PAWLENTY FAST ONE

Minnesota Govenor Tim Pawlenty is now talking about calling a special session of the Minn. legislator to deal with the bonding bill that didn't get passed during the last legislative session.

Wait a minute, is he talking about the bonding bill that the Republicans brought down? Sure enough. The Democrats voted in favor of the bill which would have moved it into conference committee. But it was the Republicans who voted it down, killing it for the session. At the time Republican Pawlenty refused to do anything about it despite repeated calls for a special session from Democratic leaders. But now, only a month short of the start of a new session Pawlenty is calling for a special session. What's up? Well Pawlenty has a new bonding bill, only half the size of the last one. And Pawlenty's reasoning for calling the special session now? "Oh," he says, " it will be easier to pass the bill, now." Yeah, because right now he also has a dozen more Republicans in his pocket than he will have when the new legislature convenes the first week of January 2005. Remember that little election of a couple weeks ago? The Republicans suffered a net loss of 13 seats. Gee Govenor, considering that so much of the bonding build concerns heavy construction, things like roads and bridges, why didn't you call the special session months earlier when there was still time to let contracts for bid and get started on them. Rushing to pass the bonding bill now isn't going to help at all when we have to wait for "road construction season," which is months away. Oh, by the way. The special session will cost $25,000 to $30,000 per day. Hmmm all that extra money for something that should happen in January and should have happened in the regular session of the Republican controlled house.

Talk about disingenuous.