Well actually, two people in Minnesota ... State Sen. Geoff Michel and state Rep. Laura Brod (both Republicans) are working on a bill to sell the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to private firms. The current budget deficit in Minnesota is $6 billion, and that happens to be about what they estimate they can get for selling off the airport and other state property and programs including roads, parks, prisons, rest stops and the naming rights to public transit systems.

The proposal would lease the entire airport and its operations for 99 years. The idea is catching on. Chicago is in the process of privatizing Midway Airport. Many foreign airports are already privately operated.

Enter State Sen. Steve Murphy, a Democrat. Murphy is set on raising hell, calling the plan to sell the airport a "horrible idea" and a "gimmick." Murphy says, "You have to do what you have to do to get by [in] these economic times, and it's not having a fire sale on government ... It's sitting down with a sharp pencil and cutting out programs that have run their useful life. It's cutting back on maybe Sen. Michel's per diem, things like that." Then he adds, "This is ... government that works ... So now we want to sell it? For what reason?"

For what reason? For revenue, you idiot. Take Atlanta, for instance. Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport is the world's busiest. It's wholly owned by the City of Atlanta. Federal law prohibits the city from making one single penny from the operation of the airport. That's the "operation" of the airport. Atlanta could earn money .. billions of dollars ... from a long term lease. No go, though. The airport is a nice little power and patronage base for Atlanta politicians ... so it will remain under city ownership.

Back to this Murphy guy: What we have here is a politician that is in love with government. A man that believes that government can do everything better. Mr. Murphy should consider the fact that a recent survey by J.D. Power and Associates put the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport at the bottom of a list of 19 "large airports" in terms of customer satisfaction. But let's leave it up to the government to continue running an operation in mediocrity.