... you can criticize them for not achieving bipartisanship, but that analysis has to be deeper than "the votes were all party-line, so the DFL failed".

The real measure is whether or not the DFL made legitimate, reasonable attempts to achieve bipartisan results and were rebuffed. I would argue there's a mixed bag there, depending on the particular issue you're looking at.

Take sales tax reform. There's been fairly broad agreement outside the legislature among policy wonks...

The post is not meant as an endorsement of Ortman.

The larger point of the post is that for no women to be among the commonly mentioned GOP candidates for governor represents a lack of imagination among Republican operatives.

Regardless of what one thinks about Ortman's ideology, her legislative history and credentials are comparable to the male prospective GOP candidates mentioned in the original article, and she could credibly be a better candidate than some in that article...

We've only been talking about building a Vikings stadium for, what, a decade or so? The e-pulltab plan was introduced as legislation two months before the final votes on the floor, and the e-pulltab revenue estimates were released in November 2011, some six months before the final vote. The notion that this was somehow rushed is absurd.

That said, the Vikings stadium debate (as all of them have been) are exercises in political cowardice. Few legislators want to be considered the...

...they paid $150 million for the refinery, supposedly spent $100 million to upgrade the refinery, and have lost $160 million in the first two quarters of operation of the refinery. Not to mention the hasty departure of the executive responsible for the deal in the first place.

It makes one wonder why an airline would be able to do a better job running a refinery that the refining company that used to own it. They might be able to work it out in the long run, but it's not looking...