"In the Minnesota Legislature, the governor's endgame is now clear. [Gov. Tim] Pawlenty has a failed gambling plan, but has threatened to cut education funding and MinnesotaCare if he doesn't get what he wants: $200 million in gambling revenues. The reason: He has staked a balanced budget, which he is constitutionally required to achieve, on getting the 200 mil.

In their effort to divide the tribes over a casino scam, the gambling group took a page from Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist and Tom DeLay's close friend, a Tony Soprano-like figure in the DeLay investigation. Abramoff bilked the Saginaw Chippewa and other tribes out of $66 million with his partner, a former DeLay congressional staffer. As revealed in the May 1 New York Times Magazine, Abramoff, who presents himself as a conservative family man, referred in e-mails to Native Americans as "morons" and "a lower form of existence."

In Minnesota, the strategy was to offer certain tribes urban casinos in return for a percentage of the take: in short, a protection racket. Two of the tribes that were willing to negotiate over casinos have balked at coupling them to a racino, an idea born of desperation over insufficient votes."

Get the Story:
C. Ford Runge: A dubious brand of budget gaming (The Minneapolis Star Tribune 5/17)
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