Friday, February 29, 2008

Minnesota Politics

pawlenty

I read a lot of political blogs and the Huffington Post is one of my favorites. While it leans far left (who am I kidding? I'm a CA moderate, which is pretty far left across the nation), it's nice to see well thought out, argued points of view from that perspective. Conservatives have won the war of words for decades now, and thanks to the blogosphere, things seem to finally be changing.

Tonight Pete Smith wrote a stinging critique of Minnesota governor Time Pawlenty: Hey, Senator McCain - Take our governor. Please.

I've never been a big Pawlenty fan, but his refusal to sign off on the five cent gas tax was the final straw. Following the HWY 35 bridge failure he said he'd consider such a law to improve the state's infrastructure. At the time, it was politically the right thing to say, but he needs to get his conservative credentials up now that he's got the White House in mind.

The extreme weather here forces us into two seasons: winter and street repairs. Simply put, Minnesotans needed to stop borrowing money to work on the roads. The work needed to be done and the time is now to do. I was proud of the six Republicans who switched sides to override Pawlenty's veto. It's a shame they've now been disciplined by GOP House Minority Leader Marty Seifert.

They deserve to be commended. I've listed their names below:

Bud Heidgerken of Freeport
Neil Peterson of Bloomington
Ron Erhardt of Edina
Kathy Tingelstad of Andover
Rod Hamilton of Mountain Lake
Ron Abeler of Anoka

Thank you for cutting through the gridlock. Minnesota and I thank you.

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