Mondale and Carlson to offer Minnesota compromise

Former vice president and Minnesota senator Walter Mondale and former Minnesota governor Arne Carlson are planning to introduce a compromise plan to move toward ending the Minnesota government shutdown. It's not clear, though, what effect they'll have, especially since legislature Republicans have been the immovable object in negotiations, and Carlson is pretty much anathema to his party:

And while Carlson, 76, was elected as a Republican, he emerged as a tormentor of Tim Pawlenty during his governorship, endorsed the Independent candidate for governor last year and in December 2010 was banned by the state GOP from participating in party activities.

In other shutdown news, it may be that Republicans' desire to save 7,700 millionaires from increased taxes may not have been the only factor in the shutdown. Republicans also appear to have thrown a bunch of demands on social issues, such as abortion and stem cells, onto the table in the final week of negotiations. That's how much they were there in the spirit of compromise and wanting to avert a shutdown.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/SBVxEVC04VE/-Mondale-and-Carlson-to-offer-Minnesotacompromise

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