Less than a month ago, the Minnesota House and Senate looked poised to adjourn without passing any major pieces of legislation. Most notably, a bonding package and a Minnesota Vikings stadium appeared to be dead in the water.

If you hear political activists calling for change in the 2012 state House and Senate elections, you won’t be faulted for thinking that the rhetoric must be coming from DFLers. After all, Democrats lost control of both chambers in a 2010 election that saw a conservative tide roll across Minnesota and the rest of the country.

Ever since the latter days of the 2011 regular session, it was clear to lobbyists, staffers and other Capitol watchers that the main limitation on the ability of GOP legislative leaders to cut a budget deal was the hard line on spending adopted by numerous members of their freshman-dominated majority caucuses.

Nearly six months after DFL Gov. Mark Dayton and the Republican-controlled 87th Minnesota Legislature were sworn into office and set to work concocting the 2012-13 biennial budget, the state has crept inexorably toward a government shutdown whose scale and consequences remained unclear in important respects even after a Wednesday order from Ramsey County District Court Judge Kathleen Gearin.

In the closing days of the 2011 legislative session, Republican legislative leaders repeatedly stated that they were optimistic about reaching a solution to the state’s $5 billion budget deficit. “We can get this done,” said Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch with a week left in the session.

Around 4 o’clock last Saturday afternoon, the central drama of Session 2011’s closing days finally reared its head on the House floor. Shortly before the chamber recessed for dinner, GOP Rep. Mary Liz Holberg stood to announce the addition of a controversial constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage to the calendar for that evening’s proceedings.

Several high-profile Republican pet projects have faded amid a particularly contentious budget battle, including a repeal of the nuclear construction moratorium, pension reforms, corporate income tax cuts and slots at racetracks.

With a liberal Democrat in the governor’s office and a young crowd of firebrand conservatives in control of the state Legislature, a collision was bound to occur sooner or later.

Republican Rep. Steve Drazkowski and others say they have accepted the $34 billion number. But in their eyes, this means that they have already “compromised” on the budget — even if it’s only with other Republicans.

Just weeks after the party swept both chambers in last fall's historic election, then-House Speaker-elect Kurt Zellers and soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch took the podium at a press conference to announce the first-ever full slate of Republican committee chairs. Only one legislator - Rep. Mary Liz Holberg, the incoming chairwoman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee - joined the two leaders in front of the press to speak.