Selling it HARD

The DFL Leadership in the House and the Senate (and their various media mouthpieces) are certainly working very hard to sell the "necessity" of a special session.

Political shifts, changes in personalities and the I-35W bridge collapse
effect have re-energized a group of east metro political leaders whose interest
is in our region's long-range transportation plan. We are glad the group, known
as the Eastern Transportation Alliance, is promoting a vision of how we will get
around today, tomorrow and a decade or two down the proverbial road.

"This is a turning point for us,'' state Sen. Kathy Saltzman, DFL-Woodbury,
told us last week.

"Are we going to be at the table? Or is that train going to pass right
by?"

Did you catch it? The "T" Word????

The Star Tribune just comes straight to the point with the headline "Legislators PLEAD for a special session"

Telling him it is time “to stop the word games,” House and Senate leaders
on Tuesday fired a salvo at Gov. Tim Pawlenty, imploring him to call a one-day
special legislative session for next week to deal with flood relief and
reconstruction of the collapsed I-35W bridge.

In the letter, House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher and Senate Majority
Leader Larry Pogemiller appear ready to drop the idea of a more
comprehensive special session to deal with larger issues like property tax
relief and a bonding bill and to focus exclusively on the two disasters
which struck the state in August. They also suggest they would consider
abandoning the idea of a gas tax increase, using $370 million in existing
funding to address disaster needs.

Emphasis is mine. That is what every conservative in the state KNEW the DFL was initially going for when the calls for a special session arose. There was talk of tying LGA for Minneapolis and St. Paul to flood relief funding in Winona! Now that the governor has "loosened" the purse strings (emergency or rainy day fund) now all of a sudden the Governor is the one coming to the rescue while the House and Senate DFL Leadership looks on - locked in partisan wrangling for more money for "the Cities". While they fight for more money for their shrinking constituencies, the outstate voters are seeing a Governor do what they are supposed to do lead!

As I said before, I saw the game that the Governor was playing. I was surprised that more "politically astute" people than I, didn't see trap and fell right into it. However I can not say that I am unhappy with the results. Well played Governor Pawlenty!