Gutknecht & the DM&E — caught between "Iraq" and a hard place

While Rep. Gutknecht is taking a few tentative steps out of the Bush war closet, he still seems to be hiding under a rock vis à vis the DM&E railroad issue. Meanwhile, the venerable Mayo Clinic, the Rochester City Council, the Olmsted County Commissioners and the Rochester Chamber of Commerce — all heretofore generally strong Gutknecht supporters —— are openly disappointed with his wishy-washy fence sitting.

But that's because Gil is firmly caught between the rock he is under and a proverbial hard place. On the one hand, the entities mentioned above don't want the DM&E's proposed coal trains going through their city, at least without some heavy-duty mitigation. On the other hand, the farmers, particularly in the western portion of his sprawling district which is bordered by three states, want a better rail transportation system for their products.

Meanwhile, South Dakota Republican Senator John Thune, a former DM&E lobbyist, has engineered legislation that would provide the railroad with a massive, federally subsidized loan.

But wait! Doesn't that smack of pork barrel politics, something that Mr. Gutknecht has railed against? And doesn't that sound like government bailout of private enterprise, which runs contrary to Mr. Gutknecht's philosophy of letting the "free market" reign?

Mr. Gutknecht is caught between multiple competing forces. Will he side with the folks in Rochester or with the pro-DM&E forces and the Thune faction of the Republican party? The outcome is anyone's guess.

Suffice it to say that whatever he decides won't come from his own gut instincts. Instead, any decision he makes will be dependent upon the PACs and wealthy interests that fund his campaigns.

But that's the way Congress operates today. The question for Mr. Gutknecht — and for his Democratic opponent, Tim Walz — is what are you going to do about it?

Eventually, if Mr. Gutknecht wants to keep his job, he may need to come off the fence.