Gov. Tim Pawlenty Thursday made good on his promise to veto the transportation budget bill, and in doing so set off a war of words with Senate majority Leader Dean Johnson.

Let's start with the veto and MPR's Michael Khoo:

In an unusual public veto ceremony, Gov. Pawlenty restated his long-held opposition to raising state taxes -- and said his veto should come as a surprise to no one.

"I have warned them and told them this would happen. But rather than working on bill that could pass and be accomplished, they want to spend time and resources and energy -- wasting it, I might add -- on this exercise to make a political point when they could be working on a bill that might actually be signed into law," he said.

Pawlenty took particular aim at the bill's proposed dime-a-gallon hike in the current 20 cent gas tax. But he says the bill was also riddled with technical flaws and drafting errors. All told, the transportation package would have provided almost $7.5 billion over the next ten years to roads, bridges and mass transit. It was passed by the DFL-controlled Senate on Wednesday after a group of maverick Republicans defied GOP leaders in the House and helped shepherd it through that body a week earlier. DFL Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson predicted that the governor would pay a price for his veto -- and returned the charge of partisan gamesmanship.

"I think the governor has miscalculated this political decision. And the reason I say that, many of his past supporters have called, and they are irritated. Gov. Roadblock, take down the barriers. Start to compromise," he said.

Something tells me you may hear that "Gov. Roadblock" sobriquet again. But Pawlenty along, with House Speaker Steve Sviggum and Senate Republican leader Dick Day (both of whom have said they personally support a higher gas tax) are blaming the end of the session pile-up on Johnson. This is from the Pioneer Press:

Pawlenty said it was Senate DFLers who were unwilling to compromise. "Rather than working on a bill that could pass and be accomplished, they want to spend time and resources and energy — wasting it, I might add — on this exercise to make a political point," he said. He expects them to "try to blame me for traffic congestion, even though they haven't done diddly in 15 years."

Although Pawlenty opposes a gas tax increase, he reiterated that he's willing to compromise by letting the voters decide the question through a constitutional amendment.

"If you want to have a gas tax, put it on the ballot," he said.

Amid the rancor over the transportation bill comes the admission that a special session is now all but inevitable. Patrick Sweeney has a story in the Pioneer Press that raises a possible way out:

Many lawmakers — most Democrats and a significant number of Republicans — say the key to breaking the budget impasse is for Pawlenty to accept a new wholesale charge of 50 cents to $1 a pack on cigarettes and pledge the proceeds to health care. He would call the charge a fee; Democrats and probably many other people would call it a tax.

"If you're going to do anything in the tax area, that's the one I think is possible in an 11th-hour deal," said Rep. Marty Seifert, R-Marshall. Seifert said he did not personally support a new fee or tax on cigarettes, but he said he suspected enough House Republicans do support it that they eventually could join the House DFL majority to approve such a charge during a special session.

Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson, DFL-Willmar, said the cigarette proposal is the "cigar box full of money hanging out there" that could end the budget dispute.

It's still unclear whether the governor would accept the measure which would raise about $470 million over the biennium. Keep an ear to the radio over the weekend. MPR's reporters will be at the Capitol following everything.

One final note, it looks like Al Franken is serious about running for Senate in 2008. The Star Tribune has this item:

Franken, 53, said he and his wife, Frannie, bought a townhouse in a new development on the edge of downtown Minneapolis late last month.

He plans to shuttle between his two homes between now and the beginning of 2006, when he also plans to relocate his daily three-hour radio show broadcast on the liberal Air America network to Minnesota.

"I haven't figured out the details or the staffing yet," Franken said.

For the past 18 months he has been publicly flirting with the idea of running for the seat once held by his friend and political mentor, U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone, who died in a plane crash in 2002.

Franken, who grew up in St. Louis Park, has not lived in Minnesota since he was 22.

Franken tells the Strib that if there's a DFL candidate with a better chance of beating Norm Coleman in '08 he'll campaign for that candidate.