The 2008 Hawai'i Legislature pulls out of the station today with both expectations and prospects held to a modest level.

When these 76 ambitious, skillful and engaged folks get together, the potential for explosive action is always there. But the realities of a diminished state budget and a form of political detente between the Republican governor and the Democrat-controlled Legislature suggest otherwise.

And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Great expectations often lead to great disappointments. Overzealous ambition gets in the way of less glamorous but often more productive incremental progress.

Politicians do not like to campaign on a record that is best described as "workmanlike." They prefer adjectives such as "groundbreaking" or "innovative" or perhaps even "thrilling." But face it: Thrilling's great, but there's nothing wrong with workmanlike.

And if that's what times and conditions call for, so be it.

On the budget front, lawmakers are caught in a vise. They wrote a budget last year based on projections from the state Council on Revenues that turned out to be a little optimistic based on today's economic climate.

As a result, the money last year's lawmakers expected falls a bit short of the mark. In practical terms, there will be less than anticipated for the budget already in place (read that as at least some mild spending restrictions by Gov. Linda Lingle) and fewer dollars to throw at new programs and projects.

Result: incremental changes and tinkering as opposed to broad new initiatives.

The second factor is that detente between Lingle and the Democrats. The two sides have recognized there is little political profit in open warfare. Instead, as Lingle is fond of saying, they have come to broad agreement on the major issues facing Hawai'i (homelessness, a sustainable economy and so forth) and are now just working on ways to deal with those issues.

This translates into fewer political fireworks and more quiet work on compromise solutions that can be sold to both a popular Republican governor and a feisty Democratic Legislature.

Result: again, incremental steps and a focus on the less headline-grabbing but more achievable middle ground.

And that's just fine. If only voters will remember that "workmanlike" is worthy of reward come election time.

Jerry Burris' column appears Wednesdays in this space. See his blog at blogs.honoluluadvertiser.com/akamaipolitics. Reach him at jrryburris@yahoo.com.