Almanac

[Note: This story first appeared in the April 11, 2008, edition of The Weekly Report.]

While some reporters assigned to cover Minnesota politics achieve -- without aspiring to -- cult-like status among Minnesota politicos, rare is the local media celebrity beyond the purview of covering Minnesota politics who actually matters in Minnesota politics.

Former WCCO TV weatherman Paul Douglas is one of those people. [To repeat what all our readers know: Douglas was unceremoniously dumped from the station in a national wave of lay-offs by WCCO owner CBS.]

Why?

First, his subject matter. Nationally, Barack Obama can talk about an America where there are not red states or blue states, but a United States. In Minnesota, nothing crosses the red precinct-blue precinct divide faster than talk about the weather. Weather talk is in our DNA and with good reason ... witness the last 24 hours in what is supposed to be spring. Confession: Your publisher watches very little television news. However, every morning, she scans the headlines on the front page and then immediately turns to Douglas' weather commentary on the back of the Star Tribune's second section. Those paragraphs Douglas cranks out every day are witty and fun and always full of new material. The kind of weather factoid material that feeds our Minnesota DNA. Keeping that a must-read, year after year, is no small feat. Douglas does it, and does it well.

Second, Douglas' professional life story epitomizes the other great subject matter that crosses the red-blue divide: Minnesota's quality of life.

Twenty-two years ago, Douglas started in this market at KARE 11. Then he did what Minnesotans expect local media celebrities to do, he bailed on our state for Chicago, a larger media market, in the mid-1990s. Three years later, Douglas moved his family back to the Twin Cities. And, what most people don't remember, is that he did that without a local weatherman job in his pocket. Dumping a larger city to return to Minnesota?! That made Douglas a poster boy for Minnesota's much touted, particularly by Minnesota pols, "quality of life."

The Star Tribune's Neil Justin captured this quote from Douglas, "We are dedicated to Minnesota," he said. "Our Chicago experience proved to us that bigger is not necessarily better. Minnesota is an extraordinary place, and we are here for life."

Finally, Douglas has been a fixture in another Minnesota political institution, TPT's Almanac, longer than most people realize. Douglas' first appearance on the show was back in 1985 (Almanac had been on the air for less than a year at the time). When Douglas moved back here from Chicago, he actually reached a deal with Almanac to do monthly weather gigs before he reached a deal with WCCO. The first few times Douglas appeared on the show, it wasn't at the table with Eric Eskola and Cathy Wurzer. Former Almanac monologue guy/reporter/funny guy J.G. Preston would interview Douglas on a strange looking set that had a map of the world and an old wooden desk. That changed when some TPT staffer was clearing out scene storage and threw out the set. So, Almanac producers had to change plans, and that's why Douglas ended up at the table with Eskola and Wurzer.

Wonderfully, Almanac plans to continue Douglas' monthly weather chats (you can catch him on the show, tonight). Whether Douglas remains at the Star Tribune is unclear. When queried about same via email, the paper's editor, Nancy Barnes, responded, "Paul and I are getting together soon to talk about his role at the Star Tribune. I'll be able to tell readers more about whether there will be any changes there or not later."

We cannot imagine a scenario where Douglas does not have a future at the paper, and a seriously expanded one at that. As MinnPost's David Brauer wrote in his story about the paper's plans for "Strib TV," and with anti-competitive online issues with WCCO on the web no longer an issue, "hello, Paul Douglas!"

Today, the Senate is expected not to confirm Carol Molnau as Commissioner of Transportation.

Nine days after the I-35W Bridge collapsed, I concluded that Molnau should resign.

I stand by every word I wrote then:

"Molnau should step down from the MnDOT job. With everyone's best wishes, a collective fond remembrance of seriously and hilariously rattling former Independent Gov. Jesse Ventura by tapping his shoulder on the TPT's Almanac famous public policy couch, a clear understanding that the bridge collapse was not her fault, and the same clear understanding that life's not fair--and sometimes political life is exponentially unfair."

We are now seven months post bridge collapse, and the facts -- as we know them at this point in time -- are that a bridge designed in the 1960s couldn't withstand the traffic we drove there 40-plus years later. A design problem no one could anticipate. A gusset plate. Not a Commissioner.

Nevertheless, politics is politics. All that DFL animosity toward "no new taxes" and GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty was channeled into transportation funding policy. Set aside the fact that transportation funding increases stalled out in the 1990s because DFL transit advocates wanted what the DFL road advocates have: A permanent source of funding. [Roads get constitutionally dedicated funding; metro transit funding now gets a Twin Cities metro sales tax increase in the legislation that became law despite Pawlenty's veto pen.]

Animosity being animosity, a vague target like "no new taxes" also had to manifest itself in something breathing and walking.

Enter Molnau.

The breathing and walking scapegoat. The DFL's deus ex machina, the "resolution to a story that does not pay due regard to the story's internal logic and is so unlikely that it challenges suspension of disbelief, allowing the author to conclude the story with an unlikely, though more palatable, ending."

To Democrats in the Senate. Remember that, today. Carol Molnau is the "improbable, though more palatable, ending" to a bridge falling down in Minneapolis. Wasn't her fault, you know that. So, be kind. Send her on her way without adding insult to injury. No need to pile on. Tone down the floor debate.

To Carol Molnau. Amor fati. Love your fate...because you have no other choice. Res ipse loquitur. It is what it is. For now.

Because the Carol Molnau I know is a carpe diem kind of gal. Seize the new day in your personal life, or seize it in a reincarnation of your political one. [And please do seize Jesse Ventura's arm, whenever you want.]

Most of the DFL deus ex machina crowd knows in their hearts of hearts that they did you wrong.

The telling of that is in the fact that the dirty deed is being done under cover of today's budget shortfall announcement.

That's a small consolation prize, granted. But after seven months of political onslaught, any prize will do. And, you still have that big prize, Lt. Gov.  You're number two.

Amor fati.

The number one topic of speculation on everyone's mind this week is whether Lt. Gov. and MnDOT Commissioner Carol Molnau should resign.

First, my reasoning. Second, my conclusion.

As I've written before, underfunding transportation infrastructure maintenance has been a decades-long problem, with no political party or person--including Molnau--to blame. Even if transportation infrastructure had been better funded over time, the I-35W Bridge was not on any of the "must do now" lists. The most recent news reports indicate the inspections problem may lie with the federal and the state government.

Never mind.

GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty has been quite clear that, in the aftermath of the bridge collapse, the transportation funding world changed. He would now support a gas tax increase as part of an increased transportation funding package. The Governor's communications director, Brian McClung, when talking about the Governor's change of heart on a gas tax increase, said, "[T]hese are extraordinary circumstances. The governor feels we need to come together and work as aggressively as we can to address these issues. He thinks that's the right thing for our state."

Under heated questioning from reporters about her long-time opposition to increasing the gas tax, and whether she would support the Governor, the Star Tribune quotes the following as Molnau's response, "On a gas tax, she said, 'we do need to look for resources we can count on long term.' But in order to solve the problem, she said, 'we would have to raise gas taxes 34 or 35 cents a gallon. I don't think the motoring public can sustain that.'"

While Molnau was absolutely dead correct in this answer, it's an obfuscating answer. In times of political crisis, an obfuscating answer is the wrong answer.

As Transportation Commissioner, Molnau serves at the pleasure of the Governor, who appointed her. That should have been her answer, "I serve at the pleasure of the Governor, he decides the policy and I execute that policy."

And therein lies the problem with what seemed to be such a good idea back in 2002 when Pawlenty appointed his Lt. Gov. to be his Transportation Commissioner, the "one-woman SWAT team at MnDOT." [Lost here is the fact that even then, Pawlenty recognized the decades-long problems at MnDOT.] Molnau's role has always been confused. Pawlenty selected Molnau to be his Lt. Gov. running mate at a time when he was facing a conservative credentials showdown for the GOP gubernatorial endorsement against another impeccably credentialed conservative candidate, Brian Sullivan. Her GOP-endorsing delegate bona fides were unimpeachable: An entire legislative record of the right votes on the social issues and the right votes on the fiscal ones, including no funding for the then-highly controversial light rail transit (LRT) and no increasing the gas tax. And, oh, yes, she wore a skirt, not slacks, and lived in the GOP-vote rich western suburbs while at the same time sporting a legitimate rural resume as a former dairy farmer.

As a legislator, Molnau had her own agenda. On transportation funding, that used to match Pawlenty's. Pawlenty changed his mind, or recognized the need for compromise. On LRT, and now, on increasing the gas tax. Molnau doesn't have the standing to somehow try to hang on to some semblance of staying consistent with her previous legislative record. She's not, in President George Bush's infamous words, "the decider." Pawlenty is.

All of which explains her problem at the Legislature, particularly with key Senate player, transportation Policy & Budget Committee Chair Sen. Steve Murphy (DFL-Red Wing). Understandably, he has never been sure he's dealing with former legislative adversary former House GOP Transportation Funding Chair Rep. Carol Molnau, a Lt. Gov., or the Governor's chief transportation policy point person.

Over the years, Molnau has been an exemplary public servant. Knows her stuff, smart as hell, heart of gold. All that. Molnau is the right person for one of the two jobs but not both. Combining the two jobs made sense back in the era of historic budget deficits, but not in the new era of the bridge collapse tragedy. The tough public policy debate ahead requires leadership that can be focused and free from political encumbrances.

My conclusion, then, is that Molnau should step down from the MnDOT job.

With everyone's best wishes, a collective fond remembrance of seriously and hilariously rattling former Independent Gov. Jesse Ventura by tapping his shoulder on the TPT's Almanac famous public policy couch, a clear understanding that the bridge collapse was not her fault, and the same clear understanding that life's not fair--and sometimes political life is exponentially unfair.

[The exchange between Molnau and Ventura happened on the Almanac couch, but not on Almanac, the show. The two appeared on a special edition of the now defunct NewsNight Minnesota on March 3, 2000. That night the show was hosted by Almanac co-host Eric Eskola and Almanac political reporter Mary Lahammer, so most people recall thinking the venue was Almanac. NewsNight discussion links are no longer active. However, an excerpt of the exchange lives online in the Almanac: At the Capitol archives. You can find this link by going here and clicking on the show from March 20th. The exchange can be found at the 23 minute mark of the show.]