Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (R) has always, like a good little Republican, been strongly against raising taxes (especially against the wealthy).  In the past two years, he has twice vetoed legislation to raise the state’s gas tax to pay for transportation needs.  Needs, like, oh, building better bridges.

Now, with at least five people dead in the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge here, Mr. Pawlenty, a Republican, appears to have had a change of heart.

“He’s open to that,” Brian McClung, a spokesman for the governor, said Monday of a higher gas tax. “He believes we need to do everything we can to address this situation and the extraordinary costs.”

The linked-to New York Times article above is interesting in that it points out a peculiar dilemna when it comes to political spending.  You see, politicians love to spend money on new stuff.  They get a nice photo-op at the ground-breaking ceremony and so on.  But spending money on the upkeep of existing stuff?  Well, that’s just not very exciting to them.

That’s got to change.

RELATED:  Wingnut Michelle Malkin plays the racist card and plames the Minneapolis bridge collapse on… illegal Mexicans.

Michelle, who INSPECTS those bridges?  And is there any indication that those who worked on the bridge did a bad job?