The perfect compromise

Spot has the perfect compromise for the Gophers stadium. Bill Cooper still pays $35 milliion but does not get naming rights. It could work.

2020 Caucus

Spot has a new post about the 2020 Caucus and Geoff Michel up on the Cucking Stool.

The Great Pretender Re-revealed

The Great Pretender reveals himself yet again! Senator Geoff Michel (R-41) has been talking all session (and last, too) about his bi-partisan efforts to get the Gophers a new on-campus football stadium. A bill passed the Minnesota Senate today to do just that. Michel voted lock-step with the rest of the Republicans in the body and voted NO. What you say? Why?

You see, the bill provided for financing different than Michel’s bill, which would have sold part of the University’s soul to TCF, the savings and loan reborn as a real bank. Here’s MPR’s description:

The Senate's bill would have the state pay nearly $13 million a year. That would come from a 13 percent sports memorabilia tax, which will be passed in a separate bill. It also requires that the stadium have the name Veteran's Memorial Stadium instead of a corporate moniker. Student fees couldn't be used toward construction. The House version would have the state chip in up to $9.4 million a year. It didn't specify where that money would come from. In addition, the state would gain access to 2,840 acres of university-owned property in Dakota County that is considered an environmental gem.

So, you have to ask yourselves, boys and girls, does Michel want the Gophers to play on-campus, or does he really only want TCF to get the glory?

Bi-partisan, indeed.

The Andrew and Geoff show

Geoff Michel was on Almanac last Friday night, interviewed about the Gophers (Geoff went to Dartmouth to undergraduate school, by the way) stadium and his upcoming race against Andrew Borene. Sen. Michel said he "didn't know if there was a target painted on his back" for the fall. If he doesn't know, he's the only one. Maybe someone ought to tell him!

Dean Johnson was interviewed about Michel's ultra-conservative voting record, and Andrew Borene got some good face time on the camera too. Spotty thought that Andrew did well. One thing is certain. Andrew is much taller than Mary Lehammer, who practically had to hold the microphone over her head for Andrew.

Does not play well with others

Now it seems that Republicans in general are unhappy that Senator Michel may not get to bask in the sunshine of a Gophers stadium:

Efforts to approve the bill without the tax failed when Republicans complained that instead of Republican Sen. Geoff Michel, not Sen. Pogemiller, should be the chief author of the bill because he'd worked on the issue for two years.

Aw, the senator from Edina champions a deal to sell off a piece of the University's soul - the name Veteran's Memorial Stadium -to a savings and loan. And some people don't think that's a good idea. Perhaps the Republicans would prefer Michel Memorial Stadium, which Spot hopes will be appropriate after November!

Geoff Michel is one of the last persons you would nominate to be a bipartisan leader, capable of carrying a controversial piece of legislation. It is small wonder the bill got into trouble when it got serious attention.

More Great Pretenderisms

Speaking of the Gopher stadium bill which he has sponsored, and for which Bill Cooper's savings and loan, TCF, was to get naming rights, but is now in trouble in the Senate Tax Committee, the senator said:

"Until it hit this committee it was very bipartisan and it was a bipartisan product. I worry we've taken a big step backward," said Sen. Geoff Michel, R-Edina.

Well cry Spot a river senator. About the only bipartisan thing the senator ever does is have lunch with Joe Atkins once in a while. The Great Pretender gig is pretty transparent. You reap what you sow.