Minnesota Nice turns nasty

By: James Hohmann
Politico.com
July 3, 2011 07:09 AM EDT

APPLE VALLEY, Minn.—There once was a time when Minnesota held an exalted position in American politics. It was known as a model of good government, the kind of place that sent poets to the Senate and produced politicians with nicknames like “The Happy Warrior.”

Today, that’s hard to imagine.

For the second time in six years, the state’s leaders failed Friday to agree on a budget in time to avert a government shutdown, marking Minnesota as one of just five states where government has ground to a halt in the last decade—and the only one where it’s happened twice.

The state is now known for its political gridlock, the kind of place that sends a professional wrestler to the governor’s mansion and produces politicians who write books such as “Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot.”

It’s a far cry from the state’s image 40 years ago, when Time Magazine ran a 1973 cover story touting Minnesota as “A State That Works,” praising the “almost unnaturally clean politics” and highlighting its honorable “citizen-politicians.”

(More here.)