If a good night's sleep dulled the edges on Governor Chris Gregoire's newfound feistiness, you wouldn't know it from the post-budget press availability she held today. "I think I have been as angry as I've ever been," recalled Gregoire about the final frustrating days of the regular legislative session and the even more frustrating special-session-and-an-all-nighter that followed.

If only Gregoire had embraced her inner crankiness a little sooner.

While she tended to shy away from the four-letter words, for the most part Gregoire's budget recap didn't differ all that much from mine. According to Gregoire, Dems pretty much got the budget they wanted, with no further cuts to K-12, higher education, or health and disability care, a budget she noted that Republicans weren't too unhappy to vote for either. "They were all tired of cutting," said Gregoire pointing toward the final 44-2 Senate tally.

In return, says Gregoire, the Republicans got some more "reforms," if not all that they wanted. In addition to the debt limit constitutional amendment and the repeal of I-728, both of which were agreed to early in the regular session, the legislature passed three additional reform measures in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, none of which she seemed all too thrilled about.

Gregoire was clearly skeptical of efforts to mandate a 4-year balanced budget. "No state, no company has a 4-year balanced budget," she explained, so instead she focused on forcing a compromise on "something that was workable and doable." The result was a bill (rather than the constitutional amendment GOPers wanted) that essentially sticks with two-year budgeting, but bases it on four-year forecasts. Whatever that achieves.

On the Republicans' efforts to engineer a state takeover of K-12 health insurance plans, Gregoire was perhaps more generous on the policy side, but less so on the politics. She agreed that parity and cost were important issues, but pretty much shrugged off the Republican proposal as politically impossible. Instead we got a watered down version that collects data on K-12 health insurance in the service of possibly pursuing further reforms at a later date.

Finally on the bill slashing early retirement benefits for state workers, the one reform proposal GOPers pretty much got in its entirety, Gregoire seemed a little peeved at Republican priorities, repeatedly pointing out that Washington was already ranked near the top in the nation in terms of a sustainable public pension system.

"I have heard that we should have no better than the private sector," said Gregoire referring to the standard Republican complaint that government retirees have it too good, "but I have not heard lets also have salaries like we have in the private sector."

"If we're not careful, we will not have the capacity to attract and retain the best and the brightest," warned Gregoire. "Shame on us."

What would Gregoire have done different? Well, raise a chunk of new revenue for one. "I think we should have put a down payment on McCleary," explained Gregoire, referencing the recent state Supreme Court opinion that found Washington was failing to meet its paramount duty to fund basic education. "We've got the roadmap of what to do, we don't have a dime to pay for it," continued Gregoire bluntly.

And in possibly the only news-making answer of the day, Gregoire indicated that she would mostly likely veto a few items in the budget. "I'm sure there are things in there that I will veto," she responded without hesitation. For example? "I want more money in the ending fund balance."

At times I've been as frustrated with the governor as she has been with legislators. But I think I might even miss Cranky Gregoire.