Gov. Tim Pawlenty deserves Minnesota's thanks, both for dedicated public service for the past six and a half years, and for his timely announcement Tuesday that he will not seek a third term.

As Pawlenty acknowledged yesterday, state government in Minnesota and around the country is at a crossroads. A rapidly changing economy, an aging population, and an appetite for government services that exceeds the public's will to be taxed are challenging old assumptions and habits of governing. They call for leadership that breaks ideological molds and seeks new consensus across the partisan divide.

Pawlenty often speaks of the need for that kind of leadership. But his years as governor have been marked by deepening polarization and recurring gridlock at the statehouse. The no-deal conclusion to the 2009 legislative session, which will lead to unprecedented unilateral action by Pawlenty to cut more than $1 billion in state spending, is part of a dysfunctional pattern. Rarely have the DFLers who control the Legislature and the Republican governor found common cause in addressing major state problems.

In stepping aside, Pawlenty is making room for new leadership to emerge, both in his own Republican Party and in the opposition DFL. That's a praiseworthy act of selflessness. Coming this early in the political calendar, it should allow for large fields of candidates in both parties to test their gubernatorial mettle, and for voters to engage early in what will be the most prominent race on the 2010 state ballot.

It also gives Pawlenty a chance to be a more conciliatory governor in the 19 months remaining of his term. Many in his party want him to use that time to raise his national profile and position himself for a presidential bid in 2012. To his credit, Pawlenty said yesterday that national politics won't be his focus, as long as he is governor. Serving Minnesota will be.

In that spirit, he should study the example set by former Republican Gov. Al Quie in 1982. In the midst of a deep recession and dire fiscal circumstances for the state, Quie announced that he would not run for reelection. As a lame duck, he found himself better able to win the trust and cooperation of DFL legislators. The compromises reached that year on a combination of limited spending cuts and temporary tax increases saw the state through that recession, and set the table for the prosperous decades that followed.

Pawlenty would put a worthy coda on his governorship if, in the next 19 months, he could lead as well as Quie did in 1982. He should start by rethinking his "go-it-alone" approach to closing the budget gap that he created by vetoing the DFL-backed tax bill, hastily passed on the last night of the session.

Pawlenty said Tuesday that he intends to proceed with unallotment. But, he said, he will arrange for spending reductions to fall in the 2011 fiscal year as much as possible, to give legislators a chance to alter them in 2010. That should be more than just another opportunity for more vetoes and gridlock. In the run-up to the 2010 session, Pawlenty and legislators should make a serious effort to find consensus on which of Pawlenty's cuts should go forward, and which should be rescinded and replaced with the kind of tax increases -- such as the sales tax on clothing that this page has favored for decades -- that do minimal damage to a fragile economy.

"Minnesota will get my very best until the very end," Pawlenty assured yesterday. Minnesotans expect no less.