Vikings to Arden Hills? XXXIII - Meaningless Scurrying and a Jan Parker Sighting

Minneapolis city officials, the gang of spendthrifts known as the Ramsey County Board and various other mendicants were parading around the Capitol yesterday, Vikings stadium proposals in hand. They all came with their plans and presented them to a guy who can't actually make the decision.

It was a ludicrous exercise. We learned nothing new. Although there was one thing that was surprising -- we heard an actual public statement from Jan Parker, the otherwise-invisible DFL timeserver who ostensibly represents my district on the County Board:

Ramsey County Commissioner Jan Parker said she believed there was a bias toward building the stadium in Minneapolis, and she specifically criticized the Star Tribune. Parker said she thought the newspaper was skewing its coverage in favor of the Metrodome site because it holds land nearby. "I'm just appalled at the lack of objectivity," she said.

This is hilarious, since the Parkers of the world usually count on the Star Tribune to carry their water. It's doubly hilarious because it stepped on the message of her fellow commissioners, which compelled her colleague Rafael Ortega to contradict her:

At a brief news conference outside the governor's office, county officials were asked repeatedly Thursday whether they felt there was a "bias" in favor of Minneapolis. "We don't feel there's been any bias," Ortega said.

And this, of course, is hilarious as well. Of course there's a bias in favor of Minneapolis. A lot of politicians have staked their careers on putting eggs into the Minneapolis basket and their vision of a dream world with light rail lines and other amenities. It's a vision that is as ludicrous as the vision Zygi Wilf has about Arden Hills. The one thing both have in common is that they are perfectly willing to spend other people's money to make their vision come true.

And yes, the Star Tribune suits want the Metrodome site because they envision that they can make a lot of money if they can sell the land around their building to the Vikings.

Two other things worth noting:

• As many of us have suspected, the lege is going to do what it is going to do and the artificial deadline doesn't mean much. There's a chance the matter won't even be taken up in this session. And Kurt Zellers, bless his heart, doesn't seem to care that much.
• Plenty of people have noticed that the Vikings are now saying they will accept a stadium wherever it is built -- I must have seen a few dozen hits on the ol' Twitter feed about it. I wouldn't put too much stock into that statement. If this thing drags out or doesn't get resolved, the Vikings will start getting pretty antsy and the rhetoric will change.