Lori “The One-Woman DFL PR Operation” Stufdevant is watching the meltdown of Larry Pogemiller’s “Happy To Pay!” bloc with the usual near-suicidal depression.<\/p>\n
I scarcely have the heart to fisk her anymore.\u00a0 I feel like I could write everything she’s done this session according to a standard template:<\/p>\n
\u00a0[pick a DFL legislator] is feeling sad.\u00a0 Her [pick a program] got vetoed by Tim Pawlenty.<\/em><\/p>\n
“I don’t know how I’m going to explain this to [a constituency the DFL trots out to elicit tears; women, children, immigrants, the elderly are old standbys],” she told me, barely holding back a tear.<\/em><\/p>\n
A GOP legislator I know who harkens back to a more responsible, caring, cooperative time in this once-great state agrees.\u00a0 “Arne Carlson would have never stuck [constituency] in the back.”<\/em><\/p>\n
The only hope, short of an electoral miracle or a meteor hitting Tim Pawlenty and ushering in a more loving, caring time in this state’s history, is a softening of hearts and grips on the $44,500,000 – a fraction of what this state spends on roads and cops! – to buy office supplies and stationery for this program. <\/em><\/p>\n
Good luck with that.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Need I say more?<\/p>\n
Well, of course I do.\u00a0 The devil is in the details – and there are always details.\u00a0<\/p>\n
New ideas that build on an intact government-services infrastructure were stopped by evidence that Minnesota doesn’t have one anymore.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Lori Sturdevant would have you believe that Tim Pawlenty has destroyed state government?<\/p>\n
“I keep hearing that we should be more like business, and that businesses both cut expenses and invest in new things,” said Rep. Mindy Greiling, DFL-Roseville, the House K-12 finance chair. “I don’t know. I don’t think too many businesses let their whole plant crumble in order to improve the landscaping.”<\/p>\n
Her analogy would be more apt if the proposed investments were merely aesthetic improvements. They weren’t.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
No, they are much less useful:\u00a0<\/p>\n
…Getting more little kids ready for kindergarten and bigger kids ready for college goes to the heart of this state’s aspirations for its future.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Read back (if you have the stomach or the tolerance for mindless bathos) in Sturdevant’s piece.\u00a0 She’s\u00a0talking about early childhood education<\/em> – a nice freebie convenience for working parents, but something that does very <\/em>little to “prepare” kids for school (and that’s even if you assume that “preparing a four year old kid for school” is a good thing!).\u00a0<\/p>\n