Not much time today, so I have to be quick. I'm on Midday again, and we're still not quite sure what we're going to talk about today. This happens more often than you might think. It's one of the things that makes doing Midday fun. At least that's what I keep telling myself.

Maybe your heard our show yesterday. We talked about the proposal to dedicate a fraction of the sales tax to natural resources. That was a program we had completely lined up the day before. The Senate sponsor of the bill, DFL'er Dallas Sams had agreed to come on as had the House sponsor, Republican Tom Hackbarth.

At 8:15 yesterday morning Sen. Sam's office called to say he had the flu and couldn't do the program. Producer Sara Meyer and I debated whether to scrap the program and do another topic or whether we should find another guest. We settled on asking Sen. Dick Cohen to do it, because he had pushed for arts funding as part of the bill, which is a key difference with what House supporters want to do. We called him and he agreed to do it. So far so good. Crisis averted.

Then at 10:15, 45 minutes before airtime, Rep. Hackbarth's office called to say he couldn't do it. The very bill we were talking about was up before the House Ways and Means Committee, and Hackbarth had to be there. His office suggested we talk instead to Rep. Joe Hoppe, who is a member of the Environment and Natural Resources committee and a supporter of the bill. At that point we had no choice, so we went ahead.

I thought it turned out to be a very good program. You can listen for yourself if you missed it. A big thanks to Cohen and Hoppe for coming on at the last minute and representing their positions so well.

Now you know why Gary Eichten should not be allowed to take time off. I've got to get back to work coming up with a program for today.