I had no idea that when I  suggested last week that…

…a Republican from a bullet-proof rural seat should sponsor the Dayton budget [and that] the GOP-controlled committees involved should pass it right through, so it can go to the floor immediately for a binding, highly-publicized, up-or-down vote.

I think we should let the DFL show their pride in and support for Governor Dayton.   I think they should show how unified they are!

…I gotta confess, I had no idea it could actually happen.

Yesterday, Senator Michel (a Republican who has taken some flak for being a “moderate” in the past, but who earned plenty o’cred with me) introduced the Dayt0n budget into the Senate.

And the DFL whined like stuck cats.

The Republican-controlled Senate voted 63-1 [yesterday] against Gov. Dayton’s proposal to raise taxes on Minnesota’s richest residents, but Dayton and other Democrats called the debate meaningless theater.

“I’m glad people are having fun,” Senate Minority Leader Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, said sarcastically. “I hope some of your relatives are watching.”

Only Sen. Dave Tomassoni, DFL-Chisholm, voted for the Dayton taxes.

Of course, the DFL has never been above staging up-or-down votes for political purposes – to get Legislators’ votes on  controversial issues on the record for political effect.

They’re just not used to being on the business end of the process.

Don Davis noted:

Dayton sent a letter to Bakk [yesterday] morning urging that all legislators vote against the proposal “as a way to reject this charade.”

Something the media has studiously avoided pointing out; Dayton did this purely to provide political cover for the fact that, had he not excused the DFL caucuses from supporting him, hardly any of them would have.  The DFL’s silence in the Dayton Dustbowl budget plan has been complete; asked if they support it, most prominent DFLers – Thissen and Bakk, among others – have squiggled smartly away.

There is no significant support in the DFL caucus for the Dayton budget.  That’s because in this economic climate, Minnesotans outside the bobbleheaded DFL base know that hiking taxes on the class that creates the jobs, or makes the investments that creates the jobs, is just plain stupid.

The DFL’s response?  Whimpering that “it’s just childish theatre”, and demanding to know when the GOP is going to come out with its budget…

…which was interrupted in mid-whimper with the news that the GOP will have its budget out in two weeks.

All in all, it was a masterful day of politics for the MN GOP.

I haven’t had occasion to say that much in the past 25 years.

It feels good.

More, please.