{"id":4639,"date":"2009-04-27T06:46:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-27T11:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=4639"},"modified":"2009-04-27T06:54:58","modified_gmt":"2009-04-27T11:54:58","slug":"call-in-the-fire-whiz-on-the-dogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=4639","title":{"rendered":"Call In The Fire, Whiz On The Dogs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sarah Janecek at Politics in Minnesota <\/em>on the likelihood, and politics, of a state government shutdown:<\/p>\n

As I contemplated that question and spent a few hours reviewing what happened in the shutdown of 2005, I couldn’t help but be struck by how different the politics are now.<\/font><\/p>\n

In 2005, Pawlenty was positioning himself to run for reelection in 2006. The conventional wisdom was that then-DFL Attorney General Mike Hatch<\/strong> would likely be his opponent in 2006, which is, of course, what happened.\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

In the ensuing four years, Pawlenty won reelection, became a national figure in GOP politics and an almost VP contender. Meaning, unlike 2005, there’s an aura of confidence in his own leadership that was missing in 2005. Pawlenty continues to receive good numbers in popularity polls. Whether or not he decides to seek a third term, he’s had a good two-term run. Just saying no to tax increases from Democrats not only suits his fundamental political principles, it also bodes well for him making the jump as a presidential contender.\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

There’s almost palpable eager anticipation emanating from Pawlenty, a “bring it (tax increases) on, Democrats, I’ve got nothing to lose,” attitude and zeal. Adding to Pawlenty’s confidence is the <\/font>trouble House Democrats had this week<\/font><\/a> in taking their own tax increase package out of committee to the floor. Three suburban Democrats, Reps. Maria Ruud<\/strong> (DFL-Minnetonka), Paul Gardner<\/strong> (DFL-Shoreview), and Denise Dittrich<\/strong> (DFL-Champlin), defected and voted against the DFL House tax bill (as well they should have if they want to keep their seats). So much for all that bravado Democrats have demonstrated for moths in intimating they could pick off three Republicans to override a veto. Democrats will be lucky if they can pass a tax increase bill on the House floor, period.\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

The other trouble Democrats have is how simply Republicans can frame the issue to the public. We’re in a recession, the Minnesota unemployment rate is 8.2 percent and Democrats want to shutdown the government to force tax increases?!<\/font><\/p>\n

Pawlenty has the catbird’s seat on the politics of a shutdown. <\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don’t know that he has anything to lose, and much – like, a huge burst of base-enhancing cred, the one thing he completely lacks today – to gain.<\/p>\n

Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
\n.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sarah Janecek at Politics in Minnesota on the likelihood, and politics, of a state government shutdown: As I contemplated that question and spent a few hours reviewing what happened in the shutdown of 2005, I couldn’t help but be struck by how different the politics are now. In 2005, Pawlenty was positioning himself to run […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-minnesota-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4639\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}