It was quite a scene on the House floor Thursday. Just hours after proclaiming he would strip a provision to raise the gas tax from a transportation funding bill, it became clear that Speaker Steve Sviggum couldn't stem the tide in favor of the tax increase. Ten Republicans ended up voting for the bill which includes the 10 cent a gallon gas tax increase. They voted for it despite Sviggum's opposition, despite a veto threat from the governor, and despite delaying tactics by the GOP House leadership that left Rep. Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, delivering a filibuster while Republicans met behind closed doors. So what happened? Here's what the Star Tribune said:

"This is a historic opportunity to relieve congestion and take care of rural roads and bridges," said House Majority Leader Matt Entenza of St. Paul, whose 66-member DFL caucus posted only four no votes on the bill. "We haven't seen this in a generation."

House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, attributed the bill mostly to "insane Democrats who got greedy, got hoggish." Reminded that his own members, including the chief proponent, Rep. Ron Erhardt, R-Edina, had made the passage possible, Sviggum said simply: "They were wrong."

Yikes! Does the speaker help himself by ripping his own members? Is it really insane to support a gas tax increase, a tax which Sviggum himself has been saying for months should be higher?

Assuming the DFL-controlled Senate accepts the House bill and sends it to Gov. Pawlenty, it's up to the governor to decide if he sticks with his "no new taxes" pledge or goes along with a majority of the Legislature. MPR's Tom Scheck says Pawlenty will stick with the pledge:

Pawlenty is not willing to waver on his pledge. Pawlenty's chief of staff, Dan McElroy, said Pawlenty would only support a gas tax if it receives voter approval.

"The governor has been very clear that he can't approve a gas tax that doesn't go to the voters. Most gas taxes across the country have gone to the voters. Our constitution has a number of provisions on transportation today," he said.

But House Minority Leader Matt Entenza of St. Paul says the governor is going to have to do a better job of negotiating with both House and Senate DFLers. He says the governor can no longer rely on House Republicans to protect him from making hard decisions.

"This governor has been molly-coddled for his first two years. He had large Republican majorities that have protected him and he hasn't had to deal with veto overrides. He is going to have to learn the meaning of the word compromise," Entenza said.

The bill now moves to the DFL-controlled Senate. The Senate can pass the House bill and send it to the governor or pass a different bill and negotiate their differences in conference committee.

DFL Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson wouldn't discuss his intentions, but couldn't resist a jab at the governor.

"There's a tremendous pressure on legislators to put financial resources into our transportation system," according to Johnson. "It's quite evident that the no-new-tax pledge cracked today. The bumper sticker got some rust on it."

The Pioneer Press used a better quote from McElroy:

Asked if there was even a sliver of a chance that Pawlenty would sign a gas tax into law, Pawlenty’s chief of staff, Dan McElroy, said:

“There is a sliver of a chance — if the governor were struck by lightning and the lieutenant governor were to pass a way before it hit his desk. Those are the only circumstances under which I envision this getting signed.”

Good quote--but it is worth noting that no matter what other states have done, there is no requirement in Minnesota that a public vote be held in order to raise the gas tax. The only thing constraining the governor is that pledge he signed for the Taxpayers League.

So what does it all mean? Probably that the chance of a special session is even greater than it already was.