winner! Like Coffin, he had some hard questions for the framers of the transportation compromise. Unlike Coffin, his questions and his votes spoke volumes. He’s not flashy, and he’s not as high-profile as several of his colleagues, but a man who won the Legislature the ability to sell souvenir wine in its (tax-free!) gift shop and who apparently loves San Diego as much as we do can’t be bad.

Senate Minority Leader, Sen. Dina Titus: Winner! The voters in the R-J’s survey called Titus the worst senator, which is clearly not true. Yes, she’s constantly scheming to outmaneuver the Republicans and to make Gibbons look bad. (Really, for most of the session, that job was outsourced to the governor himself.) But did she not have a point when she called reporters to her office, played a campaign commercial in which the governor denounced "holding education hostage" and then questioned his insistence that a business tax not be allowed to rise before he’d sign the education budget? Of course she had a point. And being in the minority means you’re going to have to scrape and fight and look mean sometimes. Just ask the Republicans when it’s their turn and Titus is writing her autobiography: Majority Leader: Final Justice.

State Sen. Randolph Townsend: Loser! This guy’s got style. He’s the best-dressed senator, the most well-groomed senator, and the senator who looks none the worse for wear even after an 18-hour day. But when we saw him go off on a couple of lowly staffers on the Senate floor toward the end of this session, we just couldn’t bring ourselves to put him on a good list. You can judge the powerful by how they treat their underlings, and no matter how good you look, or how frustrating the situation, abuse of the powerless always makes you a loser.

Assemblyman Bernie Anderson: Loser! Oh, the longtime chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s got a good heart. But when he refused to let people testifying on a bill to prevent the Wynn Las Vegas from stealing tips from its dealers speak the name "Wynn," well, that’s pretty much a loser move. The bill went nowhere in Anderson’s committee, either, but the dealers fixed that themselves when they voted to unionize during the session. Take that, powers-that-be! Oh, and sometimes, people forget to turn their cell phones to "vibrate," Mr. Chairman. It’s not a death penalty worthy offense.

Assemblyman Morse Arberry: Mixed. He got the spending bills out on time and managed his committee’s workload well, but he also championed a late bill that would have essentially created independent city-states within Nevada run by businesses that would not have paid taxes to the state or local governments. It was an awful piece of legislation that died a deserving death.

Assemblyman Kelvin Atkinson: Winner! For a man who had to sue to get his job back when he was fired by Clark County for allegedly double-dipping, Atkinson came back and was one of the winners of the year for taking an intractable, seemingly unsolvable issue — transportation funding — and coming up with a solution that satisfied everybody, and nobody, all at once. Atkinson didn’t present his final product as the greatest thing since GPS, either. He was candid about the fact that it was a stopgap measure made necessary by Gibbons’ no-tax pledge, the tax dodging of business and industry, and the crying need to do something about gridlock lest Las Vegas freeways explode in homicidal rage. He took a lot of heat for the plan, and did it with grace.

Assemblyman Bob Beers: Winner! He stood up to the biggest casino mogul in town, and said no to tip-stealing. Or he tried to, at least. And that counts for something.

Speaker of the Assembly, Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley: Winner! She is the first female speaker in history, and she ran things with a strong hand. (The Assembly, unlike the Senate, finished its work by the constitutional deadline.) She was funny when she needed to be, cagey when she needed to be and outraged when the situation called for it. She got her No. 1 priority — a bill aimed at predatory lenders — through the session. She’s not shy about believing her cause is right, and acting accordingly. (And unlike Cegavske, Buckley’s cause is right, or so we think.)

Assemblyman Chad Christensen: Loser! Missing in action — again — as the session winds down. Will his constituents ever get tired of having an empty seat in the Assembly chamber when critical issues are coming to the fore?

Assemblyman Ty Cobb: Loser! He voted against Buckley. He didn’t get a single bill passed. Some of his bills didn’t even get hearings. His voting record was doctrinaire. He reportedly tried to unseat his too-moderate leader, unsuccessfully of course. In fact, "unsuccessful" is an adjective that was attached to Cobb’s name a lot during the session.

Assemblywoman Marilyn Kirkpatrick: Winner! A citizen in a citizen Legislature, she and fellow Assemblywoman Debbie Smith took on one of the thorniest issues of the session — reforming those "green building" tax breaks — and did it with style. It was a tremendously complex issue, with lobbyists crawling all over looking to get the most for their clients. Kirkpatrick and Smith were the Cagney & Lacey of the session, forging a fair deal and then enforcing it from 11th hour incursions. They earned a lot of respect because of their tireless efforts.

Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie: Winner! She’s a true liberal lawmaker, one who isn’t afraid of that label or of advocating for the issues that it implies. She was without her trusty sidekick and fellow traveler this session (ex-Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani was elected to the Clark County Commission in 2006). But she did fine anyway as a trusted lieutenant to Buckley.

Assembly Minority Leader, Assemblyman Garn Mabey: Winner! Too liberal? That may be what some red-meat-eating conservatives in his caucus thought, but on the Reality Scale, Mabey is still plenty conservative. He didn’t engage in the zero-sum politics of obstruction (not that he even could, with just 15 members in his caucus) and he joined with Democrats on some initiatives. As much as we like a good partisan fight, Mabey proved that bipartisanship can work. Whether he’ll be back as leader next time remains to be seen, however.

Assemblyman John Oceguera: Winner! The man everybody knows as "John O" had the best session of his political career as the No. 2 man in the lower house. He brought the perfect balance of humor and discipline to the job, and earned respect in the process. But he was also careful not to lose himself, as so many politicians do in Carson City as they worry about their future. Personally, we see the phrase "Mr. Speaker" in his future once Buckley is term-limited out of her job (and, we hope, runs for governor).

Assemblywoman Peggy Pierce: Winner! She’s no-nonsense and has the uncanny ability to say exactly what we’re thinking, so of course we’re going to call her a winner!

Assemblywoman Debbie Smith: Winner! (SEE, Assemblywoman Marilyn Kirkpatrick.)

And that’s it for our list this year. We pray the day will be long before we return to Carson City to gather material for the 2009 list.