Spenduletta Vs. Son of Doctor No

Lori Sturdevant apparently hopes that none of her readers really paid attention in high school civics class in her Sunday column in the Strib.

Six months ago, who’da thunk that Gov. Tim Pawlenty was headed for his most influential legislative session since 2003? “We were the only ones who remembered that he only got 47 percent of the vote,” sighed DFL Sen. Ann Rest the day after the 2007 Legislature went home.

Well, for this state’s good, let’s hope Ann Rest and the rest of the DFL horde keeps obsessing over that meaningless figure.   

 Far from being cowed into conciliation by the big DFL majorities in the House and Senate, the Republican governor’s near-defeat experience apparently left him rarin’ to veto any little (or big) bill he didn’t like.

Whenever the Democrats are on the ropes – as, unaccountably with their crushing majorities in both houses of the Legislature, they are at the end of the just-finished session – they turn to talk of “compromise”.

Tell us, Lori Sturdevant – when, during all their years in power (or, with the likes of Arne Carlson in office, de facto power) did the DFL “compromise” with the GOP conservatives? 

Sturdevant unleashes her wish list:

Indulge a Capitol basement-dweller in some reverse speculation. (Doesn’t that sound gentler than “second-guessing”?) Might the session have had a different outcome — or at least left a different aftertaste — if this had been the DFL strategy?

• Reduce expectations.

House DFLers had six bullet points on the “Back to Basics” to-do list that served them well during the 2006 campaign. But Pawlenty’s reelection, and the November revenue forecast of pred’near no new money after paying for inflation, should have whacked that list down to size.

Let’s call a shovel a shovel; the DFL got drunk with power before they even got the cork out of the bottle. 

It should have been clear that even if the DFLers could sneak a tax increase past the governor, it wouldn’t be big enough for a spending surge in both education and property tax relief. Further, to most Minnesotans and the governor, gas taxes are taxes too, even if they don’t flow into the general fund.

What?  The average Joe on the Minnesota Street isn’t a wonk?  The hell you say!

Rein in ambitions and pick one big, focused fight for more spending on one good cause, and DFLers then could:

• Sharpen the message, and spin it forward.

Read:  find a way to tell Minnesotans that a duck is a dog.

Pawlenty had a crisp message about growth in the coming two-year budget: “Isn’t 10 percent enough?” DFLers needed a compelling comeback. They needed to make the case that Minnesotans’ lives, or their children’s lives, would be better if the state spent more on their top priority.

And to do that, there needs to be such a case.

• Maximize common cause with the governor.

…That would let DFLers look like reasonable folks intent on breaking the gridlock that Minnesotans had grown sick of seeing. It also would have made it more difficult for Republicans to paint DFLers as radical tax-and-spenders, when the endgame came.

The mere presence of Phyllis Kahn in the House and Larry Pogemiller, Ellen Anderson, and (fill in just about any metro Senate DFLer) in the Senate makes it easy for us to paint DFLers and radical tax-and-spenders.

• Court moderate Republicans.

Despite their depleted numbers, GOP moderates held the keys to achieving the top DFL goals.

They also realize something that Lori Sturdevant apparently doesn’t: 

DFL legislators had voters with them in November.

Nope.  The GOP had voters against them.  That’s why you had spasmodic reactions like Phil Krinkie losing by 50-odd votes.   

These options are humbly offered with no promise that they would have brought the session to a more satisfying conclusion.

I wonder if Lori Sturdevant’s Memorial Day barbecue will involve shovelling bags of ten dollar bills into the fire for a “satisfying conclusion”.