The national GOP’s “first response” in Congress to the Minneapolis bridge tragedy was horrible.

I looked at the roll call votes in Congress on Friday, August 3rd. I write for a local Minnesota blog; Dump Michele Bachmann. Bachmann's a conservative GOP congresswoman; we were tracking her votes on the bridge emergency. But Bachmann’s vote aside, I was disgusted by what I found out. The two Minnesota GOP Congressmen—John Kline and Michele Bachmann—voted to adjourn Congress on Friday before emergency funds could be voted to their state. As it turns out, this isn’t just a local partisan problem, it’s a national partisan problem.

The White House on the Minneapolis bridge disaster: "This is not the time for finger-pointing, but if it was, we'd point the finger straight at the Minnesota state government."

Aug 3, 5:07 PM EDT
Analysis: New Try for Bush As Comforter

By TOM RAUM

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In times of disaster, presidents are expected to be comforters-in-chief, yet since Hurricane Katrina President Bush has a blemished record in that role.

He reacted quickly to the Minnesota bridge collapse by scheduling a visit, but only after an awkward initial reaction in which the White House emphasized that fixing structural deficiencies was the state's responsibility...

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-- Cross-posted from mnblue.com, home of the Norm Coleman Weasel Meter --

Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) cowrote a letter with William Hurlbut which appeared in Real Clear Politics Thursday entitled Is There a Way Forward for Stem Cell Research?. Just so you know who Dr. Hurlbut is, he's on the President's Council on Bioethics. As far as I know, this Council on Bioethics does not differ with His Shrubness on banning stem cell research. So, what do Norm and Dr. Hurlbut have to say:

I offer this Minnesota-centric story to you because: