After being paid roughly $80,000 for 20 months of work, state House Historian Ann Lassiter produced one completed report -- a 23-page history of the speaker's office that is filled with grammatical errors and makes factual blunders.

The man who commissioned it, former House Speaker Jim Black, declined to release it because he thought it was so poorly done. His successor, House Speaker Joe Hackney, decided Friday that it should be made public. Hackney also released four draft documents Lassiter produced that range from two to 19 pages. They were supposed to be part of a more comprehensive history of the House.

"It looked like it was a product produced with public money and its only possible use, if any, is for the public to read," said Hackney, an Orange County Democrat. "So there you have it."

Hackney, in his third day on the job, declined to comment on whether the public's money was well spent. One lawmaker who had requested the report's release said it represented a "ridiculous" waste of taxpayer money.

"You've got to be kidding me that this is what we get after two years of work," said Rep. John Blust, a Greensboro Republican.

Black quietly made Lassiter, 61, of Apex, the House's first historian in May 2005 after she had gotten into trouble serving as the House page coordinator. She had sent teenage pages to stay with her son, a felon with a history of drug and alcohol abuse. The historian job ended Dec. 31.

Lassiter has no college degree and no training as a historian.

The bound report is now on file at the Legislative Library. It consists of one-page descriptions of the House speakers who served from 1963 through 2006. For some, it's mostly biographical data, though Lassiter provides historical context for others. She characterizes Black as "a soft-spoken man [who] has accomplished a political power that ranks with other noteworthy powerful leaders in North Carolina's history."

She reports that Black and Republican Rep. Richard Morgan became co-speakers in 2003 in a one-vote victory, when in fact the margin was much greater, 89-31. She also erred about Liston Ramsey's tenure as House speaker, and has him serving in the chamber in 2003. Ramsey died two years earlier, which she correctly noted.

She opened her report with one of the most cynical lyrics in music history: "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss." It's from The Who's 35-year-old hit "Won't Get Fooled Again."

The conclusion is equally bitter.

"When Edward Durell Stone was commissioned to design this [legislative] building I am sure he had no idea of the workings of the legislature. He was out to accomplish something grand, beautiful, a work of art that would serve a purpose. That beauty has long been destroyed by politics," Lassiter wrote.

In a telephone interview Friday, Lassiter defended taking the House historian job. The state Senate has no such position.

"If you are offered a job making $50,000 a year that happens to have had limited responsibilities, is it your fault for accepting it?" she said. "How many of your readers would have done the same?"

Former Rep. Bill Culpepper, an Edenton Democrat who served as Black's powerful Rules Committee chairman, said in December that he pitched the historian job to Black after asking Lassiter what kind of work she would like to do after her removal from the page program, which he supervised. Culpepper could not be reached for comment Friday.

Black, a Mecklenburg County Democrat, said Friday that he had expected more from Lassiter and was "distressed" at what she produced. But he defended his decision to create the position.

"I still think that it is important to keep up the history of the House for people who are interested in it," Black said.

Black said he would leave it to Hackney to decide whether to continue with the position.

House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman, a Lexington Democrat, said that was unlikely.

"I don't think it'll be on anybody's agenda," Holliman said.