The dog ate my homework

What if they gave a tea party and nobody came?

That's the essence of the story at yesterday's dud of a hearing on proposed ballot questions to rollback the sales and alcohol taxes.

Even less impressive than the turnout was the excuse offered by anti-tax activist and perennial candidate Carla Howell that lawmakers broke the law and didn't notify her about the hearing.

“A reasonable person would assume that they would notify you,” said Howell, who said she didn’t attend the hearing because she didn’t know about it. “They are supposed to set up a meeting with the sponsoring committee and lawmakers.”

Committee chairman Jay Kaufman says lawmakers posted public notice in a timely fashion. More importantly, Howell makes the usual mistake that anyone does when they "assume" and don't take important matters into their own hands.

Maybe the person who was supposed to give Howell her personal invitation was laid off.