Did Gov. Pawlenty really think opening negotiations to the press would result in a breakthrough? Probably not. Maybe he hoped to embarrass DFL Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson or to show that Johnson is not interested in real negotiations. In any case, the first negotiating session of the special session resulted in squatski. MPR's Michael Khoo has the story:

Gov. Tim Pawlenty convened the 45 minute discussion his reception room -- and extended future invitations to keep meeting throughout the week and into Memorial Day weekend. But judging from the barely concealed frustrations and occasional tensions, the offer may not bear much fruit.

Late last week, Pawlenty proposed a 75-cent per pack fee on cigarettes to jumpstart budget talks. So far, Senate Democrats haven't directly responded to that offer. The governor's plan would inject an extra $241 million into K-12 education and another $100 million into health care services. He says the question now is whether that's sufficient to meet DFL spending priorities.

"If that is insufficient from your perspective, perhaps our time is best spent identifying, you know, incremental, other ways to meet some of your needs or concerns in the health and human service area in addition to what we've put on the table," he said.

DFL Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson steadfastly refused to touch the subject of revenue -- either how much is needed or how it might be raised. Instead, he requested that informal working groups pick up where House-Senate conference committees left off when the regular session ran out of time.

Republican House Speaker Steve Sviggum agreed to set up the working groups, but argued they'll accomplish nothing unless the governor and legislative leaders agree to a global agreement that matches revenues to spending. Sviggum asked Johnson to return with a global Senate offer -- but got no committment.

So basically things are exactly where they were Friday night. Except the governor has called a special session. As noted yesterday, if the goal of calling the session immediately was to put pressure on Johnson, it didn't work. The working deadline is clearly the June 30 end of the biennium. If there isn't a deal by then parts of state government shut down.

The Star Tribune notes that at least some lawmakers hope to save taxpayers a little money on the special session:

Most members of the large class of 17 new DFLers elected to the House last fall -- beneficiaries of a wave of anti-incumbent anger after the failure of the 2004 legislative session -- will not accept the $66 per diem payment to which legislators are entitled each day of the special session.

"We're not making a big deal out of it," said Rep. Sandra Peterson, DFL-New Hope. "But it's a way of making our point that we made a commitment to get our work done."

Most of the freshman members already have notified fiscal managers that they will not accept the per diem, which is provided to help legislators defray incidental expenses, Peterson said.

A few legislators decline per diem or collect reduced amounts, but most others are expected to collect the stipend and other expense reimbursements, pushing the total cost of the special session to about $20,000 a day, according to estimates prepared by legislative fiscal officers.

Sooner or later someone at the Capitol will bring up that $20,000 figure. Remember, the Legislature failed to get the job done, but the governor chose to call the special session before there was an agreement on the big picture.

Shifting to Washington, should Minnesotans be wondering why neither of our Senators was among the group in the middle that engineered a deal to preserve the filibuster? Minnesota seems to be a "purple" state, not quite red and not quite blue, but the two Senators are reliable votes for their parties. MPR's All Things Considered talked to both Senators Tuesday. This item boils down what they said:

When it comes to nominees to the Supreme Court, Minnesota Republican Norm Coleman says he's not convinced Democrats would allow a confirmation vote.

"If in fact this holds and folks agree not to use the filibuster, then I think it'll be a good thing, and I'll be there to applaud it. But if it doesn't we may well find ourselves back at the same point," he said.

Democrat Mark Dayton said he doesn't like the Senate compromise that allows up or down votes on the President's judicial nominees.

"There's not much I like in the content of the agreement of the 14 Senators who acted independently of their caucuses. It was more of a capitulation than a compromise. They preserved the right to filibuster judicial nominees by promising not to do it," he said.

So in other words Minnesota's Senators agree on one thing. Their votes will continue to cancel each other out.