Yet again, as we watch the political contortions of Anthony Weiner, we see the great political truism; it’s not the act, it’s the cover-up.<\/p>\n
And as we’ve seen over and over and over again, there’s nothing the media likes more than unravelling a coverup. \u00a0Of a Republican (or a Democrat who, like Weiner, has been deemed a liability).<\/p>\n
So let’s talk cover up.<\/p>\n
While the GOP presented a balanced budget in May <\/em>– long before the DFL had done in the previous couple of biennia – Mark Dayton, who never presented a balanced budget and thus in effect never presented a budget at all<\/em>, vetoed it after weeks of stonewalling.<\/p>\n Evidence is emerging from various Human Services<\/a> and Department of Transportation<\/a> sources that Dayton planned this shutdown all along. \u00a0The fact that the Administration and the Legislature were eight tenths of a percent apart <\/em>shows that Dayton has no interest in negotiation. \u00a0In the meantime, he – his surrogates at “Alliance For A Better Minnesota”, the attack-PAC funded by the unions, Dayton’s ex-wife Alita Messinger, the Dayton family and Mark Dayton himself<\/a> – are running ads, constantly<\/em>, trying to blame Republican intranigence for the shutdown.<\/p>\n And you only hear about it on the blogs.<\/p>\n On Channel Four, where Esme Murphy spends her every Sunday morning painting the toenails of DFL politicians?<\/p>\n Nothing.<\/p>\n On Minnesota Public Radio, which just finished a huge lobbying campaign to defend their federal and state subsidies because their “no rant, no slant” news coverage is just too vital to allow to allow any cuts?<\/p>\n