A political consultant’s main job, if you think about it, is to try to convince as many people as possible that a crap sandwich is really made out of paté and bread.

We’ll come back to that.

The weekend’s big brouhaha in re the Minnesota state budget was over the proposal to dump low-income Minnesotans from our own state system into Obamcare, so that Minnesota could cover more able-bodies single adults, among many other budgetary issues.

Pawlenty held tough.

So, as a matter of fact, did GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer (with emphasis added by me):

First of all, we should be grateful to Governor Pawlenty for once again protecting Minnesota families and businesses from tax increases. Economic recovery in Minnesota will come faster because we had the strength to hold the line on taxes.

But any recovery will be stopped in its tracks if the next governor “opts in” to Obamacare early by enrolling thousands of Minnesotans onto the federal health care roll at irresponsibly high costs, ignoring Minnesota’s nation-leading reforms in health care delivery.

With this deal, the next governor will have that power. I am announcing today I will not use it if elected this November. I also challenge my opponents (including Speaker Kelliher, who pushed for this power in closed-door negotiations) to tell Minnesotans where they stand on this issue immediately.

Emmer, in fact, voted “no” on this shift.

Now, let’s return to that opening thought about political consultants.

Tom Horner, the former “Republican” consultant, is running for governor under the “Independence” Ventura Party banner.  He released this statement:

The budget deal negotiated by the Legislature and Governor Pawlenty is a reflection of Tom Emmer’s Minnesota with the DFL leadership’s seal of approval…Instead of facing up to the hard choices, legislators have created a budget deficit that will be as much as $9 billion in the first year of the new governor’s term. 

In other words, “It’s paté!”.

Seriously – while the DFL is chanting “Horner is going to take votes away from Republicans”, read this…:

Minnesota needs a goverrnor who is willing to make the hard choices to honestly balance the budget and invest in job creation, education and innovation, even if that means the next governor only serves one term. That’s the commitment I’m making. Emmer and Kelliher have made it clear that their political futures are more important than Minnesota’s economic future.Could Minnesota’s current budget have been balanced honestly and without gimmicks? Absolutely, but the process had to start at the beginning of this legislative session, not in the 11th hour. A balanced budget would include revenue from broadening the sales tax base; repealing some of the $11 billion in tax expenditures that go mainly to the wealthy; and, increasing the tobacco tax. A Racino would raise additional dollars while giving Minnesotans who gamble the security of casinos that are publicly regulated.

…and show me a Republican who actually belongs in the party – someone who favors limited government, prosperity, low taxes – who would vote for any of this…

…paté?