Don't make Pawlenty a fall guy

[TygrBright]

OK, here's the deal. I was born and raised in Minnesota. I used to commute regularly across the I-35W bridge. I remember when it was built, when the eminent domain catfights for the I-35 corridor were an ongoing news story, with neighborhood protests and much demagoguery at the Lege.

I know Minnesotans. I are one, in spite of my years elsewhere. It's a bit like being a N'Yawker... you can take the gal outta Lake Wobegon, but etc.

Minnesotans have always taken fierce pride in the quality of their craftsmanship when it comes to building things. A Minnesota house, at least until the national chain developers moved in, was built to last for two hundred years. Minimum. Minnesota roads... well, with summertime temperatures up to 100 degrees, plus 90% humidity, and winter temps regularly plunging below -30, Minnesota roads had to be built tough... again and again. River levees, bridges, power plants... Minnesotans built them to withstand the Minnesota climate, and in the most longsighted kind of frugality, they didn't spare the cost, because it's cheaper to build it RIGHT than to build it over.

And I was born and raised in a political family, a DFLer to the bone, caucus after marathon caucus. I worked for a number of years in a position that sent me to the Capitol to sit in committee meetings, to watch hearings, to 'educate' legislators, to entice them to photo-ops with darling Head Start kids and photogenic seniors. I know Minnesota politics and political Minnesotans.

It's been a bit amazing to me watching the forcible hijacking of Minnesota, carried out with plenty of GOPpie cash from in and out of state, and plenty of woolhats from the Range and SE who care more about their guns and not letting welfare queens get away with anything than about what kind of world their grandchildren will live in. Amazing, and a little surprising, but not incomprehensible. They were always there (paging MCCL,) it just took plenty of neocon cash and the GOPpie noise machine to give them the muscle they needed.

And they drank the Kool-Aid.

Minnesotans have always had high taxes, and with good reason. At one time our public education system was the envy of the nation. As referenced above, we spent money but we did it right in terms of infrastructure. We valued community and paid for it--grumbling (after all, who LIKES to pay taxes?) but we paid, and knew we were getting value for our money. But it was costly. Taxes were high--very high, for such a modest-sized, modestly-populated state, stuck up there in the north with long winters and flood-prone springs and sweltering summers and the most beautiful autumns you can imagine.

The high taxes made them easy marks for the GOPpie machine. Play on the resentment about the taxes, blame the DFL, jump on the Reagan bandwagon. They started back then, yep. With Reagan, when injecting red into indigo-blue Minnesota seemed a hopeless cause. And they pounded at it and pounded at it and pounded at it, and slowly, Minnesota's strong foundation of belief in the value of community and long-term investment and looking out for each other crumbled and the mantra of Lower Taxes and Family "Values" picked up steam and now Minnesota's soul hangs in the balance.

Tim Pawlenty, GOPpie bushbuttkissing weasel that he is, certainly bears a share of the responsibility for the dead and injured of the I-35W bridge. If he'd been thinking about anything other than feeding the Taxcut Beast and brownnosing the RNC, some of the pleas of the MNDoT engineers might have made more headway. Maybe a few of those oldtimers at the Capitol who have been steadfastly pointing to the need for getting back to the basics of real Minnesota government might have gotten a crack to wedge their arguments into.

But Pawlenty isn't by any means the only culprit or even the proximate cause of this disaster. The culprits include the neoCon machine assembled in the wake of the Goldwater defeat... yes, it goes back THAT far. The I-35W bridge wasn't even built yet. They include the first round of Kool-Aid brewers: the Reagan Misadministration. They include the Bush Crime Family and all of their cabal of cronies. And they include the voters of America and of Minnesota, who bought into the notion that tax cuts today are more important than a strong community and a solid infrastructure tomorrow.

But here's the thing: If Pawlenty is lynched (metaphorically, of course, although the Minnesotans I've talked to in the last two days are pissed off enough that it wouldn't surprise me if they tried to string his ass up on the flagpole atop the Capitol for real...) it might send shivers down a few GOPpie spines, but it will let the rest of the culprits off the hook. Once the blood flows, the momentum disperses. Delaying tactics can take over. Distractions can be trotted out. They can pass a couple of cosmetic, well-intentioned bills, throw a little money into inspections, toss a bone to MN with some repair-the-bridge cash, and call it a solution.

And we'll be right back where we started.

If you're angry about this, Minnesotans, and Americans, here's what to do with your anger: Look deeper. Keep looking. Look some more. Expose the whole, shabby mess, rivet by rivet, penny by penny, backslap by backslap, taxcut by taxcut. Wallow in it. Vomit. Wallow some more, and vomit again. Get dizzy with it. And then resolve that THINGS WILL CHANGE. There are NO quick solutions, there will BE no quick solutions, there will be no bones tossed, no conscience-money buyoffs, no forgive-and-forget. Nothing less than long term, fundamental change will do, no matter how much temporary discomfort everyone has to put up with.

Yes, it's messier and longer and more miserable than beating up bushbuttkisser Timmy and calling it a solution, but it's the REAL Minnesota way.

polemically,
Bright

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Well said.

As far as I'm concerned, kicking the scrawny ass of Timmy the Tool is only the beginning. Timmy is, indeed, the mutant spawn of the Reagan Revolution (Revulsion?). His repeated and eager fellating of the Minnesota Taxpayers' Union is an immediate and proximate cause of the ruination of Minnesota's commons, but it's really the craven, morally bankrupt philosophy of the greedhead Randite faux-libertarian assclowns who begat him that must be dealt with before the whole damn country collapses into dust.

[ooglymoogly]

21. yes....collapses into a dustbowl...nt

[Olney Blue]

2. Thank you, Bright. K/R

[karlrschneider]

3. Nice. No, better than that...Great. So come on, admit it, you're really

Mark Morford, Garrison Keillor and Dave Barry distilled into one person, right?
:D
:toast:

[sandnsea]

4. Yes, it's Republican ideology

That's exactly what Rachel Maddow just said. We have got to stop targeting individuals and start targeting the entire ideology. It does not work. We also can't hand money over to these trillionaire corporations who just fill their pockets and provide shoddy results. We need a fundamental change.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

5. While 3 billion per week go to Haliburton, Blackwater, etc. because of Iraq.......

The ENTIRE infrastructure of this country is falling apart. It's not just Minnesota, folks. It's the WHOLE country. In Oklahoma, the bridges are ready to fall down. You want to know how the roads are "paved" in Oklahoma? I'll tell you, some guy paid minimum wage, waits till there are no cars, runs out on the highway, drops some cement in a pothole, and runs away before he gets hit by a car. And THAT, folks is how they do it in Oklahoma. The whole country is going to hell. But oh yes, this administration's friends in Haliburton, Blackwater and all those other war-aiding corporations are making more money than ever.

GET OFF OUR BACKS, BUSH!

[OzarkDem]

6. It's happened to other states, too

But its been a real disappointment seeing it happen to Minnesota, as you say, a state that always took pride in its schools, community services, economy, and infrastructure.

We can thank right wing media and the GOP investment in turning normally good people into anti-government sheep who vote against their own best interests.

We'll keep fighting, and it will be a long, hard battle.


Thanks for a great, insightful analysis.

[Skittles]

7. you know it, TygrBright

I'm sure Minnesotans are raging angry right now and I learned when I lived a short stint there, you do not want to make a Minnesotan angry. :o

[tularetom]

8. I've only been to Minnesota once but my impression was close

to the "Minnesota nice" stereotype. A place filled with caring people who could see further than the end of their own nose and smart enough to realize that there is a price for everything. Likewise as an engineer I was impressed with the quality of the roads, but that too seemed to fit the stereotype - modest homes, unassuming public edifices but excellent infrastructure. In recent years I was disappointed to see idiots like Ventura get elected there - seemed like something we would have done here in CA. I was even more disappointed to see a piece of shit like norm coleman become aq senator after the death of Wellstone. I knew very little about Pawlenty but he seems like a cookie cutter Repub pol - tax cuts uber alles. Perhaps enough people moved in from outside and brought their own brand of selfishness with them. The Minnesotans I met in the 70's would not have drank the tax cutting kool aid.

If anything good results from this tragedy, perhaps it will be a return to the civic mindedness that once characterized Minnesota.

[mzmolly]

17. Ventura was elected because of the college population enjoying wrestling.

I wish I were joking. The "young" overwhelmingly elected him. Coleman claimed to be a Democrat when he was mayor of Saint Paul, so he had a bit of an in. As for Pawlenty, I have no idea how that fool got the Governorship? I too hope we return to sanity, it's been tough on us Minnesota Dems watching their state crumble - now literally.

[Berry Cool]

9. I agree with you, Bright.

He should not be the only fall guy.

[ben_meyers]

10. The DFL is not blameless in this disaster

I’m also a native born and bred Minnesotan, and let’s not get all dewy eyed about the good ole days of the DFL. I too remember when I35 was built. I remember when the route was chosen to run right down the middle of the “black” neighborhood in south Minneapolis. I worked on that bridge back in the 60’s while in H.S. (You remember Sheehy Const.) You couldn't get a contract without a connection to the DFL, and not just for freeway work, everything in the state.
I too remember the battles between the “rangers”, many of whom are still waiting for the iron mines to reopen, and the farmers to the south and west, and the “cities”. Thus came the Democratic Farmer Labor party. They ran the state then and to a large degree still do.
Who awarded a contract to build I35 from Mpls to Duluth to be laid in a single pour? No expansion joints, in Minnesota? And how did that same company get the contracts to go back and cut those joints every summer for years? Connections to the DFL!
Tax cuts? People and businesses are fleeing Mn. every day because of taxes and regulations. Last year Mpls. had a net increase in population of 159, that’s 159, people! In Arizona we have 9000 people a month moving here. Yes I bailed out too. But don’t forget that Minnesota has a 2 billion dollar budget surplus right now. That bridge could have been replaced for 120 million. Hell, they can afford billions for a “choo choo” train to the Mall’O , and money for a new baseball park and even funds to put in a foot washing station for the Muslim cab drivers at the airport!
Read this from Garrison’s radio station, and tell me that there was no money to fix that bridge,
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2006/11/28/budget/

State predicts $2 billion budget surplus over next three years
by Tim Pugmire, Minnesota Public Radio,
Tom Scheck, Minnesota Public Radio
November 29, 2006
State finance officials say Minnesota will have a budget surplus that should top $2 billion over the next two-year budget cycle. The economic forecast released on Wednesday also says lawmakers will have a financial cushion of more than $1 billion for the current biennium. The surplus means lawmakers are likely to face a parade of proposals for spending the money in the 2007 session. Gov. Pawlenty also has proposed a plan that would give some of the money back to taxpayers.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, and the DFL in Minnesota is as corrupt as anyone.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

16. Excuse me? The DFL controlled legislature passed legislation to do that. And Pawlenty vetoed it.

Pawlenty and his "Taxpayer League" buddies with their "no new taxes" mantra are directly to blame for this.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=298533

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=1498471

Oh, and apparently now Pawlenty is open to that $.05 gas tax. Now. After several people have died and a major road artery has collapsed.

And the DFL hasn't controlled the Governor's mansion for quite some time, nor the legislature. We just got it back in 2004.
So please take your "everyone's equally corrupt" mantra and keep it down there in Arizona, because it's not welcome up here.

[Usrename]

26. The death of irony.

The Onion

State Of Minnesota Too Polite To Ask For Federal Funding
February 23, 2005 | Issue 41•08

ST. PAUL, MN—Although many of its highways and bridges are in severe disrepair, the traditionally undemanding state of Minnesota isn't comfortable asking for more interstate funding, sources reported Monday.

"Oh, we wouldn't want to bother the U.S. government—they've got more than enough on their plate as it is," Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said. "Most of the potholes on I-90 are less than four feet wide. We get by just fine. I wouldn't want anyone all the way over there in Washington to be worrying about little ol' us."

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/30916

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1492187

[Beausoir]

11. As a lifelong Minnesotan...I wonder what Jesse THE BOD Ventura's culpability is. Pawlenty is a POS.

Where the F is Jesse? Not like we actually want to hear what he has to say, but, certainly, he is a culprit in this disaster.

Just goes to prove that you can't elect a stunt-governor any more than you can elect a stunt-President.

And Pawlenty gets NO pass from me. He IS the problem, not the solution.

[provis99]

12. It really said something when this happened in Minnesota

A state I always viewed of being deservedly proud of their infrastructure. Now if this had happened in Louisiana or Mississippi, I wouldn't have been surprised at all. People there always squawk about paying any tax at all, and then wonder why they have the crappiest infrastructure in the country. When I would drive from Memphis, Tennesse back home to Mississippi, you could audibly hear the roads get instantly crappier, from smooth Memphis streets, to the thunk-thunk of the dirt cow-paths of Tunica county in Mississippi.

When bridges start collapsing in Minnesota, that's the sign that the whole country is in serious trouble.

[eauclaireliberal]

24. RE: It really said something when this happened in Minnesota

It was bound to happen. Outside of the Cities, you have some of the worst inbred hicks which have subjected all 'Soters to neocons like Pawlenty. Well, them and elitist assholes in Edina and Wayzata. Soulless cretins all over.

I'm sure that the roads in Connecticut (where W is REALLY from) are in nice shape.

[dpbrown]

13. I think you're wrong - the Koolaid drinkers like Pawlenty have to go down one at a time...

This is the only way to prove that the movement, the neocon, nutball, Taxpayer's League of Minnesota, community-hating, faux "independent" movement is a sham.

People won't take back the community, they won't bring that old Minnesota Scandinavian pay-value-for-value understanding back, they won't complete the process of wresting the control of the government from the government-haters in control of it, until they see that the poster children of the movement are going down.

Pawlenty is a poster child for the nutball government haters. He vetoed the gas tax in May, knowing that the I-35W bridge was in danger.

They don't care how many people die.

Pawlenty, with his nice guy aw-gosh hockey-playing fake persona, has to be exposed for the Republican government-despising neocon that he is.

And he has to have this pegged on him - big time.

This is a battle for the soul of community. We can't win while leaving them in power or letting them skate away without taking responsibility for the disasters they've caused or facilitated.

[Beausoir]

14. I agree with you. Pawlenty is a GOP shill. He puts on his Polo shirt and begs for sympathy.

I have NEVER bought his bill of goods.

Just this morning, when he should have had other things to do...he was still shilling on his weekly radio show...WCCO.

His tone was pseudo-somber...but he never missed a chance to deflect blame.

Fucker.

[broadcaster]

15. Agreed..also note discussions of privatizing our infrastructure..

that are emerging again, wherein private companies and investors take over
the maintenance of roads and bridges. In Indiana, a 75-year lease on the state's 157-mile toll road sold for $3.8 billion to a company in Spain and one in Australia.

We are about to see our infrastructure become owned not by the states, but by
private interests. But phase two will be: after raking off profits, these companies
will slow or not do maintenance at all and then will dump this back onto taxpayers.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06169/698927-84.stm

[mzmolly]

18. I'd like to hang Pawlenty with his "Republican" rope.

We can make him a national example of how policy effects people. Katrina should have also been a clue. Our cities are literally crumbling under the rule of the "have mores."

[NuttyFluffers]

19. easy. frame the issue. RW hate gov't = tax cuts + apathy = death of loved ones

don't believe it? open your eyes and read a book. spread the truth far and wide.

if people won't listen to truth or believe their own eyes then they are truly lost. stop wasting time with them and find someone who's sane.

[ooglymoogly]

20. Well said and right on the money and you my friend are burning bright....

...in the Forrest of the night...mare.

[uncertainty1999]

22. MN govt has changed radically since I grew up there...

...while it all started with Reagan at a national level, it manifested itself with Arne Carlson. I think he had been the first republican governor the state had in many years up to that point. Under Carlson, tuition for U of M students increased to such a level that out-of-staters from Wisconsin paid LESS than Minnesotans - that's right -- LESS, due to reciprocity agreements. Even other states could not justify students paying so much for tuition!!! I noticed Arne's Wikipedia page shows him in a jacket emblazoned with the "M" from the U of M name -- he always loved our sports teams...... Fast forward many years and what is the net result of such policies? Tuition for a semester at the U is now almost $8000 per year, forgetting about fees and living expenses. Median income= $45,000 ... you do the math! How many indentured servants does the student loan industry have based on these policies? U of M is a 'land grant' institution and should be accessible and affordable to the MN population. However, it seems MN invests in neither bridges nor people. (Remember talk during the Ventura governorship about having a 4-day school week in some places??) I don't just blame Pawlenty, Bush, et al, but also the voters. Shame on them. Without the voters, these guys would be nothing.

[snappyturtle]

30. I agree with you for the most part...esp. the tuition part.

My daughter went to Winona State and St. Cloud State.....average cost per year: the unbelievable $7000. As cheap as that was we still had to work hard to get her out debt free but we did. I was divorced the year she started school and her father got to take a hike on education and alimony....anything that helped...anyway, by the time my son went to St. Cloud State two or three years later the costs had gone to over $13,000. He is now an indentured student....I've suggested he not bother to get a degree period...but how can I tell him that? I did.

However, I disagree with the shame the voters part. I blame a nation that sat on it's hands and watched Coleman ascend to power in light of the murder of Paul Wellstone. No one will EVER convince me he wasn't murdered. I lived within a 75 min. drive to the "crash" site....no, I don't believe it was an accident. That morning he left the Cities my daughter, having graduated, got the great job as a manager of a McDonalds in Maple Grove! Ted Kennedy showed up that morning for breakfast! He too had been scheduled to be on the flight with Wellstone but because of what we heard were scheduling problems for him later in the day, decided not to go. So...I donned my tin foil hat and supposed at the time the repukes were counting on a twofer that day! Arne was bad enough but everything that has followed has gotten worse. I lived there from '92 to 2006...loved every minute of it. Like another poster said a Minnesotoan can leave the state but the Lake Wobegon is always there. It's a shame what has happened to a beautiful, civil state.

[kiteinthewind]

23. Very well stated. I am sick of 'tax' being a dirty word.

"the notion that tax cuts today are more important than a strong community and a solid infrastructure tomorrow". I feel the same about national health care. No one complains about our taxes going to fire and police protection. I am sick of the repukes hijacking this argument with their anti-tax BS.
:kick:

[camero]

25. I-35W is an interstate

IOW, a federal road. They want to blow money on the IWR then try to push our collapsing bridges on to the states it just won't work because interstates fall under the purview of the Federal Gas Tax.

[eppur_se_muova]

27. Bu**sh** was sure quick to pass the blame to "the states" ...

and Snow "mistakenly" referred to the DEMOCRATIC Governor of MN.

If MN Repugs don't want to go down with the ship, they should write a formal letter to Bu**sh** protesting his cavalier treatment of the Guv they campaigned to put in office. They can't put distance themselves and Commander Pissypants fast enough.

I don't really, seriously, expect this to happen, but wouldn't it be nice to see a state legislature, or state Repug party, publicly renouncing its support for Bu**sh**? At this point, it probably wouldn't do their careers any permanent damage, and would probably help.

[TygrBright]

28. And there is ample precedent for this, remember?

Back when Minnesota's Republicans were so disgusted with the GOP in the early 70s, they officially withdrew from the GOP and became the Independent Republican (IR) Party of Minnesota. They changed back to the GOP in the Reagan era, if I recall correctly.

Maybe it's time for Minnesota's Republicans to revive the old IR-MN.

suggestively,
Bright

[Bosso 63]

29. The tentacles run deep and they all need to be removed.