I have no quarrel with Tom’s point about setting targets ahead of time, and I imagine almost everybody agrees that good legislation matters much more than parliamentary posturing or inside baseball.

That former governors Carlson and Anderson both encouraged such negotiation sounds wise. The key difference here is Gov. Pawlenty himself. I never voted for Gov. Carlson, for instance, but I appreciate that he was capable of taking and defending complex, even counterintuitive positions that went against both parties’ grains. And Arnie seemed to appreciate the role that government can play in contributing to Minnesota’s special way and quality of life.

Pawlenty behaves, in public at least, like a one-trick pony. (And I don’t like the trick.) Maybe there’s more to him than meets the eye, and perhaps he’s secretly more accommodating than his public positions suggest. But if so, he should make this clear. He made his own single-issue bed, and it’s up to him to get out of it.

And Paul, regardless of what is said in public about positions, you have to negotiate. I am sure there is reaonable room for the DFL and the Governor to negotiate on budgets and policy issues. I’m sure if I can think of several negotiation issues they (Sen. Pogemiller and Speaker Kelliher) can think of several ways to approach negotiations.

Former Governors Carlson and Anderson were on MPR this morning. Both commented how it is important to set spending levels early. Gov. Anderson noted that in 1971 he didn’t sign the tax bill until October because they couldn’t agree on the revenue side of things. That was one looooooong session!

But in the end I’m much less concerned about the length of the session—-or special session—than I am the quality of the legislation that results from the work.

The Governor has been very public about his position that a 10% increase in the biennial budget is a large enough, and that he won’t support any tax increase to fund state spending. It’s amazing that legislators leaders have not engaged in negotiations with the Governor sooner.

I’m amazed that Tom’s amazed.

For one thing, the Governor’s “very public” position doesn’t exactly invite “negotiation”. For another, the Governor spends his weekends either fishing or jockeying for the vice presidency, not hanging around the Capitol waiting for legislators to call.

Tim Pawlenty knows the price of everything but the value of nothing — and he ran on that cynical principle. Can one really negotiate with his ilk?

It seems frustration and lack of trust become an issue when the Republicans control 1/3 of government rather than 2/3.