Almanac: At the Capitol

I find it interesting that the PR message from the White House and the Governor's office seem to be clashing. Gov. Pawlenty's message has been that the bridge was inspected and got a "clean" bill of health. Now President Bush's office is saying that the bridge had "structural problems." These are certainly two different messages that I'm bet Pawlenty's office doesn't appreciate. Politics has officially begun, just two minutes into Pres. Bush's press conference he noted that Democrats won the last election and now they control the calendar in congress. It's almost setting up the stage that if disaster relief doesn't come quickly you know who to blame. Oberstar is marking up a transportation bill right now for $250 million to replace the bridge. He will try to get it through the House today. Senators Coleman and Klobuchar expect to return to Washington later today to likely pass the same bill through the other chamber. We'll see if congress can move quickly.