I almost hate to say it because it could spoil everything, but could the Legislature actually finish its session early? Not that the lawmakers really had all that much to do this year. After all, the budget appears to be balanced, so they didn't have to make any changes there. The main order of business was passing the bonding bill, and now both the House and Senate have done it. And they're not that far apart. MPR's Laura McCallum reports that when lawmakers return from their Easter break, they don't have too big of a job in front of them:

When lawmakers return from their five-day break, negotiators from the House and Senate could begin meeting soon to resolve differences between the two bonding bills. They are about $40 million apart; much closer than in recent years.

DFL Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson of Willmar was optimistic about the chances for a relatively speedy agreement.

"It has very positive signs of being productive and being completed," he said.

Once the Legislature agrees on a bonding package, House leaders say they may adjourn for the year, even if other issues are unresolved.

There's that election coming up in November too, which is a big motivation to get moving. But I guess you should never underestimate the Legislature's ability to confound the conventional wisdom, so we'll see what happens.

Tune in to Midday today. I'll have MPR's political reporters on and we'll kick around some of the big issues of the session. It should be good listening.

Because I'm doing Midday this week, I'm having to breeze through writing this. And because lawmakers are on their break for the next few days there may not be much to talk about.

One story that did get my attention was the decision by St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman to deny the Metropolitan Airports Commission permission to build a flood prevention project around the downtown St. Paul airport. A lot of people had seen this as Coleman's first big decision as mayor. At least he was decisive.

"I cannot support this proposal in its current form. We cannot allow the MAC to put lipstick on a sheet-metal pig and call it a compromise," he said.

Come on, mayor, what do you really think? Companies like 3M depend on access to the airport, and they can't be pleased by the mayor's decision. But a lot of people who live near the river will support him. For the MAC it's back to the drawing board.

Sen. John McCain came to Minnesota Wednesday and campaigned for Gov. Pawlenty and Rep. Gil Gutknecht. Some DFLers tried to make an issue out of McCain NOT campaigning for Mark Kennedy. Is it odd for Democrats to be telling Republicans which Republicans should be campaigning for other Republicans? National Public Radio's Mara Liasson had a good piece this morning about McCain's tightrope walk to get GOP support for a 2008 presidential run.