What do the headlines say about the legislative session?
The Strib: the session “imploded“.
The PiPress: It “collapsed“.
MPR: It “melted down“.
All fairly passive verbs; imploding, collapsing and melting down are all actions without authors.
It’d be much more accurate to say the session was killed. By the DFL. For political reasons.
Choo Choo Trains Are The New “Shutdown”: As of yesterday, the Legislature had reached an agreement on a Bonding Bill. The bill had been through conference committee. The DFL Senate and GOP House had agreed to a bill without funding the Southwest Light Rail Transit line – a big GOP promise. The bill – as bills coming out of Conference Committee are supposed to be – was ready for the governor’s signature. It was ready to be passed with no further fanfare, assuming both sides went at it in good faith, of course).
As always, the DFL did not.
Two Minute Drill: With five, count ’em, five, count ’em again, five minutes left in the session, the DFL introduced an amendment reintroducing Southwest Light Rail into the Bonding Bill.
Could this be because the DFL really likes their trains, and really really wants to see the choo choo built to Eden Prairie?
Could be.
More likely? As DFL legislative candidates are starting to fan out across the state, trying to woo voters in a year when they have a Presidential option not much more inspiring than Ole Savior, the DFL wanted to induce a crisis – the death of the Bonding Bill, funding one of this state’s precious few legitimate jobs – and turn around and blame it on the GOP.
So the Transportation Bill didn’t “implode”, “melt down” or “collapse”. It was given a poison pill. It was blown up. It was shot in the face.
Preparing The Battlefield: But by taking a murder and calling it an accident, the media gives the DFL, and their propaganda arm Alliance for a Better Minnesota, a wide-open playing field on which to romp and play with public perception of the issue.
Mission accomplished!
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.