The Strib editorial board made the latest installment in its effort to make Governor Dayton appear to be anything other than utterly worthless and an utter failure in the first year of his misbegotten term in office.

 “But the DFL governor’s overall performance to date has been strong enough to win over skeptics, rally support from unexpected sources and earn the grudging respect of partisan opponents.

Who – Kelliher and Entenza supporters?

He has turned his political slogan — “Building a Better Minnesota” — into a credible description of not just intentions, but accomplishments.”

I was going to fisk the Strib’s fluff-job – but Luke Matthews already did it over at True North.

And his response was about the same as mine:

Huh?

Did someone set a bale of marijuana on fire in the offices of the StarTribune?  Rather than rebut the entire article, which is as laughably contrived and fictional as to make Dr. Seuss blush, I’ll give a recap of Governor Dayton’s abysmal year as the “Face of the DFL.”

Governor Dayton was inaugurated in January of 2011 and since then his performance has been going downhill fast.  He slapped together a ridiculous budget with every kind of payoff imaginable to the public sector unions and his DFL political cronies.  He proposed a gargantuan increase in spending and a myriad of tax increases.  These tax increases couldn’t begin to cover his explosive spending proposals, but that didn’t deter him.  It wasn’t just unreasonable, it was ridiculous.

The legislature looked at the farce, turned on the shredders, and calmly inserted his proposal page by page into the garbage.  Not even the minority DFL caucus put up much of a fight.  The budget ignored reality, would have stymied economic growth in the state, and didn’t even pretend to be for the population as a whole.  It was a bad joke.

Beyond that?  When the Governor went on a whirlwind tour of the state to try to flog his idiotic budget and buttress support for his shutdown, The People shut him down cold, sending him back to St. Paul with his hat in his hand.

What this is is the beginning of the media’s effort, as unpaid arms of the DFL, to try to make Governor Dayton appear to be a capable,much less formidable, opponent for the upcoming session.