JB, it's still an issue. Steve Kelley got a front-Sunday-opinion-page rebuttal to the claim that his handling of the Yecke confirmation is partisan. To Steve, it's only Republicans calling in protest, completely ignoring MAPSSS, MinnBEST, and those still learning their ABCs. (If I have to link to those people again for you, you need to read here more often.) And yet not two months ago, Kelley said,

"I get e-mails and phone calls every day saying: 'Don't confirm her,' " Kelley said. "Her supporters have not contacted me."

So if we contact you we're partisan and if we don't she has no support? And he wants us to believe that he intends "to act on confirmations thoughtfully, objectively and with an eye to the good for all of Minnesota." You, sir, are a liar.

And of course, the BarSpitoon has joined in with Kelley, despite the coverage its own education reporter has given the affair.

In more ordinary, more civil times, we might be tempted to question, even deplore, the DFL's threat to use the confirmation process to jettison two of Gov. Tim Pawlenty's commissioners. But these are not ordinary times. And Cheri Pierson Yecke and Carol Molnau are not ordinary cabinet commissioners.

Situational ethics in action.