Johnson speaks... again

Posted at 4:02 PM on March 22, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

Ace Capitol reporter Tom Scheck had a few minutes between assignments today so he went up to Dean Johnson's office to see what's new. There was Dean starting a conversation with Eric Eskola of WCCO and Brian Bakst of the Ap (two of Polinaut's favorite dinner companions -- well at least once every four years in some far-off city where a political convention is being held). So they locked the door behind them and had a chat.

Here's the audio in all of its RealPlayer splendor.

As I was just driving back from a doctor's appointment awhile ago I was struck by the talking points that "this could all go away if he'd just let the same-sex marriage bill go to the floor for a vote."

That's true. And the way the same-sex marriage bill goes to the floor is if the DFL Senate caucus has a little civil war and the one DFLer who'd like to bolt, is allowed to bolt in the vacuum that results....and the half-dozen or so who would follow him if he did. This is where Johnson's whips -- like Ann Rest -- are earning their money this week. It's a good time to be a DFL senator and need a few favors from the leadership in exchange for your loyalty, I would think.

That's what this is about. That's how this goes to the Senate floor and that's why the GOP won't relent. Not to get Johnson to change...but to get the caucus to erupt.

Now, putting on the other side's hat for a moment, I still don't understand why Sen. Don Betzold doesn't just hold a hearing and -- if the DFL wants to kill the bill -- has a vote in the Judiciary Committee and -- like a couple thousand other bills up there every year -- kills the bill there.

Assuming Judiciary has the votes to kill it.

So what would the net effect of that be? It got its vote. It got killed, and the other party has no leg to stand on since they kill unfavorable bills in committee too.

Meantime, we're left with a Senate Majority Leader who says something, then tries to explain what he said...and explain what his explanation said etc. A governor who gives his strategy....then issues a release clarifying his strategy...and then the GOP chairman says the original strategy wasn't the strategy. Confused? You're not in politics, then. Because maybe the real story is this all makes sense to someone. Usually the same ones who will be quoted in a couple of months -- as they were last year and the year before that -- kvetching about how things just can't get done at the Capitol. The same ones who start every session predicting a new bipartisanship. After awhile, you'd think we'd all wise up. But we are -- and this is the good news, I guess -- far too idealistic to admit that this is not possible.

It's certainly politics in its form. It's just not being practiced as an art right now. Well, unless you think those mud flaps on tractor-trailer trucks of a naked woman's silhouette is art.

Mud flap. Hey, that actually is apropos. Polinaut loves it when the oxygen mixture gets enrichened.

This would, by the way, be a great time for someone to revisit a question that was asked after last year's government shutdown. "What did you learn?" Multiple answers? At this point, I'd be darned impressed with one.

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Comments (1)

Perhaps the reason it hasn't been brought down in committee is because Sen. Betzold thinks he's vulnerable in the next election. He only got 52% of the vote in 2002 -- and his Blaine area district is fairly conservative. All the other DFL'ers on the committee are in fairly safe districts.

That said, Betzold has already come out against the bill, and is being widely quoted on it.

Posted by Bill | March 22, 2006 5:17 PM

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