Whether or not you agree with him, you've got to admit Tim Pawlenty is one cool customer. When political opponents of Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak called him on the carpet for putting his picture on a piece of mail sent out at taxpayer expense, the story dragged on for a couple of weeks. By contrast, Pawlenty's response to DFL criticism he's using his taxpayer funded Web site for political purposes was a textbook example for politicians of how to react. (Admittedly the Rybak and Pawlenty situations are different in one key respect: there's a law that covers printed materials but not Web sites)

The Pawlenty story started when Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, held a press conference to draw reporters' attention to Pawlenty's Web site. As reported in the Pioneer Press, one of his complaints was that partisan sites linked to Pawlenty's official state site:

"I think it's totally inappropriate to have a political Web site punching you directly into the governor's Web site," Rukavina said at a Tuesday news conference.

"If it isn't illegal, it should be," said Rukavina. He called on Pawlenty to demand that the links from the political sites to his official governor's site be dropped.

Pawlenty's response?:

"There's nothing inappropriate about sending people to your official Web site as long as the official site is appropriate," Pawlenty said. "It would be inappropriate if you were using your official Web site to send people to campaign activities."

Rukavina also ripped Pawlenty for including a bunch of childhood pictures on the site, saying that's a purely personal use of a state funded tool. Here's where I think Pawlenty is so smooth. Not only did he remove the pictures, but he also said he never liked them in the first place!

"That was put on right after I became governor, during the transition or early on in our administration, as kind of a get-acquainted, and it's just a holdover from a few years ago. Believe me, I'd be more than happy to get rid of those pictures and take them off."

That was the sound bite that made it on TV, right after they showed all the cute kid pictures to a bigger audience than probably ever saw them on the Web. So as those who care about good government wring their hands over whether the law should changed to cover Web sites as well as printed material, Pawlenty turns the criticism into a positive for himself. They should teach that maneuver in poli sci classes.

Back to the actual stuff of government. MPR's Laura McCallum has a story on a little noted provision in the governor's supplimental budget proposal. This one would spend $300,000 to create a new position in state government to oversee faith-based initiatives:

Some lawmakers question the need for his faith-based initiative, at the same time Pawlenty is proposing budget cuts. The chair of the Senate State Government Budget Division, Sheila Kiscaden, IP-Rochester, says lawmakers will have to weigh the governor's proposal against competing needs in state government.

"It's a priority for him, but we would have to trade off existing services like the Land Management Information Center, which has had a lot of people come forward and say that that would be a loss that would be hard to replace, that local governments could not do this," Kiscaden says.

The Land Management Information Center works with local governments on high-tech mapping and other technologies. Gov. Pawlenty is recommending that the center's funding be cut by more than $800,000 a year.

And as the House begins hearings on gambling bills, MPR's Tom Robertson reports that there are some doubts about the governor's casino plan on the Red Lake Reservation:

The majority of Red Lake's tribal council supports the casino plan. They've been actively lobbying for it. But Chairman [Buck] Jourdain himself remains neutral. He says even if the plan is approved by the Legislature, it won't necessarily be a done deal for Red Lake.

"Red Lake has always held that if we choose to step out and bow out, and it's not in our interest to pursue it, then we'll do that if we have to," Jourdain said.

While the tribal council is calling for a referendum on the plan, it's unclear when that vote will take place.

Finally, two former Minnesota governors appeared before a state Senate committee Tuesday to make the case for more money for the University of Minnesota. MPR's Marisa Helms had this item:

Former DFL Gov. Wendell Anderson joined former Republican Gov. Arne Carlson to urge lawmakers to fully fund the University of Minnesota's request for $126 million in additional money.

Both spoke of the university's past glories in medical and scientific research and the importance of maintaining the U's legacy.

Carlson told the Senate Higher Education Committee the U needs state support in order to succeed and fuel the state's economic future.

"The world is not going to wait for Minnesota to catch up. What this committee and this Legislature has to decide is do we want to excel? Do we want to be the best that we can be and compete most effectively? And that's what this request is all about," he said.

Carlson called the U's request "modest," and one that could fit into any reasonable budget.