Pawlenty Readies To Defy Minnesota Courts

That's how I read this announcement:

Two sources have confirmed that Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty will announce that he will not seek re-election in 2010.

The sources confirmed to WCCO-TV political reporter Pat Kessler that the announcement about Pawlenty's future plans will include an announcement that he will not seek a third term.

The announcement is expected to be made at a 2 p.m. press conference.

Pawlenty wants to run for President, and maybe wants to free his schedule for 2011 (although that didn't exactly work out for Mitt Romney). He also might want to avoid a re-election fight in a blue state after years of budget deficits and recessions. This is a bad time to be a Governor.

But clearly, not having to face Minnesota voters again frees him up to do whatever he deems necessary with respect to the US Senate election. Al Franken will probably get approval from the state Supreme Court within a couple weeks as the winner of the election. At that point the Court will, in all likelihood, request a certificate of election for Franken to be seated. The people of Minnesota want two Senators again. Pawlenty, by taking himself out of the running, removes himself of accountability and can now be free to show Republican primary voters what a good soldier he is. He'll refuse to sign the certificate. Heck, he makes this announcement THE DAY after the Supreme Court heard arguments in the Franken-Coleman case. He's practically begging you to make the connection.

Red River Flooding And National Service

A spate of winter storms in the Fargo, ND/Moorhead, MN area have threatened homes and businesses as the Red River rises and increases the potential for a catastrophic flood. Thousands of volunteers reinforced dikes and levees, raising the floodwall level to roughly 43 feet, and many communities already submerged have been evacuated. On Friday the water level in the river rose to a level approaching 41 feet, with cresting expected in the next 48 hours. But this morning, freezing temperatures have slowed the rise of the river, as snow has not melted, and the National Weather Service cautiously announced that the river crested at a lower level than predicted. This is positive news suggesting that the levees will hold, but the situation remains dangerous, with more storms in the forecast for next week and the water level still at a record high.

In his weekly radio address, President Obama expressed his support for those affected by the flooding, citing his disaster declarations for North Dakota and Minnesota, the FEMA response and the US Army Corps of Engineers support in coordinating the building of makeshift levees. It's good to see this kind of coordination and attention in the midst of the emergency, not after it.

In addition, the President also connected the situation to the theme of national service that Steve discussed yesterday.

For at moments like these, we are reminded of the power of nature to disrupt lives and endanger communities. But we are also reminded of the power of individuals to make a difference.

In the Fargodome, thousands of people gathered not to watch a football game or a rodeo, but to fill sandbags. Volunteers filled 2.5 million of them in just five days, working against the clock, day and night, with tired arms and aching backs. Others braved freezing temperatures, gusting winds, and falling snow to build levees along the river's banks to help protect against waters that have exceeded record levels.

College students have traveled by the busload from nearby campuses to lend a hand during their spring breaks. Students from local high schools asked if they could take time to participate. Young people have turned social networks into community networks, coordinating with one another online to figure out how best to help.

In the face of an incredible challenge, the people of these communities have rallied in support of one another. And their service isn't just inspirational – it's integral to our response.

It's also a reminder of what we can achieve when Americans come together to serve their communities. All across the nation, there are men, women and young people who have answered that call, and millions of other who would like to. Whether it's helping to reduce the energy we use, cleaning up a neighborhood park, tutoring in a local school, or volunteering in countless other ways, individual citizens can make a big difference.

This is the tradition of national service that conservative commentators have likened to Hitler Youth. This is the call to sacrifice that Chuck Todd doesn't seem to understand because it doesn't involve cutting Social Security or Medicare benefits. Obama's support of national service represents a continuum throughout his campaign and his public life, that we have a responsibility to one another, that we can do our part for change as neighbors and fellow citizens. I would ask those naysayers on the right if they asked the residents of these communities in North Dakota and Minnesota their opinion.

Loser Pays

Al Franken's legal team is nailing Norm Coleman.

Democrat Al Franken wants the judges who heard the U.S. Senate trial to force Norm Coleman to pay court costs and some opposing lawyers' fees -- a potentially expensive bill -- if the Republican loses his bid to overturn the results of the recount.

Franken sought such payments in a document filed Tuesday summarizing his case. In it, he also asks the judges to consider evidence involving 430 absentee ballots that he had identified as wrongly rejected, and is asking specifically that 252 of them be counted [...]

Franken's document asks that Coleman pay the costs of the seven-week trial. And in seeking attorneys' fees for Franken lawyers, it refers to sanctions that the judges earlier imposed on Coleman for failing to follow court rules on disclosing information about a witness, Minneapolis election judge Pamela Howell.

Franken asked for "reasonable costs and attorneys' fees in connection with [Coleman's] failure to disclose."

Asked whether the request for attorneys' fees was limited to fees involving the disclosure flap or other expenses, Franken lead lawyer Marc Elias said, "We're going to leave it to the court to decide that."

This is established law in Minnesota, and would likely be the option of the court anyway. I appreciate the gentle reminder. Because Coleman wants to drag this trial out as long as humanly possible, he should be made to pay for it. At least there would be some cost to the deliberate attempt to overturn an election.

Coleman, who through negligence revealed the personal financial information of his entire online donor base earlier this year, probably has less fundraising juice now. The Republican campaign committees have been furnishing lots of cash, but in a "loser pays" scenario, would they continue to tilt at windmills when the money could be put to use in elections they actually have a chance at winning?

Oh Yeah, Well I Didn't Want To Be Vice President Anyway!

If I didn't know better, I'd say John McCain was being intentionally cruel.

Most, if not all, Minnesota politicos expected that McCain was set to tap our very own Tim Pawlenty to be his running mate. In fact, there was ample evidence that Pawlenty was on the cusp of veepdom. Most striking was the fact that he had canceled his public schedule for Friday and Saturday, returned to Minnesota from Denver earlier than planned and had booked an “exclusive” interview on Meet the Press Sunday morning. Multiple sources I spoke to indicated that Pawlenty was not acting unilaterally - he was instructed to take these steps. Behind the scenes there were more signs. Republicans sources I spoke to indicated that Pawlenty loyalists and family members were on their way to Minnesota and that Pawlenty’s inner circle was gearing up for a major announcement. One person I spoke to reported that Charlie Weaver, a key member of Pawlenty’s inner circle, was seen at MSP on Thursday waiting for a flight to Ohio. I’ve even heard rumors that a Secret Service detail was assigned to Pawlenty before being reassigned late Thursday (though I have found very limited evidence supporting this particular rumor).

So what happened?

Some people believe that Pawlenty was used as a decoy by the McCain campaign in an effort to distract attention away from their favored candidate, Sarah Palin. This theory has led to widespread anger in the uper echelons of Minnesota Republican circles. Many, many Republicans I spoke to were irate with the McCain campaign today.

The Washington Post reported the same thing with respect to Pawlenty and Mitt Romney. Using colleagues as pawns in a media game is one thing; that those colleagues are in swing states that you need in November is quite another. I think Minnesota just moved firmly into the blue column. The GOP up there is unlikely to lift a finger for John McCain.

Death By Tax Cut

Rick Perlstein, who's obsessed over sinkholes and the connection to our broken infrastructure, highlights this bit about which I was unaware:

When I read this on this weekend's floods in today's New York Times I did a double take:

In Minnesota, Governor Tim Pawlenty said six people had died, some of them when their vehicles fell into sinkholes in roadways...

The astonishment: As many as six more! That would make for a death toll from faulty roadways in Minnesota of possibly a dozen in Minnesota over a three-week period alone—two years after Tim Pawlenty put on a dumb show for Grover Norquist style conservatives, holding up a giant prop "VETO" stamped as he cancelled an extra $300 million a year for the Minnesota Department of Transportation because it involved a small tax increase. As I wrote two weeks ago, he addressed himself at the ceremony to the public-spirited Minnesota legislatures who dared suggested that Minnesota's roads and bridges needed work: "How dumb can they be?"

In fact, we now know that this love of ideological conservatism over public safety stopped the bridge in Minnesota from being fixed even after they knew it was in bad shape:

The men and women whose job was to ensure the safety of Bridge 9340 were meeting once again. Just after noon on Dec. 6, they filed into a conference room in Roseville to divvy up the final prep work for a dangerous steel reinforcement project high above the Mississippi River.
A senior engineer was going to pull property records in order to contact landowners beneath the bridge. Detours were coming for West River Road. The Coast Guard was about to get heaps of paperwork on what tasks would be done from the river channel. Truck drivers would soon learn of pending weight restrictions.

It appeared that the most studied bridge in Minnesota, the focus of worrisome inspection reports for a decade, was finally going to have its most glaring weaknesses fixed.

But five weeks later, all those preparations stopped. In a single conference call on Jan. 17, the same consultants who said reinforcement plates were needed to strengthen the bridge cautioned MnDOT that drilling for the retrofit could weaken it.

"That was the turning point. That's where we turned the ship 180 degrees," said state bridge engineer Dan Dorgan.

Internal MnDOT documents reviewed by the Star Tribune reveal that last year bridge officials talked openly about the possibility of the bridge collapsing -- and worried that it might have to be condemned.

They knew. And if you read the whole article you'll see suggestions that money was a consideration in halting the fixes. So we can now put a price on the 6 lives that were lost when the bridge collapsed. As if it's less expensive now to rebuild the whole thing.

Conservatives are the least patriotic people imaginable. A patriot would actually try to do something for their fellow American, rather than leaving them in danger. Right-wing policies of abandoning responsibility have led to deaths and suffering, and also a need to spend MORE to fix the responsibilities previously abandoned. It's dangerous and stupid.

Feeling Minnesota

So if I was an African-American still living in a trailer in New Orleans, and I caught wind of the fact that the President snapped to attention immediately after the death of five people in predominantly-white Minnesota, it wouldn't matter to me that the dead included a Native American and a Hispanic, it wouldn't matter that the district where the bridge collapse occurred is very diverse and is represented by the only Muslim in Congress, Keith Ellison, none of that matters. It would reinforce my opinion that George Bush doesn't care about black people.

And another thing. What Steve Soto said:

In the immediate aftermath of the Minnesota bridge collapse, one of the first talking points to come out from the White House and the GOP spin machine was a charge that Democrats were trying to take political advantage of the tragedy by talking about past GOP under funding at the state and national level. It suddenly became off-limits for the Democrats to point out that Governor Tim Pawlenty and George W. Bush had borne full responsibility for the sorry state of Minnesota’s highways because of their mutual and well-documented insistence that user taxes and taxes of any kind not be raised to maintain or improve infrastructure, and that such needs be met through the current inadequate levels of funding.

This tactic of preemptively deflecting politically damaging attacks by smearing your opponent for taking political advantage of a situation is a part of the Rove/Luntz playbook, and has been in use for well over a decade as a defense mechanism. Whenever you hear any Republican warn Democrats about “taking political advantage” of a tragedy it means that they know they are responsible for the tragedy. It is a tactic they used to defend themselves immediately after Katrina, and it is a warning from the same people who politicized Jessica Lynch, Pat Tillman, and every terror threat warning of the last six years.

When tragedy occurs is the PERFECT time to "politicize" it, since to the GOP politicize means talking about it. When the nation is at attention, these ideas must be discussed. Otherwise we sink back into apathy and nothing changes.

YKos '07: Screening Series

So we just screened "Crashing The States," the netroots film that follows two bloggers through the 2006 election, touring 20 campaigns, 26 states, and over 10,000 miles. It was very well-received (though the white levels looked way hotter on the projector than on the computer). It was a bigger group watching it than I expected, too.

OK, so I'm completely out of touch with the news, but this bridge collapse in Minnesota is ominous. E. coli conservatism strikes again. 30 years of tax cuts at the expense of infrastructure and here's what you get. Here's a good rundown.

But it was all a moot exercise anyway. Literally wielding a big red VETO stamp to appease the no-tax crowd that remains hell-bent on a something-for-nothing relationship with government, Gov. Tim Pawlenty deep-sixed the bipartisan transportation bill. "How dumb can they be?" he sneered of the lawmakers who dared approve a tax hike to fix the state's roads.

"The governor hammered through a plan that doesn't pay for itself," says state Sen. Steve Murphy (DFL-Red Wing), "and so now for the first time in the history of the state, the Department of Transportation is broke. What that means is if someone drives through a guard rail it is not going to be replaced very soon. If someone breaks an axle on a pothole, it is not going to be filled very soon.

Damn.