Tim Walz's taxpayer-funded legal shopping spree

According to Alpha News, Tim Walz went on a taxpayer-funded shopping spree. Alpha is reporting that "A Minnesota lawmaker said he’ll ensure the legislature takes a deeper look at the nearly half million in state dollars Gov. Tim Walz spent to help him prepare for his congressional testimony last month." Gov. Walz racked up a $430,000 legal bill "with K&L Gates, a global law firm, to help the governor prep for testimony before a U.S. House committee on the topic of sanctuary states."

Technically speaking, Minnesota isn't a sanctuary state because Minnesota's DFL elected to not pass a sanctuary state law. Then again, it's a wink-and-nod sanctuary state because illegal aliens get free college tuition, non-adults get taxpayer-funded Medicaid and Gov. Walz signed a drivers-licenses-for-all bill into law inMarch, 2023. While it isn't the same as officially being a sanctuary state, it's pretty close.

It's worth noting thatlegal residents of Minnesota who just moved here from other states pay full tuition. Legal residents of Minnesota pay tuition while illegal aliens have taxpayers pay their tuition. That doesn't sound fair.

Tom Emmer's Golden Moment

Emmer opened by listing things that Gov. Walz signed into law. Here's how Gov. Walz rationalized his $430,000 legal spending spree:

When asked by KSTP's Tom Hauser if he should've used in-house legal counsel to save taxpayer-funded legal fees, Gov. Walz said that he couldn't because "they didn' have the expertise" to provide proper counsel. That's a steaming pile of BS. Further, this wasn't grandstanding. I don't doubt that the questions made these governors squirm but that'a becausae Gov. Walz, Gov. Pritzker and Gov. Hochul are on the wrong side of this issue. That's the governors' problem, not Congress's problem.

Nash said he has read through the invoices related to that funds transfer and included were notes explaining a number of services the firm provided, including "prepared cheat sheets" the governor could utilize during testimony along with consultants who would accompany him at the hearing.

"I’d like to ask the governor, ‘Why do you feel you needed to be prepped to go back to Congress where you had spent years and as a member of Congress?'" Nash said. "To give testimony on bills he signed, which he should already know a lot about."

"To me there is just something I still want to know, and I fully intend to use time over the interim, and when we get back in session, to get to the bottom of it."

I'd love to know why a two-term governor needs a cheat sheet. That's beyond inexplicable.

Why did Gov. Walz attempt to dodge Tom Emmer's question on whether he agreed with his "attorney general's guidance?" Gov. Walz tried spinning by using one of his cheat sheet pre-planned answers. That isn't grandstanding. That's asking questions that make a politician squirm. That's the opposite of grandstanding.

Finally, the questions asked by GOP congrssmen and women were fairly straightforward. It's just that Walz, Pritzker and Hochul didn't like being on the wrong side of some major issues. They didn't like having to defend indefensible positions.