Commentary; Posted: 8/6/03

Pawlenty-Hatch spat a sign of what may come

T.W. Budig
ECM Capitol Reporter

All that was lacking were shortened trousers and bare feet to give the feud between Tim Pawlenty and Mike Hatch its final touch.

As most people know, Minnesotaís chief executive and his legal representative, the attorney general, have been at political odds for some weeks. Things have gotten nasty in the normally slumberous hollows of the summertime Capitol.

Chief of Staff Charlie Weaver has spoken in lowered tones of the possible need of hiring an outside attorney to represent the Governorís Office. They find it hard to trust the gentleman across the hallway.

A goaded Hatch last week ó using one of the more disquieting images released on the public ó shot off a letter to Gov. Pawlenty asserting the governor had deputized Weaver to ìgnaw on his toes.î

The idea behind the allusion likely addresses the limited menu of options, figuratively and literally, available to a toothless attack dog.

To wade through the political morass at the Capitol would take a hearing, which is exactly what Senate DFLers plan to do this week. At least theyíll be examining telecommunications.

The public may not follow every scintillating detail of the telecom flap ó which became international with an especially long diagrammatic line drawn to country of Tasmania ó perhaps the more memorable aspect of the infighting are the defining personalities.

Take Gov. Pawlenty, for instance. The governor is such a genuinely nice person, itís easy to believe heís more or less like a cherished neighbor or good friend. And that would be true if the cherished neighbor or good friend were also extremely ambitious, driven, adept at moving through the legal forest without stirring a leaf.

Pawlenty can thread a needle with a sentence. He is a skilled attorney who arguably is worth every dollar Elam Baer paid him ó $60,000 in the months leading up to the 2002 election.

But that no records of his work were kept ó the result of a verbal agreement, itís been explained ó suggests a certain briskness.

The whole telecom flap may be a red herring or a simmering scandal ó it depends on a personís point of view.

One thing is for sure: the governor is a lot more complex than the campaign image of a tousled-hair suburban kid with a passion for hockey.

That Mike Hatch complained of personal attacks against him seems like something Mike Hatch would never do.

An aggressive politician and lawyer, Hatch has entered epic struggles with HMOs ó Big Business ó lampooning insurance executives for lavish spending.

People with such temperament are not normally wounded by the jabs of a political opponent. Hatch seems genuinely aggrieved. Of course, he has been accused by the administration of leaking confidential information ó a charge he categorically denies. Other slams against Hatch seem justified on very thin ground.

Itís always a little startling to rediscover that a human exists beneath the bluster and fur of a political animal. Maybe thatís especially true of Hatch.

Perhaps Weaver ó Pawlentyís attack dog ó has emerged from recent weeks most in character. A former Anoka County prosecutor, he has made full use of his practiced combativeness in the defense of his boss. They donít start the fights, said Weaver, but theyíll sure finish them.

While Hatch has been pegged a gubernatorial candidate, Weaver might also be considered a future candidate for higher office. Heíd be a stronger candidate today than the attorney general candidate who lost to Hatch in 1998.

And Weaver loves to be in the center of public policy storms.

Anyway, the nature of feuds is that they linger. With the election of 2006 still three years away, the slap and patter of bare feet will again be heard in Capitol corridors.

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