The Democratic Leader stood in the Senate chamber last week begging for evidence that the Legislature needed to limit medical malpractice awards to $250,000.

He asked how many claims the state's insurers had paid in five years, and how much they had cost. He wondered why, if there is a crisis, South Carolina's malpractice insurance is the fourth cheapest in the nation. Land inquired whether anyone had researched how caps have affected consumer costs in other states.

He got no answers, sparked no debate. The deliberative body was not deliberating.

"They were like cows looking at a passing train," Land, D-Manning, said later. "It's horrid, it's callous. But I've been here long enough to know when the train is on the tracks. The Senate needs to be deliberative. I've never seen the Senate pass bad legislation when it took it's time."

These days, there are a lot of trains on the General Assembly's fast track.

It has long been the inside joke and the stark reality that not much happens in the first couple of months of the legislative session, especially in the Senate. For years, lawmakers have routinely clocked in sometime in mid-January and like Punxsutawney Phil, stuck their heads out closer to spring.

Not this year. The House traditionally works quickly, but, spurred by a variety of forces, the Senate also hit the ground running. Five weeks later, several pieces of major legislation have emerged from the Statehouse. For instance:

-- The Senate changed its rules to prevent one senator from holding up legislation indefinitely, something the upper chamber has resisted for years.

-- The House passed Gov. Mark Sanford's income tax reduction plan.

-- The Senate passed a primary seat belt bill.

-- Government restructuring legislation has moved out of the House and is set for Senate debate.

-- The House passed a controversial bill to create more charter schools.

-- The Senate is debating several bills to change liability laws; the House begins work on similar legislation this week.

Most lawmakers acknowledge that major issues are being fast-tracked this year, but they disagree on why, and whether it is a good thing. Some lawmakers say the Legislature is finally working as it should.

Sanford last week praised the Legislature for its work ethic and said "we would like to think" lawmakers are responding to the administration's nudges.

"We're hopeful a number of our agenda items will see passage early," Sanford said. "Ultimately, it's not very good for things to pass at the last minute, like those omnibus bills at the federal level that you get six hours before the vote and no one's read them but staff."

The speedy Legislature is not winning unanimous accolades, however. Some say the General Assembly has become an assembly line with little time to read bills, much less debate the finer points of law.

"Right now there are no traffic cops and all the lights are green," said state Rep. John Graham Altman, R-Charleston. "We're going to wake up this summer with a legislative hangover because unfortunately, Columbia is not Las Vegas. What happens here doesn't stay here."

The House has never been a chamber to let grass grow beneath it. Under Speaker David Wilkins, the House rarely dallies.

Wilkins, R-Greenville, said the House is running about normal, noting that in years past major legislation, such as welfare reform, was passed within the first two weeks of the session.

This year, the House also has the benefit of familiarity. In some ways, this year's session is a re-run of last year. Some of the House's votes have merely been to revive proposals they approved last year.

"All the major legislation we've passed this year -- government restructuring, the income tax reduction -- we passed last year, too," said state Rep. Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston. "All these bills died in the Senate."

While many of the bills the House has passed are, indeed, identical to versions that won approval last year, some Democrats still claim they've had several issues rammed down their throats. In some cases, the Republican majority has shut off debate before the Democrats were ready. Such is the luxury of the ruling party.

Across the hall, the Senate is struggling with a new world order. On the first day of session, senators changed long-standing rules that limit the amount of time a single person can hold up legislation. Last year, President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell almost single-handedly stopped primary seat-belt legislation.

Still, McConnell led the charge to change the rules, which overjoyed the governor. Sanford had made that one of his top legislative priorities after most of his agenda died on the upper chamber's bloated calendar.

McConnell said the perception that the Legislature is working faster this year is a direct result of the rule changes.

"The calendar is smaller and things are moving faster," McConnell, R-Charleston, said. "People are reluctant to hold things up, no question about it. It's forcing them to work out their problems."

Or, it is emboldening the side with the upper hand to take charge with no thought to compromise. Land says he would love to do something to help doctors, short of limiting the money people can collect for major medical mistakes. But no one will listen, he says -- in fact, no one will even ask a question, much less answer one.

"This bill has not been researched," Land says. "If this is about doing something for the doctors, there are about a zillion things we could do. But they want these caps. The Senate rule changes were for this, and the rules should not be changed for one person or one issue."