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"They're flat broke," says Murphy, who says he will ax Molnau if Pawlenty doesn't do it first. "Molnau is not doing her job. How much proof do we need?"

The bottom line is that Tim Pawlenty and his commissioner of DeTransportation came to office with an agenda of shrinking government and spinning off pieces to the private sector, following an ideological plan to shift tax dollars from state agencies to private suppliers, from education to health care to highways.

It was fun until a major bridge that the state did not inspect, maintain or repair adequately fell, and people died driving home to supper.

Molnau was beaming last spring as Pawlenty vetoed a bill that would have increased transportation funding.

That leaves us two questions in the State That Used to Work: 1) What was so funny? And, 2) Why is she still here?

Nick Coleman • ncoleman@startribune.com