It's a fact that in a 140-day session, a lot of bills (some good, many not so good) fail to make it to the floor of one chamber or the other for a vote. Despite some encouraging successes on the get-smart-on-crime front, Scott reports on some bills that suffered a lamentable death.

(On the political end of things, we should all note some changes in thinking on the right concerning crime and punishment. I don't know that I'd agree with everything presented at the conference Scott writes about, but there's no doubt that I like the general direction of the conversation. Democrats need to pay attention to this. We got caught off guard 30 years ago with the tuff-on-crime wave and paid a big price for it at the ballot box. The party's rhetoric has changed in many ways as a response to this, not all for the good. I think these guys are ahead of the curve, but not by that much. All I'm saying is let's not make the same mistake again.)

On the other hand, as I said some bills are better off dead. You take the good with the bad.