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6 Responses to “Can we get all Republicans to do this?”

1. 1 1 Kerosene Hat
   May 22, 2007 at 5:05 pm

   I understand the sour grapes but Monday night made the DFL look really, really bad, I wouldn’t draw attention to it. The DFL gave up all standards of house etiquette to force through what ended up being bills that are worthless to their strongest supporters. The only thing the DFL did this session is finish on time and they couldn’t even do that well.

2. 2 2 C Mattson
   May 23, 2007 at 10:17 am

   I agree that the DFL didn’t need any help looking bad this session; they really didn’t accomplish much when looking at their stated goals.. but what exactly are the Dems left to do? Bills needed to get brought to a vote - and the Reps were talking for the sake of talking. They were inclined to ‘run out the clock’ in an attempt to nail the Dems. Kudos to the Dems for not standing for it and putting their foot down on it. As for Kohl’s antics; someone might want to remind him of his age. I’d expect to see behavior like this is my wife’s elementary school, not among elected ‘officials’.

3. 3 3 Kerosene Hat
   May 23, 2007 at 10:33 am

   The DFL decided to grandstand and spend the entire session producing bills they knew were going to be vetoed, whether you like what the Governor did or not he never changed his stance on that. They then had to start over and write all the bills in very small conference committees with no outside input. In the end they gave our elected representatives a matter of a few minutes to review the bills before they were forced to vote. If that is the best way to make policy why don’t we elect the people that are on the conference committees and give them a week to figure it out.

4. 4 4 C Mattson
   May 23, 2007 at 1:46 pm

   Is it the Dem’s job to vote for what Pawlenty wants or for what they feel their constituents want? Last time I looked, the Gov. didn’t elect the legislators..

   Frankly, I blame Pawlenty more then the legislators. Pawlenty’s the one with the “I’m willing to compromise as long as we all can agree on my way of doing everything” type of attitude.

5. 5 5 Kerosene Hat
   May 23, 2007 at 2:19 pm

   I do not at all think the legislature should simply do what the governor dictates and that was not my point. Because the DFL was not willing to risk a special session, right or wrong the majority of voters would have held them responsible, they gave up a huge amount of negotiating power. If they were unwilling to take the risk of a special session they should have prepared bills with that in mind instead of pushing for things they knew they would never get. In the end they would have gotten more of what they wanted, allowed a reasonable debate and not looked like fools in the end because they now have to try and spin this session of failure as a win. DFL leadership right now reminds me of Bush talking about how good the war is going and have only slightly more credibility as leaders.

6. 6 6 W. James
   May 23, 2007 at 4:36 pm

   The Dems pushed through over $18 billion dollars in the last hours of session without even allowing the Republicans to see the bills. You call that responsible? Typical of the Democratic mentality, but not responsible governing. If the Republicans had sat on their hands, they would have been in the wrong. Furthermroe, Speaker Margie disregarded the rules, did not allow anyone to see the huge budget bills until they were voted on. Of course the Republicans would talk about them… they had to find out what was actually in the bills. By the way, the Dems poorly managed the session all year and had a 7 hour recess on Monday and long recesses on Sat. and Sun. No way can they blame anyone but themselves for the way session ended and for the fact that they did not get their work done. Speaker Margie obviously lost control.