It's possible, since we were both political science students in the early 1980s at the University of Minnesota, that Governor Tim Pawlenty and I were enrolled in some of the same poli sci classes at the U of M. We certainly would have studied with some of the same professors. Governor Pawlenty's inability to negotiate with a Democratic legislature, combined with his recent response to a judge who ruled against one of his budget unallotments, has me wondering if T-Paw might have missed the lecture on checks and balances between the executive, judicial and legislative branches of government.

We have reached this deficit debacle in Minnesota following last year's impasse in budget negotiations between the Governor and the Legislature and Governor Pawlenty's unilateral decision to cut the budget through unallotments – an executive authority few of us had ever heard of before. It wasn't just Democrats who found this steamrolling approach to problem-solving extreme. Former Republican Governor Arne Carlson was quoted as saying, "If you don't like negotiating with the Legislature, you really ought not be governor, because they are part of the solution." Perhaps the same could be said about Governor Pawlenty and the judicial branch: If you don't like decisions made by an independent judiciary, you really ought not be governor, because they, too, are part of the solution. In December, Ramsey County District Court Judge Kathleen Gearin ruled that the Governor's unallotment of a $5.3 million program that provided food to Minnesotans confronting serious illness "trod upon the constitutional powers of the Legislature." Her reinstatement of funding for the program could affect more than just this nutrition program – it could change the entire debate around Minnesota's budget deficit because it calls into question Pawlenty's use of executive authority. Instead of appreciating the unique role that our judiciary plays within our system of checks and balances of power, our Governor responded by saying that Judge Gearin "inserted herself into a political dispute." What, one wonders, was the judge to have done with the complaint that was filed by six people who depend on the nutrition program that was unalloted by the Governor? Ignore them? A little more than a year from now Tim Pawlenty's final term as Governor will expire. Before hitting the hustings again, this time for the 2012 presidential campaign, perhaps T-Paw can take a refresher course in separation of powers through the political science department at the U of M. While on campus, he might also consider enrolling in a humanities class. His executive style could benefit from less unallotments and more humanity.