I have never been a big fan of Minnesota's current guv and my criticism of him started well before he even took office so this is not easy for me to say but during the recent budget battles he has shown a much keener appreciation for the situation that we're in than either the DFL or the Republicans. Yes, he acted like a petulant child when he tried to hide from the legislature's budget in order to buy himself some time. And his comments that anyone who disagrees with his budget is unpatriotic were just plain silly. But he is seemingly the only Minnesota politician who recognizes the fact that since September 11th we should not be operating under the same old assumptions as if this was business as usual.
Jesse was on a CNBC program the other night with Lawrence Kudlow and another host (by the way, their show kicks the crap out of O'Reilly as far as real insight goes-you want to know about Enron? watch these guys) and during a discussion of the state's budget battles he pointed out that our country is as war and during war sacrifices have to be made. In Jesse's mind these sacrifices involve cutting spending and raising some taxes to cover the deficit. While I would prefer to concentrate all the hurt on the spending side without tax increases I do have to agree that we aren't dealing with normal circumstances here and we will all have to bear a greater burden. The legislature's budget did not increase taxes but it didn't do much cutting either. Instead they relied on using the reserve or "rainy day" fund to cover most of the deficit for the next biennium. Normally I would be all for such action as that is exactly what the reserve fund is designed for. But Jesse raised a good point during his interview the other night when he asked if we really believed that 9/11 would be the last terrorist attack us. Unfortunately I don't think it will be. Jesse doesn't either and was arguing that to use up most of the reserve fund at this point was short sighted considering the very real economic impact that the next attack could have. A dirty nuke in NYC or Washington? Say hello again to our old friend recession or even possibly worse.
Another topic that came up during the interview was education. Kudlow challenged Jesse's position of opposing school choice and voucher programs. Surprisingly Jesse remarked that while he was against such programs and in complete support of public education when he came into office his experience as guv has led him to reconsider his views and that he now believes that allowing the government to have a monopoly on education is not a good thing and that he would consider supporting school choice if it came before him. Plus Jesse was the only one willing to propose a budget that slashed spending at Paul's alma mater the U while at the same time cutting back on the bloated K-12 education budget as well. The legislature's bill trimmed the U's budget a tad while hardly touching K-12 which seems to have become the clichéd "third rail" of Minnesota politics. The Republicans just don't seem to realize that no matter how much they spend on education they won't be able to buy the votes of the pro public ed folks out there. A letter to the Strib the other day attacked Republicans for viciously cutting education funding and putting our childrens future at risk. If only it were true! The DFL, teacher's unions, the Strib and other liberals will continue to paint the Republicans as anti-education no matter how many K-12 spending increases they agree to. So why not just end the charade and say, "Dang straight we're against further K-12 spending. The system sucks and until it is reformed we can't keep throwing money down the sink hole." You're going to be accused of it anyway so why not do it? Jesse has no such problems telling it like it is on education spending and I give him credit for it.
The strange thing is that while Jesse's approval rankings are probably at there lowest point since his election I find myself agreeing with him more than ever. He may be an self centered, ill tempered, rather ignorant brute but in times of crisis he might be just the kind you of guy you want around to tell you the things you don't want to hear and do the things that no one else would.
