No Crumbs For Seifert

Saint Paul, Minnesota
April 6, 2009
By Marty Owings

Last week on the House floor, the GOP put forth several Amendments they say deal with accountability for the budget. Once such Amendment offered by Rep. Steve Drazkowski would have removed the leaders in both the House and Senate if a budget wasn't completed by the end of the session.

The Amendment drew sharp response from Rep. Tom Rukavina, who called it "Boneheaded" and questioned Drazkowski on why another state leader, Governor Pawlenty, wasn't included in the Amendment. Rukavina said that the Democratic majority was still working on the bill. At one point Rukavina said "If you want to become a eunuch for the Governor go ahead, I got some farmers I know that can help you."

Rep. Dan Severson suggested that Members may want support the Amendment to remove Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller, who he said wasn't as good a leader as Speaker Margaret Anderson-Kelliher. In the end, Drazkowski withdrew the Amendment.

Here is audio of the debate:


After seeing several GOP Amendments fail on the floor, Minority Leader Marty Seifert implored his deomocratic colleagues to throw him a "Crumb" or a "Crouton". After the floor session Seifert said the GOP had three measures on the floor that he thought were good. The first would require at least one Republican on a committee, the second would have changed the Session start date to March 1st and the last measure was Drazkowski's which he withdrew as mentioned.

Seifert says that it might take the public to rise up and let Democrats know they've become a little too comfortable and need to work more closely with House Republicans. Seifert suggested that too many deals were being cut without the light of day and without Republican input.

All of the measures purposed on the floor by the GOP minority failed.

Here are Minority Leader Seifert's comments: