OK, OK, I've now learned I should never take a vacation during a government shutdown. As soon as I left they wrapped things up. Thanks to Bob Collins for finishing the special session Capitol Letters for me. The big question now that I'm back the Legislature is gone is whether I should continue to write this column. Or more to the point, will you keep reading it? Drop me a line and let me know what you think.

A couple of items in the local political news today. First is Gov. Pawlenty's post-shutdown tour. The governor has embarked on a mission to rehabilitate his reputation. On Tuesday he was on Midday with Gary Eichten, spoke to the Strib editorial board, and spoke to the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce. MPR's Laura McCallum picked this nugget out of the Midday appearance:

Gov. Pawlenty says he won't sign a no-new-taxes pledge if he runs for re-election.

As a candidate for governor, Pawlenty signed a pledge sponsored by the Taxpayers League of Minnesota. DFL leaders have criticized Pawlenty for signing the pledge, saying it forced him to balance the budget through spending cuts. Pawlenty says he won't sign any interest group pledge if he runs in 2006, although he believes the state should hold the line on taxes.

"It's not about signing a piece of paper. It's about saying, as a values statement, as a political policy position, I think we're taxed enough in Minnesota. And we are - we're the fourth highest taxed state in the nation," he said.

Some conservatives say Pawlenty violated the pledge by proposing a 75-cent a pack cigarette tax increase. Pawlenty says his so-called "health impact fee" was a compromise solution to end the budget stalemate.

So if his values statement is that taxes are too high, why did he propose and pass a tax increase? Pawlenty was also downplaying the propects for another special session later in the year to deal with stadium issues.