BREAKING: Dayton Conditionally Accepts June 30 GOP Offer To End Shutdown

Moments ago, Just received a tweet from @KTLK-FM stating that Governor Mark Dayton has sent a letter to Amy Koch And Kurt Zellers stating that, with some conditions, he is willing to accept the offer made by the Minnesota GOP that was designed to avert a state shutdown.

I spoke with Representative Steve Gottwalt a moment ago, and he indeed confirmed that the letter was sent; but was sent with "some conditions;" so that a full agreement was not yet set in stone. Gottwalt said, "We're happy that Governor Dayton appears to have accepted our proposal... but the question to be asked is, "Why did it take so long? Why did the Governor want to put Minnesotans through such unnecessary pain?"

***UPDATE***

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A copy of Dayton's letter to Koch and Zellers can be found here.

So That...What?

A number of years ago, while in a strategic planning meeting, my then-supervisor stated thusly:

"We do this, so that___. If you can't fill in the blank, then you shouldn't be doing what you're doing."

Enter Mark Dayton.

Despite the fact that the MN GOP-controlled legislature has given Governor Dayton everything he wants in terms of both K-12 spending and health care spending, and despite the GOP's dropping of their demands for tax relief in their budget, Governor Dayton remains singularly, myopically hyperfocused on one battle cry: "Tax the rich!"

Now, back to my boss' axiom:

"Mark Dayton wants to impose job-killing tax hikes on the 'rich' so that______"

Mr. Dayton has yet to fill in the blank.

Now, given the fact that Governor Dayton has received nearly everything he wants in terms of spending, whatever is left, no matter how sensical, must be the reason for his continued insistence on his tax increase, that will necessarily kill Minnesota jobs. We are left with these three possibilities with which to fill in the blank:

1. Mark Dayton wants to tax the "rich," to tax the rich.
2. Mark Dayton wants to utilize the tax increase as an excuse to shut down government so as to teach Minnesotans a "lesson" that in his mind will somehow ensure democrat majorities for years to come.
3. Both of the above.

Given that Mark Dayton is who he is, a trust-fund limousine socialist, and given that democratic majorities in the state houses will assuredly increase the chances of his agenda moving forward, I would necessarily say that possibility number 3 fits the bill.

However, Dayton has never been known with being the brightest bulb on the chandelier. Dayton is counting on the notion that Minnesotans will pin any chaos and/or inconvenience of a government shutdown on the GOP-led legislature, and that Minnesotans are not aware nor intelligent enough to be able to put two and two together (projection is yet another fatal flaw in the liberal psyche). Given, however, that the most recent KSTP-TV/USA-Today poll reveals that only 8 percent of Minnesotans favor an increase in spending, beyond some unionized state workers, Dayton will necessarily have to look far and wide to find a critical mass of Minnesotans that will be sympathetic to his cause.

In the end, in terms of practicality, Mark Dayton may indeed sadly find that he wanted to increase taxes so that democrats will remain in minority status in perpetuity.

Governor Dayton's Scorched Earth Policy

Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton is fast surpassing former governor Rudy Perpich in the race for the title of, "Governor Goofy." There were reasons that he was voted as being one of the five "worst Senators" in the United States Senate, and those reasons are coming full circle in his dismal performance and abdication of his responsibilities as Governor. Gary Gross notes:

If this article is accurate, then Gov. Dayton has just brought upon himself a constitutional crisis. Here's what caught my attention:

Ramsey District Judge Kathleen Gearin will hear Dayton's request on June 23 -- just one week before state funds start to run out.

In her petition, Swanson asked the court to fund a broad expanse of state services and appoint a "special master" -- essentially a shutdown referee, to sort the details.

Dayton offered a different solution in his petition.

"Order the parties to mediate," Dayton asked the court. He suggested former Supreme Court Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz or former Associate Justice James Gilbert to act as court-appointed mediators. Swanson had asked that Gilbert be appointed special master.

Only if mediation fails, Dayton's brief said, should the court infringe "on the constitutional powers of the legislative and executive departments."

It is quite clear that Governor Dayton (despite his initial bloviating) has had it in his feeble, twisted mind to shut down the government on purpose, from the get-go, as part of a planned, perverted game of chicken, seemingly using the resultant denial of state services to maximize the discomfort and to teach Minnesotans some kind of twisted lesson as to the "danger" of conservative principles of limited government and to instill the perceived need for un-checked, unbridled, unsustainable big brother government for generations to come.

At the outset of his election win, many people, including many conservatives, argued that since Dayton wasn't the endorsed DFL candidate, that he would not be beholden to the DFL, and would thus be 'less partisan', more 'level headed,' and 'easier to work with.'

Truth be told, I never bought that notion for a nanosecond. Dayton may not have been the endorsed DFL candidate for governor; but Dayton is, always has been, and always will be, a dyed-in-the-wool (albeit incompetent) socialist, with an indefatigable belief in the primacy of the State and its all-encompassing role in people's lives. And he's not above inconveniencing and/or making Minnesotans downright suffer to twistedly impose his ideology.

Mark Dayton & Brick Tamland: Separated at Birth?

Minnesota Gubernatorial Candidate Mark Dayton, and Brick Tamland, from the movie Anchorman:





The similarities are positively eerie.

That is all.

Credit Where It's Due...

Former U.S. Senator and democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton has admitted some difficulties in dealing with an alcohol problem and with depression.

If it was any other politician, I would score this as a politically-motivated spin at damage control to quell and/or even capitalize on rumormongering.

But it's not any other politician. It's Mark Dayton.

Let me explain. Back when the Red Bulls were in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, awaiting their nearly two-year deployment in Iraq in 2006, they had a going away party that was attended by many dignitaries. Among the attendees was Mark Dayton. Not only did then-Senator Dayton attend the affair, but he was working, serving steaks to our soldiers who would soon be placed away from their families in harm's way, in what was then extremely hostile territory.

If it was any other politician, especially any other democrat politician during a time when out-and-out sedition was quite fashionable among the ranks in the democrat party, I would have again chalked it up to a photo op; cheap electioneering on the part of another politician trying to gain favor among the "support our troops" crowd.

But it wasn't any other politician. It was Mark Dayton.

You see, at the time of the troop sendoff, Mark Dayton had already announced that he would not seek re-election.. He wasn't running for anything. He was just being there, working the steak line, serving, chatting with, and honoring our troops.

Despite the fact that Mark Dayton and I didn't agree on a thing that came out of his office in terms of fiscal or domestic policy, I have always respected him, because he is a genuinely nice guy. What you see is what you get. Even when Dayton drew fire for closing his Senate office for fear of security issues, there wasn't any political calculation in that decision. He was trying to protect his staff.

Mark Dayton was the only democrat politician of any stature at the time that never spoke ill of the mission of our soldiers during the height of the Iraq war. In fact, Dayton's words and actions served only to genuinely honor our troops.

That was enough to earn and keep this blogger's respect.

We all have our personal demons that we need to wrestle with. I wish Mr. Dayton well, and pray for his continued recovery.

Godspeed, my friend!