Now they are just being stupid

All along I've believed that there won't be a government shutdown. I thought all the insane posturing was just temporary, and that once we got down to the wire, they would sit down and get the job done. Now, with the arguments over going to Camp Ripley to work out a deal, I am losing hope.

This plan to go up north "without lobbyists, staff, or special interests" is completely idiotic, and representatives who should know better should admit it. First of all, without fiscal staff, any negotiations would be completely pointless. It's not realistic to expect five people (the governor, and majority and minority leaders from both bodies of the legislature) to know the numbers in a budget that runs into the tens of billions of dollars. Pawlenty may offer his own "experts", but negotiations usually don't work well under those circumstances. Then, there's the fact that Camp Ripley is more than two hours away from the Capitol, where everything actually happens, and where the bills would have to be written.

I can only conclude that this is a publicity stunt, and this is troubling. There are two days left, realistically. Offering to pick up the entire show and move it elsewhere when they need to be buckling down makes no sense at all. I'm afraid that maybe everybody thinks that a partial shutdown wouldn't be a big deal.