Almanac: At the Capitol

As one of my press colleague's said, Gov. Pawlenty has set the bar so high that when he misses it we notice. The governor usually gives a really good press conference with some solid quotes and witty interactions. Today he announced a tax reform commission and the event wasn't exactly riveting. I know it's taxes — not the most exciting topic, but it should be for Capitol nerds like us.

The tax portion of the press conference lasted just 15 minutes. That's short for our grilling of our chief executive, which tends to run closer to half an hour. We generally really appreciate the fact he spends time with us, often pushing back other events to take our questions. He did humor us with taking other non-related questions. But our efforts to humor him didn't really work. The AP asked a good question about the governor repeatedly tapping former foe Mike Vekich. Pawlenty joked a bit and said Vekich has "time on his hands." I tried to continue to thaw the room some by asking about the political affiliation of the commission or if he used the "don't ask, don't tell policy." He laughed a little and joked about moderate former Republican Senator Bill Belanger being a questionable Republican.

We also asked about a letter DFL leaders said they delivered to the governor last night before 6:00 pm, but he said he hadn't seen this morning. The letter essentially said Dems won't provide a budget counter offer until the governor specifies what new cuts he's proposing in his new offer. We didn't get much on that. A greater Minnesota reporter from Forum Communications earlier noted the lack of rural members on the tax commission, Pawlenty didn't seem to like that either. Reporters have been joking that Pawlenty hasn't been very "giving" this week in terms of quotes. Overall, the room just felt chilly and many remarked that Pawlenty seems annoyed with the press when press relations has been one of his strengths.

The PiPress Blog found out what might have been on the governor's mind: a fundraiser in Washington? Maybe Pawlenty saw the numbers in the new Rasmussen poll showing he wouldn't necessarily help carry the state for McCain if he was on the ticket. That said, a VP's ability to carry a home state seems to be getting less important, but in close race every vote counts.