Don't blame Huntsman and some of his staff if they are flashing an inordinate number of smirks. They pulled off a sting that would make Paul Newman and Robert Redford proud.

How did Huntsman get the Legislature to flip on a bill allocating $30 million over four years for volunteer all-day kindergarten in Title I schools?

Here's a clue: He made a deal with legislative leaders that if they finally gave him all-day kindergarten, seen previously as forbidden fruit denied the governor in past years, he would sign off on their bill to remove much of the oversight of EnergySolutions' nuclear waste operation.

The Legislature fulfilled its part of the Faustian bargain, but Huntsman reciprocated with only a half-baked gesture, then said he would lobby a federally backed waste-control compact to enforce the same restrictions on EnergySolutions that the legislation seemed to eliminate.

All-day kindergarten was one of Huntsman's top priorities this year. But two-thirds of the way into the legislative session, the bill seemed dead on arrival, languishing in the Senate Education Committee for 29 days. Huntsman's request for $7.5 million annually to pay for the program was not even on the Legislature's funding priority list.

Then everything changed overnight. The bill was brought up on Feb. 13 and Education Committee Chair Margaret Dayton, R-Orem, took a predictable crack at it, calling all-day kindergarten a government baby-sitting plan that takes tots away from their parents too early. A majority of legislators seemed to share her views, since they had scotched similar bills in previous sessions.

But Senate Majority Leader Curtis Bramble, R-Provo, a previously vigorous opponent of all-day kindergarten, was absent that day. Another former foe, Sen. Darin Peterson, R-Nephi, suddenly and surprisingly switched his position and voted for it. That was enough to pass the bill out of the committee with a favorable recommendation, 4-3.

The bill passed the Senate 22-7, on Feb. 19, with Peterson standing up on the Senate floor and publicly apologizing to Dayton for his switch, before again voting aye. During the floor debate, Bramble appeared to have seen the burning bush and said he decided it was a good thing after all.

Peterson, by the way, was the sponsor of SB155, the legislation to remove oversight of EnergySolutions operations by the governor, the Legislature and locally elected officials. And Bramble has always been a strong ally of the hazardous- and radioactive-waste company.

That bill passed both houses with veto-proof majorities and Huntsman, who consistently has said he opposes expansion of nuclear waste in Utah, was lobbied heavily by constituents to veto the bill. Legislative leaders did not want a veto, even if they had the votes to override. Better to share responsibility for the controversial law with a popular governor than to shoulder it alone.

The all-day kindergarten bill passed the House on the second-to-last day of the session. After the session ended, Huntsman announced he would allow the EnergySolutions bill to become law without his signature, surprising legislators who had expected him to sign it. He then said he would ask the Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-level Radioactive Waste to help cap the amount of waste allowed in Utah.

Sources close to legislative leadership and the governor's office have confirmed that the all-day kindergarten bill passed because of assurances that Huntsman wouldn't veto the EnergySolutions bill. But these sources insisted on remaining anonymous.

Nobody wants to own this baby.