Fingers Crossed!
By Mitch Berg
In a sense, fisking Lori Sturdevant has become almost as rote and pro forma as fisking Nick Coleman used to be.
In her most recent hit job DFL puff piece column, Sturdevant – whose leg got a Chris Matthews-like tingle when the likes of Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale and Paul Wellstone flirted with national ambitions – suddenly goes all provincial on us, to the point where she has to contradict herself to do it.
But here’s a first; at least she admits it. Not that that matters much:
National ambition is a desirable trait in Minnesota politicians — or so I’ve said on these pages. A pol who wants a call to the Show will play a better game here in the minors — or so I used to think.
But covering Gov. Tim Pawlenty in the lawmaking season that just ended raised some doubts about the home-state utility of national ambition. Was it because Pawlenty wants to be vice president that he vetoed a much-needed gas tax increase, or Central Corridor funding?
Was he minding the store while on all those weekend trips for John McCain?
(Scraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatch)
“Minding the Store?”
Perhaps Ms. Sturdevant has noticed; the Governor has a bit of an executive branch that’s hired to “mind the store” in the event that the Governor has to, y’know, sleep or go to the bathroom or campaign for office.
Just like DFL governors do.
But wait! Not only does Sturdevant observe radically different standards for DFL and GOP politicians – she can find DFL politicians who agree!
I put those questions to two legislators sure to have divergent answers, Republican Sen. Geoff Michel of Edina and DFL Rep. Frank Hornstein of Minneapolis. Here’s how they spun, er, called it:Michel: This is a continuation of a Minnesota tradition, going back to Humphrey, Freeman and Mondale. And Stassen! We have overachieved on the national political stage. For a lightly populated Midwestern state, we have provided a lot to the national stage. Tim Pawlenty is just the next in line.Hornstein: I agree that there’s a tradition in Minnesota. But I think Pawlenty is radically different from the tradition defined by Humphrey, Mondale and McCarthy. Where I’ve seen his national profile manifest itself most is in his adherence to this rigid no-tax orthodoxy, which I would argue is not Minnesotan. Particularly on the issue that I work on most, transportation, it has not benefited the state.
If Lori Sturdevant got the same scrutiny that Katherine Kersten got, she’d be composing ads for the Park Rapids Shopper.
May 29th, 2008 at 9:31 am
Ah, a “rigid no-tax orthodoxy” is not Minnesotan. Silly me. I could swear I wrote a check to the State of Minnesota last month.
May 29th, 2008 at 10:34 am
If Lori Sturdevant got the same scrutiny that Katherine Kersten got, she’d be composing ads for the Park Rapids Shopper.
No, she’d be writing for MinnMon; the Shopper has higher standards.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Just like DFL governors do.
See, that’s why she’s confused, Mitch. We haven’t had a DFL governor in a loooong time so she forgot.