The Olympian has this headline today:

Pay raise delay irks Gregoire

Gregoire was at The Olympian to talk to the editorial board Thursday. And in a town full of state employees, she of course was asked about pay raises in the budget approved by lawmakers last week. That budget delays raises for non-union state workers for two months after unionized employees get their increase.

That saves about $15 million a year. But lawmakers also saw it as a way to give union employees a benefit for their membership.

Gregoire told the paper she opposed the delay. And she used the parlance of the Capital to describe what happened when she tried to get the Legislature to see things her way:

"I got rolled," she said.

But Gregoire proposed the delay.

It was included in the budget proposal she unveiled in December. House Democrats supported the idea, too. The Senate Democratic budget would have given raises to all workers come July 1.

What Gregoire described to The Olympian sounds like a pre-emptive surrender on her part. She said she proposed the pay raise delay this year because she lost that fight last year:

"I knew I would get run over again. I got run over last time," she said Thursday. "So this time I inquired, 'Is this what's going to happen again?' And I was told bluntly, 'Yes.' So I decided I wasn't going to get into a dogfight over this one."

So maybe the writing was on the wall this year. But can you be irked when lawmakers adopt something that was included in your own budget? And how does that constitute being rolled?