Monday, July 04, 2005
SHUTDOWN MANIA
The drumbeat of the sky is falling the sky is falling (because of the state gov't shutdown) articles from the Star Tribune continues. Since they're running out of dire consequences to explore (you can only do so many stories on closed rest stops and driver's license bureaus before even the journalists start getting bored) they decided to scrape the bottom of the barrel and quote the blogs to support this front page article's theme:
And the support for these few printable adjectives?Embarrassing. Shocking. Outrageous.
Those were just a few of the printable adjectives used by bloggers, newspaper pundits and ordinary citizens to describe the first government shutdown in Minnesota's history.
- First, a visit to the little known Powerline blog for this doozy: "[The Democrats'] strategy was to refuse to agree on a budget, hold out until there was no alternative to a shutdown, and then blame Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty."
- Then, well-known media pundit Sisyphus at Nihilist in Golf Pants supplies two revealing explanations (out of the eleven offered) of why the Senate adjourned before a deal was reached: "legislating was cutting into their 'Real Life: Austin, Texas' viewing" and "depressed when they found out that despite the fact that they're senators, they won't be able to filibuster the nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor's replacement."
- Fecke of the Blog of the Moderate Left is quoted blaming Minnesota's voters for the shutdown ("It's our fault, folks. If we want government to function smoothly, we should've voted straight-ticket all the way.") The article omits the post's (entitled "Shut 'Er Down") next sentence: "Of course, I've never cared much about a smoothly functioning government; I don't worry about the shutdown. They'll pass a budget soon enough."
The [Grand Forks (N.D.)] Herald wrote that the shutdown turned " 'the state that works' into 'the state that flunked.' The shame and embarrassment should inspire Minnesotans to try something new. Because the status quo isn't making the grade.Ahh! Much better.
