Special Session encore

The lazy circling between the key players in the legislature continues, with yet another super-duper last attempt at working something out for a special session in the mix. This time, however, the Republicans can't even come to an agreement amongst themselves, with the primary sticking point being that the Senate Minority Leader, Republican Dick Day, won't agree to keep the session from veering into fundie territory. Prohibiting his members from introducing bills on subjects like gay marriage, he says, isn't going to happen.

Republicans are trying to blame this once again on the Democrats, beyond all comprehension. Republicans simply refuse to agree to limit debate to the few topics that need to be dealt with, such as a bonding bill and funding for public defenders. Instead, they want to spend even more time on their far-right social agenda. Last time I checked, it wasn't the Democrats who were threatening to blow a special session off the rails by introducing pieces of their "far-left" agenda (and what would that be, anyway? Universal health care? Scary!).

In any case, given the fact that just today Governor Pawlenty took steps to fix the local government aid problem himself, it seems that reality is finally setting in and there will not be a special session. It looks like the legislature won't be talking until next year about how Western Civilization will fall if homosexuals get a marriage license. Too bad.