The Minnesota Senate blew 30 minutes of its valuable time (half an hour’s pay times the number of senators present) in a squabble over … you guess:

A. The state budget?

B. Bonding for construction projects?

C. Gay marriage?

D. President Ronald Reagan’s birthday?

It’s a no-brainer, right? Ronald Reagan’s birthday. Reagan died in June at the age of 93, so Senate Republicans wanted to wish him a happy 94th birthday.

But hold it … can dead people appreciate birthday greetings? We’ll never know this side of the hereafter, so why bother sending them a greeting?

Well, maybe to make an ideological point.

And that’s what caused all of the trouble in the DFL-majority Senate. No problem arose in the GOP-dominated House &045; a Reagan birthday resolution sailed through that body with no discussion.

But Senate Democrats were not so quick to accept the wording of the Republicans’ resolution praising Reagan. They wanted to temper it somewhat, giving his successor some credit for economic expansion that started under Reagan, and also to send a message to the current Bush administration about bipartisanship, economic recovery and the need for international support in foreign affairs.

Reagan is rapidly gaining Rushmore status in the minds of many Americans &045; most of them Republicans &045; but do the people of Minnesota (the only state Reagan never won) need to have their lawmakers going head-to-head over something such as this when there’s real work to be done? What effect will bad feelings engendered over this have when they try to hammer out agreements on the vital issues facing the state?

It can’t help.

&045; Duluth News Tribune