Coercion, Extortion, Bad Manners & Nincompoopism At Capitol

I hope I'm wrong. But I think the Governor's veto of the transportation bill will be overidden today. Dems need five republicans to vote to overide in addition to all of the democrats. I suspect the entire dem caucus will vote to overide. And it looks like Tinglestad, Abeler, Heidegerken, Hamilton, Erhardt and Peterson are at this moment on board with the dems.

Coercion
1 : to restrain or dominate by force
2 : to compel to an act or choice
3 : to achieve by force or threat

Extortion1 : to obtain from a person by force, intimidation, or undue or illegal power : wring; also : to gain especially by ingenuity or compelling argument

Rep. Dean Urdahl (R) was threatened regarding his bill to expand the wastewater treatment facility in Litchfield. The expansion is necessary to accomodate the growth of First District, a large milk processor that serves 37 counties milk production in Minnesota. Urdahl was told that if he did not overide the Governor's veto of the transit/transportation bill today that Urdahl's bill will go nowhere, directly causing 300 jobs to be exported from Litchfield to South Dakota. The mayor of Litchfield and CEO of First District have also shared their concerns with Dean. This is pure, unmitigated mobster type behavior on the part of our esteemed democrats in the legislature. It's corrupt. And it warrants investigation.

Dean Urdahl and Bud Heidegerken were Speaker Kelliher's dinner guests last week. The blogosphere chronicled their repast and suggested that the meeting was about the transportation bill, which of course it was. I saw Dean at the Wright County Republican President's Day Gala Saturday night. He assured us all that he would vote to sustain the Governor's veto today.

Why Rep. Jim Abeler told his caucus that he would oppose the transportation bill and then voted for it Thursday remains a mystery. He also said last week that he would not vote to overide, and now he says he is going to overide. His duplicity is beyond troublesome.

Rep. Neil Peterson sold his soul to the democrats. He initially boasted that he was bringing home hundreds of millions in big bacon for Bloomington. Now he says he was joking. This is one funny dude.

Rep. Rod Hamilton sold his soul to the democrats in exchange for funding on HWY 60 and HWY 14 in his district. He never dreamed the dems would accomodate what he considered to be an overly ambitious request. The democrats delivered. To make matters more compelling for Hamilton the democrats agreed to keep a popular dem county commissioner from running against Hamilton this year. Hamilton now denies that any of this ever happened. Selling out is one thing. Telling colleagues about the sellout is almost honorable. Contradicting the story by denying it all after the fact and then pitching a tantrum when asked directly about it is clearly a sign that Hamilton if upset mostly with himself. Hamilton could recuse himself and the dems could still succeed.

Rep. Kathy Tinglestad was denied endorsement Saturday. She's told a number of people that she needs to overide the Governor's veto in order to help the Governor. Huh? It appears that either the Governor asked Tinglestad to overide or Tinglestad simply is deluded into thinking that there has to be a tax increase and there's no way that she can let "no new taxes" Pawlenty be saddled with culpability for the increase. Calls to determine if Tinglestad has indeed negotiated her position with the Governor have not be returned yet. Soemhow I think Kathy Tinglestad is confused about what the Governor wants her to do. He vetoed the bill. He certainly wouldn't veto the bill and then work to have his own veto overidden.

Bad Manners

Poor Ron Erhardt. A transcript of a phone call between a Chanhassan resident and old Ron reveals a significant speech impediment of sorts. Erhardt told the caller "go f*&^ himself". Now that's conduct we expect from sitting elected officials. Erhardt will vote to overide the Governor's veto today. News for Ron: there is no "F" in Edina.

Nincompoopism

The transit/transportation bill was vetoed and republicans could sustain the veto if they have the will to do so. It will all be over by this afternoon unless there is cause to delay the vote pending a criminal investigation into the tactics of the democrats. An ethics investigation is definitely in order no matter what the outcome.

The outcome of this veto overide could well be a harbinger of Governor Pawlenty's credibility going forward. I seriously doubt the Governor would manipulate an overide of his own veto. But can he act now to influence these wayward souls to sustain his veto? Will he?