Wriggle, Wriggle

(Pawlenty and Bush, the Veto Twins)

I should have known. Pawlenty’s trying to wriggle out of his promise to approve the gas tax.

According to Minnesota Public Radio, MnDOT official Lisa Freese is now claiming that everything else — including fixing OTHER bad bridges — must be put on hold to do the 35W rebuild. And Marty Seifert (the House GOP Minority Leader) chimed in with suspicious quickness to agree.

The only way they wouldn’t have any money is if they shot down the gas tax and the DFL’s tax-restructuring plan, just like they did in May.

Bear in mind that MnDOT’s head is none other than Carol Molnau, who like Seifert and Pawlenty is a stalwart in the local branch of the GOP’s “no new taxes (especially for rich people)” movement. (She also has, as mentioned in my previous post, the distinction of serving as MnDOT’s head despite her appointment’s being soundly rejected by the state legislature.) Pawlenty’s being good cop to Molnau’s and Seifert’s bad cop on the gas and other proposed taxes.

[UPDATE:  This isn't the only Republican silliness on the gas tax. Check out a Stalinist effort to liquidate an inconvenient truth about a GOP candidate's stance on it.]