Governor Pawlenty seems to have given up on actually governing a while ago, opting instead for the McCain campaign trail. Now if you want to find out where Mr. Pawlenty will be you’re better off checking out the McCain campaign schedule than knocking on the Governor’s mansion. “New Hampshire Presidential Watch” reports:
It’s been confirmed to us, that Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty will be in New Hampshire on Saturday, April 28th. Pawlenty will be attending the opening of John McCain’s New Hampshire headquarters. McCain’s Manchester headquarters are at the Waumbec Mill on 250 Commercial Street, Suite 3007. The McCain campaign is just down the hall from Tom Tancredo’s office.
Ah Manchester, the gateway to New Hampshire.
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It’s not unusual for Minnesota politicians to travel to different areas of the country to stump for their own presidential ambitions or those of another. Lest you forget, our friends over at Wikipedia highlight former Sen. Wellstone’s travels while running for President (and still serving as a Senator):
“As the first stage in his nascent pseudocampaign, he embarked upon a cross-country speaking and listening tour that he dubbed ‘the Children’s Tour’ in May of 1997. This tour, which took him to rural areas of Mississippi and Appalachia and the inner cities of Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Baltimore….”
“The following year, 1998, Wellstone began to more openly investigate the possibility of running. He formed an exploratory committee which paid for his travels to Iowa and New Hampshire, homes of the two first contests of the nomination process, to speak before organized labor and local Democrats.”
Of course, Senator Wellstone was not a Governor who left the state during a legislative session. That seems to me to be a big distinction.
How is it any different if Wellstone left Washington, D.C. while Congress was in session, to travel the country, promoting his Presidential ambitions?
Fear not. I have it on very good authority that the Governor’s schedule has a generous block of time set aside for attending to Democrat legislation (aka a steaming pile of taxes) just as soon as it reaches his desk.
In the mean time, there really isn’t all that much to do while the kids play in the sandbox, is there?
Someone should tell Pawlenty that McCain’s presidential aspirations officially died in that Baghdad market.
Seriously, Swiftee?? The governor’s only job is to approve or veto what the legislature is doing? Maybe that really IS all he does - guess I shouldn’t have cared so much about who was elected last November.
I don’t care that he’s gone off to campaign - politicians of all ilks have been doing it since the birth of our nation. It does make me wonder though why the rest of us have to go to work every day while our political leaders can take time off whenever they want to.
“The governor’s only job is to approve or veto what the legislature is doing?”
When the governor and legislature are as diametrically opposed as is the current case; yes.
The Gov. submitted his budget, the leg. ignored it. The Gov. warned the leg. about a taxation feeding frenzy and they ignored him.
Case closed; let the D’s have their fun and then let the veto-ing begin.
I do agree that it is infuriating to have to foot the bill while politicians are off on non-official business…maybe we should start having them punch a time clock and pay them hourly!
On second thought, that won’t work either.
Most of these yahoos are lawyers..start paying them by the hour and they’ll be charging us every time they think about the state while sitting on the can.
TAX RALLY THIS WEEKEND AT STATE CAPITOL!
APRIL 14TH NOON!
DUE TO THE FACT WE HAVE A COUNTER RALLY FOR GLOBAL WARMING I ENCOURAGE ALL OUR CONSERVATIVE FRIENDS TO BRING SIGNS STATING THAT “ENVIORMENTALIST SUPPORT TAX CUTS” AND STAND WITH THEM SO THAT ALL THE PEOPLE THERE APPEAR TO BE FOR THE TAX CUT RALLY. :)
wtm — Senator Wellstone was one oout of one hundred members of the Senate. Governor Pawlenty is (Lord help us!) the only Governor we have, and the legislative session in Minnesota is far shorter than the congressional session.
If Governor Pawlenty were truly interested in governing, or leading, he would be back here doing more than threatening to veto. Tough talk may play well with those who “mention” names on the national stage, but they do nothing about running the state.
Randy,
There is a separation of powers between the Executive and Legislative Branches of Government. Pawlenty isn’t a legislator anymore and it’s not his job to pass bills. The legislature has passed bills in both houses, but no conference reports have passed. There is nothing for him to either sign or veto at this point. Sending a signal to the legislature that he will not sign tax increases is exactly what he should be doing. As for being in New Hampshire with McCain on one Saturday in April, it’s a non issue. Where was the criticism of Mike Hatch when he was travelling the state on the campaign trail instead of being in his AG office in St. Paul?
Chris — Yes, there is a separation of powers. However, I don’t think it would violate the intent behind the separation to work infomrally with the Legislature on crafting a budget. Saying “no, no, no” is not leadership or statecraft — it’s preening.
Randy,
This is where honest people can disagree honestly. You call it preening when Pawlenty tells the legislature he’s not going to raise taxes. I call it preening when the legislature wastes time passing bills they know are going to be vetoed by the governor. Pogemiller and Kelliher also know they don’t have the votes to override the vetoes.
When has the new DFL leadership shown any desire to compromise? I haven’t seen any so far. Pawlenty is proposing an increase in the budget of 8.9%. If the DFLers wanted to compromise, they could sit down and agree on which programs should receive dollars first. Instead what they have done is said 8.9% isn’t enough and we’re going to raise taxes after we told the voters of Minnesota we weren’t going to raise taxes.
Chris — I call it “preening” when the Governor is so obviously angling for political advancement (this is not a recent phenomenon — his first reaction to the government shutdown was that Democrats were trying to sabotage his future career). It is a good question about who should start the compromising first (it reminds me of the old Far Side cartoon showing a man and a dog each holding a rolled-up newspaper, with the dog saying “No, you put YOURS down first.”).
What’s particularly disturbing is I thought Governor Pawlenty admitted he had learned the dangers of absolutism from the whole shutdown fiasco, and wasn’t going to be so dogmatic about issues any more. Granted, this is a lesson he should have learned from his years in the House, but I thought it might have taken this time.
Randy,
I think you’re re-writing history a little bit. The government didn’t have to be shut down. Pawlenty, Linda Berglin, Kevin Goodno, Steve Swiggum, Dick Day and Dean Johnson were all in the Governor’s office negotiating in good faith about the last bill of the session - the Health and Human Services bill. Berglin and Goodno were less than $100 million apart on a multi-billion dollar bill. The time was 9:30 and there was two and a half hours left to negotiate over the $100 million difference. Dean Johnson excused himself from the Governor’s office at 9:30, walked to the floor of the Senate and, with only three members present, adjourned the Senate Sine Die. Dean Johnson shut down the government while the parties were still compromising and the DFL tried to blame Pawlenty for it. My question is, when has the DFL legislative leadership ever shown a good faith willingness to compromise?
Chris — Regardless of who caused the shutdown (neither party’s finest hour, in my opinion), it is telling that the Governor took it so personally. His first (I don’t say only, or main) concern was how it would play with the Mentioners.
I think the no-compromise die was cast when Gov. Pawlenty refused to consider any tax increase. No one likes taxes, no one wants them increased, but it is irresponsible to rule out the idea. A tax increase should be a last resort, but it should be considered before accounting tricks, trust fund raids, or semantic legerdemain (it’s a tax, not a fee).