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The Daily Digest: 8-10-07

Posted at 9:01 AM on August 10, 2007 by Tom Scheck (3 Comments)
Filed under: Daily Digest

Gov. Pawlenty, some members of Minnesota's Congressional delegation and U.S. Transportation Secretary hold a news conference this morning to discuss reconstruction efforts.

The NTSB says the focus on the gusset plates is overblown even thought they were the ones to mention it in the last news release.

MNDOT chooses five finalists for the rebuild. MPR and the Pi Press have a look at the final five.

AP gets a hold of the e-mail traffic that went through Gov. Pawlenty's office in the wake of the collapse.

Gov. Pawlenty's political future may be at stake after the collapse.

WCCO reality checks transportation funding.

Pawlenty also pushes a tougher biodiesel mandate.

$44 million needed to renovate the Veterans Home.

Stateline says states, like Minnesota, are offering help to war vets.

The Twins reschedule their groundbreaking.

Congress

President Bush rejects a federal gas tax increase for bridge repair. MPR, AP and CQ have stories.

An AP poll says the Minneapolis bridge collapse signals a nationwide safety problem.

A Pennsylvania Congressman says Minnesota is trying to "screw" the rest of the country out of federal funding as a result of the bridge collapse.

DFL Rep. Keith Ellison will leave for Israel on Saturday. So is GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann.

Predatory lending gets plenty of criticism at a Congressional hearing in north Minneapolis.

DFL Rep. Jim Oberstar rides his bike in Bemidji.

Finally

The Minnesota Supreme Court is one step closer to having its own historical society.

Comments (3)

"Gov. Pawlenty's political future may be at stake after the collapse."

Wow that really is on the mark. In my opinion, the Dem's will blow this opportunity to crush a rising star for the GOP though. They (DEMs) should push for a multi level approach to transportation, funding it for the short and long terms.

But I think instead they will push for a bill that is good, but will have too many taxes but the current crisis will force Pawlenty’s hand. By signing a huge tax increase laden transportation bill (I think the Dems will try and get him to veto the bill) he will shift all the blame for any future problem, and the taxes, directly onto the Dem’s.

But if the Dem’s pass the bonding bill he already proposed, and then offer a moderate infrastructure bill, this is something they could take credit for. Let him try and veto a clean infrastructure bill, with correct tax increases to pay for it. He can’t take credit for it, but he can’t blame other future issues (increased traffic,etc)on them. This way in 2010 if he runs for a 3rd term you can still blame him for vetoing the other(past) bills.

Posted by brian hanf | August 10, 2007 10:46 AM

brian hanf writes
"In my opinion, the Dem's will blow this opportunity to crush a rising star for the GOP though. They (DEMs) should push for a multi level approach to transportation, funding it for the short and long terms. "

Wow, that's an interesting set of priorities. Perhaps the DFL would be smarter to emphasize their own consistency on the issue of infrastructure funding, rather than playing partisan games trying to beat up Pawlenty & Molnau over the issue. In other words, rather than trying to pin the blame on the bridge collapse on P&M, just point to their own prior efforts at increasing the gas tax for infrastructure maintenance & how their party saw the need before things started falling into the river. Voters are then smart enough to put 2 and 2 together.

In the end though, the point is that the DFL would do itself & us a service by promoting solutions to problems, rather than worrying about 'crushing a rising star'.

Posted by bsimon | August 10, 2007 3:30 PM

I think TP can come out of this smelling like a rose, after all these years of relentless "no new taxes" partisanship.

He's "willing to cross the aisle" and support a tax hike he adamantly opposed (if a bridge collapses.) Looks very statesman-like--the only ones who are going to throw up his record to him are the Dems (who won't vote for him anyway) and the Taxpayers' League types (who he doesn't care about anymore since re-election.)

If TP's career is on the line it's not because of the bridge or gas tax hike--it's because he tied himself to the McCain Hindenburg presidential campaign.

Posted by Bill Prendergast | August 10, 2007 5:17 PM

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