The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

May 28, 2003

I wrote a column last November about a Democrat fund raiser I’d attended with Al Gore. At the time, I noted that I thought we were in for a long period of Republican rule, because the Dems were such inept marketers. Well, the Republicans, at least in the Minnesota Legislature, (who, unlike big shots Coleman and Pawlenty, don’t benefit from the direct intervention of Karl Rove,) have recently proven to be just as inept.

When the Republicans ran their very effective campaign of 2002, they hammered on their “No New Tax” pledge over and over, until all of us who don’t like paying tax, (and that’s all of us,) put them in control of state government. What they didn’t mention much was their insidious plans to limit abortion rights, put more guns on the streets, and put the true burden of the state’s financial squeeze fully on the Democratic strongholds of northern and urban Minnesota. The word insidious comes from the Latin word meaning ambush, and that’s just what the Republicans pulled off.

If you don’t believe it, just remember how the “Personal Protection Act” was passed--through a parliamentary maneuver that had to be voted up or down with little debate. And, if you’ve ever heard Senate sponsor Pat Pariseau, Republican of Farmington, you’ll know it was also passed so quickly she didn’t have much time to read it herself.

The Dems couldn’t have wished for a better poster child for the gun bill than Senator Pariseau. Pat Pariseau is about as articulate as a domestic turkey, and she backs that up by being irresponsible enough to sponsor a bill that she hadn’t read, or by being so bold as to lie about what was in it. (If you listened to her on MPR last week, you could only come to one of those two conclusions. On Katherine Lanpher’s show, she denied that there was a provision which required “personal notification” of potential gun-toters, and denied that the bill prohibited cities from banning guns from public buildings. So, she was either lying when she said she had read the bill, or lying about what’s in it. There is a third possibility, which we shouldn’t discount, is that she’s not bright enough to understand what was in it. Actually, on further consideration, I’m going with the “not very bright” explanation.)

(Further evidence on the liar vs. dimwit question can be examined with even a perfunctory Google search. Pariseau said last week that she'd reconsider her stance if she could be shown "even two" instances of permit holders who violated their permit responsibilities. We came up with over 5000 in about 10 minutes. The links to some of those stats are below this article.)

Thank God, Pariseau’s now a state senator, instead of a nurse, like she used to be. How would you like to have her reading a doctor’s instructions and administering medicine to one of your family? You’d probably want to have a Beretta under the hospital pillow to protect yourself from that.

So, today we have Governor Pawlenty backtracking on the gun bill as fast as he can. He signed the bill in record speed after it was passed, in an attempt to leave no time for public reaction. But he, too, now admits to a less than careful reading. His staff says Pawlenty’s current attempt to rush through an amendment during the special session is only to correct a “drafting error” which requires the personal notice.

But let’s not forget that Pawlenty is a lawyer, and that he undoubtedly has several of the same working for him, so the “drafting error” explanation doesn’t hold much water.

What Pawlenty really missed in his perfunctory reading of the bill was the implication of having thousands of "No Guns here" signs and thousands of “personal notices” all over the state reminding people every day that he, Pariseau, and their ilk have wrought another fundamental change in Minnesota.

And what the Dems didn’t miss is that, finally, the Republicans have miscalculated and shot themselves in the foot with their quick draw gun bill. How ironic is it that business owners and fervent church goers, those natural Republican constituencies, are today putting up what amount to DFL campaign signs all over their shops, restaurants and sanctuaries?

Now that’s marketing.