The legislature has only been back in session for a week, but we already have a clear sense of new majority leader David Senjem’s leadership style: petty and vindictive. On the very first day of the session, his party voted to force the DFL to bear the consequences of the GOP leadership’s fiscal irresponsibility. To start week two, they ousted a dedicated public servant from office:

Minnesota Republicans took the rare step on Monday of voting to remove an appointee of DFL Gov. Mark Dayton.

By a 37-29 party-line vote, Republicans voted against confirming Ellen Anderson, a former longtime member of the Senate, as Dayton’s appointee to chair the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission.

Trying to hide the vindictive partisan motives behind the move, GOP Senators claimed Anderson was too “extreme.” But as Patrick has already covered, if Ellen Anderson’s tenure at the PUC was “extreme,” then the entire body is extreme, since nearly every vote it has taken has been unanimous during Anderson’s tenure.

Apparently this is what we have to look forward from the GOP under Senjem — a fresh partisan outrage every single week. You’d think they’d be more interested in trying to rebuild their credibility with voters, but I guess they just don’t care about actually governing.