Tales of Kid T-Paw

The deal is set on the state budget. They say a picture is worth 1000 words and the expressions on the faces of Larry Pogemiller and Margaret Anderson-Kelliher pretty much give the game away. As irritating as he can be sometimes on global warming and other issues, you have to give Tim Pawlenty credit for holding firm when it matters and it would appear he's won again:

Under the deal, the Legislature and governor patched up the state's $3 billion budget hole and DFLers won agreement on a plan that would allow the governor -- either Pawlenty or his successor -- to decide whether to shift thousands of low-income Minnesotans from state-funded health programs into Medicaid, which uses state and federal funds.

I suspect that House Speaker Margaret Anderson-Kelliher thinks she'll be Pawlenty's successor and that she'll be the one to make that decision. Not gonna happen now -- in fact, I suspect you can stick a fork in MAK, but you'd better do it quickly because the fork you're wielding would need to reach home before the long knives of her colleagues do.

If you want to know how the DFL really feels, here's your answer:

"I've never seen anything like it," said Sen. Keith Langseth, DFL-Glyndon, who has served in the Legislature since 1974.

Langseth expressed exasperation with Pawlenty and his refusal to give in on the budget. "I've served with six governors, and five of them know what democracy is about," Langseth said. "You compromise." DFLers hold strong majorities in the House and Senate.

Compromise in this context means "tax the snot out of the rubes, like we always have." T-Paw has put a stop to that sort of thing during his tenure.