The annual frenzy continued last week in Room 35 of the State House.

The House Finance Committee on Wednesday unveiled and approved its 2010 budget, racing through two dozen complex budget articles that, in most cases, had been released to the public –– and to most committee members –– only minutes before the votes were cast. Lobbyists and members of the public scrambled for copies in the hallway outside the meeting room as the committee approved the proposals with little or no debate.

The chaotic hearing might have been far shorter if not for the presence of the outspoken Minority Leader Robert A. Watson.

“It’s asinine. It’s absurd. This is what breeds mistrust in the process, when they see such a rush to judgment,” he told Political Scene. “Frankly, these pieces, these articles are presented to the members literally at the same second it’s being moved and seconded. This is not the way to run a General Assembly.”

Finance Committee Chairman Steven M. Costantino later fired back: “The comments made by Leader Watson do a disservice to the Republican and Democratic members of the Finance Committee who spent hundreds of hours attending hearings in reviewing every aspect of the state budget. Leader Watson never came to a single hearing, and if he had watched them on TV, then he should have known the issues that were debated by the committee on Wednesday.”

Carcieri says lieutenant governor ‘grandstanding’

The political shots last week were not limited to the House Finance Committee.

Talk radio listeners got a treat when WPRO host John DePetro asked Governor Carcieri about Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts’ push to investigate a $370,000 payment by the administration to a consulting group with personal ties to a cabinet member.

“This is nothing more than, as far as I’m concerned, political grandstanding, getting face time,” Carcieri said.

“This is part of the problem. I’ve said for years now that we need to get real with the rest of the country and have the lieutenant governor on the same ticket with the governor. Most states either do that or don’t have a lieutenant governor.”

Carcieri continued: “Ladies and gentlemen, there is no job, there is no job, there is no responsibility for the lieutenant governor. You got a million-dollar budget to do nothing — except, I guess, run for governor and try and get face time.”

Roberts took the high road when asked to respond to the specific jabs.

“I called for an investigation of the actions already taken by the administration because the public has a fundamental right to know whether public funds have been spent in compliance with the principles of transparency, good government, law and regulation,” she told Political Scene in an e-mail.

Pat Robertson highlights R.I. stand on gay marriage

Carcieri made a slightly higher-profile media appearance last week as well.

Appearing on the Christian Broadcasting Network’s hit The 700 Club late Thursday night, the governor shared his thoughts on gay marriage.

The segment –– essentially a recap of Rhode Island’s position as the only New England state that has not legalized same-sex marriage –– opened with a statement from the show’s host, Pat Robertson: “Soon the nation’s smallest state could become a big voice in the national debate on marriage.”

In what was billed as an “exclusive interview” inside the governor’s office, a reporter spoke at length with Carcieri about his views on the subject, interspersing the sit-down footage with shots of tranquil Newport streets and sailboats and of a smiling Carcieri and his wife, Sue, walking around the State House.

“I don’t view us as isolated. I view us as frankly, right now, as probably where most of the nation is,” the governor told the network.

“[Carcieri], along with House Speaker William Murphy and Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin, have been credited for keeping gay marriage at bay in the Ocean State,” the reporter said.

Other local faces that appeared on the six-minute segment included Bishop Tobin; Rep. Jon D. Brien, D-Woonsocket, who opposes gay marriage; Sen. Charles Levesque, D-Portsmouth, an outspoken supporter of gay marriage; and Marion Orr, director of Brown University’s Taubman Center for Public Policy. There also was plenty of stock footage of Murphy.

The segment concluded with a hint of what may lie ahead: “For many Rhode Islanders, summer is beginning and such concerns are below the radar, but the political tides may be about to turn and the Ocean State could make an impact nationally on one of the most divisive issues of our day,” the reporter predicted.

But before it ended, Robertson, back in the studio, offered his own take: “I wish the Protestants and the evangelicals had the spine that the Catholics have. They stand up for these moral issues, and thank goodness for them. It’s amazing, the Protestants just don’t seem to unite as they should and the Catholics fight all these issues and they are outspoken, especially in defense of life. So anyhow, that’s the way it is in Rhode Island. It’s a tiny state.”

Assembly rejects popular-vote compact

In a sharp reversal from last year, state lawmakers have defeated a measure that would have allowed Rhode Island to join other states in a compact to scrap the Electoral College and commit presidential delegates to the winner of the national popular vote, regardless of who wins each particular state.

The House vote on Thursday was 28 for and 45 against, after protracted debate in which one legislator after another explained the reasons for his or her turnaround. While backers said the move would give tiny Rhode Island more relevance than it traditionally has had in the election of a president and vice president, opponents said the votes and voices of Rhode Islanders would get drowned out by the bigger states, and no major candidate would have reason to visit here again.

Last year, the Senate and House backed such a bill, which was eventually vetoed by the governor, who said the appropriate forum to change or eliminate the Electoral College would be by an amendment to the Constitution.

Operation Clean Government has new chief

An unsuccessful 2008 candidate for a South County seat in the Rhode Island House has taken over the reins of the citizens advocacy group Operation Clean Government.

Larry Valencia was elevated to the presidency after Arthur C. “Chuck” Barton III, an unsuccessful 2004 Republican congressional candidate, stepped down in mid-term.

An OCG statement said Barton, who is vice president of commercial lending at People’s United Bank in Norwich, Conn., resigned the presidency “to better fulfill his business and other volunteer commitments.”

A lobbyist for OCG who has hosted the group’s public-access cable TV show State of the State, Valencia describes himself as a freelance medical writer, part-time sales agent for Glacial Energy, in Sandwich, Mass., and longtime member of the Richmond Zoning Board who has chaired the Richmond Economic Development Commission and Home Rule Charter Commission and helped craft a new and recently approved Town Charter with recall and voter initiative provisions. Last fall, he narrowly lost a Democratic primary to Rod Driver, who ultimately captured the Dist. 39 House seat.

In Senate, an ethnic first

We couldn’t help but notice the unusual force with which Sen. Juan Pichardo banged the gavel last week. We later learned there was reason to be excited.

The Providence Democrat, who is the Senate’s deputy president pro tem, presided over much of the chamber’s brief session on Thursday.

The person who usually occupies that space, Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed, tapped us on the shoulder to note something historic was taking place: Never before had a Latino presided over the Rhode Island Senate.

Pichardo got a standing ovation after he banged the gavel to end the day’s official business.

“This represents a historic moment for all Rhode Islanders,” Pichardo, whose roots are in the Dominican Republic, told Political Scene once he stepped down from the rostrum. “As a Latino, it’s truly an honor.”

Labor leader Reback plays a different contract role

Marcia B. Reback, as president of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals, spends many hours at the State House, but she has never had occasion to be personally named in a bill.

But a piece of legislation passed last week by the House states: “Notwithstanding any other general or special law to the contrary, Marcia Reback may join Maureen G. Martin and Kevin W. Ryan in marriage within the Town of Narragansett, Rhode Island on or about August 1, 2009.”

Martin works for Reback as the political director of the teachers union.

Asked why she chose her boss to officiate at her wedding, the widowed Martin said she was dating but had not thought about remarrying until Reback one day said to her: “Maureen, you really need to think more seriously about this guy.” She said the words helped crystallize her own thoughts about Ryan, a retired Massachusetts police officer, though Reback says: “I am sure she knew he was a keeper without me telling her that.”

With House approval last week, the bill is now headed to the Senate, where it is unlikely to run into any roadblocks. In the interim, Reback said, she has been scouring the Internet for information on how to officiate at what she said will be the “most ecumenical wedding, Rhode Island has ever seen.”

cneedham@projo.com