HELENA -- An hour before the final gavel fell Friday at Montana's Legislature, Democratic Rep. Bob Bergren of Havre rose from his seat on the floor to query Republican House Speaker Scott Sales.

His voice rising with tension, Bergren asked why two bills were not on the final day's agenda for a vote, as he had expected they would be.

"It is your duty to put those bills on second reading," Bergren said. "I'm just asking you to go by the rules."

Sales, who's weathered his share of animosity this session, said hold your fire.

He hadn't meant to keep the bills off the agenda, he replied, and their omission was a mistake. After a four-minute break, the error was corrected, the House voted on the bills, and members went on to their final speeches and ultimate departure.

In any other session, such a mistake would have been a mere hiccup in the day's proceedings. But at this session, it almost became a confrontation, indicating the near total breakdown of trust between the two political parties.

It was this breakdown that led to the bitter end of the session Friday. In a hail of partisan finger-pointing, lawmakers left town without completing a state budget, without funding public schools, without approving any tax reductions or rebates.

This monumental failure, which occurred despite the fact lawmakers had $1 billion in surplus funds at their disposal, means they must return to Helena in the next two months and finish the job, since the state and schools can't operate this year or next without a budget.

There's more than enough blame to go around for this debacle. But one can't ignore the clear failure in political leadership.

From Gov. Brian Schweitzer on down, leaders at the Legislature often displayed a confounding combination of inexperience and arrogance that torpedoed any hope of needed compromise in our closely divided Legislature.

Schweitzer and his allies in the Democrat-controlled Senate pushed his agenda, as expected: A budget that increased state spending by more than 20 percent over two years, a $400-per-household tax rebate for Montana homeowners, and tougher tax collection efforts aimed at businesses and nonresident taxpayers.

They upped the ante on the rebate to $600 in the closing days, in response to Republican calls for more tax relief. But when it came to what the Republicans really wanted-- across-the-board property tax cuts for all property owners -- they offered basically nothing.

They simply tried to shove Republicans' requests aside and expect them to roll over and accept most of the Democrats' plans. When Republicans effectively control a 51-49 majority in the House, that sort of strategy is bound to fail.

Schweitzer also indulged in what Republicans saw as cheap political stunts, like using an amendatory veto to stuff his stream-access proposal into a Republican's bill, which then went nowhere. Not exactly the way to win friends or votes.

On the Republican side, leadership was equally lacking.

House Republican leaders engaged in autocratic, quasi-secret maneuvers that enraged Democrats, such as breaking up the major budget bill into pieces and attempting to resurrect the original budget bill on the final day of the session.

One of these maneuvers seemed more odd than offensive.

The key spending and tax bills, which had to pass if a final resolution was to occur, were in the hands of the Republican-controlled House two weeks ago. But Sales refused even to allow these bills to go a House-Senate conference committee, where work on a compromise could begin.

Republicans would lose no political or procedural advantage by sending the bills to conference committee. They could have killed or blocked any changes to the bills they didn't like. Instead, they simply wasted valuable time that could have been used to see if a deal could be struck.

And, of course, there was House Republican Majority Leader Michael Lange's profane tirade last week against the governor, coming just 90 minutes after Schweitzer and top staffers thought they had struck a potentially session-ending deal with Lange and Republicans.

House Minority Leader John Parker, D-Great Falls, alluded to these and other incidents in his closing comments Friday, not long after Bergren and Sales had nearly gotten into it over an honest mistake.

"There are a lot of good people on your side of the aisle," he said to Republicans. "I call on all of you ... to set the tricks and maneuvers aside. You're better people than that. ... Let's have good people come together like they can. Let's put honor on the table instead of games."

Let's hope Parker, his fellow Democrats, the governor and Republicans can take those words to heart when the special session convenes.