So... I mentioned several days ago that we had planned to meet some people at the Minnesota Zoo Sunday, and that we wouldn't be able to because of the government shutdown....
Well, a judge made the decision to allow the zoo to reopen as of Sunday morning, so we were able to attend. I have 2 comments regarding that.
1) Every government function that was deemed "necessary" and "allowed" to stay open for business was determined by a judge, which does not pass the state constitutional smell test. The purse-strings are in the hands of the legislature. A judge cannot legally allocate funds in the absence of a signed budget. It is the duty of the legislature and the governor to pass and sign a budget, and if an impasse results in a shutdown, nowhere is there a provision for a judge to decide what is necessary and what is not, and how to allocate funds to those functions. The legislature and governor have the responsibility under all circumstances. They should have either passed and signed a "lights-on" bill and designated some entities as "necessary" to be funded, or they should have passed the budget items upon which they agreed and saved the disagreement for later. To hand unconstitutional power to a sole judge is... unconstitutional, and the people of Minnesota are ill-served by a GOP that allows it without a fight.
2) Mrs. IDP and I were talking on Saturday, when we thought the trip to the zoo was still a no-go. We recognized that the zoo can never "close". The MN Zoo is vast, and open, with acres upon acres of "natural" habitat that imitates free-roam environment. Animals need to be fed. Their enclosures need to be maintained. Veterinarian services need to be administered.
The ONLY thing they were going to be able to close was public admittance - the sole function of the zoo that provides revenue for the zoo. It is subsidized by the taxpayer, but it relies on visitor revenue for sustainability.
Mrs. IDP and I predicted that the zoo would re-open at some point soon - of course, we had no idea it would be within a day. But our conversation led us to the conclusion that the governor and his bureaucratic hacks made a hasty decision to close the zoo in order to inconvenience people into agitation and action, so that the media could use it as another club with which to beat upon the GOP. We believe that smarter people than the governor came to the same logical conclusion that my wife and I did - that justifying closure of the zoo was untenable, and that it would easily be seen for the partisan play that it was - so they hastily re-opened it.
They are really shamelessly going by the playbook with this. State parks, for instance. As you might imagine, access to camping and hiking in MN state parks is a big deal. And of course, people come from all over the country to vacation. The parks closed down, and people have come from all across the country to find a "closed" sign, when they have a paid and confirmed registration in a campground. And of course, the local media hacks are right there with a camera in their faces, blaming the evil Republicans.
The Left is desperate for a win here. Of all the places where conservatives are pushing back - New Jersey, Ohio, Wisconsin, etc. - I feel less confident that the Minnesota GOP will hold the line than I have in those other locales. I predict a GOP cave-in, and I predict that Minnesota will be back in the hands of the Leftists because of it. I think leadership of Koch and Zeller is excellent, but the rest of them will not withstand the bludgeoning.
