The most avid enemies of government might have had occasion for their own private home-bound endzone dances today only to get short circuited in the end by a senate session which dogged it out to finish the mission despite all early indicators of a virtual no-survivors train-wreck.

Even in times of crisis, government gets the job done, seemed to be the (very garbled) final statement od the session, and a frightening reversal of fortunes for those hopeful of an NJ legislative slow down amid a nearly crashing national halt of the private sector.

In a session fraught with mostly senior citizen senators forced by COVID-19 into communicating via mysterious millennial devices, the Senate this afternoon by a vote of 30-2 passed S-2333, which would provide immunity from civil and criminal liability for certain malpractice claims alleging injury or death incurred during the public health emergency and state of emergency declared by the Governor’s Executive Order 103 of 2020, issued on March 9, 2020.

The bill would also authorize temporary re-instatement and re-certification of certain professional certifications.

Gathering remotely, the senators sounded like bomber pilots in a grainy, black and white WWII picture starring Robert Taylor as Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-3).

The session itself proved a minor disaster, even if the ingenuity required to even get it off the ground showed sticky bomb grit and tenacity. The amount of effort staff went through to educate members, the public, to get the bills out there in the public was evident and in a sense, the result was more openness in this process than 30 years ago, as technology – damn it – allows for a level of communication that increases transparency, including audible yes and no votes from senators.

But the process itself was comical, or at least exceedingly human – not necessarily in the worst sense.

Every so often, the radio transmission of one of the pilots would crackle into oblivion, leaving the impression of a mission casualty.

“We all miss each other; we’d love to be on the floor right now,” admitted state Senator Steve Oroho (R-24), attempting to make the most of the weird confab.

It provided at least one example, too, of Sweeney getting tough with the caucus, and lowering his boot heel on his mostly already muffled but also at times incoherently mumbling minions out there in virtual state senate world.

The rumpus started when state Senator Nia Gill (D-34) objected to the bill.

“This bill is far outside the governor’s emergency order and far outside Cuomo’s emergency order,” she said. “This bill would give immunity to doctors treating patients.”

Sweeney attempted on several occasions to hand off to his colleague, Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr. (R-23), whose supposed explanations mostly consisted of terse expressions, as if he was too locked in on the bomb run to bother with radio static, while Sweeney at times sounded self-muzzled amid general caucus angst.

“We get the bills on Friday; we have no public input on this bill,” Gill complained.

Sweeney pulled the plug on her finally, or seemed to, as the Essex senator suddenly went silent along with the rest of the din coming through the phone lines of likely mostly quarantined senate stars and staff.

“Senator, I have the floor now,” said Sweeney, out of nowhere playing the heavy in the name of statehouse protocol (in the absence of an actual statehouse). “We still have to respect the rules of the house. I muted everyone.  We are in a public health crisis right now.”

Then state Senator Bob Smith (D-17) sounded on the intercom, like the voice on top of the telephone pole in the old MASH TV series.

“I don’t believe there’s anything nefarious in this bill,” declared Smith. “I received a call from a retired judge. His daughter was and is a pediatric anesthesiologist.”

He went on with the surreal quality of an anonymous orator speaking to a Korean War medical unit.

State Senator Ronald Rice (D-28) jumped in next.

“I want to say this,” he announced. “I hear what Senator Smith is saying but senator Gill raised questions. Someone should have recognized she should have had more input. For the record, I can’t vote for the bill . I’ll be abstaining.”

State Senator Mike Doherty (R-23) likewise abstained.

“Risk is being reallocated at the expense of our constituents. I’m really concerned about that; changing rules in the midde of the game,” said the Warren-based Republican. “I have a problem giving blanket immunity to hospitals. You’re putting all the liability on the patient.”

Oroho resisted.

“Let’s err on the side of saving not losing life,” he said, offering a yes vote.

Senator Joe Vitale joined Gill with a no vote, while a few others, state Senator Linda Greenstein (D-14) and state Senator Shirley Turner (D-15) among them, abstained along with Rice and Doherty, as the senators completed the session, which despite its apocalyptic COVID-19 overtones, still managed to finish with a flourish that was more Joseph Heller than straight out hellish.

For his part, Doherty was quick to celebrate the virtual session.

“I thought it really was efficient,” he said. “I was almost thinking this can be better than a regular session, until we got to the last bill.”