The Minnesota DFL's "Shadow Government"

Just how many legislative sessions does it take in a year to operate the State of Minnesota?

The prevailing wisdom should rightfully say "one."

But not when the DFL is running the show:

Since the end of the regular legislative session in May, about 100 commission, committee, subcommittee, and working group hearings have taken place.

The pace continues through October — two hearings are scheduled on Halloween.

Through the month of December, the House committee schedule currently has the number of hearings over the interim, held and planned, at more than 130.

But that number will almost certainly climb, perhaps steeply, as more hearings are sprinkled into the months of November and December.

And the 2008 regular legislative session doesn’t start until February.

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But the pace of the schedule is much, much brisker than seen two years ago when Republicans controlled the House.

After the close of the exhausting special session in July of 2005, the House calendar shows just some 30-odd hearings took place through December of that year.

The disparity between the two schedules has not been missed by House Republicans.

Rep. Chris DeLaForest, R-Andover, lead Republican on the House State Government Finance Committee, warned Gov. Tim Pawlenty last spring, he said, that the bills coming through the committee contained many commissions and subcommittees.

Shadow Legislature

“I said, ‘We are on the verge, here, of setting up a shadow Legislature that operates when the actual Legislature is in recess,’” DeLaForest reported. “And that’s exactly what’s happened,” he said.

House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, sees more behind the schedule than necessity.

“They just can’t help themselves — they’re (Democrats) drunk with power,” he said.

Seifert questions the extensive use of subcommittees and working groups, saying when the regular session begins the full committees will have no more information for legislative purposes than if the smaller ones had never met.

“All these (subcommittees, working groups) are to prop up their freshmen to get pictures of them with gavels in their hands when they run for reelection,” said Seifert. “It’s a disservice to the taxpayers, frankly,” he said.

Rep. Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, also questions the use of eight health care access subcommittees.

Health care is an important issue, Abeler opined, but having so many subcommittees means a loss of focus.

To borrow a term from Forrest Gump, The terms "democrat" and "big government" go together like peas and carrots, do they not?