This is the Government Republicans Want––No Government At All.

Doug Grow does a good job describing the atmosphere at the state capitol. It's ugly, but the ugliness is on one side of the disagreement. The governor offered compromises; the Republicans made additional demands.

The Republican Party is happy for the government to shut down. It's exactly the kind of government they want. No government at all.

Look at the extremist policy amendments Republican legislators tried to load onto the state funding bill and you realize it's a different kind of game to them. The Republican Party has mastered the strategy of hostage negotiation. They don't want an agreement; they won't take compromise. They want everything.

Consider the key issue of government spending and government revenue. Republicans are adamant about protecting the low low tax rate of the richest Minnesotans, lower than the rest of us pay.

Republicans demand the firing of 30,000 state workers, working people with mortgages to pay and families to feed, so they can protect 7,700 very very rich people, most of whom don't work in the conventional sense at all but finance their extremely comfortable lifestyle from dividends and financial transactions. Rather than raise taxes on millionaires, rather than removing recent tax breaks in fact, the Republicans are happy to raise taxes on all Minnesotans who own homes or rent apartments.

Bradlee Dean Running and Hiding

My letter yesterday was about Bradlee Dean, written and sent before I knew he'd been invited to open the legislature with a prayer. It was a divisive prayer. I'd actually addressed my letter to the local media, who over the past ten years has managed not to cover this hatemongering talk-radio-jock-pastor-rock-drummer or his close ties to the GOP leadership. His "ministry" is called "You Can Run But You Can't Hide."

Running and hiding. This from Politics in Minnesota describes Dean's and the GOP leaders' avoiding the press conference they set up to address the controversy.

The GOP leadership has managed to erase the event from the public record. Can they do that? They did. It never happened. Stop complaining.

Mayor Rybak has a very good response to this eruption of hate politics.

From MNPublius, a good summary of the cozy bed-time Bradlee Dean has spent with Republican leaders over the years.

It made the national and world news too.

Mother Jones. Their midweek article anticipated this uproar nicely. I posted it to local media, but I think a lot of them were caught by surprise. "Who is this guy?" They ought to have read about him by now, if not in the local media that had carefully avoided noticing him.

Bradlee Dean shows that he can run and can actually hide too, for the time being. But he'll be on the radio this afternoon and tomorrow afternoon.

1280AM, the "Patriot"

...where the talk is mostly about taking down the government, avoiding taxes and misquoting the Founders.

Although I am hearing rumors that his program has been cancelled. Maybe he's been hustled to a secret location.

Hate Radio Jock Opens Minnesota Legislature for Republicans

Just after I'd sent my Pasquino letter this morning I heard that this same hatemonger, Bradlee Dean had been invited by MN Republicans to open the legislature with a prayer. I've heard it. It wasn't the usual non-denominational, non-partisan stuff. It wasn't a hate-filled screed like his radio show, but it was very very partisan. It drew an appropriate but very measured response from the Democrats. It deserves a much louder and angrier response from the public.

This next clip is especially good. And it isn't new. Dean was a chum of Tom Emmer's last fall. Did it get him noticed by journalists?

Why, if Rachel Maddow was reporting Dean's creepiness and GOP friendliness in 2010, is he unreported enough to be invited to open the Minnesota legislature. I realize the Dump Bachmann website is a tad partisan. But Maddow does her reporting well.