May 16-17, 2007
May 16 01:36 Pogemiller Digs In His Heals May 16 03:12 Pawlenty Gets His Way Again May 16 10:50 Just a Bit Short of Passage??? May 16 13:24 Fairness Doctrine Will Level Playing Field? May 16 17:37 BREAKING NEWS FROM ST. PAUL!!! May 17 00:45 Pelosi Has Hissy Fit May 17 08:47 The Gap Narrows May 17 12:57 Freudian Slip?
Prior Years: 2006
Pogemiller Digs In His Heals
If this article is right, then Larry Pogemiller is starting to insert himself more into the budget battle now in the closing days of the session. Here's what I'm referring to:
Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller and House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, both of Minneapolis, said they don't think they'll be able to find the money. They had attached relief to a bill that would raise the income tax, which Gov. Tim Pawlenty opposed.Pogemiller's task now is to sell Minnesota's homeowners on the notion that the DFL wants to give them permanent property tax relief & the meanies in the GOP don't want that to happen. This will be a difficult sell since Gov. Pawlenty can hold a press conference, wave a copy of his property tax relief proposal in the reporters' faces & Pogemiller's lies will be instantly exposed. That's what I hope happens. In fact, I hope that Gov. Pawlenty announces that he's holding the press conference Wednesday morning.
"He has roadblocked significant property tax relief, and that's a big disappointment," Pogemiller said. "Property tax relief is not really on the way."
What Pogey doesn't want anyone to know is that Gov. Pawlenty has a plan to offer real property tax relief within the context of a defined, specific budget plan. Pogey also doesn't want anyone to find out that the DFL's property tax relief plan isn't permanent. In fact, it's a one year mirage at best.
Finally, Pogey doesn't want anyone to notice that the DFL legislature has utterly failed to meet any of its goals because they're the most fiscally irresponsible legislature in history.
Pogemiller said there might be more money sent to local governments in hopes they'll keep property taxes from rising too much in coming years. But he and Kelliher said it will be difficult to forward direct-to-taxpayer relief within current budget constraints.Think about that first sentence. More money might be sent to local governments with the hope of keeping property taxes down. There isn't a stipulation that the LGA is tied to the city promising not to raise property taxes. It's noteworthy that Pogey essentially said that they're still intent on spending tons of money on their political allies in Education Minnesota & MNDoT. If they weren't so intent on reckless spending on that, they'd have money left over for property tax relief.
Based on Pogemiller's statement, it sounds like he's still intent on increasing spending by 12-13 percent. If they didn't have that goal, they'd free up money for permanent property tax relief.
Posted Wednesday, May 16, 2007 1:36 AM
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Pawlenty Gets His Way Again
The St. Cloud Times editorial staff recently wrote several editorials saying that Gov. Pawlenty & the DFL leadership had to compromise to get their budget bills signed before they had to call a special session. This Strib article seems to say otherwise:
Gov. Tim Pawlenty struck swiftly and with strong language Tuesday to veto a gasoline tax increase and an income-tax-for-property-tax swap that were at the heart of the DFL's agenda for the session.Think about what a victory this is. Listen to that last Pogemiller quote: Other bills were getting stripped of some spending Tuesday night as legislators worked to produce measures "that the governor can sign."
DFLers accused him of protecting the state's richest 1 percent, those who would have borne most of the income tax increase, which would pay for the proposed property tax relief, at the expense of everyone else. But they conceded that some of their top objectives are fast sliding out of reach.
"Property tax relief is not really on the way," said Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller, DFL-Minneapolis. Pawlenty, he said, "has roadblocked significant property tax relief, and that is a big disappointment." Pogemiller said DFLers lack the votes to override the income tax veto and added that proposals to expand early childhood education "are at risk."
Other bills were getting stripped of some spending Tuesday night as legislators worked to produce measures "that the governor can sign," Pogemiller said.
Thus far, Gov. Pawlenty & the House GOP hung together brilliantly. We have several people to thank for that.
- First, let's thank Margaret Anderson-Kelliher for ruling Laura Brod's tax cuts not germane to the tax conformity bill. That got alot of GOP legislators' dander up.
- Let's thank Tony Sertich for his obnoxious behavior during the House Permanent Rules debate.
- We'd be remiss if we didn't recognize the role Tony Sertich is playing in covering up the Swansongate scandal.
Many was the time that I'd get emails from legislators & their staffers talking about how the DFL would defeat every amendment that the GOP offered. Had the DFL let some important GOP amendments pass, they likely would've persuaded some GOP support to override a couple of Gov. Pawlenty's vetoes.
Because the DFL leadership acted in such bad faith, they're now faced with a series of humiliating losses, losses that will have their political allies hopping mad. They've earned the humiliation & the dwindling support in swing districts. They read their election victories as a mandate to do whatever they wanted. They badly misread their 'mandate'.
Pawlenty accused DFLers of "overreaching" and called the income tax bill a "shell game." He said the bill would hurt higher earners by imposing the third-highest income tax rate in the country while offering little property tax relief to offset other proposed DFL tax and fee increases.The DFL tried casting their tax hikes as getting the rich to pay their fair share. Gov. Pawlenty & the House GOP leadership cast the DFL's tax increases as job-killing taxes on small businesses. It appears as though the GOP won this decisive battle. I also appreciate Gov. Pawlenty casting the DFL's tax increases as providing little bang for the buck & as a way to kill Minnesota's economy.
He said the transportation bill, with its $5 billion in assorted tax and fee increases, would impose an "unnecessary and onerous burden on Minnesotans that could weaken the state's economy."
One final thing about this tax debate that we'd best not forget is how the DFL hid their desire to hike taxes until after the budget forecast came out. They didn't start proposing huge tax increases until after that. Then they went wild.
There's a reason why they didn't talk about tax increases until late February: they knew that fessing up to wanting huge tax increases right away would've sunk their job approval ratings into Nixon territory. That's why you shouldn't trust the polls that say huge majorities want tax hikes to pay for transportation or education or whatever. If these policies were that popular, the DFL would've proposed them the first week of the session.
In the end, that's why the GOP, with Gov. Pawlenty leading the way, rolled the DFL. Frankly, it's a thing of beauty.
Posted Wednesday, May 16, 2007 3:12 AM
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Just a Bit Short of Passage???
Sen. Russ Feingold received a stinging rebuke today when a bill that would've defunded the troops lost today:
The Senate on Wednesday rejected legislation that would cut off money for combat operations in Iraq after March 31, 2008.This is stunning news. It isn't surprising that this legislation got soundly defeated. It's stunning that such unpopular legislation even came to a vote. They knew that they'd get thumped. This is also proof that Obama has pushed Hillary farther left than she'd wanted to go. She's now been forced to abandon her general election strategy just to get the nomination.
The vote was a loss for Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., and other Democrats who want to end the war. But the effort picked up support from members, including presidential hopefuls previously reluctant to limit war funding, an indication of the conflict's unpopularity among voters.
The proposal lost 29-67 on a procedural vote, falling 31 votes short of the necessary votes to advance.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a Democratic presidential front-runner, previously opposed setting a deadline on the war. But she said she agreed to back the measure "because we, as a united party, must work together with clarity of purpose and mission to begin bringing our troops home and end this war."
Sen. Barack Obama, another leading 2008 prospect, said he would prefer a plan that offers more flexibility but wanted "to send a strong statement to the Iraqi government, the president and my Republican colleagues that it's long past time to change course."
I signed up for Obama's email updates to keep up with what he's peddling. Here's something from his last e-letter:
This isn't a game. We need just 16 additional votes to override the president's veto and bring to a close this sad chapter in American history. It's going to take some convincing, but Senators need to hear from people in their states that they can join us to bring a responsible end to the war.Based on today's vote, I'd say that they fell short of the override by more than just 16 votes. This is a serious slap in his and Hillary's faces.
Posted Wednesday, May 16, 2007 10:50 AM
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Fairness Doctrine Will Level Playing Field?
That appears to be Howard Fineman's contention in his latest column. Here's a sampling of Fineman's twisted logic:
Capitol Hill Democrats are planning a new drive for access elsewhere, on talk radio and local broadcast TV. The goal? To level the media playing field in time for the 2008 election.Frankly, liberals' attempts to get this passed will jumpstart the libertarian movement within the GOP. They'll rightly see this as another liberal attempt to gut the First Amendment. Another hidden consequence of this is that it'll remind conservatives just how important it is to put strict constructionist judges on the bench at all levels. Clearly, that wouldn't happen with a Hillary or a Obama administration.
Talk radio has long been a crucial power base for conservatives and Republicans; local TV stations are not.
They shy away from public-affairs programming altogether, and yet they rake in ever-larger wads of cash on political advertising.
Democrats have two media-access goals.
One is to prod local broadcast television and radio stations to renew their atrophied commitment to producing and airing their own public-affairs programming-shows that Democrats think would at least give them a chance to be heard. Some Democrats want to require stations to give free time for campaign debates, and even free campaign advertising as part of the stations' "public-service" licensing requirement.
There's something even more laughable in this. Since the biggest media outlets are undeniably liberal why would liberals still need to "balance the playing field"? Liberals like Dennis Kucinich are implicitly saying that Rush Limbaugh, Hugh Hewitt, FNC & NRO are powerful because the ideas espoused on those media outlets are powerful.
But some senior House Democrats are interested, I am told, and Kucinich himself is planning to hold hearings on the question of whether the broadcasters are properly fulfilling their public-service obligations under federal communications law.I pray that somebody writes 'Fairness Doctrine' legislation and that it's given high profile public hearings. If that happens, I'll be the happiest camper around. Please, please, please let that happen.
On the Senate side, Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota has quietly been urging the party leadership to take up the same question.
The Democrats just want to sound some alarms themselves. Former talk show host Al Franken, now running for the U.S. Senate in his home state of Minnesota, has his own suggestion for reform.Now that Franken's off the air, he wants restrictions on what can be said? Since when did Franken ever put a priority on the truth? Furthermore, I don't recall him railing against Air America when they said utterly hateful things about President Bush. This is a blatant display of Franken's hypocrisy & his utter disregard for the First Amendment.
"You shouldn't be able to lie on the air," he told me. "You can't utter obscenities in a broadcast, so why should you be able to lie? You should be fined for lying."
He should be ashamed of himself. Then again, shame and Franken aren't two words that fit well together.
Posted Wednesday, May 16, 2007 1:25 PM
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BREAKING NEWS FROM ST. PAUL!!!
I just got a phone call from one of my contacts at the Capitol who has some breaking news on the budget impasse. Here's what I was told:
This morning, Senate Minority Leader Senjem spoke during the floor session, telling Majority Leader Pogemiller that the time for statesmanship had come, that it was time to get into serious negotiations. After a brief pause, Sen. Pogemiller agreed. They've been negotiating since.
From what I've been told, the negotiations include Sen. Pogemiller, Speaker Kelliher, Sen. Senjem, Rep. Seifert & someone from Gov. Pawlenty's staff. I'm betting that Gov. Pawlenty will get involved as the negotiations get more detailed.
One thing that's clear is that the House GOP caucus sustaining Gov. Pawlenty's vetoes has led the DFL to see the need for serious, good faith negotiations. It's also becoming clear that the more moderate Democrats have broken with their leadership in both the House & Senate. This is a big step forward.
My contacts at the Capitol think that it's actually possible for them to iron out their differences & avoid a special session. They've also told me that it's possible that they wouldn't pass a tax bill or a transportation bill. As someone who's followed this process since mid-February, I'm stunned with this news. I totally didn't see this coming at all.
If this comes together, still anything but a certainty, credit must be given to Gov. Pawlenty & the House GOP caucus. I'd be remiss not to give moderate Democrats credit for breaking with their leadership for the good of Minnesota's taxpayers. Let me make one thing clear. If Gov. Pawlenty hadn't remained steadfast on spending discipline, this moment wouldn't have happened. It's also time to give credit to House Minority Leader Seifert for staying in contact with Gov. Pawlenty from the opening of this session to this moment.
I'm told that their conversations in February & March stiffened their positions against the DFL's tax increase proposals. That, in turn, helped them hold together on a pro-growth agenda that will help Minnesota's economy to remain strong while still funding Minnesota's priorities.
Check back later for more information as this story develops.
Posted Wednesday, May 16, 2007 5:37 PM
Comment 1 by Josh at 16-May-07 09:43 PM
Great News! Let's see it to the finish!
Pelosi Has Hissy Fit
Nancy Pelosi is mad as hell and she's not going to take it anymore. That's the message she's sending in this article:
After losing a string of embarrassing votes on the House floor because of procedural maneuvering, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has decided to change the current House Rules to completely shut down the floor to the minority.In other words, Pelosi is ordering closed rules because much of her legislative priorities are getting dumped by procedural votes and motions. So much for this being the most open, ethical congress in history. Frankly, she's acting like a spoiled little brat who's upset that she isn't steamrolling her opponents.
The Democratic Leadership is threatening to change the current House Rules regarding the Republican right to the Motion to Recommit or the test of germaneness on the motion to recommit. This would be the first change to the germaneness rule since 1822.
In protest, the House Republicans are going to call procedural motions every half hour.
The ugly little truth is that their agenda isn't appealing. Here's the test for Republicans. They should exploit this situation to highlight their agenda, contrasting it with the Democrats' status quo agenda. This is exactly the moment that highlights the ineptitude of the House GOP leadership, which is essentially a status quo team. They're utterly lacking in fresh ideas.
Posted Thursday, May 17, 2007 12:46 AM
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The Gap Narrows
Based on this article, it appears that there is momentum building for a compromise on the budget bills. This good news builds on my breaking news article yesterday. Here's what the WC Trib is reporting:
Lawmakers worked late Wednesday night in an attempt to pass the bills soon enough that time would remain for yet another try if Pawlenty vetoes this second round of bills. The state constitution requires lawmakers to end their session Monday. Democrat and Republican legislative leaders met with Gov. Tim Pawlenty Wednesday twice, the first such meetings in the waning days of the 2007 legislative session.This confirms what my sources at the Capitol told me yesterday. This is startling news considering how far apart the two sides were apart only a week ago. There's still a ways to go but it sounds like progress is being made.
Meeting participants said little about what happened, but there did not appear to be a session-ending deal. However, Pawlenty did indicate lawmakers should go ahead and pass some of the new bills in front of them.What I'm hearing is that Senate Minority Leader David Senjem's speech on the Senate floor gave the DFL a glimpse of reality. After Sen. Senjem's speech, Majority Leader Pogemiller called the floor session to a halt so that the House & Senate leadership could meet with Gov. Pawlenty.
Senate Minority Leader Dave Senjem, R-Rochester, told Forum Communications that an early-afternoon meeting was "the starting of a process. Does it seem like a framework to put a deal together?" Senjem asked. "Possibly." The budget numbers proposed by Democrats were "not in outer space," he added.
Many Republicans complained about the bills DFL leaders and other key lawmakers rewrote in recent days. "Bills worked out behind closed doors late at night ... without any way of knowing how it is going to impact our own school districts," is how Sen. Ray Vandeveer, R-Forest Lake, described the process that produced the public schools funding measure.I'm betting that reality is sinking in with the DFL leadership. They haven't overridden any of Gov. Pawlenty's vetoes. The House GOP Caucus has stood steadfast with Gov. Pawlenty, forcing the DFL to accept as fact that they're being forced into good faith negotiations. The DFL didn't want that initially, thinking that their mandate allowed them to do whatever they wanted. They thought wrong.
Pawlenty said the DFL plan to send him bills he has not embraced is "problematic." He suggested that process may not "contribute to an orderly and timely end of the session. It's counterproductive, in my view, he said. Typically, state budget negotiations involve legislative leaders and the governor. That had not happened this year, Pawlenty said. "It's very unusual and I would say not very helpful," he said of lawmakers' strategy.Perhaps now the DFL understands that Minnesota's Constitution has checks & balances in it. Perhaps now they'll understand that they've got to work with the Governor instead of just worrying about repaying their political allies.
"The DFL appears to be throwing property tax relief and K-12 education funding under the bus for more social service and welfare spending, and that's not acceptable," he said.Thankfully, DFL moderates have stepped into the fray, telling Sen. Pogemiller & the rest of the DFL leadership that bipartisanship is what's required at this point.
Pawlenty said the Legislature changed its tactics after he and top lawmakers began discussing an outline for the end of session. "If they put Sen. Pogemiller in the driver's seat, he's going to take them over the cliff, and I think that's where they're headed," Pawlenty said.
Posted Thursday, May 17, 2007 8:47 AM
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Freudian Slip?
Remember this Debbie Stabenow picture?
Many of us asked whether this was a Freudian slip on Sen. Stabenow's part. Thanks to Al Gore, we have something else to wonder if it's a Freudian slip. Check out this headline:
The Assault on Reason By Al Gore
In describing the empty chamber the way he did, Byrd invited a specific version of the same general question millions of us have been asking: "Why do reason, logic and truth seem to play a sharply diminished role in the way America now makes important decisions?"Of all the people asking why "reason, logic and truth...play a sharply diminished role in the way America now makes important decisions", Al Gore shouldn't be the one asking. After all, his mindless rants are almost totally devoid of logic. Lord knows that they're essentially fiction, thereby stripping truth from the equation.
The persistent and sustained reliance on falsehoods as the basis of policy, even in the face of massive and well-understood evidence to the contrary, seems to many Americans to have reached levels that were previously unimaginable.Mr. Gore's obviously referring to the intel on WMDs. It's interesting to note that the Clinton administration, of which he was a high profile part, accepted as Gospel fact that Saddam had WMDs. For him to now say that the Bush administration's intel was a blatant deception but the Clinton administration's use of the same information was beyond scrutiny is absurd, which is what I expect from him.
A large and growing number of Americans are asking out loud: "What has happened to our country?" People are trying to figure out what has gone wrong in our democracy, and how we can fix it.The answer is simple. The Clinton administration put a priority on spinning the day's news to their liking. They made a mockery of Daniel Patrick Moynihan's cliche that "Everyone's entitled to their own opinion. They just aren't entitled to their own facts." There's a reason why conservatives called the Clinton Administration the 'Scandal a Day administration'. It's because they treated the truth like radioactive material.
To take another example, for the first time in American history, the Executive Branch of our government has not only condoned but actively promoted the treatment of captives in wartime that clearly involves torture, thus overturning a prohibition established by General George Washington during the Revolutionary War.This is another blast of Gore's gift of hyperbole. This doesn't have anything to do with reality. It has everything to do with him working himself into a lather based on unfounded allegations and extended hyperventilations. Forgive me if I don't take him seriously.
Posted Thursday, May 17, 2007 12:58 PM
Comment 1 by Davey Chuck at 18-May-07 12:20 PM
You don't seriously deny that the Bush Administration is torturing people, are you? I hope Patriot Radio cuts you a check for this shit.
