Today is the last recess day for the 25th state Legislature. Legislators are supposed to use the recess to go back to their communities to tell voters what they did, what they hope to do and how it is going.

Some did that, some didn't—but I am willing to bet that few among the 76 return to work tomorrow thinking they are driving off a cliff. They might want to check their GPS.

In nine months the state will elect a new Legislature and from the rumblings outside the Capitol, there are indications that 2010 could be a year of replacement, not retrenchment.

Three months is a lifetime in politics: Who a year ago thought that the bright and shiny Obama administration would be forced in February to refight the health care battle, a stimulus bill for jobs and the nation's role in Afghanistan? Or that the vocal right-wing of the Republican Party would give legitimacy to the Tea Party conservatives?

Or that the governor, the Legislature and the school board would not be able to convince the teachers union to halt the Furlough Fridays and allow school children back in the classroom?

Remember the 10,000-plus who showed up to protest the proposed civil unions bill: Are they happy with the bill being bottled up, or do they want a new bunch running the Legislature?

Who would imagine that the Legislature would accept a 36 percent pay raise without a public hearing, or that Gov. Linda Lingle would balance the state budget by pushing tax refunds into a new fiscal year and taking the hotel tax away from the counties? Those actions mean the next governor starts off $275 million in the hole and the counties need $100 million for parks and police.

Will the public shrug and say “;No can help”; if the Democrats raise taxes across the board to balance the books?

So far, this year's Democrat-dominated Legislature has marked a pattern of twitching back and forth without staking out a position on taxes or spending cuts.

The big overhaul in government does not appear to be in the offing, nor does any serious restructuring of taxes.

“;They won't move forward, they won't move back—so they will continue to get hit, because they are sitting ducks,”; said one legislative observer.

That is where the fall election comes in. Not even Hawaii's diminutive GOP will be able to ignore a vacuum as large as the one presented by this year's Legislature.

It may not be a full-blown Tea Party, but this year's Legislature may be brewing up more than mamaki and Chai.