After an entire legislative session of ducking and covering, Mitch Daniels now faces some tough questions from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle about his ability to put a state budget proposal (read: non-moving target) on the table. The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reports:

The majority legislative caucuses agree on one thing after another dismal month of revenues and a looming special session – it’s time for Gov. Mitch Daniels to step up and craft his own version of a two-year budget.

“I’ve invited the governor to tell us what his solution is because obviously we haven’t met his standards,” said Senate Appropriations Chairman Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville. “We need to hear more from him.”

House Speaker Pat Bauer, D-South Bend, agrees, saying “he needs to come out with a budget – not just vague references. Numbers, numbers, numbers. Then we can work on it from there.”

Daniels, meanwhile, has made no decisions on when the special session will happen or the course it will take.

“I still think the appropriate role is the one I adopted at the State of the State speech and every single day through Wednesday, which was to say ‘here is the boundary condition.’ We need to protect the reserves and leave the legislature the freedom, give them the respect, to impose their own priorities on it,” he said.

“But if they would prefer a more directive approach, then that is an option.”

The flurry of statements came Monday after Daniels announced state tax collections missed projections by $255 million in April.

Odd that the guy who, in a prior session, accused Democrats of “car-bombing” his legislative agenda suddenly has no legislative agenda. Could it be that he finds himself with no power to twist arms and thus no power to lead? Daniels, after all, has ever been one to diplomatically mete out compromises among all the players at the table.

Oh, and what happened to the talking points about how his financial genius put our state back on the right economic track? Not so long ago, we were an island of growth in the Midwest. Now he points to a downward arrow on a budget chart and pleads for fiscal responsibility? Sorry, Guv, but you can’t have it both ways.

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This Indianapolis Star headline says it all: “Daniels’ legislative winning streak ends.”

Gov. Mitch Daniels, known for hitting legislative home runs in his first four years in office, struck out this year.

He didn’t get any of the local government reforms he sought. Lawmakers failed to pass a budget — and even if they had, it wasn’t the budget he wanted. And his one parameter for an unemployment compensation fix — cuts in benefits — isn’t in the bill legislators passed.

Daniels, who in his first term liked to punctuate each legislative season with a scorecard showing his wins, didn’t bother Thursday when he met with reporters to reflect on the session’s carnage.

Asked about what he’d accomplished this session, Daniels said: “Well, we had the school discipline bill.”

That relatively minor bill, aimed at protecting teachers from frivolous lawsuits, hardly compares with the kind of success Daniels is used to, including the “Major Moves” Indiana Toll Road lease in 2006 and property tax reforms last year. Which is why Daniels immediately added that he didn’t “quarrel” with the poor assessment of this year’s session.

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Right before the 2008 general election, Gov. Mitch Daniels aired a television ad stating that he’d never run for another office.

He won in a landslide, but are his words coming back to haunt him?

Consider this: Before the legislative session, Daniels got on board with local government reform and continued to push the property tax caps he talked about during the campaign. With little to no success.

He’s been hiding under his desk on the big-ticket issues like the bankrupt unemployment insurance fund and Indiana’s ailing economy.

And last week, State Sen. Luke Kenley and other Republicans proposed a state budget that relies on about $2 billion in federal stimulus money. Daniels condemned it, but the GOP members did the political equivalent of shrugging their shoulders and walking off.

The fact of the matter, if you look at the evidence, is that Daniels is a self-basted lame duck. No one particularly cares what he thinks, and no one is paying any attention to his agenda.

He never developed any real leadership skills or political coattails during his first term: Why should anyone in either party give him the time of day?

The pundits already have turned their attention to 2012, so it looks like we’re in for four years of a Governor who just doesn’t matter.

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