Pawlenty rejects summit invite with a jab at DFL

Pawlenty rejects legislative invite for leadership summit.

Star Tribune

Last update: August 12, 2009 - 1:24 PM

In a sarcasm-laced letter, Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Tuesday brusquely rebuffed DFL legislative leaders' invitation to a summit meeting that would address the state's ongoing financial crisis.

Late last month, Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller and House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher invited former governors, speakers and majority leaders to a "Minnesota Leadership Summit."

In Tuesday's letter to Pogemiller and Kelliher, Pawlenty declined the invitation. "The state already has a 'Minnesota Leadership Summit,'" he wrote. "It's called the legislative session and it lasts approximately five months."

He then went on to lambaste the DFL legislative leadership for having "wasted the first few months of the session," only to pass budget bills in the waning moments of the session.

A Pogemiller spokesman said that of the invitees, only Pawlenty and former Gov. Jesse Ventura declined.

The summit, scheduled for Sept. 8, will also feature economic experts and specialists in fiscal management. The summit's immediate goal is to devise strategies to deal with chronic state budget deficits. By some accounts, the state could be $7 billion in the red by 2011.

Pawlenty's response to the invitation is the most recent evidence of bad blood that has developed between him and the DFL leaders over the state's financial straits. When the two sides couldn't agree on how to close the gap in the current budget, Pawlenty unilaterally made cuts, causing the DFLers to howl.

During the past year, Pawlenty wrote, "DFL legislators have done a thorough job of admiring our state's budget difficulties, but have refused or been unable to take action to address them."

The summit, he wrote, would do little more than "rehash already established concerns."

BOB VON STERNBERG

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Governor: Tim Pawlenty
One of only a few prominent Republicans to win a competitive re-election contest in the Democratic sweep of 2006, Tim Pawlenty is widely seen as politically shrewd and naturally likable.

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