State Government Shuts Down; No One Notices
I can't really say that, of course, since I just got back from South Dakota. But if anyone other than the politicians, the newspapers and the state's employees is losing any sleep over the current shutdown of nonessential activities by the Minnesota state government, I haven't yet heard about it. I didn't realize it until after I got home tonight, but the Minneapolis Star Tribune quoted me in a front page article on the shutdown this morning. The Strib quoted the first paragraph of this post, which talked about the fact that the Democrats shut down the state's government by walking out unexpectedly late Thursday night, as a ploy to try to dent Governor Tim Pawlenty's popularity.
I predicted that the shutdown ploy wouldn't work out well for the Democrats; that prediction seems to be borne out by the fact that the Democrats have returned to the bargaining table.
