Profiles in Tenacity - In

Profiles in Tenacity - In 1863, while leading the Union fleet into Mobile Bay, Admiral David Farragut was told that the channel was blocked by "Torpedos" - the slang term for naval mines of the day. His famous response: "Damn the Torpedos - full speed ahead". The Union went on to win, in a battle that shortly led to the cutting in half of the Confederacy, dooming their rebellion.

In June of 1940, Great Britain's military was a shambles. The British Army had just escaped from Dunkirk, without any of its artillery, tanks, and much of anything else. The Germans, swollen by victory, controlled all of Europe except the British Isles. Emissaries as diverse as Joseph Kennedy and Rudolph Hess tried to persuade Winston Churchill to accept an armistice - to settle for peace. He responded with the Dunkirk speech, which stirred Britain and the whole Western World against the Nazis. Five years later, Naziism was done for.

On December 24, 1944, the Germans surrounded the Belgian town of Bastogne, in the Battle of the Bulge. The Americans - the 101st Airborne and a brigade of the Tenth Armored Divisions - were frozen, short of food an ammunition, and cut off far behind German lines. The Germans sent an emissary to ask the Americans' surrender. General MacAuliffe, commander of the 101st, replied "Nuts". A week later, General Patton's tanks came to the rescue. Bastogne's stubbornness had put a fatal crimp in the German attack, which, in turn, sealed the German doom in the west. The war ended four months later.

The Minnesota Budget Battle is nothing like any of those battles.

And yet Governor Pawlenty and Speaker Swiggum's relentless steadfastness in the face of a full-court press on the part of the state's traditional political/media/social hierarchy is truly a profile in tenacity - and political courage.

I love this quote, from today's Strib story::

Pawlenty, who has maintained a soft-spoken demeanor through much of the negotiations, said Thursday that DFLers "have an opportunity and an obligation to stake out their position, their vision for the future of the state of Minnesota. I don't begrudge them the chance to do that. I just wish they'd done it a little sooner."

And therein lies the essense of the budget debate; the DFL, emotionally gutted after two straight rejections at the polls, has faded into the role of the heckler, sniping at GOP initiatives while staking none of their own, betting their future that the GOP would fail.

But defense doesn't win the game. Fortune favors the bold - and the GOP cornered that market in Minnesota, lately.

The GOP's success this session harkens back to Reagan; they articulated a vision that resonated with voters, including a new bloc of disaffected ones. And they stuck with it, against all the slings and arrows; the endless "case studies" in the papers, the "Four Governors", the relentless doomsaying of the Linda Berglins and Wes Skoglunds and Matt Entenzas.

The Senate has been seeking $1.3 billion in tax increases, including raising the cigarette tax by $1 a pack, raising income taxes on the top 5 percent of income earners and raising the statewide business property tax.

House Republicans and Pawlenty have said all along they would not support any state tax increase, holding themselves to a campaign pledge.

That was made even more apparent to Hottinger early Thursday after he met with Pawlenty.

"He reiterated and reconfirmed to me, very convincingly, that he is not interested and will not raise taxes," Hottinger said.

Facing a special session - and yet the message hasn't changed. Pawlenty has not blinked.

I think Hottinger knows what Pawlenty does: that the "cuts" (actually a budget increase) won't hurt the vast majority of us, and that an upcoming economic upturn will fix the problem faster than the legislature could.

You'll never hear the Strib admit it, but I'll say it here - and, all my "moderate" friends, note this very clearly: Tim Pawlenty is the muckracking, stable-cleaning firebrand that ou all wished Jesse Ventura was going to be.

We'll see what the next three years holds, but so far Pawlenty has every indication of being the Minnesota Reagan.

Albeit without contras roaming through Missouri...

Posted by Mitch at May 16, 2003 01:13 PM