At its very, very best, watching the Twin Cities mainstream media covering inter-party politics between the DFL and MNGOP is a zen-like experience; you hope, in the best of all possible worlds, for some rudimentary balance.
To wit: Bob Von Sternberg over at The DFL Casserole The Strib’s “Hot Dish Politics” blog tips his hand as re his editorial sympathies, just a tad (with emphasis added):
Members of a legislative budget commission met for the fourth time Wednesday, for the first time moving past their shopworn soundbites as they picked through the details of Gov. Mark Dayton’s just-released plan to shut down state government if a budget deal isn’t reached by July 1.
Hm. Wonder if any of Dayton spokesbot Bob Hume’s “soundbites” – which, on Twitter, read exactly like a chron job executing a Perl script – qualify as “shopworn soundbites” to Mr. Von Sternberg?
And in something of a role reversal, Republicans — whose budget-balancing strategy relies entirely on spending cuts…
Nope. No bias there.
On the other hand:
…accused the Democratic governor of proposing the shuttering of government services that will deprive Minnesotans of essential services. They cited his plans to shut off the flow of aid to public schools and halt payments to health and human services providers.
“Whose budget is more draconian,” demanded Sen. Julianne Ortman, R-Chanhassen, using the word Dayton has often employed to describe the GOP’s spending cuts [albeit not, apparently, a “shopworn soundbite” – Ed.]; she called his shutdown plan “complete hypocracy. [sic – Ed.]”
On the one hand, it’s the first coverage I’ve seen in the regional mainstream media of the accusations that Dayton has been staging the shutdown, and seeking to amp up the “pain”, at all. That’s good.
On the other hand, I have this strong sense that it’ll be the only coverage the Strib spends on it – tucked safely away in a blog that only wonks read.
After the commission meeting House Minority Leader Paul Thissen returned Dean’s fire. “I am stunned about the Republicans’ concern about the delay in the delivery of certain government services as a result of the shutdown, but have shown absolutely no concern about permanently and devastatingly cutting those same services,” he said. The GOP’s health and human services cuts “are what I would call breathtaking,” Thissen said,
Note to Rep. Thissen; then perhaps you and your party should have advanced a budget of your own…
Republicans also used the hearing to resume their drumbeat of criticism [Let me guess – a “shopworn” drumbeat? – Ed.] of Dayton’s negotiating style, complaining that he has remained aloof from the process.
“We had a meeting a week ago, I guess, and the governor didn’t attend that,” said Rep. Keith Downey, R-Edina. “I’m just curious in the last week, the last couple days, do you have any information you can provide to us[about] how many meetings the governor has actually been in on the shutdown versus how many meetings the governor has been in on the detailed grunt work of negotiating a budget agreement versus how many meetings the governor has been in on the Vikings stadium?
“That might be telling to us [to show] where the governor’s priorities are, based on where he’s spending his time.”
Yes. It does, doesn’t it?
“Note to Rep. Thissen; then perhaps you and your party should have advanced a budget of your own”
A couple of interesting points I remember: The governor delivered his original budget, as required, on Feb. 15. Senators defeated the tax plan 63-1 and the House 131-0.
The GOP put forward their budget plan, the Dems couldn’t run away from Mad Mark’s plan fast enough. then they cowered.
” whose budget-balancing strategy relies entirely on spending cuts…
Nope. No bias there.”
And no basis in truth.
In other news, MAPE plans to “put pressure on the legislature” because the Governor is a helpless puppet, forced into this “shutdown thing” by the state constitution. OK, that’s not exactly how they said it, but the logic of “blaming the state constitution for the shutdown” (which they actually did try to do) leads you there.
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2011/06/16/gop-leaders-bring-another-budget-offer-to-dayton/
WCCO:
“It’s because of this impasse. Republicans want to sharply limit state spending. Gov. Dayton wants a tax increase to maintain current services.”
LIARS!!!
“…But Dayton said passing this budget would be worse.
“A temporary shutdown — painful as it is — is not equivalent to the kind of catastrophe that would be ongoing that would occur if I acceded to this budget,” he said.
Mitch, remind me of how much of an INCREASE was in the vetoed budget?!?!?!?
Maybe Dayton will declare martial law and vacate that nasty, inconvenient legislature. I can think of a lot of people who would be delighted.
Do any of our conservative participants on this blog have the misfortune of being in Thissen’s fiefdom?
how much of an INCREASE was in the vetoed budget?!?!?!?
I believe it was around $2 billion.
And that’s WDFL, not WCCO.
Kermit, for the love of God don’t give them any ideas.
I was on a Twitter Rant today. Finally became sick and tired of the Minnesota Media’s bias coverage of the budget battle.
Today I asked several of my media Twitter friends if they could take
time out from their busy schedule and find Gov Dayton’s latest budget
proposal. I got one reply from a KSTP-TV reporter who indicated it wasn’t in the mounted walleye that Brunicks was donating to the U of M.
Another reporter called me on the phone, annoyed that I had appended the tag #inthetankjournalist to the end of a tweet.
Otherwise, the media was so engrossed in the Gretchen Hoffman anal exam that one would of thought that Dayton’s latest budget proposal could be found there.
If one looks a little into the news archives of the Pawlenty Administration you discover that in past budget years the media was quite interested in the Governor’s latest proposal. Not so this year. What has changed? – Pardon the rhetorical question.
No need to say more on the obvious bias – its sad but not surprising. What is important is that Dayton has been spared answering the obvious question, “Governor, your budget compromise of May 16th essentially cut $1.6 billion from your original February budget. Where is that $1.6 billion coming from?”
Don’t be surprised the question hasn’t been asked. After all, the media made little comment on his original Febuary budget which offered a phletora of service cuts and raised fees.
This time, however, we must realize that $1.6 billion is a whole of of money – and yes, it has to come from somewhere.
I’m to lazy to look, but I’d be willing to bet that given the Governor’s new self-imposed target number, he is not going to be able to “fully fund” LGA, Education and Human Services. He could probably do 2 of the 3 with the odd-man-out taking a real haircut.
Well, can’t let THAT cat out of the bag, can we.
Schools out for summer! That means teachers and students can’t take personel days off to protest in Madistan until next September.
Look for them to take their vacations around Athens over the summer.