Aug 12 They'll Never Learn

The last couple of legislative sessions, Gov. Tim Pawlenty has totally schooled Sen. Larry Pogemiller and Margaret Anderson-Kelliher. The Dynamic Duo recently invited Gov. Pawlenty to a summit to discuss legislative solutions. Last night, Gov. Pawlenty responded:

Thank you for your recent letter regarding plans for a "Minnesota Leadership Summit" in early September.

My Administration and I are declining to participate in your summit. As we have witnessed over the past year, DFL legislators have done a thorough job of admiring our state's budget difficulties, but have refused or been unable to take action to address them.

The state already has an annual "Minnesota Leadership Summit." It's called the legislative session and it lasts approximately five months. This past year, rather than taking timely and decisive action to deal with our budget deficit, the Legislature's DFL leadership wasted the first few months of the session. Passage of your final budget bills in the last few minutes before midnight on the final day of the session was indicative of how you managed the situation.

Rather than calling together former legislators and governors to rehash already established concerns, the Legislature's time would be better spent coming up with reasonable solutions, negotiating with my Administration and having them signed into law.

Gov. Pawlenty's line that there's already an annual "Minnesota Leadership Summit" is priceless. It's the perfect reminder that there's a lack of DFL leadership in St. Paul. (Perhaps that, along with having to work with Sen. Pogemiller, is what drove Tarryl into the CD-6 race?)

The reality is that the DFL hasn't had any new ideas in years. The fact that they keep pushing tax increases while touting the fact that there are 19 Fortune 500 companies in Minnesota rings hollow. People know that the headquarters are still here buy the manufacturing parts have left. People know that VitalMedix left because the DFL leadership refused to pass Keith Downey's proposal as a standalone bill.

Speaker Kelliher had the roughest year of her time of her speakership last year. She seamed to wear down towards the end of the session, perhaps because of the discord amongst her legislators. (Reps. Pelowski and Poppe refused to walk the plank for Speaker Kelliher on the Tax Bill this year.)

Gov. Pawlenty offered numerous reform proposals, each of which was shot down by the DFL shot down. I'm glad that Gov. Pawlenty didn't give them the time of day because the only thing it would've 'accomplished' was that it would've legitimized Speaker Kelliher and Sen. Pogemiller as statesmen to John Q. Public.

They don't deserve that after the stunts that they've tried pulling this session. It's time Gov. Pawlenty exposed them as lacking the requisite leadership skills to run Minnesota's legislature.

Comments welcome at LFR.