[speedgibson] Speed Gibson: Can't Anyone Here Play This Game?

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Posted by Speed Gibson:
Can't Anyone Here Play This Game?
http://speedgibson.powerblogs.com/posts/1238474325.shtml


   A few Jason Lewis Tax Rally's ago we chanted some insults at then
   Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe. As I think I've posted here since,
   I've come to respect him more and more. I speak not of his policies,
   but of his leadership and integrity. We didn't know what we had until
   we lost it, first to the serial liar Dean Johnson, then Larry
   Pogemiller in 2006. Meanwhile, Margaret Anderson Kelliher came out of
   nowhere to become Speaker of the House when the GOP lost control in
   2006.
   Both of these leaders are incompetent. So are their lieutenants, Taryl
   Clark and Tony Sertich. They've had two years to learn their jobs, but
   the events this past week show no tangible improvement. Again, forget
   the policies and proposals for the moment. Look at the process and the
   resulting lack of progress. When even the normally undemanding media
   is openly complaining, even the DFL must admit they have a problem.
   Look at this $ 992 million tax bill, just announced. Gone, suddenly
   gone, are the "thoughtful" Senate and House bills that made their way
   through weeks of deliberation. All that work for nothing, replaced by
   something hurriedly cobbled together, a bill they could have written
   in January. It needn't have waiting for the February forecast, but OK,
   they could have written it March. Instead, we see it in May, with two
   weeks left in the session. I have to believe even a few in the DFL
   were surprised and disappointed by this.
   The left hand in the Senate clearly doesn't know what the other left
   hand in the House is doing. Within each chamber, the absence of
   leadership allows the committees to wander listlessly, worrying about
   dogs eating landscaping mulch.
   To my untrained mind, this session has only one real purpose for the
   DFL: get Pawlenty. That's what the "listening" tours were about.
   That's what all this posturing the past two months has been about. And
   now it's May, crunch time. As this new tax bill concedes, operation
   "Get Pawlenty" is headed for the rocks.
   What Pogemiller and Kelliher don't understand is that they're no match
   for Pawlenty in a political duel. They have only their strength in
   numbers, and those numbers should seriously think about who they're
   following and why.