Strib calls shutdown ‘national spectacle of partisan gridlock’

MORNING EDITION

Prepare yourself for more shutdown-related info than you can probably stand.  Baird Helgeson of the Star Tribune writes: “Across the vast enterprise of state government, agency heads are scrambling to come up with closure plans. State leaders have no real playbook for blinking off such an enormous government machine, so they must wade into an array of wrenching decisions and legal scuffles, knowing they risk turning Minnesota into a national spectacle of partisan gridlock. ‘We the citizens will lose immeasurably,’ said former Gov. Arne Carlson, adding that Minnesota could become a test case for a wave of shutdowns in politically deadlocked states. ‘It raises serious questions about where America is going and where Minnesota is going.’ “

There will, of course, be no shutdown impact on the Legislature’s signature accomplishment this year — the constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Eric Roper of the Strib says: “A May Star Tribune poll showed 55 percent of Minnesotans oppose the marriage amendment. ‘If proponents of same-sex marriage actually believed the polls that they keep trotting out, they should welcome a vote,’ shot back Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage, a group based in Washington. Brown registered as a lobbyist in Minnesota last month to push for the amendment. National Organization for Marriage is part of the coalition supporting the measure, known as Minnesota for Marriage, which includes the Minnesota Family Council and the Minnesota Catholic Conference. While gay marriage is already banned in Minnesota, supporters say passage of the amendment would block legislative efforts to change the law. For Minnesotans United for All Families, organizing began the moment the amendment passed, using platforms like Facebook.”

Winona Daily News editor Darrell Ehrlick takes a look at a couple of southeast Minnesota legislators who strike him as less rigid than others. He includes freshman GOP Sen. John Howe, who was so indignant about the state GOP’s long-overdue bill to several Minnesota counties for recount work that he threw in $250 of his own money to help pay it off. Says Ehrlick: “Howe, along with the party, seems to be toeing a hard line against increasing income tax. ‘With the population getting older, income tax isn’t stable,’ Howe said. ‘But I think we can look at broadening sales tax to raise some funds, as well as keeping things like food, medicine and clothing tax-free.’ Howe also expressed some discomfort about the GOP’s $34 billion budget. The keyword contained within, of course, being ‘budge.’ Republican legislators say they’re unwilling to consider a budget that is more than $34 billion. Howe can’t help but wonder if it was a good strategy to draw a $34 billion line in the sand. ‘We boxed ourselves in,’ Howe said. Don’t fool yourself: There’s still plenty of rancor and puffery going on at the Capitol. Still, despite the nonsense, there remain pockets of sanity, cooperation and precious middle ground.” … Precious little.

FYI: The Great River Park is now a “Passage.” Frederick Melo of the PiPress previews this week’s unveiling of the master plan for the Mississippi through St. Paul: “Some items are bound to generate more discussion than others. Among them, parks officials hope to someday see the speed limit on Shepard Road dropped from 50 mph to 35 mph, enabling them to turn the road into a four-lane parkway, with more pedestrian crossings and better linkages from the West Seventh Street neighborhood to the river trails. Lanes would be narrowed and trees added, increasing travel times between downtown and the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport by no more than two minutes, according to Parks and Rec landscape architect Don Ganje. That’s assuming, of course, a little luck catching all the traffic lights. But why bother unveiling such a grandiose vision while lawmakers grapple with a $5 billion state budget deficit and the looming possibility of government shutdown? St. Paul Parks and Recreation Director Mike Hahm said long-term plans enable city officials to jump on opportunities — such as the decommissioned Island Station power plant, which is now on the market — as they become available, instead of mulling over the potential uses under the gun as land sales and building sales arise.”

On the Strib’s “Hot Dish Politics” blog, Bob von Sternberg takes note of the Wall Street Journal (editorial page’s) interview with Michele Bachmann. Says von Sternberg: “Conducted by Stephen Moore, a member of the Journal’s editorial board and onetime head of the rabidly anti-tax Club for Growth, the interview is notable in part for the fact that it manages to misspell her first name. The interview, published two days before Bachmann will participate in a GOP presidential debate with the party’s other aspirants, has some notable one-liners. She says her Democratic opponents consider her a ‘she-devil.’ Asked what kind of job former Gov. Tim Pawlenty (and likely presidential rival) did, she answered, ‘I really don’t want to comment.’ Asked about her intellectual bona fides, she replied, ‘when I go on vacation and I lay on the beach, I bring von Mises,’ referring to the economist who’s a spiritual touchstone for libertarians and Tea Partiers.” Really? Von Mises? I always imagined her with the graphic novel of “Atlas Shrugged.”

Bill Salisbury of the PiPress re-sets the Bachmann story prior to tonight’s debate face-off with T-Paw and other GOP “candidates”: “Ron Carey, Bachmann’s former chief of staff and a former state Republican Party chairman, said she is probably the most popular Republican in Minnesota but lacks the skills needed to win the election or serve effectively as president. ‘You can love Michele and her rhetoric and positions, and I agree with her 99 percent of the time on policy issues,’ Carey said. ‘But that doesn’t mean I’m going to support her. Just being right on policy issues doesn’t qualify you to be president.’ Based on his experience with her, he said, Bachmann lacks the knowledge and qualifications to do the job. ‘That doesn’t mean she’s a bad person. She’s simply not prepared to handle that level of responsibility.’ “

From D.C., Kevin Diaz of the Strib serves up a review of Our Favorite Congresswoman’s career to date. Among the classic moments you may have forgotten in all the recent commotion … Bachmann and other parents started New Heights, a Stillwater K-12 charter school where Bachmann, as board director, was accused of attempting to inject her version of Christianity into the curriculum. She ended the dispute by resigning from the board amid a packed public hearing. Stephens, a leader of an opposing group of parents, said Bachmann told a teacher she couldn’t show the Disney movie ‘Aladdin’ because it depicted magic. She said Bachmann also told a teacher not to let students make Native American dreamcatchers because they were part of a pagan religion. ‘She very much had a vision, she felt it was the right vision, and she was going to ramrod it through regardless of what anyone else wanted,’ said [Denise] Stephens, a longtime Republican who has turned independent.”

Not “fake” you understand, just a “placeholder.” Doris Hajewski of the Milwaukee Sentinel Journal says Wisconsin Democrats will not run completely fake candidates in this year’s recall races. “Republicans admitted last week that they will run fake Democrats in an effort to force primary runoffs in the six recalls targeting Republican senators. The primaries would be July 12. The Republicans want to force the primaries in those races so that the general elections are held in August, giving incumbent GOP senators more time to campaign after the state budget is adopted next week. Michael Tate, chairman of the state Democratic Party, said in a statement that his party won’t match the GOP’s strategy. But he said his party intends to force primaries in the six recalls of Republicans by running two Democrats in each of them — one legitimate and the other a ‘placeholder’ who will not actively campaign. The move aims to guarantee that all of the general elections in those races will be held in August, regardless of which races the Republicans run candidates as Democrats.”

An editorial in Madison’s Capitol Times says of the “fake candidate” controversy: “Democratic Party leaders seem to be rejecting this suggestion. And rightly so. Any mimicking of the GOP by the Democrats would be a very bad mistake. [Liberal activist group] We Are Wisconsin’s reference to the GOP tactics as ‘despicable’ is appropriate. The Republicans have placed themselves in a vulnerable position by openly embracing a strategy designed to confuse voters, force up campaign costs and delay the recall process. They should be called out, condemned and shamed for their corrupt practices. They should not be imitated. Indeed, imitating the Republicans in this instance would pull the Democrats — who have the moral high ground — into the GOP gutter. That’s exactly where the Republicans want the Democrats to go. Then independent voters, who are trending toward the Democrats, might simply give up on both parties.