Pawlenty of Nuthin'

On September 18, the new Interstate Highway 35W bridge over the Mississippi in Minneapolis opened, just 55 weeks after the old one fell down, killing 13 and injuring 170 others. A group of onlookers assembled for the 5:00 a.m. curtain raiser, but Karge Olsen wasn't one of them. Neither was the Honorable Governor of the State of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty.

Olsen, 27 at the time, went off the north end of the bridge as it collapsed and landed on the concrete wreckage below. He suffered a traumatic brain injury, two fractured vertabrae and two herniated discs in his neck, a broken clavicle plus a shoulder separation, internal bruising, puncture wounds, assorted bumps and bruises. After leaving the hospital, multiple fractures of his left foot were diagnosed.

Without short term disability insurance, and despite the generosity of his employer, fellow employees, community resources, relatives and friends, Karge Olsen found it necessary to go back to work, injuries unhealed. He did so the last week of August, less than a month after his body was broken. He and all other victims have yet to be awarded compensation by the entity responsible for the safey of the fallen bridge, the State of Minnesota, through its Department of Transportation.

A responsible governor would have been horrified by an accident of this magnitude; if not moved by death, injury and destruction, then at least by the need for political damage control. Compensation for human suffering would have been the highest priority. But not for our gov. Pawlenty remained stolid, unbending, and quite aloof. He apparently decided that rapid replacemnet of the bridge would distract the public from his administrative failure, trusting the Legislature, at some point, to deal with the messy details of death and otherwise broken lives. Tim had his eyes on the stars back then, and, incredibly, may still have.

Not yet fifty, Tim Pawlenty is a career politician. Having no political philosophy of his own, he apparently checked the direction of the wind, and decided the brand
of conservatism expressed in Newt Gingrich's Contract for America was for him, as it was for other wind checkers, such as the DFL turncoat mayor of St. Paul, Norm Coleman. Pawlenty indentured himself to the local Taxpayers' League, an association of the wealthy and powerful that espouses elitism, despises the lower classes, insists on low or no government spending assured by low or no taxes.

Low or no is an easy sell for politicians. It landed Pawlenty in the governor's chair, and might have carried him to the U.S. Senate following the death of Sen. Paul Wellstone, had not his sponsor, the Taxpayers' League, and the Republican National Committee tapped Norm Coleman in preference. Good Soldier Pawlenty soldiered on. He moved from the position of Majority Leader in the state House of Representatives to Governor in 2002.

Upon taking office, he continued follwing the Conservative text to the letter. Lopping welfare and children's health benefits, underfunding support for cities and towns, underfunding education at every level, underfunding state agencies, abrogating at every turn, directly, or with what passes for Conservative subtlety, the social contract between the state and its citizens. Over the years, Minnesota had earned an enviable reputation for being a state where things work. Under Pawlenty and the GOP, wide and deep cracks have appeared in that reputation.

A prime example is the way Pawlenty has finessed his no new taxes dictum by forcing municipalities and school districts to raise property taxes to unsupportable levels in their attempts to make up for shortfalls in school funding by the state. He imposed a 75-cent a pack tax increase on cigarettes to partly make up for heisting $400 million in tobacco industry settlement money for general funding purposes, and attempted a dodge which fooled no one by labeling the new tax a "health impact fee."

Worst of all, he tacitly approved a sales tax increase on the citizens of Hennepin County for the purpose of building a new baseball stadium for the owner of the Minnesota Twins, who ranks 73rd in the list of America's wealthiest persons. The Legislature conspired with the Hennepin County Board in volating the law, which provides for approval by referendum of the voters for any increase in sales taxes by counties in which increases are proposed. The Senate Majority Leader lost his job in the fallout over the tax law violation, but Teflon Tim, who kept his head down and took little public notice of the chicanery, heard not a peep. [Even those champions of government probity, the Taxpayers' League maintained discreet silence.]

Pawlenty's teflon coating has also permitted him to slip out of his most egregious act of misgovernance, the mismanagement and repeated underfunding of the state Department of Transportation. He began smothering the Department by appointing Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau to be Commissioner. A stern and impassive farm wife, Molnau's only discernable interests were in commodity price supports, the repeal of Roe V Wade, and free junkets to China. Together, the gov and his lieutenant/DOT commissioner opposed light rail, commuter rail, and every proposal for additioal taxes which would permit DOT expenditures to at least keep pace with inflation. Molnau cowed DOT personnel and Pawlenty vetoed three consecutive proposals to increase state gasoline taxes, until the Legislature finally summoned the courage to override. By then, the bridge had fallen down, 13 people died, Karge Olsen's and 169other lives were forever altered, and the question of compensation remained unsettled.

No blame for the bridge disaster was ever attached to Pawlenty, despite his on-going role in the mismanagement and underfunding of DOT. Of course, he had not the decency to fire the clueless Molnau. To do so would only draw attention to his own complicity. The Legislature finally got rid of her by refusing to approve her reappointment. But Telflon Tim got off scot-free. His approval rating, amazingly, remains quite high. Maybe it's his nice smile.

Actually, there has been one major consequence. Before the bridge, the RNC threw Pawlenty a bone by allowing his name to be mentioned as a possible vice-presidential nominee in this year's election. This was to reward him for being a good soldier since his 2002 disappointment and for his unwavering obeisance to Republican conservatism and the Taxpayers' League. The v.p. charade continued up to the start of the GOP nominating convention, at which point, in his own home town, the gov was dropped like a wilted thistle. Minnesotans may forgive his part in the bridge disaster, but, if he'd been given the vice-presidential nod, the national press would have hung him out to dry. The Republican brain trust certainly wanted no part of that.

Pawlenty's term continues until 2010. By then, it's possible that the Republican Party may have gone underground, leaving Pawlenty to follow the likes of Spiro Agnew and Dan Quayle into obscurity. One can only hope.


Rev Cox, September 30, 2008